Scott Newsletter 8 - Scott Technicalities

A mark II conversion with at least one important change to accommodate earlier high level oil
tanks was made for Len Pease in 1966 and Tim Sharp did 5000 miles with two rather different
versions of his own. These developments all merit detailed analysis and will be featured in the
next article, together with an airing of the views of objectors. Perhaps this is a good time to
invite comments, questions, and criticisms – and best of all, any practical experience.
Author’s footnote
I count myself very lucky to have got my hands on the original Smokeless Special as it had
disappeared from sight and sound after Lofty died around 1995. Attempts to contact the Avis
family in Canada had been unsuccessful, but then the bike was re­registered with the Club
Registrar by a new owner, Norm Baril, who had bought it at an estate sale. Norm is an old bike
enthusiast whose main interest had been Harleys and Gold Stars and it seemed that he thought
the Scott would provide a new challenge. I phoned him and we corresponded for a while. He did
not know much about the marquee and, needless to say, had no idea about the history and
technical interest of this particular bike, although he did know the name of its previous owner.
He had also heard from the seller about the existence of technical diagrams relating to the bike,
that were thought to be of value. I believe that these may have been patent application
documents, something that I had always felt would exist in some form or other and which would
undoubtedly cast more light on the principles of LoftyLube. As far as we know they were never
submitted to a Patent Office and have not been made available for publication.
After a couple of years Norm seemed to have become disenchanted with the idea of restoration,
perhaps put off by the idiosyncrasies of the Scott engine and without having touched a
single bolt apparently, and offered it to me. I jumped at the opportunity and re­imported it from
Canada.
Thank­you Mike for this contribution, truly a fascinating story.
Picture of Mike in 1958 – he can be contacted at
mfennell@dsl.pipex.com
Edition 7 ­ 24 – 2006