Memories (Deel Vier)

While all the previous was going on I was trying to get the Venom oil tight. The replacement timing cover from Dodkins in West London, needed as the previous one had a Triumph rev counter speedo drive cobbled to it, proved to be warped and spewed oil but was finally fixed with grinding paste and a piece of plate glass, though it took a lot of grinding! Before, dollops of gasket goo were needed, to no real effect but afterwards only a small smear of Loctite liquid would seal the timing chest.
The pushrod tunnel and the oil feeds and returns were sealed in accordance with the workshop manual which BTW, I have kept, oily finger prints and all.
Two mods were also done to it. If one countersinks underneath the cylinder head holding down nuts then a small rubber ‘o’ ring will stop any leaks from that direction. Also, a grub screw can be loctited into the head protruding into the exhaust port keeping the exhaust stub in place. It had let go one night. The flames from the port were spectacular, to say the least. After the mod it never happened again.
Once, while going down the zigzags on Box Hill on the scenic route home from a VOC meeting, the main/dip switch failed, leaving me with no front lights heading for a hairpin bend. Luckily the brakes worked and I stopped before running off the road. With a replacement dip switch that wouldn’t stick in the centre I felt safer.
I don’t know if you Northerners have heard of Pride and Clarke, the big motorcycle shop in Brixton. Sometime in the 1970s it was bought up by an ‘investment’ company who promptly asset stripped it! Almost serves them right since they were known as "Pride and Shark", except for their emplyees who lost their jobs. I got a brand new Lucas dynamo during the closing down sale for a knock down price. I also fitted a JG conversion unit which gave me 12 volts and good lights.
Once in 1981 I went with the then girlfriend to Farningham in Kent, a well known beauty spot. The Venom wouldn’t start for the return trip! I got it back due to the good offices of the RAC and the next day set out on the Alpine to a Scout camp in Hampshire. En route the big end collapsed! Again the RAC were called: twice in two days!
As far as the Venom was concerned it turned out that the magneto was kapot and needed to be rewound.
Having got the Venom oil tight, apart from the primary chain case, I sold it in 1982. One reason was I got married that year, though I ‘ring fenced’ the proceeds. The other was, no matter how I tried, I was unable to get, or keep, the clutch adjusted! “Thrasher” Selfe of the VOC came over one day to fix the clutch, and, though he spotted that the box of gearbox bits I had were for a close-ratio gearbox, he was unable to effect a permanent repair to the clutch. Since then, thinking about it, I think it is possible that the chain wheel part of the clutch was slightly warped, which would explain the problems, as well as being almost undetectable.
To supplement the ETZ with the Venom gone I had intended to buy a BSA B50 from someone at work but he seemed unable to build up the enthusiasm to rebuild it. Perhaps I should have rebuilt it myself but I didn’t want to buy a box of bits only to find that a lot of work was needed.
Photo was taken before it had been stripped.
Eventually I decided to buy a Spanish Sanglas 500, as I had come across one a year or two earlier during a VOC rally in mid Wales, and rather liked what I saw.
The one I got did not have a kick-start because the kick-start on the Sanglas is renowned for being fragile and had disintegrated. The electric start worked fine though.
There was what the previous owner had thought to be a misfire which was a slight problem but it turned out to be a missing tooth in 5th gear. The engine is reputed to be based on an AMC design and, despite being unit construction; the gearbox could be accessed without disturbing the engine. The gearbox internals are reversed and 5th gear was just behind the cover and easily replaced.
One weird thing about it was that the original passenger footrests fell apart in quick succession, necessitating replacement with stouter parts.
The most memorable ride on it was from Blandford Army camp (after a MOD course) back to Erith. On the motorway near Basingstoke I ran into a small squall. The bike coped with the wind and rain and we got through it. I went to top speed (85mph, cor) but the squall seemed to try to catch up, cutting across the corner at the motorway junction with the M25. I finally lost it near Redhill.
Despite being somewhat short stroke the Sanglas once had the effect of a very long stroke engine on a female passenger! It was finally sold just after Hannah was born.



The photo is of the Sanglas in Wales – no clear photo of my Sanglas survives.