Iceni CAM is a
Trade Supporter
of the FBHVC

Introduction

This is the home of the Iceni CAM Magazine - a free e-magazine about Cyclemotors, Autocycles, Mopeds ... and more.  It was launched on 15th April 2007 and the most recent four issues can be downloaded here.  (Copies of earlier back numbers are also available.)  For non-computerised folks, printed copies are available at £1.50 per edition; we can accommodate mail order too at £2.20 per single edition or £8.80 for a year's subscription.

So what's it about?

It's an e-magazine all about cyclemotors, autocycles and mopeds that carries road test & feature articles, rally reports, free adverts and other assorted information.  Although we are an independent production, we have strong ties to the EACC and also to the New Zealand Cyclaid Register.

We are based in East Anglia, but are by no means limited to that area.  Much that appears in the magazine is of universal appeal.  We welcome contributions, whereever they are from, and are also happy to help to publicise any events for cyclemotors, autocycles and mopeds.

When's it published?

We publish four times a year and the publication dates are synchronised with key events in the EACC calendar: the Radar Run, the Peninsularis Run, the Coprolite Run and the Mince Pie Run.  It's purely an enthusiast production, and all produced on a tiny budget.  Nevertheless, we think you'll be pretty impressed  The free downloadable version will be posted on this website on the same day as the printed version goes on sale.

All the issues of CAM Magazine that we've produced have been very well received.  Thank you all for your comments; they are much appreciated.  Several of you have also made donations, which has helped enormously in keeping Iceni CAM going.

What's in it?

The April 2012 edition is available now on our Downloads Page.

Main feature

John Fairclough's Grey Streak was
featured in The Classic Motor Cycle
in March 2000

Our Mercury Grey Streak Meltdown article had certainly been long in the planning.

The original intention had been to develop the article based on another Streak, M 173, restored by John Fairclough but, for various reasons, the logistics never seemed to come together, the bike was sold on, and now stands on display at the Black Country Museum.

While going round the VMCC Founders Day event in July 2011, we were most surprised to spot another Grey Streak on the British Two-stroke Club stand, so we stopped to have a chat with the owner, Charles Sylvester.

The bike wasn't one recorded on the Mercury register at that time but, when Charles showed us pre-restoration pictures and told the story of where it came from, we then realised it was one we had previously been aware of, though not actually tracked down.  The last time the Mercury Register spotted pictures of the bike was in decrepit condition when it came up for sale on an internet auction site.  CS bought it from Rochdale and spent some time on restoration, until M 342 finally emerged on show.

We took details of this new Streak, making just four recorded examples on the Mercury Register.  They really are a very rare machine but Charles had many bikes and other on-going projects, so the Streak was being earmarked for selling on to make way for other restorations.

The offer to list it up for sale on IceniCAM Market was accepted and, knowing that we occasionally license out articles for publication in the BTSC magazine The Independent, Chas kindly offered the Streak for roadtest and photoshoot.  Well, we're certainly not going to risk missing another opportunity to test one of the rarest light motor cycles in the world, so we pretty much dropped everything else and arranged to collect the bike for process within the next couple of weeks.

It was a six-hour round trip to collect the bike from up near Leicester, and burned off £40 of diesel fuel in the process, but IceniCAM had secured the Streak for the following week.

Only Streak's disproportionate saddle aroused some disparaging remarks, otherwise everybody was struck by how pretty the bike looked.  The road test proved a little disappointing though, since the Streak had been freshly assembled, but never ridden or sorted out - consequently it was riddled with unsorted glitches.

Our workshops addressed the steering head bearing adjustment (essential for the road test), but there really wasn't time to sort out anything much more before the bike was due to return, and we only had use of the trade plates booked over the one weekend.  There was nothing for it but to present this pretty looking bike as it really was, warts and all!

