Kicking Up A Storm(er) (2008)
During the final years of the Associated Motor Cycles empire the company became part of the group involving
Manganese Bronze Holdings. Exactly who took over who I
am not really sure, but it so happened that Manganese Bronze already owned the
Villiers Engineering Company, who for many years had provided engines for a lot
of motorcycle companies as well as making a huge range of stationary and
industrial engines. AMC also inherited several talented designers with the
Villiers concern, including one Bernard Hooper, who had designed the successful
Villiers Starmaker engine and who together with Bob Trigg, went on to design the Isolastic
Norton Commando frame in the AMC section headed up by Dr Stephan Bauer. At the
same time the new AMC heirachy decided that they
needed to introduce a lightweight scrambles bike to compete with other
manufacturers as their heavy four stroke competition models were no longer
competitive. Another AMC employee, Fluff Brown, had been successfully competing
on a new design Cotton scrambler with the Starmaker
engine in a lightweight frame using a strong large diameter top tube and
thought that this would be a good basis for the new AMC scrambler. At the same
time they conveniently managed to reduce the amount of opposition in both
scrambles and trials by immediately stopping Villiers engine supply to all
other manufacturers and keeping the Starmaker engine,
by now renamed the Stormer, exclusively for their own
models.
They decided to market this competition model as an AJS,
which immediately caused a foaming at the mouth of many “crusty old timers” as
not only was it a two-stroke, but it was built at Coventry and Andover rather
than Woolwich. They conveniently forgot that the only true AJS motor cycles had
not been built in Woolwich either, but in
The late Dave Rice, a member of the East London & Essex
section was, like myself, also a member of the British
Two Stroke Club but, unlike myself, a fan of “off road” style machines. He was
primarily a Greeves enthusiast but had also taken a
liking and subsequently buying a Matchless G80CS, which is how he had come to
join our club. Wishing to get a motorcycle which would be applicable to both
the AMOC and BTSC clubs he had bought a 1975 trail version of the AJS Stormer which he had taken down to the AJS premises to have
overhauled completely for him to use on the road, at great expense I might add.
Dave’s Stormer was unusual in being equipped with
lights and road equipment and AJS were able to tell him from their records that
they had supplied it in that form new to special order. Not content with that,
he also aquired yet another “non running” Stormer which was intended as a future project (this one
has now been recommissioned by another member’s
brother in law). Unfortunately, Dave Rice never got to ride his newest bike
more than a couple of times before his untimely death and after the first
intended buyer had backed out of the deal I ended up buying it myself, even
though it was not at all my type of bike in the usual way of things. However
with memories of many years ago when as a 17 year old I really fancied the road
going version of the Starmaker powered Cotton
Conquest racer (which had managed 105mph in the Motorcycle Mechanics road test
of 1965) I had always since then quite fancied the idea of owning a Starmaker powered road bike – and this was one, even if the
“road” bit was rather tenuous, as I soon found out and which was the reason the
intending buyer had backed out previously.
The original owner might have ordered this bike as a trail
bike, however it was a scrambler with lights and although it might have made
quite a good enduro bike, something for taking a
casual and unobtrusive amble down local green lanes it certainly wasn’t. Once
you had got it started (no choke, only a tickler button which you have to keep
operating until the engine warmed on a cold day) the noise from its expansion system
exhaust was enough to waken the dead and cause apoplexy among any ramblers
encountered. The engine characteristics of this fairly highly tuned motor are
also not very conducive to careful path picking along a green lane – it wants
to get going, quite rapidly. This possibly explains the fairly low mileage
shown on the speedometer. First gear of the fairly close ratio gearbox is quite
high and the diaphragm clutch needs a bone crushing grip to operate. However,
once under way I found that at 60mph the engine was revving hard and was very
much undergeared for the road. I looked at getting a
much smaller rear sprocket but if I went down by six teeth the chain will
almost be running on the spokes and it would still be undergeared.
There is an alternative front sprocket which was made for the Cotton road racer
but these, if they can still be found, are likely to be very expensive as they
also have a ground section which runs on an oil seal and they would also raise
the gearing too much so I would then have to get a larger rear sprocket made,
increasing the cost even more. In any case I am also not sure that with top
gear right for maximum road speed that first gear would then not be far too
high for anything like an unobtrusive getaway from road junctions and traffic
lights. I have worked out that with the engine’s power rating and correct
gearing for the road about 85mph should be possible, but then again I am not
sure that this sort of speed on such a light bike with 6 inch brakes (even
though they are better than I expected – at least from 60mph they are) is too
wise in any case. The probable real downside of its current undergearing
though is the effect it has on fuel consumption, which is only 50mpg when
running at about 50mph instead of the 70mpg or so that I would normally expect.
