Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rob]

I went over to the National Motorcycle Museum, in Solihull near Birmingham International Airport, very very easy to get to. Over 800 machines here all beautifully restored, a lot of very hard work has been put in after the disastrous fire four years ago. Well worth a visit, i'd never heard of a lot of the companies represented.

When you enter the museum, you're greeted by two military motorbike and sidecar combos, one of them is this fantastic Clyno motorcycle with Vickers MG sidecar, used by the Motor Machine Gun Corps in WWI







The second is a Norton 'Big Four' with Bren LMG Mk I. These were used for reconnaissance, but these were later replaced with armoured vehicles (like the Humber Light Recce Car seen at Hendon)



This fantastic machine is a 1919 Wooler 340cc, known as the 'Flying Banana' from the shape of the tank



1907 NLG powered by a twin cylinder Peugeot engine. It was the winner of the first motorcycle race held at Brooklands



Brough Superior



Two very comfy looking Wilkinson's, unsurprisingly rather hard to manouvre, and they were originally fitted with steering wheels instead of handlebars! Also unsurprisingly they weren't much of a success, and the company is now known as Wilkinson Sword, the shaving blade company



1914 750cc Clyno



They had examples of every solo WW2 motorcycle i'd heard of too, including the Welbike. This is a Norton 16h



Triumph 3sw



I thought someone had nicked the handlebars until I noticed the steering wheel in the sidecar - very interesting design, can't remember the name of it though



'Copperknob', a Brooklands track racer. It was built out of the remains of a crashed AA patrol Chater-Lea motorcycle and fitted with a 500cc engine



1932 800cc Brough Superior with twin rear wheels, designed for use with a sidecar, very few made though



The first Norton ever built, a 1903 Energette



Leicestershires third finest product (after Austers, and me) haulage of the 1930s



Perfect for tailhuggers, a jet bike!



A Ner-a-car, would love to try one of these!



Line up of military bikes



Norton 'hogslayer', so called because it ended Harley Davidson domination in US drag races in the 1970s



1974 Norton John Player replica



WWI Phelon and Moore motorcycle, the standard RFC motorcycle



A Superior motorcycle



1955 Triumph 650cc Streamliner







1913 BAT no 2 light roadster

[Rick]

Hi Rob, what a great bunch of pics (and in the other threads), thanks!!

Rick
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[Job-Rated]

Ditto.
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[newton_ceirano]

The motorbike and sidecar without handlebars(!) is called a SEAL (Sociable, Economic And Light.

[Rob]

Cheers - I returned back in February and took a lot more photographs, although haven't had the chance to upload them yet
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