The restoration was certainly a nice cosmetic job but, if a bike is to be anything more than just for show, then it needs to be de-bugged and made to work properly.  Our beautiful Mercury was between these worlds and suffered on test as a result, but there were moments on the run when it went well, and you got a brief glimpse of its potential to be a really fabulous little machine.

We've produced articles on Mercury before, The Lost World on the Mercette in April 2002, and Olympian Chariot on the Hermes in May 2006, so there's always a pressure to come up with some new material for any subsequent feature.  Two previous articles = twice the pressure, so we really dug deep for the fine detail this time.

Dunkley and Mercury marque specialist Noel Loxley was of great assistance in providing obscure archive files.

Presentation of the article also required a different angle to avoid too much repetition of previously published material (which some authors seem rather prone to do), so there was a particular focus on details of Mercury's meltdown and final collapse to enable a fresh slant on the story.

Costs of our journey back to return the bike were offset by delivering an early Honda C100 Cub along the way, so final production cost for the Streak article was held at £40.

A sponsorship from Chris Marshall in Bermuda had been sitting in credit lists for some time, which we were planning to attach to a Mobylette AV78 article that hasn't materialised yet, so Chris scores the Grey Streak instead.

Support feature

We last produced an article on the Power Pak Mo-Ped over 12 years ago, and to be strictly accurate, on-going research had never really stopped even after that publication way back in December 2000.  The Power Pak Mo-Ped has long remained one of cyclemotoring's greatest mysteries, and we feel that the Legions of the Lost analysis has probably now resolved more of the unknown elements than any previous presentations, but after over half a century, does this finally lay its wandering spirit to rest, or just raise more questions for future investigation?  Either way, this latest production is certainly a big step forward.

According to the computer record, this latest Power Pak Mo-Ped file was first initiated in 2007, though somehow felt as if it might have been around longer than that?  Five years may seem like a long time to reach actual production, but we've presented a lot of other material since then, and we spent a long time sitting on the main Power Pak material while waiting and hoping for some further research breakthrough that never really seemed to come.

In the end, we decided it was time to present the feature anyway, and it came down to fine sifting every known Power Pak reference over the 10-year period the company was trading, to turn up a few tiny details that had never been presented before - the Bayswater shop, further analysis of the Power Pak Mo-Ped, Mr Harold Easton's position in the company, and address of the mysterious Coventry factory that never seemed to come to fruition.

It was quite remarkable how little was known about Power Pak beyond the established published material.  It just seemed that anyone presenting anything on Power Pak and Sinclair Goddard had taken the easy route and simply referenced the already known basic history, and never really gone to the additional trouble of finding anything new to add.

That's always the lazy option, but what's the point when it's all been done before?

Anyone who follows our features will know that IceniCAM always tries that bit harder, and goes the extra mile to give a little bit more.

With Sinclair Goddard and Power Pak, we think we've probably wrung as much out of all the available research that anyone's likely to get.  By publishing our Power Pak Mo-Ped article, the further hope is that someone else might pick up our challenge and chip in some new information with some fresh new leads.

Analysis and positive identification of the Power Pak Mo-Ped basic components could raise the possibility that someone might now be able to accumulate the components to reproduce a Power Pak Mo-Ped again - how cool would that be to take to show or ride on a run?

You'd think that our Legions of the Lost pilot might not have generated any actual cost to produce, since it didn't involve any road test or photoshoot, but not so!  Lifting the vehicle file record for PAK 162 from Bradford Archives cost £12, and the feature was kindly sponsored by Les Gobbett of the Leicester Enthusiasts.

We hold more archive research files on other 'lost' machines that are expected to appear in further series features from time-to-time in the future, though we can't yet suggest when another may be completed.  We've got to recover from the research stress of the Power Pak Mo-Ped before we even start thinking about the next presentation.

Second Support Feature

Puch Maxis really aren't meant to do 55mph and we've got to say, there's quite a degree of unpredictability about doing this sort of thing.  You've got to be partly barmy to want to produce a machine like Mad Max, but owner Mick Cook is no stranger to craziness!  'Cookeye' has some previous in this department, and is credited as the same raving nutter who produced our 172cc Aprilia powered 'Alien' Suzuki Street Magic for the Monkey Business article back in July 2009.

