Newsletter No 29 - VMCC - Isle of Man

Then began frantic letter writing to verify the date of the FN, and just what the
missing pieces should look like - there was quite a lot missing! After a letter to
the makers in Belgium it was confirmed as being a 1906 model, so something
had to be done. The wheels had disintegrated, there were no brakes, no pedalling
gear - in fact, just the engine, frame, forks (broken a long time ago) and the brass
petrol tank. The first job was to strip it all, clean and paint, then stand back and
compare it with photographs of similar machines.
Then we started to rebuild the wheels - so that at least it could stand up and look
something like a motorbike. The back brake drum was there, and we found it
should be an internal expanding, with also a band brake on the outside. The
brake operated by a handle bar lever, the internal shoes by back pedalling. It was
found that 8 inch Enfield type shoes could be persuaded into the drum and I had
to make a new plate to carry them. I also had to devise a form of linkage to the
the pedalling brake, part of which, ie spindle and chain wheel, still existed. The
next task was to make up the contracting band for the outside brake. All this was
done working from advertisement pictures with a magnifying glass. By now
enough was done to take photographs to submit in order to have it accepted for
the Pioneer Register. New mudguards were bought, and fitted with suitable
valences - as near as possible to what we could see in the pictures. The front one
was a "Teaser" as one part moved with the front part of the fork, the rest being
Bob's first bike, a 1914 BSA cost 7/6 (37.5 p if you are too young to know Lsd)
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