Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126418
_947 S~rolea 350cc OHV Single Abit British and abunch Belgian By John Waaser Art Coughlin bought this machine brand new in 1949, and still owns it. He keeps it in the basement of a funeral home 'owned by his friend Charlie Fitch, where the two of them store such goodies 'as a Velocette, a BSA Rocket, an NSU 175 OHC single, and a couple of Benellis. Art started his motor- 24 cycling career in 1948 on a Harl~y· Davidson 125cc mad~-in-America two-stroke with rubba band from sus· ~nsion. th~n trad~ that almost im· m~diat~ly for a 550cc side-valve Sarolea with girder forks. Th~ following year h~ mad~ th~ imponer. G. Stev~nson of Watfflown. Massachu· ~[[s. an off~r on th~ OHV Model "B" pictur~ h~r~. from which St~v~nson had rob~ som~ pans. Stevenson put it tog~ther. and sold it to Art for $425.00 . about $215 less than its suggnted retail. For that money. Art got the more powerful OHV design. th~ r~nown~d Dowty Ol~omatic forks. and a four-s~~ gearbox instead of th~ three·speed on the sid~-valve design. The machines were made in Belgium by Maison Sarol~a. Hemal-Iesli~ges Ie (Belgique) 84. Rue St. Lam· ~rt. The company was found~d in 1850. and no longer manufactures motorcycles at any rate. Coughlin bought quit~ a f~ parts dir«t1y from Maison Saroln in th~ early fifties after St~venson stop~d th~ US. Not a bringing them into whole lot of the machines ever got into this coumry .. but a frimd of this writer's had a 600cc slo~r nearly twenty years ago. II was fairly easy to cobble a repair on them then. b«au~ so many parts were int~rchangeable with va rious British machin~: in fact most of the ancillary items on Belgian bik... were British. su.-h as the Amal carburetor. whi<'h is mounted sirleways. however. . the Lucas electrics. John Bull rubber products (grips. tank pads. footrests. ~tc.) and Jaeger speedo (a nice chronometric unit whose imernals ar~ interchangeable with Smiths in· strum~nts. according to Art.) Some of the more imeresting poims about this machine include the sideways-mounted carbo the unique spoking pattern on the wheels (the only similar pattern Art has seen was on a Husky). the dry sump lubricating system which housed the oil in a ~parate tank cast into the crankcases. the rear s~edo drive and manual spark comrol which were; found on almost all machines of this era. th~ built·in lugga~ rack (removed from this machine) which took a pillion saddle for your very favorite passenger. an oil pressure indicator on the return line. and the from fender bract' which doubles as a front stand for changing the front tire--·oops. tyre. Those Dowty forks were developed from units the company made for English aircraft during WWIl (The Late Unpleasantness. I believe a die· hard Limey would call it. .. ) and used air suspt>nsion. That's right. folks. your latest Yamazuki motocrosser has nothing on this machine in the sus· ~nsion dt'partmt'm . at least not at the front end. There are no springs in th~ forks. but there is a red dot on the slidt'rs. and you pump air into the forks until the r~ dot is at the bottom of the outer cove'"r. with the machine loaded at rest. and you havt' the propt>r suspt>nsion for any conditions. solo or passcn~r. or whatever. A tube under tht' triple crown joins the forks. SO that there is only ont' air filler. locat~ at the top of the left fork leg. The forks were made for retrofitting to girder· fork machines by the owner. but such companit'S as Veloc~tte. Pamher. and Sarolea used them as proprietary forks on new machines. This machine has no rear sus~n· sion. but the company fitted a plunger rear suspt>nsion to the line starting in 1949. At that time they also went to a cantilt'ver scat; the standard -Terry saddle which looks ugly. but is quite comfonable to ride on. The seal helps to lower tht' seating position so we shon-leWd people can plant our f....t nat on the ground· a far cry from the recent machint'S from East OR West. Not rvery rlevelopment in the motor.-yclt, induslry in the last thirty years has br"n a n improvement. Thr mac'hint' has a bore and stroke of 75 x 79mm. and featurt'S a roller bearing lower end; roller bearing rocker arms in an oil'light box (You won't appre.-iate the significance of that unit until you've ridden an older ma.-hine with exposed rockers... ); an alloy piston; and positive lubrication to the rear of the .-ylinder wall. the rockers. and the inlet valve guide. There is a regulating knob to control the now of oil to I hese areas. Sarolea boasted of the large. 3(" .-cssible filter (almost like Honda?) and the fact that the sump held over I ~ litres of oil· almost two U.S. quarts. They also bragged about the absence of external oil pipt... but the location in the crankcase casting also hclpt>d the oil warm up more quidly on a .-old day. while still offering enough .-ooling to keep it from tragi.-ally overheating in the middle of the summer. (One of the important features of a dry sump system is that the oil ('(jols the engine internals.) The ubiquitous Lucas Magdyno was fitted . and a more cursed picce of equipment probably has nt'ver existed, but almost all brands used it in that era. Miscellaneous featur~ in dud.. the 15 litre gas tank. which dispensed fuel at th~ ratt' of 5\4 liues pt>r lOOkm. or about 65 mpg. The machine con-