Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Oultons

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Oultons

    My brother Peter, first started racing a 350 Manx back in 1970. After his first season on th Manx he wanted something faster and bought an Oulton. It was first sold to a racer in Ireland before it came to England. At this stage in it's life the only change from the standard specification were the 'Gordon Blair' expansion chambers. All the deficiencies of the standard Oulton were present, so soon we were were regular customers at 23A, Moor Street, Spondon. This was the shed behind the butchers shop were Bob Stevenson and Stuart Tiller had the fledgling Spondon Engineering. Bob at this time had the fastest Oulton in land, which was tuned by Brian Woolley. By the end of 1971 our Irish Oulton looked like this;



    You can see the Spondon swinging arm with the eccentric chain adjustment and the Spondon forks and brake, which was originally a Fahron design. The GP carb is now fed through a dell 'Orto float chamber and sparks are from a battery and coil rather than the Stefa flywheel magneto. The Albion clutch had been replaced by the Griffon unit. The standard Greeves head has been replaced by the radial fin head which was to be used on the 500cc Greeves powered SELVA. The tank was the standard Oulton unit with the top 3 inches sliced off. Not very elegant, but it did help to keep the head down below the screen of the fairing.
    Last edited by Oulton344; 23/04/2016, 06:19 PM.

  • #2
    Oultons

    At the end of '71 season we sent the engine back to Greeves for an overhaul. This was the reply from the factory when the work was complete.

    Comment


    • #3
      Oultons

      Only a few Oulton riders in the '70's achieved any success. It was really only Trevor Elliot in the South (especially at Brands Hatch) and Bob Stevenson who could bring the Oulton home first. Brian Woolley who had developed the engine for the factory and then who prepared Bob's machine wrote this feature for Motor Cycle News.



      If you would like to see the full article it may be downloaded from here;

      http://www.dennisfire.co.uk/gr4.JPG

      Comment


      • #4
        Oultons

        At the end of the 1972 season, Bob decided to sell his Oulton as he could no longer beat the TR2 Yamahas, finishing 3rd in the Darley Moor 350cc championship (having won the championship on the Greeves for the past 3 previous years). We jumped at the chance of being able to buy it for £375 after selling our Oulton for £350.
        Last edited by Oulton344; 24/04/2016, 06:36 PM.

        Comment


        • #5
          Thanks for getting in touch. It's great to see Greeves history emerging like this. What a nice letter from Chris Goodfellow - helpful and caring as always.

          Do you recall the frame numbers of the two Oultons that passed through your hands? Be nice to find out if they're still around.

          All the best, thanks again for posting.
          Colin Sparrow

          Comment


          • #6
            Oultons

            I don't think we ever made a note of the 'Irish Greeves' frame number but the Spondon bike is RCS123. It started life as one of the factory development machines ridden by Trevor Burgess and was never part of the Oulton production run.

            After we bought Bob's Oulton, 'Non-Japanese' classes started to emerge, which were the forerunner of Classic Bike racing. The Oulton was the perfect machine for this as it would 'paddle start'. There was no running alongside and then jumping on sidesaddle. All it took was two steps whilst sat on the bike and then the clutch was dropped. First into Tower Bend at Croft was a regular event.
            Last edited by Oulton344; 24/04/2016, 06:37 PM.

            Comment


            • #7
              Oultons

              At the end of the first season with the Spondon Oulton, the bike was dropped at a wet Croft. The following year it would not run properly and this was traced to the cylinder flange on one of the crankcases having cracked right through. With new crankcases the bike was fine for a few meetings until the flange cracked again even without being dropped. Again a new set of crankcases were fitted and when these went in the same way, we wrote to Greeves to see if they could offer any help. This was the reply from Derry Preston Cobb himself!



              Spondon solved the problem with the next set of crankcases by building up the flange all around with TIG welding and we never had a problem again.

              Comment


              • #8
                Oultons





                These are pictures of the Spondon Oulton. Ignition is by Krober (Pitsch) along with a Krober rev counter. The self generating Krober really is very good. The swinging arm, forks and brakes are by Spondon and again the big fin radial head is fitted. After Peter stopped racing following an accident on the Greeves we lent the bike to Bill Robertson who raced it in Scotland. He replaced the GP carburettor with a more modern AMAL, and thought it gave a cleaner response to the throttle. Although not shown in these pictures the primary drive is by belt.
                Last edited by Oulton344; 25/04/2016, 10:39 PM.

                Comment


                • #9
                  What a great you have brought to us all, nice to see the Greeves Company letters,if you have some more snippets or stories please send them to John Henry as this is the type of thing which goes down well in Leading Link, thanks again Dicky

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Oultons

                    When last used there was a problem with 3rd and fifth gear selection which indicate the 3rd selector fork. On looking at the dowel in the selector fork it could be seen that it was cracked and distorted.



                    When I was looking through previous posts on the Albion gearbox I saw that an Antipodean member had cleverly made two plates to take the gearbox without the main casing present. This means that you can see the whole operation of the 'box easily. Fortunately on 'GrabCAD' a very accurate 3D model of the Albion 5 speed gearbox was present, drawn by John Fall. Having this as the starting point it was easy to draw two mounting plates around it.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Oultons

                      The 3D model allows you to change gears too! This is a picture of the 'box in neutral.



                      In the metal, this is what the gearbox test unit looked like.



                      You will see that the 'box has undergone some quite drastic weight saving with the outer cover completely removed and the cover flanges ground back to blend in smoothly. You can see 'EX' stamped on it so possibly it was a factory experimental unit.

                      Last edited by Oulton344; 30/04/2016, 09:10 PM.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Having bought an Oulton on Monday, this has been very useful. Thanks for sharing. Dogsbody

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          I've often wondered what happened to the Spondon bike. It's really nice to see some photos of it as many people have told me about how good it was, especially whenever I've been racing at Darley Moor!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Oultons

                            Dogsbody, why don't you post some pictures of your Oulton here? I am sure everyone would like to see them.

                            Will, I have tried to send you a PM, as there are so many questions that I would like to ask you. Incidentally Brian Woolley claimed 50 BHP for his engine in the Spondon bike.

                            Barry.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Will do when I get back from France. Just on way to Dijon for the Coupes Moto Legende with the Silverstone. Dogsbody

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X