The Century Competition of 1911

I now have (on loan) the Marcel Planes BSA light roadster which he acquired in 1913. I’m going to attempt the two 100 mile days on this bike, so last weekend (16th/17th April) I wanted to see if the machine and I were capable of the task. I rode the BSA Saturday and Sunday, and although I didn’t do 200 miles, I think I now know enough to be able to do it.

Saturday:
Weedon (Northants) to London NW10.
About 68 miles.

Weedon is near Northampton and may seem an odd place to start, but my other half had a reason to go there and a lift with her opened up some less familiar roads and gave me a slight tailwind most of the day.

 I came down the A 5 (Watling Street) most of the way – since this runs close to the M1 it is not impossibly busy with traffic. The road is constantly up and down, nothing steep but nowhere is it flat. The BSA currently has a Sturmey  TCW (i.e. 3 speed wide ratio,  back pedalling brake) with 48 x 20 sprockets and 26” wheels giving gears of 46.8,62.4 and 83.2” and this set up suited the conditions quite well since the middle gear was fine on the ascents while the top gear was low enough to be useful on the easy sections. Originally I had intended to do the main rides on fixed, but with the experience of these two days, I’m inclined to leave the machine as it is.
 Although I’ve never been keen on expensive modern bikes, even so I was surprised how rapid and easy my progress was on this ancient machine. The whole journey took five and a half hours – obviously I would have been quicker on a modern bike, but I think I was no more tired on the BSA than I would have been on anything else. I must admit that riding into a headwind or trying to keep up with other riders using modern kit, especially uphill, would have been challenging.

Sunday
NW10-Staines-Marlow-Beaconsfield-NW10.
About 65 miles.

To establish that I can do consecutive days, I thought I’d go on the Hounslow clubrun, which through my own inefficiency I missed at the Staines rendezvous. Perhaps not such a bad thing since the BSA’s braking arrangements do take a long time to get accustomed to.

 So I rode to Marlow alone, met some club mates in the café and continued back home via Beaconsfield. Apart from Winter Hill most of the outward trip was flat and this caused a bit of a gearing problem since top was a bit too high and the middle gear uncomfortably low. However I finished my second day without distress, reasonably confident that I can achieve what I’ve set out to do.

This thread badly needs some pictures. I have some, but they won't load at the moment. I'll try again later.