Even that I could probably live with if it wasn’t for the fact that the stylish
polished alloy fuel tank holds only just over one gallon of fuel, so with such
a small range I need to carry a spare can of fuel with me as I do not come
across too many garages these days on the sort of roads I like to ride, or
stick to journeys of only 50 miles and under.
It had been nearly six years since I first got the bike and
during that time it has been kept in my garage while I agonised over what to do
with it. I am always complaining that I do not have enough space in my garage
and my wife Pam would say to me, “what are you keeping it for if you are not
going to use it, sell it and give yourself some more space.” I knew she was
right, but somehow, every time I hauled it out to give it a clean and polish,
once I stood back and looked at all that polished metal gleaming in the
sunshine I changed my mind and wanted to use it – next year perhaps. So back
into the garage it went every time. After I had decided to buy myself one of
the new Royal Enfield Bullet Electra X models for general use I decided that I
would have to be firm with myself and resolved to get rid of three bikes before
I bought my Bullet, one of which was intended to be the Stormer.
However, after already parting with two other bikes I thought that I had
suffered enough “bike loss trauma” and reasoned that as I had already parted
with those two and was only getting one new one then I could justify to myself
that even with keeping the Stormer as well as buying
the Enfield I would still have improved the space situation a little bit. I
also decided that 2009 was definitely going to be the year that I would use the
Stormer now that I was going to be keeping it.
When I checked it out I found that despite the expensive
rebuild which AJS had carried out for Dave Rice there seemed considerable play
in the swinging arm bearings. AJS might have considered this OK by scrambles
standards, but I didn’t think that Jim down at Swifts Motorcycles where I go
for my MOTs would approve. So, after parting with a considerable amount of cash
for two plastic bushes and a ground tube to AJS Motorcycles (at least the
service and delivery was very quick) I set about replacing the worn ones. I
then came across the reason I think that the originals wore out so quickly. The
frame had been powder coated by an owner at some time in the past and as I
removed the swinging arm I found that it had been done with the arm still
fitted in the frame. Powder coating was over all the external nuts, adjusters
and washers as well as the frame, while those areas which were masked by the
swinging arm still being attached to the frame had missed out on the coating –
even the chain tensioners and chainguard
fittings had not been removed. I suppose that whatever solvent bath the frame
had been dumped in first had done the bushes a power of no good, resulting in
the play I had noticed. As all the parts I mentioned were so easy to remove I
cannot understand why on earth anyone would bother to do things the way they
had. I am hardly the person to advise on restoration
techniques, but even I have limits below which I will not go.
Anyway, it is all done now and it all went back together with
only a few bloodied fingers. Provided that I can do something with the exhaust
in order to quieten it enough to be acceptable then Spring
2009 should see it back on the road. I shall keep its low gearing for the time
being until I decide the best way to tackle the matter. I have now found out
that AJS might also be able to supply a 15 tooth gearbox sprocket as well as
the standard 13 tooth and one of these should improve matters
considerably. When I first joined the
AMOC I think that I had the only running lightweight model in our section, but
now that they are almost becoming common I obviously must feel the need to
switch to something more individual again – at least for a time.
I fitted a slightly better
silencer “tail” attached to that expansion chamber when it took to the road in
my hands as that AJS provided unit seemed to do absolutely nothing to quieten
the exhaust “crackle” The current one, although still louder than I would like,
was at least good enough for the MOT tester.
2017 Update – Subsequently the bike obtained its MOT after I
fitted the slightly less noisy tail silencer to the expansion chamber exhaust,
although it was still too noisy for my liking. The bike passed its MOT but the
tester commented that he didn’t like the spongy feeling to the front brake,
although I think that this was due in the main to the fact that the brand new
linings had not had any chance to bed in. However, even with the bike once more
road legal I didn’t use it much. Although there was plenty of power it was just
not my style of bike at all, too noisy, too undergeared
and with a ridiculously low range before running out of fuel. So eventually it
did leave my garage in a bike swap with our section leader Roy. He still has
it.