Anyone who thinks doing 160mph on a modern superbike might be an exhilarating experience, has no idea how scary 55mph on a sprung frame Puch Maxi can be.  You can very quickly appreciate that both these vehicles are equally quite capable of killing you, it's just that the Maxi is much closer to the edge.  The nervous handling, combined with rev vibration, a rattley and clattery overtuned motor that feels and sounds like it could let go at any time and ineffective brakes, just seems the perfect combination for courting disaster.

We did the glaring Chromium Yellow (custom paint by Neil Bowen) Mad Maxi test first, in May 2011, photoshoot, road test notes, all in the can, but it took a little thinking about how we might present it?

It just a matter of waiting for inspiration to come ... in the form of seeing Douglas Dalziel plodding round an East Anglian Cyclemotor Club run on his old-timer Maxi.  That's what we need, Dougy's old 'yardstick' Maxi!  Before and after!

The purple Maxi turned up for test in August 2011, exactly the same week as the Mercury Grey Streak, and both were tracked round the course on the same day by the pace bike.  In contrast to the Streak run, the old purple Maxi was totally reliable, miserably slow, and predictably dull - absolutely everything that we expected of it, but an ideal foil for the ballistic yellow missile.

Once we rode Dougy's old purple Maxi, it was fairly obvious it wasn't going quite properly, far too rich on the mixture, but that was how it came, so that's how we ran it.  The bike went through the workshops after the test, and the rich running turned out to be a combination of the choke shutter not lifting off properly, and a crushed intake pipe on the airbox.  A few simple tweaks and it was revving out again, top speed now well up to 30+.

Production costs for the Mad Max article were negligible since both bikes came from just five miles down the road in Felixstowe, while collections and returns were incidental when the van was passing by anyway.

Sponsorship for the article was collected by Martin Austin at YPVS (Yamaha, Puch, Vespa Spares), since the feature seemed to suitably fall under his umbrella of parts supply and moped tuning components.  YPVS sells a wide selection of various standard and go-faster Puch parts if you fancy a bit more power, many of which are more 'moderate' than the Athena kit, which is one of the more radical conversions.

What's Next?

Next Main feature: We seem to experience some strange feeling of déjà vu We seem to experience some strange feeling of Déjà vu about our next main feature?  This relates back to two years ago when we presented the World's End feature on some rather special Phillips Gadabout models.  Our new story starts with a simple request to test the smallest capacity motorised vehicle that Honda ever made.  That might seem easy enough, except there don't appear to be any known examples in the UK. OK, so we might have to be prepared to travel abroad, maybe Europe, well that's not so bad.  So who do we know with a really nice example of one of these ...... at Pongakawa..... What? You can't be serious!  All the way to New Zealand again? Faced with the prospect of a ridiculous 26,000-mile round-the-world trip to test this 24cc cyclemotor, People Power had better be worth it!  The main feature though, won't be satisfied with just the one cyclemotor, and the tale connects on to another cyclemotor ... but made in China?  We could say this second machine might be two-horsepower, but that may be misleading.

Next Support feature: It hardly seems worth travelling right round the globe for just one cyclemotor, so while we're in New Zealand anyway, we make the most of the moment and try to test as many unusual bikes as we can along the way.  The support feature returns to business as usual, back to road tests ... except this contains some somewhat unusual content!

Actual motor wheel engines comprise a fairly small and select group of the cyclemotor genus, obviously the Cyclemaster, and BSA Winged Wheel, the Velmo, perhaps the Sinamec, maybe the stillborn TI Powerwheel concept model.  You might even care to count the Honda P50 within this band, but there really don't seem many ready examples where the hub is part of the motor kit ... but an Italian motor wheel?

