Hi All.
If you look at an old copy (late 1920’s) of the “Book of the Scott” handbook, or a 1927 catalogue, the short stubs from engine to coffeepot do appear to turn down rather than just straight stubs. Similarly the ends of the two tailpipes turn outwards at their extremities in order to deflect the oily clag away from the back end of the bike. When I was running my ’27 I would douse the back end and rear wheel with WD40 on returning from a run, making the oil mist deposits MUCH easier to clean off. Without doing that it was very difficult to remove, especially if left for a day or two, when it would go like wax. If Roy is running on castor-base oil that must go like a hard varnish, that nothing will dissolve except oven cleaner, and that takes the paint off too!
It should of course be noted that the 1927 version has the two tailpipes running from the body of the coffeepot, whilst the 1929-on version has cast alloy end-caps to the coffeepot and just one tailpipe that runs from the left-hand side end-cap. A very few 1934 short-stroke Flyers, with a bolt-on footchange conversion, had the tailpipe on the right-hand side, to avoid fouling the left-hand brake pedal needed with a footchange machine. After 1934 the coffepot was abandoned, together with the shortstroke engine, and the right-hand side siamesed exhaust pipe became the standard fitting on Flyers.
One version of the 1927 catalogue shows the front splash shield BEHIND the coffeepot, but I think that was just a bit of artistic licence on what is clearly a heavily “touched-up” illustration. The production version splash shield went in front of the coffeepot, and had short steel straps locating onto the centre thru’ bolt/stud of the coffeepot. The shield itself was made out of approx 20swg tinplate, with a rolled and wired edge, and it went from the bottom edge of the radiator, right down and around the bottom of the coffeepot, protecting the sparkplugs and entire engine from spray, roadsalt, grit, and horse-muck. VERY few to be seen these days, a great pity, and so few owners these days bother to get ’em just right and to correct spec.
Brian
