Ariel - Not quite close enough

Today was a day of great expectations. The Ariel was finally ready so I took a day off work and popped around to the Vespa Shop to pick her up. She looked great with the new whitewall tyres and the side panels and fender repainted. She started up easily and ran smoothly.

I was very nervous riding her. Firstly, as the polarity of the Leader's electrics is reversed from almost every other bike, the standard 6 volt flasher unit I'd bought wouldn't work so we removed the indicators at the last minute. I'll try and find a replacement and install them later. When you suddenly find yourself riding without indicators you realise how 'out there' you are on the road. I also struggled with the right hand gear change and almost constantly knocked myself out of gear every time I tried to brake. I felt very unsafe.

That said, the bike is surprising pleasant to ride. Despite her weighty appearance she is light and sprightly and can manouver tightly. I can fully understand why the Leader was voted Best New Motorcycle in 1959. All of the contemporary reviews I've read have expressed surprise and delight at her handling. I'm just going to have to acclimatize to the controls and that'll come with time.

So once again I queued at the inspection centre. There was a lot of interest in the bike - almost everyone came over for look and chat. Several old guys recognised her and we all had a long conversation about Ariel Square Fours. Then the inspection got underway and I had to remove the side panels, which was time consuming but not a difficult. The bike had been sitting almost an hour when we tested the electrics and there was immediately a problem. The headlight, so bright earlier in the morning, faded out. I suggested we run her and get the charge back up, but she just wouldn't start. It was the Troll fiasco all over again! After two hours exhausting myself trying to get her started I called Ivo and he and Roberto drove around to the centre (I did get her running eventually and rode her around the yard for half an hour to warm up, but she died again as soon as I stopped). We fiddled around with it for another half an hour but the spark was gone. We thought it was a problem with a coil as one cylinder would spark but not the other, so then it was back to the shop. As soon as a new battery went in the Ariel jumped back to life so I rode it back to the inspection centre. Things then got very frustrating.

I'd bought the bike from a dealer, who picked it up from a deceased estate, where it had been sitting for decades in a shed. It had not been licensed since the 1970's. But we were now told that unless there is record in the national database, they could not register the bike. The national database goes back to... ugh, 1990 something. Unless of course I could get the original registration. But, even if I could get the original registration it still wouldn't be in the database so... we went around a merry circle. I even got Barry from the Vintage Motorcycle Swapshop on the phone who offered to do a stat dec on the circumstances of where he got the bike, but that was 'unacceptable.' It was extemely frustrating. This all just bureaucracy. There will be a way around this. Hell, basket cases and barn finds are restored and put back on the road all the time!

Finally, at 4pm, after another hours wait, during which time the inspectors had decided they wouldn't test ride the bike after all, but neglected to tell me, I left. I'd spent the whole day at the licensing centre - not the best day I've had.

On the ride home things didn't get better. I took the backstreets as I didn't want to ride in peak hour traffic but as I reached the main roads near my house the engine started backfiring and smoking like a steam train. Damn it - more problems - serious problems. I managed to nurse it home but I think it's time for new rings and probably electronic ignition too. Maybe that will solve the electrical problems once and for all.

In the meantime I have more investigation to do to overcome the registration 'challenge.' It makes me wonder what will happen to all the old bikes that get sold on ebay without papers - there are lots! How are their new owners going to go when the front up for inspection?

Okay, so she's not quite running but boy she is a handsome bike.

Whiteman Park Motor Museum

It was something of a quiet Easter Monday so Shelly and I headed up to Whiteman Park to visit the Western Australian Motor Museum. The museum hosts the biggest collection of vintage motor vehicles in Western Australia, although not all of the collection is on display. It doesn't compare with Sinshiem in Germany for scale but it made a nice outing.

Of particular interest to me was the Percy Markham Collection of vintage cars. Percy Markham is my father's uncle and once owned one of the most important private collections of vintage cars in Australia. He had made his fortune in real estate in the post war years and began collecting old cars and motorbikes from around the world. Eventually he established the Antique Auto Museum in Wembley. When he retired he found maintaining the museum a little impractical so in 1969 he sold 22 of the most important cars in the collection to the WA Museum on the understanding that they would maintain the collection. I can remember going to the Perth Museum as a kid and seeing the whole collection spread out on the ground floor. Then, in the wheeler dealer 1980s, our state government decided to sell off the collection. Publicly they said it was because none of the cars had a specifically West Australian connection, but in reality it was because they realized they were sitting on a gold mine of rare vehicles that they'd paid virtually nothing for. The government of that time was nothing if not greedy (the premier and a number of his cronies would later spend some years behind bars for corruption) and in the face of public outcry and protests sold 10 of the cars at auction in 1980. Nine of the cars were sold and most have left the country, never to return. The remaining twelve cars were removed from public display and placed in storage where they could be safely forgotten.

The sale remains a controversial issue even today. Nearly forty years after the event the WA Museum still refuses to discuss the matter. The sale continues to get occasional airplay in parliament. http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/hansard/hans35.nsf/c02fad1ff7f00ecbc82572e4002d0af9/b07dbf1d9e3a2d9448256746001c98dc?OpenDocument

One of the side effects of this event was that the motoring community of Western Australia came together and created the foundation that would become the Motor Museum of Western Australia. The government granted land and permitted the establishment of museum at Whiteman Park. The WA Museum has loaned several surviving Markham collection cars to the Motor Museum. Hopefully these photos give a good impression of the collection as it was in 2010.

