“Working class heroes” motorcycles in the Bay next week
Yorkshiremen (and women) have always been imbued with an indomitable spirit, usually demonstrating grit and a firm resolve, hardly ever swimming with the flow.
Nothing about Yorkshire could ever be described as flashy, and so it was with their down-to-earth car and motorcycle designs. Their Jowetts and Bradfords reflected the working-class status of the area. They had motorcycles too, the unorthodox yowling two-stroke Scott from Shipley and Cleckheaton’s finest, the earnest plodding Panther.
From the earliest days of the twentieth century the small factory of Phelan and Moore produced sturdy motorcycles, initially under the branding of P&M with the slogan of “The Perfected Motorcycle”, but from the mid-1920s they were known as Panthers. So sturdy that they were the motorcycle of choice during the First World War of the Royal Flying Corps.
Later the marque showed absolute reliability when in 1935, Florence Blenkiron and Theresa Wallach rode a 600cc model with a sidecar attached and towing a camping trailer from London to Cape Town, achieving on the way the first unaided motorcycle crossing of the Sahara Desert.
In the 1950s, the bikes were renowned as sidecar “tugs” and many English families relied on them as the only transport for mum, dad and a couple of kids. The long-stroke sloping single-cylinder engine, which did away with the need for a cradle frame, had been a feature from the beginning and whilst it was refined as the century unfolded, it remained their notable signature design motif until the factory faded into obscurity and oblivion in the mid-1960s.
Aficionados of the brand are scattered thinly around the globe and the biggest gathering of them ever in New Zealand will take place during April when the members of the UK-based Panther Owners Club join with a few local machines to ride around the South Island.
A container with 12 bikes (8 Panthers and 4 “infidels”) was recently shipped to Nelson. One bike is from Germany, one from Ireland and the others from mainland UK. Another rider is coming from Canada to ride along and complete the international flavour; a couple of Australians will interrupt their Blenheim Warbirds holiday to savour the sights and sounds of this rare gathering.
With their distinctive thudding exhaust note, (the engine purported only to “fire every lamp post”) when the machines pass by, it truly will be “Thunder Down Under”.
Escorting them on their ride will be Pohara’s Des Molloy on Penelope, the well-travelled 1965 650cc model, which featured in The Last Hurrah motorcycle adventure from Beijing to Arnhem.
The bikes will be in the Golden Bay region from Monday 6 to Thursday 9 April. Enthusiasts wishing to view these “working class heroes” of yesteryears’ motorcycle world and to “chew the fat” with their riders, will find them at a BBQ at The Nook Guesthouse on Tuesday evening from 5.30pm and The Naked Possum on Wednesday at lunchtime.
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