rewdco

31 minutes ago, Adrian Dwyer said:

Image of back and front.  The difference in colour is due to my poor photographic technique and, I am guessing,  age and sun bleaching.

Mama mia! ❤️

I have seen French versions ("kilomètres", Jaeger was a French company...), but I've never seen an Italian one before ("chilometri ora"). It must have been black, before someone overpainted it with a translucent "rosso corsa" paint. Why...? Dunno...

I've been Googling a bit on the Italian internet, unfortunately I couldn't find anything on the Triumph conversions. But I did find these pictures of two different Matchlesses: 

And above all, I found a forum (https://rugginose.forumfree.it/?t=73637300 , you have to register in order to see anything) where somebody was asking information about this Matchless:

This is his late grandfather's bike that he would like to re-register, but it appears that he's got some problems with that. Some interesting quotes from this forum, with Google translation:

And this:

Dopo il disastro della guerra, con le attrezzature semidistrutte e le moto ufficiali rocambolescamente ritrovate su un treno al confine con l'allora Jugoslavia, la Benelli si rimise in piedi proprio con queste modifiche sulle moto inglesi dei campi ARAR.
Nei campi ARAR si potevano acquistare per pochi soldi le moto dismesse dagli Alleati e alcune Aziende (come Benelli) acquistavano le moto, poi le rivendevano rimesse in ordine, con il retrotreno modificato con gli ammortizzatori e spesso una colorazione non militare.
L'officina Ancillotti di Firenze rivendeva le Harley Davidson WLA e così tantissime altre sparse in tutta Italia.
Le moto così trasformate sono perfettamente storiche, e mi sembra davvero strano che in ASI non lo comprendano.
Al tuo posto proverei con FMI, magari facendo due chiacchiere con un esaminatore.

After the disaster of the war, with the semi-destroyed equipment and the daringly found official motorbikes on a train on the border with what was then Yugoslavia, Benelli got back on its feet precisely with these modifications on the British motorbikes of the ARAR fields.

In the ARAR camps it was possible to buy motorcycles abandoned by the Allies for little money and some companies (such as Benelli) bought the motorcycles, then resold them in order, with the rear axle modified with shock absorbers and often a non-military color.

The Ancillotti workshop in Florence resold Harley Davidson WLAs and so many others scattered throughout Italy.

The motorcycles transformed in this way are perfectly historic, and it seems really strange to me that they don't understand this at ASI.

In your place I would try the FMI, perhaps having a chat with an examiner.

 

For your interest: all the derelict allied vehicles in Italy were lined up in the ARAR fields, and sold off, presumably in auctions:

 

More info about the Acumen Ariel-version added in the appropriate post.

I think it could be worth contacting the MotoCiclismo d'epoca editor. When I was working in Italy in the 1990's I always bought this high quality monthly. It used to have (still has?) lots of in-depth articles. Definitely worth a try!

Apart from only a few bikes from the very first (RAF) 3HW contract C/12492, the engine number is always 10000 higher than the frame number. Don't know why...

Indeed, this is the "universal" Smiths speedo, as used by all WD bikes from 1941 (approx) onwards.

Just noticed that the second WW2 picture has a "beeldbank" watermark. Which means that it was taken in Holland, not Italy...

Here's the Gruppo Velox article:

I do have a Gruppo Velox article in a French 1950's magazine somewhere... Let me have a look...

This Italian job Matchless G3/L was for sale in Beaulieu (2012).

For as far as I know the C/13948 bikes were made in Meriden, but I'm sure somebody will correct me when I'm wrong on this one.

This contract was split up in a RASC batch (3366 bikes, census numbers C886687 - C890052), and a RAOC batch (2129 bikes, census numbers C4852001 - C4854129). Unfortunately, because of this split up, it is impossible to calculate the census number for a given frame number.

The two pictures below show a bike (with an experimental side car) from the RASC batch. 

And here's another one, could be Italy:

And another one:

Did you know that the Italians had some engine tuning kits as well? The most famous one is Gruppo Velox:

And another one...

Here's another elastic by the way... Well, this contraption is French, so it should be "élastique" 🤣

7 hours ago, Adrian Dwyer said:

From its numbers, the bike seems to be an early Meriden 3HW from '42; and my assumption is that it went almost straight to Italy. 

Is it a contract C/13948 bike? In that case the census number can't be calculated. If it's a later contract bike we can calculate the census number which is based on the frame number. We may find a war time picture of your bike in Italy, or one that is close.

If you close your browser (Edge, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, ...) and then open it again, you have to do this trick again. It should work as long as you don't close HMVF.

As already explained by somebody else: 

try scrolling down to the bottom of the page to where it says Theme, click on this then click on Default, this should clear the adds, only you will have to do this with each visit to the forum. Hope this helps.
It worked on my computer, no more ads here!

The picture with the Clynos is well known, but I hadn't seen the other one yet...

You seem to have a clutch unit without the typical cush drive. I've also got one here, see picture below. On the right you can see the cush drive version, as fitted to the WD/CO. I don't know where the non-cash drive version comes from. Albion gearboxes were used on all sorts of machinery, maybe this is a non-Enfield clutch? Anyway, when I compare both clutches, apart from the cush drive, they are identical. They should be interchangeable. Unless it's got less plates than the Enfield cush drive version. That could explain the fact that your clutch is slipping...?

As for the fact that the clutch disengages as soon as you've pulled the lever a couple of millimeters, are you sure that the "clutch operating pad" (pos. 20) and the operating rod have the correct length? Have you tried to unscrew the "clutch operating lever adjusting screw and nut" (pos. 22)? 

No more ads here, thanks Jack! 

A wilde guess: Francis Barnet "built like a bridge"...? The bike in the picture below is different, but could it be a later model?

Still the same unfortunately...

Still have the same ads unfortunately...

It is indeed strange that the webmaster / moderators haven't posted anything yet. Looks as if the Russians or the Chinese have taken over... 😡Think they are very interested in military vehicles, but they haven't realised yet that this forum is all about old material. 😄