Riding about

Popular wisdom suggests that an outfit combines the worst of cars and motorcycles in a single vehicle. The rider is prone to any bad weather and unable to filter through traffic jams. Well, yes that's true but it also combines the best of a car and a motorcycle. The rider can enjoy travelling on a motorbike and take someone else along too - probably someone who would never ride pillion. An outfit also enables the rider to travel with a lot more luggage, shopping etc.

An M20 combination is never going to win any speed trials but it's steady and reliable - starts easily, idles reassuringly and will climb any hill. Here are a few pictures from the travels with the outfit.

As soon as the combination was on the road, I visited my brother in Huddersfield with it. This was a round trip of about 250 miles and such lengthy journeys tend to highlight any hidden flaws in a machine. True to form, the engine began to burn a lot of oil on the way home, which ended up with a new piston and a new liner being fitted into the cylinder. A good look at the old piston revealed indications of gas leakage past one of the piston rings which had jammed in its groove. A nice feature of the early M20 engines was that they were constructed with a cylinder liner, which could be replaced once the bore had reached 60 thou oversize, with a new liner of standard bore. At some point, years ago, the engine had been converted to 600cc (effectively an M21 engine) by changing the crank, so lengthening the piston's stroke. I suspect this was done at the BSA factory, early in the bike's life. The crankcase number is that which was recorded when the bike was despatched as a 500cc M20 from Armoury Road in June 1946. This picture shows the tonneau cover that I used before the hood and its frame were recreated. The picture was taken in Wensleydale, Yorkshire, in Sept. 2013.

With working lights, you can trundle along all year round, even through the night. Little lanes turn spooky as the winter gloom descends. This shot was taken on a December (2013) afternoon at about 4pm. The lighting system is 6V, with the charging by Lucas dynamo. However, there's a modern voltage regulator, a modern sealed battery and all the wiring has been renewed, with non-original return wires being led back to the battery to avoid reliance on return paths through the frame. The resultant lighting is fine for travelling at up to 40mph. The lamp on the sidecar's mudguard has a red lens showing to the rear and this is much brighter than the rear lamp on the bike itself.

In the Scottish Borders, the Jimmie Guthrie Memorial Run has been held since 1961. It starts and ends on the village green at Denholm and the whole affair has the gentle atmosphere of a village fete. It takes place in June, a good time for a run like this, as the lush countryside is filled with flowers. The run itself is about 30 - 40 miles, with a visit to Wilton Lodge Park in Hawick to visit the Jimmie Guthrie exhibition and statue. The run is open to classic vehicles of all types so vintage vans mix with pre-war cars and bikes from the 1920s to 1980s. It's good fun to ride along with other old vehicles. (June 2014)

Taken near Shap Summit on the A6, Aug. 2014. A friend's Greeves roadster (Villiers 2-stroke "power-egg" developing 8hp) stands next to the outfit. We'd just roared up the hill at about 30mph, enjoying some friendly waves of encouragement from other drivers. Interestingly the outfit climbs hills faster than the Greeves, which catches up going downhill. Though the brakes on the BSA are reasonably good, the sidecar increases the stopping distance required. Caution makes sense when going downhill!

Looking east, in the North Pennines, between Allenheads and Rookhope. The roads in this area were made for old clunkers. They twist along the valleys and attack hills with gusto. The hilltop moorlands are bleak, lonely places - lovely on a summer's day but windswept in the winter. This photo was taken on a VMCC run to Nenthead Mines (you can see the route instructions taped to the petrol tank) in October 2014. To save time, I'd blasted past the lunch stop at some 25mph and headed straight for the tea stop at Wheelbirks, near Stocksfield. Most of the other bikes can travel at least 50% faster than me! I had this road to myself, seeing only a couple of cars in several miles. It was a perfect Autumn afternoon and the steady exhaust was good to hear as I trundled along.

Back on the Isle of Man in August 2016, this shot was taken on Begoade Road, above Baldrine. Though not fast, the bike pulls like a train and is in its element on the little back roads of the island. This spot offers spectacular views down to the coast and over the Irish Sea. With an outfit, a camping holiday is an easy proposition with tent etc. being simple to stow in the sidecar.

Another shot on the Isle of Man in August 2016, this one was taken just off the A5 looking south towards Port St. Mary. There can't be many better ways of relaxing than this - pottering around sunny lanes with a picnic, stopping wherever there's a good view.

June 22nd 2017, at Kirk Yetholm, at the northern end of the Pennine Way

Four hours later in North Tynedale, near Bellingham, Northumberland.

July 2018 and the outfit's reached the island of Islay, one of the Inner Hebrides, Scotland. In the background lies Loch Gruinart. The small public road in the foreground lies on the east side of the loch and was in an abysmal condition. It took nearly an hour to travel 5 miles since there were so many holes in the surface. 4x4 vehicles weren't too bothered by the surface but the old outfit didn't take kindly to it. Though Islay is relatively flat, the scenery is lovely with wild flowers in abundance and many birds. On the day the photo was taken, the scent from the trees and flowers was ever-present and pottering along was very pleasant. The trip to Islay took two days with the the run to Ardrossan on the Ayrshire coast taking 8 hours, more or less non-stop. The following day involved three ferry crossings from Ardrossan to Brodick (Arran), Lochranza (Arran) to Claonaig and from Kennacraig to Port Askaig (Islay). The sidecar's vertical mudguard spar snapped at some point during the journey, if not before, and the mudguard rattled worryingly over every bump in the road.

August 2018 and we're back on the Isle of Man. In the month since the trip to Islay, a new mudguard spar had been fabricated and fitted. This put an end to the rattling from the sidecar. Other than the battery showing signs of age, the bike ran well, despite some very wet weather. Saturday 25th August was a splendid day, with plenty of warm sunshine. A trip up the coast from Douglas to Ramsey permits close observation of the Manx Electric Railway, built in the 1890s. It still operates its vintage electric trams, which swish along, through some wonderful countryside, at about 25 mph. Even the outfit can keep pace with them.