Brighton Here I Come – But Only Just By O.A. Denly The Invalid Tricycle Association’s London to Brighton Run has a particular fascination for me. It is not held f requently - thank goodness – in f act, the first was in the Autumn of 1958 and the second was in the Autumn of 1960 and is the subject of this harrowing tale. The question I ask myself before departure is, will my old faithful tricycle get me to Brighton, and I can never answer the question until after I have arrived! A Veteran Among Tricycles My invalid tricycle is an Argson de luxe, which has seen much service and is coming up to thirteen years old, and although a post-war model it bears all the features of a pre-war type. I am sure the makers will not mind my referring to it as a bone-shaker and the exposed-to-all-weathers variety. In fact, I noted at the start from London’s Festival Hall Car Park that amongst all the other invalid tricycles competing th ere was only one oth er open machine. But although my tricycle has some claim to antiquity amongst present-day tricycles, the engine has a much greater claim to antiquity . The original 147 c.c. Villiers two-stroke engine took such a bashing in its first year of life in driving me and my tricycle across the Swiss Alps and later through Holland, Belgium and the Ardennes, that the Villiers Engineering Co. Ltd. Kindly replaced it with a more powerful 196 c.c. engine. This engine continued to give good service, although by the 1958 London to Brighton Run it had begun to emit bronchitic noises as well as clouds of smoke, and could certainly be classed temperamental. In spite of several stops I reached Brighton that year, but it was clearly high time for an engine overhaul. So towards the the end of 1958 I called at the Villiers Service Department proudly carrying the engine which I had removed from my tricycle. The look on the Service Manager’s fa ce convinced me t hat he had had a shock. He turned to a mechanic and said “Take it away!”. This hurt me as I was very attached to that engine and I asked what was wrong. He replied that he might be able to find some spare parts for such an old engine if he circularised Villiers agents throughout the country, and this from the birthplace of the Villiers engine! Engine No. 392/150 turned out to be a Mark 2E engine, which went out ofproduction in 1938, and to this day I am still ignorant of its actual year of birth. Face-lift The Service Department worked wonders on this old engine. The magneto was described as shocking; a new crankshaft was needed; air was getting in through the bearings so new bearings were fitted; and a new big end and a new piston completed the job. They had certainly put new life into the old engine, and af ter I had fitted it back into the tricycle the engine fired at the first pull of the levers, and it was running so sweetly that I almost missed the old knocking noises.
