A new little story

The James Game, A new story about old riding

Somewhere along about 1947 during my transition from a Whizzer to a gen-u-wine motorcycle, my buddy Vic bought a new 1947 James motorcycle. The James was a 125 cc ring-ding-ding with a hand clutch and a hand gear shift on the right side of the tank.

It had a luggage rack that was not conducive to sitting on too long as it was about two steps below a pillion seat. Occasionally Vic loaded the James with me on that rack, I was the automatic gear shifter. as you will note.

On certain boring days we went two up looking for other 125 two cycle mini cycles in order to beat their arse (yeah, right).

On this particular day, we happened on a single rider on a 125 Royal Enfield. The RE had a similar engine and shifting setup but was a little lighter than the James.

We pulled up to a traffic light alongside the RE. A nod in his direction was all that it took to start the War of the Giants! Off we went but we had an advantage. Normally, in a setup like this, one had to let go of the throttle in order to shift gears with the right hand.. That lost a considerable time plus the ring ding went off its power band (I say that loosely).

Not in our case! I reached under Vic's arm and did the shifting for him. 1st through 3rd, whenever he let up on the throttle. We got the RE at first but the combined weight of two of us was no match for the single guy on the Enfield, he took us in the end. At about 35 mph (really flat out motorin') he left us in the dust.

After about three trys, we gave it up as the James was overheating. Waving goodbye at the next stop we were ready to go it a little easier.

However, Vic was a little too easy on the throttle and stalled it. I got off so that he could kick start the James back to life, which he did. Back on and we're off..................Backward!!!

We almost fell off before Vic could declutch. Looking down we noted that the poor overheated James flywheel was turning in the opposite direction, the engine was running backwards! SHI******

No problem, Vic stalled it and let it cool down. Another kick and everything was back to normal.

No more 'racing' that day, just a quiet ring-ding-ding ride like any law abiding citizen would do.

No speed limits were harmed in this, the “War of the Giants”

Peace.