Since my last post I’ve worked through 1938 and, at the time of writing, am half way through 1939. Stories from the Blue ‘Un include a surgeon practising operations in a gasmask, just to get used to it; touring holidays in Spain as the fascists had won the civil war; British squaddies entering trials in uniform on their WD bikes (and doing pretty well) and underground carparks being built to serve as air raid shelters. A major petition against the rising tax burden on motor cycles reminded the government that “in the last war the ranks of motor cyclists provided thousands of pilots for the RFC and RAF; thousands of men for the Motor Machine Gun Corps and later the Tank Corps. There was the call for men with technical knowledge then; there is a very similar call to-day, yet whereas on the Continent nations have done everything in their power to foster motor cycling, realising its value as training and in developing physical fitness, and have even eliminated taxes on motor cycles in their entirety, we in this country find ourselves faced with the prospect of a still greater burden. We are anxious to play our part. Tens of thousands of us are giving proof of this for we are already in the armed forces…” Meanwhile motor cycle sport was flourishing and the pages of The Motor Cycle were packed with ideas for touring holidays. Hay was being made while the sun shone.

The backlog of pics has been reduced a little; about 100 images have been added to both melanges and various pages from 1896 to 1932; there’s a nice batch of pics from the 1920 Junior TT; some moving snaps from the Great War and a few more early American bikes to check out. I plan to add some more before moving on to 1938.

Britain held onto the ISDT Trophy, beating the German team by the narrowest of margins; the Dutch took the Vase, both awards decided in a high-speed blast round Donington. Freddy Frith and his Norton won the Senior TT by 15 seconds from Stanley Woods and his Velo after what was described as the most thrilling TT to date. Norton scored a hat trick in the Junior but the Lightweight went to Omobono Tenni on a Guzzi, and while Ginger Wood was runner-up on an Excelsior, DKWs finished 3rd and 5th. There weren’t many debutantes at the Earls Court Show, but they included the BSA Gold Star and Triumph Speed Twin. George Brough drew crowds with a 990cc transverse V-twin. It was a busy year. I just checked and found that 1937 now runs to 104,770 words and 283 pics including 39 contemporary adverts. I’ll take some time out to work on the huge backlog of excellent pics to be published in the Melange (thanks as always to mon ami Francois) before getting stuck into 1938.

I just counted nigh on 44,000 words in 1937 with lots more to come. You’ll find a good number of roadtests, reports on the Berlin and Milan shows, a monkey riding a motorbike, a steam-driven combo, a two-wheel-drive bike, a big Belgian flat-twin, a tale of a winter ride that made me appreciate my fireside, a four-stroke single running at 11,000rpm, a trio of Triumph Tigers on the Maudes Trophy trail and…you get the picture. There’s also a heartfelt and thought provoking defence of motor cycling which concludes thus: “…Let those who criticise trials and want them banned ponder over things quietly. Let them remember that in motor cycling they have an asset to the country: a clean sport, one that is manly, and which breeds men of observation, skill, judgment, pluck, resource, and with mechanical knowledge—men of a type that has saved the country once and may have to do so again.”

More images have been added to the two Melange pages, bringing the total to nearly 1,100. And, as always happened when handling images, they led me into new stories. In this case that meant machine-gun combos in manoeuvres on the Yorkshire coast, a tidy rear-wheel kickstart on the first Triumph vertical twin, an 8hp Yale V-twin on the rainswept streets of Manchester, and details of James V-twin 500, which was aimed at the solo market because so many big-thumper fans were hauling sidecars.

More pictures and adverts have been added up to 1919; several more US motor cycle images (including a rather fine Henderson brochure) and more than 20 more pics from the first world war have been added to the first Melange—there are now more than 250 Great War pics on line including one snap of a DR wearing a plumed tricorn hat. Go figure. I plan to add more pictures over the next couple of days and will then get back to the main timeline; next stop 1937.

I’ve been working on the huge backlog of pics for the Melange and have been concentrating on dated images. Recent additions range from 1902-9, you’ll find some of them in Melange 2; the rest are in their respective years with some extra adverts. As of today 9 January 2024) the two Melange pages contain exactly 1,009 images.

My Aussie mate Murray kindly sent me scans of a 1904 issue of the Blue ‘Un which included a retrospective on the chaotic Coupe Internationale, a number of three-wheel conversions to help riders stay upright on grease, a thrilling race report from Lincolnshire and much more, culminating in a wonderfully vicious essay from Ixion in response to criticism of the Edinburgh Trial from a cheeky colonial. I’ll get back to uploading more excellent pics to the second Melange page, courtesy of my French mate Francois, then its time for 1937. Watch this space.

Then, as now, the world was going to hell in a handcart. Edward VIII abdicated (and a good thing too). Hungry men marched from Jarrow to London. Japan attacked China, Spain attacked itself. On the motor cycling front Britain recaptured the ISDT after three years of German domination. Noel Pope rode a Brufsup extremely fast; Ernst Henne rode a blown Beemer slightly faster. Vincent-HRD produced a 1,000cc twin, Ariel produced a 1,000cc four. And some excellent chaps in Cleckheaton produced the 600cc M100 Panther that’s in my garage. I just checked and the coverage of that momentous motor cycling year runs to more than 96,000 words and 240 pics—I urge you not to miss Ixion’s glorious yarn of the 1902 forecar that cost him a fiancée. See you in 1937.

I’ve made a start on 1936—there are already some good yarns on line—but there’s a long way to go. Regular readers will know that I’ve already leapt ahead to review 1969, simply because that’s the year I started riding (on a 1959 Ambassador-Villiers). Now, I’m pleased to say, two old mates have joined the fray. Pete, a drinking companion at some memorable rallies in the seventies, has contributed memories of some of the bikes he rode in 1971 when he was earning a crust in the bike trade. And John, my old boss on Motor Cycle Weekly, has chipped in with a review of 1980 when bike sales peaked and he was kept busy riding the cream of the crop. My thanks to them, I suggest you take a gander because they’ve done me proud.