Peter Westaway
Email Address: pwestaway19@hotmail.com Owners Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK Which Model Cub: T20 Year of Mfg: 1964 Frame Number: 96179 Engine Number: 96179I had a couple of Cubs as a schoolboy and student in the sixties, and spent many happy hours pootling around the country lanes of Hampshire and Somerset. I came across one in Singapore while working there in 1982 and nostalgia got the better of me. I could not bring myself to leave it behind when I moved away, so here it is in Scotland, where it will no doubt end its, and my, days.
It was basically a standard 1964 T20, but had some "sports" bits like heavy duty forks, that may have been added by previous owners, or perhaps it was originally exported like that. After using it on and off in the intervening years, I gave it a serious rebuild and put it back on the road in May 99. I have since been using it every day (all seasons) for commuting, plus the odd classic bike club Sunday or weekend run, and have covered 6000 miles since the rebuild.
It’s turned out to be a lot of fun, economical, reliable (so far), and oil-tight apart from a slight weep – perhaps sigh is a better word - through the cylinder base gasket. I’m getting around 110 mpg (using LRP, which so far has caused no problems), and oil consumption is about 600 miles/pint, using Miller’s Classic 20/50. It cruises quite happily at 55 – 60 mph (the gearing gives 60 mph at 4800 rpm) with very little vibration. Theoretically it should be good for 75 – 80 mph I suppose, but I’ve never bothered to take it above 70 mph, though there still some twist left in the grip.
For the rebuild I got Serco Engineering to fit the later model high capacity oil pump and to check and balance the flywheels, and I put in a 9:1 piston and the ‘R’ cam. I also fitted a Serco clutch pressure plate, which cured the clutch slip I had been experiencing before the rebuild.
The gearing is a bit higher than standard, with a 2:1simplex primary drive and 18 and 56-tooth rear sprockets. The road test cites 30 mph at 3000 rpm in top – I am getting about 37 mph at 3000, though my speedo may be a tad optimistic because I have a 16" rear wheel. The gearing is still low enough not to have to slip the clutch when pulling away, but gives a nice high top gear which pulls well. There’s the usual yawning chasm between 2nd and 3rd, and the high gearing means 3rd has to chug hard to pick up speed after changing up, especially on a hill. (A 5-speed box would be nice, wouldn’t it?)
When I put it back on the road, I was mystified by how one day it would cruise up a certain hill, and the next day it would really struggle, or one minute it would pull well on the flat in top, then 2 miles further down the road it would just not be happy. This was resolved by throwing away the old points and their sloppy auto-advance, and going electronic - a Boyer Mk3 unit supplied by Serco. This has proven to be well worth the investment, gives consistent performance and needs zero attention apart from draining out the condensation from the pickup compartment every few weeks in cold weather.
The front brake was bought from a breaker’s in Singapore, and was, I think, off a seventies Honda CB250. It’s supposed to be twin leading shoe, but I’ve mounted it the wrong way round so the chrome bits show on the right-hand side, which I guess makes it a slightly more gentle "twin trailing shoe". I don’t like harsh front brakes anyway, and it’s good enough for the Cub.
The exhaust pipe was made up out of two high level pipes. A real conversation piece, this was done out of artistic considerations - I thought the lines flowed better, but it’s a matter of opinion, I suppose. Anyway, the extra high level silencer makes for a very convenient right-hand warmer in winter.
It now has a rev meter (not in the photo), with a take-off made out of Trident parts and ingenious use of a spade drill, all of which fitted into the hole that used to take the old mushroom distributor. The rev meter itself has been borrowed from my T150 (currently off the road), with a 2:1 gearbox made from Meccano cogs mounted in a neat little box underneath it (possibly the only Meccano ever to turn at 6000 rpm?).
The only other mod was the replacement of the ungainly Amal 376 carb by a Keihin from a Honda XL180 Trail Bike. This is like replacing a bucket by a champagne glass – it’s a neat little unit, very precise, and needs no maintenance. (You can even drain the float chamber without getting petrol all over your fingers.) I have jetted up from the original 115 to 140 and fitted an air filter, but apart from that it has needed no changes (fortunately, as spares are ridiculously expensive), apart from an adaptor to taper the bore from just over the inch down to the Cub's 15/16". And you can blip the throttle at tickover without drowning the engine.
This little bike has turned out to be a lot of fun. It’s a cheap commuter (about 280 miles to a tank), it buzzes along at a reasonable highway speed, and belting round the kind of roads you find in the Scottish highlands and the Western Isles is just a gas. It will generally chug like a tractor up inclines in top, which is one of the endearing qualities of the Cub that I remember from my younger days, with that obscenely loud bark of an exhaust note. On a steep slope, the revs will gradually subside to 3000 rpm and stay there. When it meets a headwind, I am reminded that there are only 200 ccs down there, but I refuse to crouch low over the bars at my age.