[John] So we're here at Bike Night at Hinckley Triumph Visitor Centre and
we're really pleased that Dick Shepherd has brought out one of his very special
machines, not just to look at but actually he's fired it up and it sounds incredible. But Dick,
this desert sled then, tell us a little bit more about this. [Dick] Well this is originally a 1963 SC.
It was built by Johnson Motors, but it was reworked in 1966. So they've used the '63 engine number and
frame number, but the frame and casings are from a '66 bike. It's had a lot of work done on
it. It runs a longer swinging arm because obviously when you're riding these in the desert,
you want a longer frame so it gives you straight stability. And also what they've done here,
if you can just notice here, because it's running a big Vokes desert filter, they've had to
chop the frame to bring this air cleaner tube through into the back of the filter.
You know that's a lot of work. But also this runs a 750 alley barrel, so she's 750cc not 650cc.
And as you can see here, we've got breathers on everywhere. There's breathers on the rockers,
the gearbox, the crankcase. So we've got six breather tubes, three each side,
because obviously the heat in the desert she would have been breathing a lot. But if you come round this side,
you can see being a unit engine it wouldn't have been fitted with a magneto. So this has
all been chopped and re-welded here, front of this case and the rear of the case, to take on a mag
so it runs a magneto. But what's really interesting about this engine inside, different desert
venues that this would have raced at, they would have used different camshafts.
So if you take this case off, you can actually take the camshafts out of this engine without
stripping and splitting the engine. And how they've done that, on the bushes on
this side, the top hat is normally on the inside so you can't pull the camshaft out. So they've
turned the bushes round, and there's two little screw pegs that hold the bushes in. So you undo
the screw pegs, pull the bushes out, and then the case here is cut to take the lobe of the cam out.
Obviously you've got to hold the tappets and release the tappets. But you would then pull the
cams out, put fresh cams in, re-time it, and then off you'd go without having all the work of stripping
the engine down. [John] So would that allow flexibility to change the cam depending on the course
they're racing on then? [Dick] Absolutely, yeah. Yeah different courses you'd need different radius cams.
But the oil tank's been altered as well. Because it's got a Bates desert seat on here,
normally the filler cap would be underneath here and you wouldn't be able to get to it. So they've
reworked the filler cap on the back of the oil tank here, but also runs a fork brace
to stop the forks whipping. Yeah, it's pretty trick. It's got a it's got an under shield here
because obviously when you're tearing through the desert, often you'd come across a rock sticking up.
And we're just rebuilding a 1962 pre unit that was built for Bud Ekins, and all these tubes here were
smashed to bits where it'd gone through the sump shield, so we've had to braise all the tubes up,
and then we've made a new sump shield for it. But this one wasn't too bad, this runs a aluminium or a
high dural shield. [John] And the gearbox then Dick, is there anything, the ratios in there are specific for racing? [Dick] Pretty standard. No
they're pretty standard. Funny enough, Bud's bike, the pre-unit one is running a wide ratio gearbox.
But I'm pretty certain this one, in fact this one's got a wide ratio in it as well, yeah, this one runs
a wide ratio as well. [John] And these were obviously raced in America then, so you mentioned Johnson.
[Dick] Well there was two main distributors in America. There was Johnson
Motors, and Tri-Cor. One was East Coast and one was West Coast. And what they done, they
would have picked out different riders and they would have sponsored them. In fact they probably
supplied the bike and had alterations done. But this mag conversion we're pretty certain
two brothers done this, they were engineers. A friend of mine in America has got one of the
other three, and then another one is in a Rickman frame. But this is the only one that's had this
major work done on the frame here to take the air cleaner tube. So whoever rode this must have
been a pretty trick rider. [John] Pretty serious stuff yeah, yeah. And what sort of condition was this in then, when you
acquired this one Dick? [Dick] Well, it was in a hell of a state being a desert racer.
The other thing it runs as well is a 19 inch rear wheel, 400/19 inch.
And you can see it's got these rear shocks, because it's got a longer swinging arm by two
inches, the rear shocks are an inch longer because you must have this swinging arm at a
drop position, not straight or running up, because you can't get the grip on the rear.
So that's why she runs longer shocks to compensate for the longer swinging arm.
[John] And what sort of top speed would they have got up to? [Dick] Because of the rear sprocket,
you're probably looking at about, well, I don't you want to be going any faster on sand in the desert than
about 70 - 75 miles an hour. [John] It'd be pretty scary that wouldn't it, you'd know about it.
[Dick] So this thing wheelies in every gear. [John] Yeah, with the ratio that's on there. [Dick] It's a pretty trick
thing you know. [John] And how many horsepower is it putting out? [Dick] Well it's 750cc so horsepower,
I think it's depending on the cams you'd use. It's a bit
hard to say what horsepower, but yeah, she's pretty light and pretty trick you know.
[John] And if you've ridden it much since it's been done then? [Dick] I love it. We took it back
from here last week just to get it running for this event because it stood in the museum
for a couple of years and we had a little fly around on it. [John] And is there any other
examples similar to this then? You say it was one of three. [Dick] Well the magneto conversion,
from what we can make out, as I say, there was about three we know of. There might have been more
but there's definitely three done exactly the same as this. As I say one's in a Rickman frame,
the other one's in a Triumph unit frame, belongs to a friend of mine. His one,
if you look at it, it's in out of the state. It's as the guy got off it, you know.
But unfortunately we cannot identify who rode this one, which is annoying, you know. [John] But with
all its unique features it is... [Dick] I'm sure someone will see some pictures one day and say
I remember a road that because this, as I say, with the alteration of the frame is pretty unique. [John] Some
serious alterations and tuning gone on. [Dick] If it wasn't raining I'd love to have a little fly up there.