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Does anyone out there have a speedo that I can fit to my 1930 TT Rep when I finally have it put back together? Thought that I may as well start looking now, as it may take some time. I assume that it will have to have an external drive on the front wheel.
Received my Davida vintage helment today and my wife hasn’t stopped laughing ; she said that my old full face Shoei at least covered up one of my problems! Women! What do they know!!
Helmets are a big issue with me too. The grandchildren take the mickey when I wear my “pudding basin”, and I just don’t like full face helmets for various reasons, they are heavy, and so increase the inertia of your head in an accident, thus putting more strain on your neck vertebrae, they reduce vital peripheral vision, deaden perceived traffic sounds, and visors mist up in traffic. At the risk of inviting rude remarks, I must also reveal that I have BIG problems getting one to fit comfortably as I need a XXXXL size !! Now quite a few manufacturers list that size, but finding one in stock anywhere is like searching for a needle in a haystack. My old full-face helmet was falling apart, and I recently tried to find a replacement, but failed miserably, so I compromised and decided to get a ‘jet’ style helmet, which I am very pleased with. In my RAF Regiment days, they managed to find a beret to fit me, but the Kevlar combat helmet had to be specially made for me, and was alleged to have cost nearly £1000. My son is still in the RAF, with 23 years service under his belt, and he had exactly the same problem, and was told the same thing about the cost of his helmet, topped off with the remarks that he has “the biggest head in the RAF”and “Don’t you ever lose that helmet!”. I console myself with the thought that it is all brains, but have yet to find the ‘ON’ switch.
All this is nothing to do with Scotts, but at least it is about motorcycling….
Brian
I could at least have mentioned speedos in my previous reply, and can really only say that a period Bonniksen ‘time and speed meter’ would be difficult to find, and very expensive. Good ones, complete with drive gear, gearbox and cable, fetch anything up to £1000 at auction, and are highly sought after. Try contacting “The Bonniksen Boy” via Google, as he may be able to locate one for you, as well as doing rebuilds and supplying parts. You might be able to find a Cowey or Smiths for less money. Good luck !
Brian
Did you see the Bonniksen speedo sold on ebay last week? Only made £1090 crisp onecers. About 20 years ago i gave one away F.O.C.! Looked nice on my mates two speeder!.
There is another one on eBay today, possibly ex-1929 Scott, and in need of rebuild, no gearbox, bracket, or drive cable, at £500, with no bids yet.
Brian
One of my TT Reps has a Cowey (I think it is original fitment as the rest of the bike is original) and the other one has a Pride and Clarke, which almost certianly is not original. Both have the gearbox on the front spindle and the gear attached to the spokes.
Cheers,
Richard
I wonder who made them for Pride and Clarke ? I didn’t know that they had speedos branded as their own.
I have also found a vintage type Smiths speedo on ebay, and it has the drive gear and gearbox, but no cable. Starting price yesterday was £300.
Brian
Thanks Brian. I have been monitoring the Smith’s on Ebay. It only goes to 60 mph though.
I’m not sure if you have managed to find a speedo yet, but I have just bought a Cowey speedo for my 1930 FS tourer (80mph) in excellent order. Black face with trip.
He had another 3 Coweys that he was willing to sell, two were 80mph and one was 100mph (this one looked very rare).
There was another black faced 80 mph speedo which was also in excellent condition, although it needed the inside of the glass cleaning as it had a little dust, the bezel was chromed with a few marks but no dents, trip worked fine, the black casing needed repainting.
The other 80 mph was an earlier model with a silver face which needed cleaning. I don’t think this one had a trip.
The 100mph had a very unusual trip which was around the outside of the dial and was reset by turning the bezel. The face was silver but slightly faded and may have needed to be refurbished depending on your your type of restoration. Brass bezel was good with no dents. The casing was good but needed repainting or polishing.
He wants £500 per speedo, which sounds a lot, but they looked to be in very good workable condition.
If you are interested, I could put you in touch with him.
I took pictures of all 3, although the files are too big to load up. Send me your e-mail and I will gladly send the photos across.
I believe he also has some Cowey external drive gearboxes and drive cogs not sure of the price though. As I already have these, I didn’t ask, sorry.
Ian,
Thanks for the info.
Yes, I would be interested and, yes, I would need a suitable drive for the speedometer.
I would be very grateful if you could send the photographs (and the seller’s contact details) to my email pm.smith(at)o2.co.uk (the ‘o’ in ‘o2’ is a letter not a number).
Regards.
Chris.
It is amazing how prices have gone up since my previous postings on this subject. Last week I sold a nice early Bonniksen “Time and Speed Meter”, complete with all the fitting accessories except for the drive cable, on eBay, for £2600-00 !! A nice surprise, but crazy. I bought my first house, an Edwardian three-bedroom semi-detached, in 1970, for the same sum. Mind you, I was earning about £25 a week at the time, so it is all relative.
Does anyone out there have the full postal address for “The Bonniksen Boy” (Stephen Knight), who repairs and services them ? The phone number listed on his website doesn’t work, and emails have gone unanswered.
Brian
My 29 tourer has in built max national speed limit indicator at 70 m p h the clutch and brake lever disappear in a blurrrrrrrrrr. D F .
My sprinter from over twenty years ago used to do that to, AND my feet would start to go sideways off the footrests !
Brian
At these sort of prices I better put my cowie up for sale just took it of my two speeder, cant use it with twin brakes