1929 Francis Barnett 250 

Owned by Rod.

Affectionately known as "The Frankie"

 A fine shot of the timing side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Left front view. Just after rebuild,
the petrol tank not yet in use.

 

Front view. The stands do work, but not on gravel!

Buff logbook with bike details.

 

 Logbook showing Oliver Thomson as 4th owner. 2 owners since 1936 and laid up almost since then.

 This particular bike was purchased at the auction of Oliver Thomson's vehicles at Glamis. This is the “Empire” model 12.

This bike was dismantled for renovation and is now back in a condition that preserves as much of the original as possible - almost every nut, bolt and bit of paintwork has been retained as far as possible.

The petrol tank has the factory paint and the other frame and cycle parts have had the rust removed, repaired if necessary and as little extra paint as possible was applied. Most of the brightwork was too rusty and in a state of deterioration to preserve. Most of it was re-nickeled apart from the silencers that were too rusty and dirty to be allowed into the plating bath. It does look good though and nickel has a softer glow than vulgar shiny chrome.

The frame is quite substantial and heavily triangulated, with brakes that would be associated with a larger capacity motorcycle of it's day. The straight tube frame was advertised as “Built like a bridge”  with no rear suspension. The girder forks are also quite hefty for a 250 and although showing some signs of wear they were left as they were found other than cleaning and lubrication.

The engine is a single cylinder two-stroke driving through a multi-plate clutch and three-speed hand change gearbox. One advanced feature found on later Japanese two-strokes is a separate tank and feed for the oil to automatically lubricate the main bearings and big/small ends rather than by way of a a pre-mix in the petrol tank. This is driven from crankcase pressure but we deemed this to be too risky and therefore use a pre-mix instead. The chain driven primary drive and clutch would be instantly recognisable to a motorcyclist familiar with British machinery from decades later.

The gearbox would also be familiar to today's mechanics with selector forks operated by a selector plate although having only three gears. The selector forks and some of the pinions look identical – but are not – causing quite a bit of trial and error in the rebuild.

As we have found with other older machinery, the electrics have suffered through age and were probably not the most reliable even at their best. The original ignition magneto coils were attached to the end of the crankshaft and have been disabled in favour of battery and coil hidden in the fishing basket. The magneto coils will be rewound onto the original laminated core at a later date.

The Frankie looks at first glance to be a twin cylinder machine, but each of the exhaust ports has it's own exhaust system. It is a well-built and altogether advanced motorcycle for it's era - built over three-quarters of the way back into the history of production road vehicles.

The Frankie at the Glenisla Classic Vehicle Rally 2009

 

See the Frankie in action, paste these into your URL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp3dY_oksrg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdFSre2pFCA

 

Rather efficiently, Rod took photographs of the Frankie in it's original condition prior to dismantling it for renovation. Some of these photos are below.

 

 

 

 

 

2 pics of the drive side

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How the frame tubes are assembled.

 

 

 

 

 

Two views of the engine and gearbox - note separate 2-stroke tank and auto lubrication system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hand change gear linkage                Gearbox detail

 Girder forks and headlight

 

As mentioned in the news column, a visit was made to the Lakeland Motor Museum during a holiday in the Lake District. It is a very nice modern museum with a family atmosphere, more so than the more comprehensive National Motor Museum or National Motorcycle Museum. It is an eclectic, roughly chronological array of cars and bikes with a few aircraft thrown in as well. There is also, at present a Bluebird exhibition, soon to be relocated to Coniston, with memorabilia and full sized Bluebird models. I expected to see a Tiger Cub or two but I turned a corner to see a Model 12 Frankie!! Rod is going to check an old road test he has, to see if it is that one. I append a pic of it.