I bought an Ariel 650 and a Royal-Enfield Meteor 700 as Basket Cases, which joined my pile in My Dad's Backyard.
The Mirror image reads up on Cam re-profiling , take the Camshaft out of the Taurus 250 and put in in the Lathe ( 1914 Vintage) and grind away the back of the cam to make it higher lift ( Never Again) totally ruined the performance of my
favourite Machine at the time. Uncle George had a friend who had recently written off his Norton Dominator 600, I acquired the Motor, Tommy Crawford another Friend of Mine supplied me with a Greeves 5 spd Box, ( no Kickstart) I mated the 2 together with home made Engine Plates, Mounted it in the Frame, Made up exhausts , probably had the lightest 600 built up until that time. Took it for a ride up The Highway ( name of street , doing about 80mph ( in a 35 mph zone ) took a left bend at the cemetry ( very convenient) and the whole bike twisted and bucked under me. White faced and far less confident, I limped it home.
The Taurus Engine Gearbox unit was part of the frame , and gave it the stiffening it needed , I tried by making extra thick Engine plates holding motor and gearbox together to do the same. Back to the Drawing Board, made 2 Down tubes which curved under the Motor , to be welded in at the Steering head , under the motor to the swingarm support to sort this out.
I had meanwhile ordered a Velocette Thruxton 500 from Jacks Motors ( first one in the Country) I was going to collect it on Saturday , and My Good Friend Owen R was lifting me in to collect it.
Saturday Morning Dawns , up early as I always am , Owen running Late. Can no longer contain my excitement , phone, His Mom answers the phone " Where's that lazy bugger, Owen" . "He's dead Alan, crashed last night on his Bike".
I cannot believe what I am hearing , I still remember My Dad's exact words, "Poor inoffensive Owen". I went down to see his Mom and Sister and Let Kevin P know. His Mother was a widow.
I phone Jack's and tell them to sell it to somebody else ( it was a beautiful very fast machine ) there were a whole lot of other Guys interested. R800.00 New.
I sold The Taurus to another friend, Jonathan , telling him what to do with the down tubes I Made, brought it to me a month or 2 later and it handled like a dream.
After a while ( are people not like this?) I was full on back into bikes again.
These items I post are not in Chronological order, none of it is written down , so I post as I remember things happening.
This is for My Children .