The Veteran and Vintage Collection

A row of vintage cars

1932 Rockne, a shortlived budget marque by Studebaker.



Morris Cowley 'bull nose.' Although this is not the Markham car, the Morris Cowley was the first vintage car that Percy Markham bought. He bought it as a family project to give his sons some mechanical experience. Percy's son John remembers sitting around the kitchen table with his brothers as kids polishing panels. This was a time when vintage cars didn't really have much value and soon after they'd finished that project people in the neighborhood were asking Percy if he was interested in taking their grandparents old rust buckets off them. Percy took on a Dodge for the second project and the rest was history.

The Model T Ford on the left is from the Markham collection. This was was Percy's youngest son, Barry's, favourite vehicle.

The Moon is one of those obscure marques that few people remember.

A 1920's Detroit Electric car and an Austin 7 Baby. The extraordinary Detroit electric car must have seemed quite anachronistic for its time with its distinctly Edwardian styling and vis-a-vis (face to face) seating and tiller steering. This was part of the Percy Markham collection and used to be one of my favorites as kid.

This car was owned by a little old lady who lived in Claremont (or was it Nedlands?) who'd owned it since new.

Detroit interior showing the face to face seating and tiller steering.

A Model T ambulance (one for my dad, who used to work for St John).

Cadillac

An MG

A 1924 Bentley with a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost in the background. The Rolls was part of the Percy Markham Collection and was always my favorite.

This 1924 Vauxhall was part of the Markham collection.


Parkard.

Another Packard (I think?)

The Veterans

The oldest car in the collection, the 1898 Star and a 1905 De Dion Bouton. Both were part of the Percy Markham Collection.

The Star was originally bought by Percy Markham from a famous Scottish veteran car collection called the Sword Collection. The Sword collection was sold off in the 1970s after the owner died. The collection was considered to be of outstanding value and importance, but no museum was prepared to purchase the lot. Eventually the collection was auctioned and distributed around the world. A decade later people began to realize that the country (UK) had lost something that could never be recovered.

I love the distinctive shovel nose bonnet of the De Dion Bouton.

This Benz chassis is the oldest vehicle in Western Australia (update 2019 - the Benz is currently displayed at the York Motor Museum).

1908 Rover. This was part of the Markham collection.

1910 BSA. This unfinished restoration project was part of the Markham collection.

The 1950s and 60's


A 1950's Hudson

Ford Thunderbird

1949 Ford

MG

Bedford truck

A very cool DeSoto Airflow. This was the little brother of the famous Chrysler Airflow. This is a very early model from 1934 as the backlash against the Airflow's styling lead to a complete restyling of the grill the following year.

The iconic Fiat bambino

Two peoples' cars - the VW and the Mini

An Austin A40. My parents once owned one of these.

The Motorcycle Collection

1925 Bradshaw

The 1947 Salsbury Super scooter

Two BMWs, a Honda Dream and a Calthorpe. Unfortunately the display is a little bit cramped and it's difficult to appreciate the bikes properly.

A very rare 1948 Swallow Gadabout. The English Swallow company build motorcycle side cars and in 1946 ventured into scooters. The design closely resembles an American Cushman (probably copied from military versions used during the war). Construction was very simple -the chassis was a modified industrial ladder frame with a ubiquitous Villiers motorcycle engine. About 2000 were built and very few survive. Here's a link to some more information about these rare scooters provided by enthusiast Michael Nangreave. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=gadabout+scooter&s=0 and www.doretti.co.uk

The 1950 Corgi folding scooter was another British wartime design. Originally designed as a military transport that could be carried by troops or dropped by parachute, but it proved too unreliable for actual use. After the war Corgi improved the engine and released it for civilian use. Many thousands were built and there are a surprisingly large number still in existence.

A beautiful 1927 Indian with a 1935 Calthorpe behind. The Indian was part of the Markham collection.

The charming BSA Bantam. After the Second World War BSA received the designs of DKW's advanced two stroke engine as part of war reparations, but the tiny engine was only 125ccs and no one in England could see much use for it. In 1948 however BSA decided to use it in a light-weight, cheap motorcycle. It was an absolute winner and became one of the best selling British motorcycles of all time, remaining in production until 1973. BSA also received DKW's designs for a 250cc two stroke engine and passed that along to their subsidiary, Ariel, but that's another story...

Behind the Bantam is a Royal Enfield Bullet. Royal Enfield introduced the Bullet in the early 1950s. The design and tooling was sold to Madras Motors in India in 1955 and they have been producing the same motorbike ever since, more or less.

1928 Excelsior X four cylinder. One of the few American bikes in the display.

1927 Levis. This was part of the Markham collection.

Ariel sidecar racer. This championship winning bike has been so modified that it barely resembles the Ariel it was built from.

A row of Velocettes

Velocette Venom


The Holden Display

FJ Holden

Holden 48/215

The Holden 48-215, otherwise known as the FX. The design was copied from a Chevrolet design as the original Holden design was a little too.. English.

Holden FB

Holden EH Premier

Aussie muscle - Holden Monaro GTS

Back end of the Holden display

The Tractor Museum

Trams run around Whiteman Park

Bill the Steam Shovel

Steam Traction engine