Hitchcocks Forum

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Finally...



An RAC/ACU centre, training motorcyclists on... Flying fleas! (Or ensigns if you like).

And narrated by Eamon Andrews, by the sound of it, great clip.

some views of the race track too, where I spent many weekends watching the racing. I still have the programme for the last bike meeting somewhere(easter '71 I think).

Scaly -
An exercise for my now failing memory, indeed !
I think the bike shown in the opening clip is a '53 RE2 - definitely not a Flying Flea, which was originally a WWII paratrooper's bike but continued in production postwar with minor changes; its distinguishing features were girder forks and hand gearchange, mounted on the fuel tank. In 1950 teleforks were added to make it the first identifiably "civilian" version RE1, but still with hand gearchange. The fork tubes were simply bolt-on tube arrangements (using the old girder-fork upper and lower yokes) and the handlebars were still mounted on a single bicycle-type stem. A 1950 RE1 was my very first motorcycle.....By 1953 the RE1 had become the RE2 with footchange gear control and more conventional front forks. The Ensign was introduced as a 150cc with rear suspension. Other bikes I recognised in the film were an Excelsior (plunger r. suspension) and rigid-frame
James - both with Villiers engines - and a D1 BSA Bantam rigid. I owned similar examples of all of these in the years following my RE initiation. You can find picture confirmation of the RE's by clicking on "photo gallery" in the l/h. column of this page. e. & o.e. - ...

Hi John, your post petered out, but yes, It will be a RE2 as it has footchange.



But to me, anything RE that you can lift over your head or indeed, throw at somebody get's the term 'flying flea' although not really correct.



It seems this was a new motorcycle training centre, and the film is from 1954, so very likely that they would have new bikes (1953 works well here.)



PAthe used to do previews and charge for clips, but there must have been some major change as they have are now in the process of putting them all on youtube! I have found a load of rgeat stuff, but do not wish to clutter the forum with it, however....



This is a gem from Brooklands!

Scaly- there's some great stuff out there - and I thank you for uncovering some of it.----
Unfortunately, much of the material now safely preserved and stored for posterity (suitably copied into digital format, etc.) appears to be wrongly named or classified, not surprising at all, as many of the people involved on both sides of the lens are probably long gone....OLW (the RE) and OLO (the Excelsior) are 1954 London reg. nos.---N?TW (the James) 1948 Essex. I've found numerous examples of photos wrongly captioned in the local county archive (and other places you would expect to know better), freely available to view online - and as accurate historic references somewhat devalued as a result.