matchlesswdg3

Blimey, Amals on a Beemer! Its like Heinz Tomato Ketchup on a haggis! Pass the smelling salts.......

4 cables? Choke, throttle, timing and decompression? Normally.

Thanks, Robin! Let me know when you are going and I can find out exactly what photos they need.

Thanks!

Some mates (with skills beyond me) are commencing putting together a Sugga that was in very bad condition and required a full body-off resto'. It was pretty mucked about with to start, so they really need some reference photos to work with.....of the outside and inside. Can anyone help? Cheers.

I think the serial number indicates June 1953. Thats on the basis that the "B" stamped on the first line after "OTC-33" signifies the 1950s ("A" is 1940s) and the first numbers on the serial number are "63"......June 53. Thats just my interpretation of the coding.

Got that email after walking into Sainsburys to find ****stmas chocolate selection boxes, mince pies and puds for sale! Kind of the same feeling! NOT YET!!!!!!

Hoorah! Just got an email from W&P advising me that tickets for next year go on sale next week!! Can't wait. On second thought, maybe I can?!

I understand that as well as LWB and SWB "premium" market versions, a commercial version will be offered at about £10k less than the cheapest Chelsea tractor version. Still auto box......as, apparently, will be the proposed Grenadier 4x4, based on BMW powertrain. And why not; autoboxes are v good these days and technology has moved on way beyond porridge stirring.

Hi, Peter. Yes, we have already communicated this week ("Ferg")! Nice looking Lwt, but I was hoping to find something a bit closer to home (Kent) as travelling is a little difficult for me at present due to recovering from an injury!

Must be in very good and original condition; prefer location in the South-east.

I am sure that L/R monthly would hardly wish to criticise JLR! Look elsewhere for objective review, I think. If its in line with the grown up Range Rovers and Defenders I am sure it will perform very well when its working and be superbly designed for its intended market............and break regularly and expensively to languish in the clueless hands of LR dealerships.

I have one of those on the Matchless, but TBH, it was mainly because I had a nice otherwise redundant brass holder! Its just "pudding".

"If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it". And you might add, if you have to ask how much time this bit of kit will spend in the garage being fixed, don't buy one! [Based on L/Rs dire reliability record for its current and preceding models].

I really do wonder at the skills of the JLR marketing team. The way they can sell an overpriced and hugely unreliable range of vehicles totally unsuited to the role that 90% of them will fulfill is quite amazing. The new Defender will I am sure fit right in there as a way of parting fools from their money. Mind you, unreliability and poor build quality has been a constant in Defenders from at least the 70s onwards, just that with the old Defenders, you could beat them into submission with a hammer and cold chisel. I have had two of the nasty things, and loved them, but I did not kid myself. But I do suspect, the days of the civvy market fancy 4WD behemoth are swiftly drawing to a close.

WPR charging MV owners has always been a bone of contention, although prior to change of ownership, entry was free for IMPS members and I understand some funding of expenses for the heavy stuff and the battles also used to be provided. But I guess the argument for charging was always the cost to put on such a big event over, effectively, 2 weeks.......which made 2 weeks camping v cheap, especially as restrictions on what/ who you could bring on one entry fee were relaxed. Current owner has tightened things up significantly and I guess everything is now on a fully commercial basis.

Oh yes, I did! Looking good! No-one around, though.

Just got back from 'Military Odyssey' and boy, that did not disappoint. It may not yet be the premier MV show, but as an event that covers war through the ages, the MV turnout was cracking! Some really nice British WW2 kit and some fascinating displays, eg the mules of the Chindits......with mules! WW2 Romanian display; WW1 German Naval platoon in Africa. Glad to see the huge grassy carpark was FULL under the blue skies.

'Military Odyssey' is on over the BH long weekend at the Detling showground overlooking Maidstone in Kent (old Coastal Command, etc airfield) and that has pretty much maintained its quality and friendly feel. Its more re-enactment down the ages but inevitably WW2 figures large and the turnout of MVs seems to grow each year. Not much armour or rare stuff, but there is a pretty good indoor and outdoor military dealer stall setup.....mostly "smalls" and clothing, deact arms, military surplus kit, etc. They have a large arena for the bigger battles and lots of displays elsewhere going on all the time.

Re the Folkestone site, I understand that is under starters orders (!) for housing development with the usual argy bargy twixt local council and the developers over how many little (expensive) boxes they can cram into the place. Also, remember the hassle in the last show there with Operstion Stack on the M20!

I Dropped out of subscribing to CMV for a while, but picked it up again after the change in Editor. Must admit, the current edition does not make me want to continue. The article on British WW2 motorcyles is poor, written by a well known motorcycling journo' who clearly has just looked up all the stuff he repeats with the inaccuracies. That article could have been so much more if they had used someone who knows his stuff ( eg Messrs Madden and Orchard).

Just read the Classic Military Vehicle W&P report in the new Sept edition. Highly..........uncritical? As I supposed it would have to be? "Airbrushed" might be a word that would come to mind for some folk who compared the event to what it was just four years ago. It will be interesting to see how it compares with Military Odyssey coming up shortly. Does that show still have its mojo?

If you search here on "pannier frames" you will find a thread of someone asking how to fit the frames....thats worth a read. You can try asking on the BSA M20 site about the frames. There are a couple of folk on there who have had them for sale. The good repro bags.....here you go......pegasus-drive@sky.com

I think this has been asked and answered several times here. Pannier frames you need to hunt out on eBay and military/bike jumbles and same for bags if you want originals, but hens teeth and usually worn out.....but v good repros are available......I am pretty sure you will find that source if you search on here. There are also very poor frames and bags out there.......

Interesting! Thanks for sharing. Its fascinating to hear just how/why folk make their choices.......over and above the usual constraints of cash, space and SWIMBO!