Even if we tell you that it's 28cc, most people are probably still going to be stumped as to what this might be or when it was made.

Having travelled this far, we take the opportunity to road test no fewer than three of these Italian motor wheel cyclemotors in After the Gold Rush.

Next Second Support: The third oddball slot concludes our New Zealand 'Cyclemotor Fest' in the crook of Hawkes Bay on the east coast of the North Island on New Year's Day 2012.  Famed for its 1930s' classic architecture, the seafront town of Napier was practically levelled by a massive earthquake on 3rd February 1931 and famously rebuilt in the Art Deco style.

Now if the Top Gear boys were to end the show with "next week we'll be testing a Mitsubishi and a Subaru", then everyone would be probably be thinking of an Evo and a Scooby, superfast modern competition sports cars with smoking tyres and screaming exhausts ... but this is IceniCAM, not the BBC.

Yes, we may be testing Mitsubishi v Subaru.  There may well be smoking tyres and screaming exhausts, but any further similarity probably ends there - from our new Samurai cyclemotors in Rapiers at Napier.

Our trip to the antipodes wouldn't be quite complete without some contact with our friends in the New Zealand Cyclaid Register so, in with this crazy production on rear mounted Samurai cyclemotors, and just for a bit of contrasting sanity, we're even featuring a couple of old-timer Cyclaids too - four machines in one article!

The next planned Iceni CAM Magazine 22 is a New Zealand based special edition featuring nine machines in three articles, and all for free on the internet!  You simply don't get value like that anywhere else!

You've probably worked it out by now, that IceniCAM special edition 22 is going to be largely based on bikes in New Zealand!

What else?

Well, there's this Website... we've put a lot of useful information here, and we're alwas adding to it.  We have a directory of useful people to know.  Information on local events: route sheets, maps, etc, are here as downloadable documents and, after each run, we put photos of the event on this website.  There's also a market place where you can buy and sell mopeds, autocycles, cyclemotors and other related items

We have a discussion forum on Google Groups - you can get to that from our Contacts page or the box at the top of this page.

As each edition of the magazine is published, we add to our collection of articles.  From Edition 3 of the magazine, we introduced another evolution.  Previously, features in the articles section had reflected what appeared in the magazine, but you may now discover a bit of extra content has crept into some items as they've transferred to the website - you might call it "The Directors Cut".  The problem with printed magazines is editing everything to fit page sizes and space, and there can sometimes be bits you'd like to include, but they have to be left out to fit the available space.  The web articles don't need to be constrained by the same limitations so, although the text will remain the same, the 'Directors Cut' graphic in the header indicates the item carries extra pictures and bits that didn't make it to the magazine.

We also have an Information Service - if you want to know more about your moped, we can help.

What we do

Iceni CAM Magazine is committed to celebrating all that's good about the Cyclemotor, Moped and Autocycle scene; researching toward the advancement of the pool of knowledge about cyclemotors, autocycles, old mopeds, and other oddities; and the publication of original material.  We are a declared non-profit making production, though we still need to fund everything somehow to keep the show on the road.

The magazine is free on line, and the nominal price of supplying hard copies to non-computerised folks is pitched only to cover printing and postage.  All advertising is free since we believe that the few people left out there providing parts & service for these obsolete machines do so as a hobby and an interest.  This involves far more effort than reward, and they should be appreciated for the assistance they provide.  Our Information Service is there to help anyone needing manuals to help with restoration of a machine.  We make a small charge for this but, again, we have set our prices so the just cover postage and material costs.

Overheads involve operation of the website, and particularly the generation of features.  Articles like Last Flight of the Eagle can cost as little as £20 to complete, while others have cost up to £150 to generate, eg: Top Cat on the Leopard Bobby.  With these overheads, you may be wondering how we get the money to keep it all going.  So do we!  But, somehow, it works, helped by a number of generous people who have sponsored articles or made donations to keep the show on the road.

