Recent content by AFJ

Anybody still online here who was a customer - or potential customer - when Percy McBride was still running his motorcycle shop (McBride's Cycle) on Queen St. East? I think his son took the business over in 1963. Percy had started it in 1909 on Yonge St.

Minus 19 C the high yesterday. To-day (afternoon) high was 2 degrees C. Southern Ontario, 35 km west of Toronto. Still 2 to 3 feet of snow on lawns and at roadside. Spring has NOT sprung yet!

Harry Firth's shop was on the south side of Danforth Ave., # 1857, if I recall correctly. Bought my first motorcycle helmet there in Sept., 1958. An Everoak TT . Had just bought my first motorcycle, a used year-old '57 Ariel Colt, in a private sale.

Minus 15 degrees Celsius, howling wind and 15 to 20 cm. of snow now falling on top of the 10 cm base of earlier snow. Looks like the only handlebars that are going to be used for the next couple of days are on the snowblower. And this is SOUTHERN Ontario, Canada? The bikes are shivering in the...

As the Brough factory was at Nottingham, not that far from the Rolls-Royce factory at Derby, much of its production was crankshafts and camshafts for the Merlin aircraft engines. Some of these went back to Derby for installation in new Merlin engines, but many also went to various RAF bases for...

The manufacturer stopped motorcycle production in 1939 in order to make essential components for RAF fighter aircraft. After 1945 essential raw materials were not available, due to UK gov't regulations, to make complete new motorcycles, so the company turned to other work, but continued to...

A pair of new camshaft bushes for my 1938 v-twin British motorcycle are available for about $66 (Canadian $), plus postage. This on a motorcycle engine model not made since 1940. ($735 for a new camshaft.) The "available parts list" for this long-ago (1920-1940) make is 18 pages long,

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Never have bought a new motorcycle - or bought a motorcycle from a dealership. But have bought about 2 dozen "project" bikes over the years. Fixed them up if they needed work, plated them, rode them until "something else" caught my eye. Then onto something else. Have kept four old bikes that I...

I would suggest looking at joining the CVMG (cvmg.ca) if older (and less costly) motorcycles (and motorcycling) are beginning to look more attractive than the "latest bikes, costs and things in motorcycling". And often, I gather, that new motorcycles and the dealerships that sell and service...

A couple of motorcycling books by Canadian authors that I found were good reads - "Make Haste Slowly" by Michelle Ann Duff 1999 by Mad8 Publishing and Bar Hodgson "The Winged Wheel Patch" by Max Burns and Ken Messenger. 1993. Published by Vanwell Publishing, St. Catherines (A...

Five inches of snow Nov. 7th. Another 2 inches since then. Up to + 4 degrees C to-day Nov. 11th but still cold and dreary. Southern Ontario, typical autumn (end of riding season) weather. (Salt & sand on the roads now.) AFJ