Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ ~ (Continued/rom page 23) and gear levers when the system was introduced, again predating Oriental practice by some four decades, but the public rebelled against the confusing switch, and they soon reverted to a right-side gearchange, as here. Howard's Replica has a bronze head, a later mod introduced in 1934 to counter cylinder head distortion and presumably fitted by Lewis Nash to update his machine. Steve Cooper fitted Brooklands cams during the rebuild, as well as a BTH racing mag. The bike came with a Magdyno 'to power a headlamp, both of which have been removed. Another Rudge trademark is the lever-operated center stand; you can roll it on and off with one fingerl 'Time for my spin, and to start the "Rep" in traditional British single style, you retard the ignition, ·ease the piston over TDC, pun the valve-lifter lever and kick. Road racing types removed the kickstart, but this would probably have been retained for the grass. Once warmed up - the same plug is used throughout - the bike was handed to me, and I became aware of the comfortable, though upright, seating position. Still, you can tuck yourself away pretty well with the help of the "bum pad," and the neutral handling even over the bumps of Paddock mean no trouble with fast sweepers as the works bikes encountered. The distinctive crack of the Brooklands silencers echoed in my ears as I marvelled at the smoothness of the engine; it has to be just about the most vibration-free big single I've ever ridden, a tribute to the Rudge engineers and Steve Cooper's worlunanship. The Rudge is no slouch, either. Once out of the very low (8.7 to 1) bottom gear, acceleration was smart, even impressive, and on the short top straight a t Brands I was able to see 85 mph on the Smith's speedo, provided I took the second apex of Clearways hard on in third with just a suspicion of a wiggle from the back end. Anchoring up for Paddock took a bit of practice, though. The coupled brakes are fine unless you're like me and many other racers of historic machines who like to go around corners with a touch of rear brake only applied, just to steady the plot up. You do that on the Rudge, and you're also applying the front brake, which defeats the object of the exercise and only makes you go slower. I wonder if Rudge-running road-runners used to disconnect the brakes' coupling for racing? The front stopper can still be operated independently by the inverted handlebar lever, incidentally. The free-revving, smooth TT Replica was a delight to ride, with performance in the intermediate gears especially notable. After 10 laps or so, however, my enjoyment was abruptly halted when on exiting Clearways, all forward drive suddenly disappeared. Fears of mechanical calamity were fortunately dispelled when, after coasting into the pits, nothing worse than a broken rear chain was discovered, but lack of a spare did mean the end of an enjoyable test. In common with many other manufacturers, Rudge never really recovered from .the Depression, and the appoint/ ment of a Receiver in 1933 marked the beginning of the slow decline which culminated in the end of production at the beginning of WW2. But Rudge had the double misfortune to attain the heights of their competition success just as the effects of the Crash were exerting maximum effect in 1930, and for this reason, they were never really able to capitalize on their racing supremacy to the full. Howard Place's TT Replica remains a monument to what might have been. • I ClO (j) 0 et') M QJ ..c 8 ... P-4 QJ QJ en 9/13/81 Capetown, Ontario CANADIAN NAT'L MX 500cc ROSS PEDERSON Kawasaki on DUNLOP. 2nd Andy Stacy KTM 4th Zoliller_nyl V_m.hll '26cc CIlo.. ,... 2nd Rob Hodgson T..-ry Holooa Jrd M_rk H_rnd_n 5th Allon Logu_ V_m.hll Ho~ V_m.hll y __ All the.. rlan ChOM DUNLOP front & ,..r. More cydes ricIe on Dull. . . th ,-.yother tlrelritheworlcl. ~ DUN.£OP p.o. Box 1109, Buffalo, NY 14240 25

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