How long does it take to research, produce, and get these feature articles to press?  Well, up to two years of preparatory research in some cases, where little is known about the machine or its makers, and where nothing has been published before.  Then, collating all the information and interviews, drafting and re-drafting the text, travel and photoshoots typically account for up to 40 to 50 hours to deliver the package to editing.

There are many examples where these articles have become the definitive reference material for previously unpublished machines like Mercury Mercette & Hermes, Leopard Bobby, Ostler Mini-Auto, Dunkley Whippet & Popular, Stella Minibike, Ambassador Moped, Elswick Hopper Lynx, and many others.

We're committed to continuing to produce these articles, because we believe it needs to be done, and we've got a proven track record for achieving it.  Nobody else has done it in 50 odd years, so if we don't do it - who will?

To whet your appetite for what's ahead, here's an updated list of machines with developing articles for future features: AJW Collie, Ariel 3, Ariel Pixie, Batavus Go-Go, Busy Bee cyclemotor, Capriolo 75 Turismo Veloce, Coventry Eagle Trade Auto-Ette, Cyc-Auto (Wallington Butt), Cyc-Auto (Villiers), Cyclaid, Derbi Antorcha, DiBlasi, Dot ViVi, Dunkley S65, Dunkley Whippet Super Sports, Elswick-Hopper VAP MIRA test prototype, Excelsior Consort, Excelsior G2 autocycle, Gilera RS50, Heath mini-bike, Hercules Corvette, Hercules Her-cu-motor, Honda CD50, Honda Chaly, Honda CT70 Dax Monkey Bike, Honda Motocompo, Honda People PY25D Cyclemotor, Honda SS50, Honda Stream, Huzhou Daixi Zhenhua, James Comet 1F, Kerry Capitano, Leopard B6, Mitubishi TLE43 Cyclemotor, Morini FM128 Cyclemotor, Motobécane Mobylette AV42, Motobécane Mobylette AV44, Motobécane Mobylette AV46, Motobécane Mobylette AV78, Motobécane SP50, MV Agusta Liberty, Norman Nippy Mark 2, Norman Nippy Mark 3, NVT Ranger, Phillips P36X motorised cycle, Phillips Traveller, Powell Joybike, Puch Magnum X, Rabeneick Binetta, Robin Subaru EHO35 Cyclemotor, Shuang Ma Cyclemotor, Simson SR2E, Solifer Speed, Sun Autocycle, Sun Motorette, Suzuki A100, Tailwind cyclemotor, Vincent Firefly, Yamaha FS1E, Yamaha QT.

The working list changes all the time as articles are completed and published, and further new machines become added - so as you see, there's certainly no shortage of material.

Readers have probably noticed a number of the articles collecting sponsorship credits, and we're very grateful for the donations people have made toward IceniCAM, which certainly assures we're going forward into another year.  We don't need a lot of money since IceniCAM is a declared non-profit making organisation, and operates on a shoestring (and we'd like to keep it that way) - run by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts.

It's easy to sponsor an article by either picking a machine from the forward list, and we'll attach your credit to it, or simply making a donation.  There is no fixed amount, it's entirely up to you, and however large or small, we're grateful for any contribution to keep the show on the road.

If a vehicle you're interested in seeing an article about isn't in the list, then let us know and we'll see about trying to add it in the programme, but we do need access to examples - perhaps you have a machine you'd like to offer for a feature?

See the Contact Page for how to: Subscribe to the magazine - Chat to fellow readers - Make a donation - Sponsor an article - Enter a free advert - Submit an article yourself - Write a letter to us - Propose a machine for feature - Offer your machine for test feature - ...

News

"More frightening than a Superbike"

May 2012

In the May 2012 edition of Classic Bike, Hugo Wilson rides Alan Hummerstone's Ducati Cucciolo.

