It was under 200 Silks, not Scotts. Think about 12500 Scotts, but the exact figure isn’t known, due to breaks in the factory records, especially in the early years before WW1.
When George Silk first started production, in Derby, he was aided by various people, like Maurice Patey, and John Hartshorne.
He claimed that he was going “to take on and beat the Japanese” (ref. my good friend John Hartshorne)…..
One day, John turned up at the works on his new Suzuki GT500, and offered George a ride on it. When he returned he had changed his mind about how the Silk would compete with the Japanese ! What tended to happen was that buyers would usually be middle-aged men in a ‘mid-life crisis’, who had a firm intention to buy British, but didn’t fancy a big, heavy, vibratory twin from the likes of Norton or Triumph. As a consequence, Silks still turn up for sale with seven or eight thousand miles on the clock, and little real use. Don’t expect the reliability of a Japanese offering. Silks with the Silk-built engines, as opposed to the early Scott-engined bikes, had a number of niggling problems with things like the kickstart mechanism, oil getting into the ignition system, clutch snags, and carburation problems. The Amal carbs used were Spanish-built, and intended for the 500cc four-stroke single Sanglas bikes, and not a two-stroke twin. All problems have been sorted out over the years, but beware of the bikes that have been stood for many years with a low mileage, as they may not have been sorted out !
Good luck with your quest…
Brian
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