Hemming's motorcycle

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Frank Hemming ran the local cycle and motorcycle shop in the Somerset seaside town of Weston-Super-Mare in the twenties.  In 1922 he decided to build himself his ideal bike, using a 4 1/4HP (550cc) Blackburne engine and a Moss 3 speed gearbox.  Frame lugs he bought from leading component company Chater-Lea, and the bike was assembled over the winter months 1922/23.  It was finally complete and ready to register in the spring of 1923, and on 20 April 1923 it was registered as a Hemming with the Somerset County Council, although the name painted on the tank was Blackburne to match the engine, not Hemming. Frank rode the bike until 1929 when it was pensioned off but kept in the shop on display.  Frank passed away in 1969 and his widow couldn't bear to part with her late husband's bike so she kept it until she was finally persuaded to sell it in 1979, when it was bought at auction by an enthusiast who restored it cosmetically but never got it running.  It then was swapped for a frog-eyed Austin Healey Sprite, and the new owner Michael Brown got it running well by using a piston from a Subaru car which was almost identical to the original damaged piston.

Michael rode the bike until 2000, and when he died in 2001, it passed to his son who loved it but didn't ride it, so the bike still has its 2001 tax disc.  The son finally decided he wasn't going to use it so it was offered for sale on a website where I spotted it, wrongly described as a Blackburne, which I knew it wasn't, as I am the Blackburne Marque Specialist in the VMCC.  I plan to recommission it and run it in several events this year once I have worked out how to remove the gooey mess that was once Petseal, which lined the tank and helped reduce the dirt that was occasionally blocking the carburetter jets.  Any suggestions as to how to do this would be welcomed! (text and photos Martin Shelley)      

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