Postage Prices

May 2012

The recent large increase in UK postage prices means we have had to increase some of our prices.  The cover price of the magazine is unaltered at £1.50; the price for a single issue by post goes up from £2.10 to £2.20 while a year's subscription increases from £8.40 to £8.80.  Information Service CD-ROMs are now £3.50 inclusive of UK postage.

FUEL STABILITY ADDITIVE TEST RESULTS

April 2012

The FBHVC is pleased to announce the results of its fuel stability additive test programme.  This research was designed to test the anti-corrosive properties of proprietary additives claiming to provide a high level of protection against potential corrosion of fuel systems, including tanks, pipework and fuel metering equipment on historic vehicles caused by the addition of ethanol into petrol.

VSPe Power Plus, VSPe and EPS from Millers Oils; Ethomix from Frost A R T Ltd; Ethanolmate from Flexolite all received an A rating in the research which enables all these products carry an endorsement from the FBHVC.  The endorsement is in the form of the FBHVC logo and the words: "endorsed by the FBHVC as a fuel additive for protection against corrosion in metals".

All additive manufacturers and suppliers were approached in 2011 to provide test samples for this research which was designed to simulate storage in a vehicle's fuel tank for a 12 month period.

The FBHVC's conference last October majored on the effects of ethanol in petrol with presentations from industry experts.  It identified three issues to be considered: corrosion, compatibility and combustion.  The Federation has been represented at a Fuel Stakeholders meetings with the DfT.

For details of the products please contact:

Millers Oils - website: www.millersoils.co.uk

Frost A R T Ltd - website: www.frost.co.uk

Flexolite - website: www.flexolite.co.uk

Lohmann rollers

February 2012

Lohmann cyclemotor drive rollers are now being listed at Mopedland in the Rollerdrive section.  These are new manufacture components produced from hard rubber compound by Obsolete Engineering.  Lohmann components have pretty much been unavailable since the company finished production in the mid 1950s, but Mopedland has recently begun producing some new parts.  Its AtoZ Rings section remanufactured and listed new Lohmann piston rings in 2011.

The plot thickens

February 2012

It occurs to us that many people may have never seen the engine that the The National Autocycle and Cyclemotor Club Limited is kicking up a fuss about (see End of an Era below).  In fact, when it's described in the minutes of the NACC's January 2011 AGM as "the Autocycle and Cyclemotor unit that had been donated to the NACC" it becomes clear that even their own secretary has no idea what it actually is.  So, we've been doing a bit of delving in our archives to reveal what the all fuss is purportedly about.

Here it is.  It's the engine from a 1952 25cc Cyclemaster that has been sectioned to show its internal mechanism.  It's mounted on its own purpose-made wooden stand with legs that fold up to make it easier to transport.

Our photographs were taken at the East Anglian Run on 15 May 1988 - possibly its last appearence before Andrew Roddham handed it on to another NACC committee member.

Our search also turned up some interesting information, including the fact that it doesn't even belong to the NACC! 

It was part of a collection bought by well-known motor cycle dealer, Andy Tiernan, in the 1980s.  Andy lent it to the NACC on a long-term loan so the club could display it at events.  It's still Andy's engine, the NACC just borrowed it.

It's even more complicated than that: the NACC transferred all its assets to the The National Autocycle and Cyclemotor Club Limited in 2007.  This transfer was ratified at a committee meeting on 4 August that year.  The engine was not in the list of assets itemised in the minutes of the meeting (not surprising as they'd forgotten they had it).  What's more it's doubtful that they would have had any right to transfer the loan; no one asked Andy if it would be all right.

Another fine mess!

End of an Era

February 2012

The National Autocycle and Cyclemotor Club Limited (NACC) has now completed its mission to get rid of all its founder members.  The last remaining one, Andrew Roddham, has been officially notified that he will be expelled in April at the end of his current subscription year.

