ARMY MOTOR CYCLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 September 1939, Page 6

ARMY MOTOR CYCLES

USE BY GREAT BRITAIN.

IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS.

The Army is to carry British motor cycling prestige abroad this summer. Teams have been specially selected to compete in international events.

The British riders are in strict training under the guidance of civil experts like George Rowley, Bert Perrigo and Len Heath. Any one of the team can now hold his own with most civilian “scramble” and trial experts; they can even change a broken- z fork in a few minutes.

The importance of the mechanisation of the Army to the British motor cycle industry cannot be exaggerated. Practically every unit of the Army now has its motor cycle detachment. The total number of machines in use is understood to be nearly 22,000; yet had it been suggested twelve months ago that the Army would soon have even 10,000 machines, it would not have been believed. British manufacturers are seeing to it that the machines are the very best; industry is leaving nothing to chance. LAST YEAR’S LESSON. In last year’s International Six Days Trial the Army riders had to pilot machines weighing over SOOlbs. through the water splashes and sheep tracks of the Welsh mountains. The German team which won suffered the loss of far fewer points than the British, as the riders were able to avoid retirements on the road for which 100 marks are lost daily by each rider. Britain’s selected machines this year are the 496 c.c. “8.5.A.55 and the 490 c.c. “Norton,” and Army requirements are already pprsuading British manufacturers to consider producing a fully-equipped machine that is really light —probably about 2501b5. In this way the Army motor cycle “boom” will play an important part in respect of future design; and the subsequent benefits will automatically be passed on to the public. Recently the War Office took delivery of a batch of motor cycle combinations with drive on the sidecar wheel as well as the rear wheel. Formerly confined to use in the desert, this sidecar outfit is being found to be of great value in carrying three men and equipment as “cavalry” advance units, as they can operate over almost any type of ground and cover the advance or retirement of the main body of troops whose route would be confined to roads capable of taking lorries. ____