The pretext given for throwing Andrew out is that he won't tell them where they've put their sectioned cyclemotor engine; they know he had it in 1986!  This is clearly just an excuse because a quick look through our old copies of Buzzing (the NACC's magazine) was enough to tell us that Andrew hasn't had it since 1988 ... it also revealed who'd had it for several more years after that.  If the NACC really wanted to find the engine, all it had to do is read its own magazines.  To look at it another way: if they wanted Andrew to give them some information, throwing him out of the club is hardly a sensible way to go about it.

With Andrew's departure, the NACC severs its last link to the club it used to be.  It used to be an active club with an honest, democratic, accountable committee of unpaid volunteers who strived to serve the club's members.  The 'modern' NACC Limited is a limited company with only a tiny proportion of its membership taking any active part in club affairs.  The self-serving committee is answerable to no one and some of them are even paid to do their jobs.  It has become a sad remnant of a once great club.

Save the DVLA!

February 2012

On 13 December staff of DVLA Local Offices (LO) throughout the UK were told that all LOs would close during 2013.  This action will remove all face to face contact between the public and DVLA staff.

This will cause problems for historic vehicle owners.  In its latest newsletter, the FBHVC has a list of some of the services that can currently only be done at DVLA local offices:

Taxing an historic vehicle for the first time;

Authentication of copy documentation for transmission to Swansea in lieu of valuable originals;

Same day receipt of replacement tax discs for lost or stolen discs;

Same day receipt of tax discs for taxing at short notice (including paper MoT and insurance cover notes);

Taxing vehicles where there is also a change of taxation class e.g. unlicensed to historic, PSV to PLG;

Taxing a vehicle exempt from MoT (We wonder how long Post Offices will be able do this?);

Reinstatement of an original registration number where this had been replaced at some time in the past but has remained dormant;

Inspection of vehicles which require an age related number or a chassis number;

Inspection of imported vehicles requiring UK registration.

The FBHVC also comments:

Briefly, the DVLA stance is that the progress of computerisation needs to continue. To quote: "This means driving forward existing services such as increasing take up of driver services on-line.  It also means making other transactions available electronically where this is cost effective and maximising uptake by making them as user friendly as possible".

The consultation majors on increasing use of their existing vehicle licence transactions on-line (and telephone) services, but their (loaded) figures actually show that more than 50% of private users do not avail themselves of these facilities.  Their so-called customer survey was based on on-line users only, ignoring the majority who do not, or cannot, use this facility for their transaction.  There are vague promises to engage with 'intermediaries' but whether this is to provide computer access only, or a genuine replacement for end users with queries is also unclear.  For individuals who are not computer literate are unlikely to use a DVLA provided facility.

It's not only historic vehicle owners who'll suffer.  It cause problems throughout the motor trade too.  There's widespread opposition to the proposal from both the motor trade and public services unions (the closures will cause the loss of 1,200 jobs.)

There's an on-line petition at www.savethedvla.co.uk.  You can also respond to the consultation.  Hard copies of the consultation are available by writing to:
Corporate Affairs Directorate,
D16,
DVLA,
Swansea,
SA6 7JL.
(The consultation did not provide a contact name or phone number.)  To respond on-line go to www.dft.gov.uk/dvla then click on 'consultation'.  The consultation closes on 6 March 2012.

Electric Bike power increase

Our recent article Life in the Slow Lane featured a number of electric bikes and one of the points Mark made was that UK regulations on electric bikes are out of step with other contries.  As part of its 'Red Tape Challenge', the government is going to bring the regulations into line with the rest of Europe.  The first change will be to increase the maximum allowable power from 200 to 250 Watts.  Other aspects of the regulations will be changed once a current EU discussion is concluded.
www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/dft-2010-02

New stock at Aplins

Brian Aplin has been trying for ages to get hold of 2.00×19 (23×2) whitewall tyres ... and now he's succeeded.  He has also got hold of a stock of complete pistons for Mobylette engines.  You will find Brian's contact details in our directory.

January 2012

La Vie en Bleu

January 2012

Older news stories are available in our News Archive

This page was updated on 16 May 2012