Hub centre machines

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As usual, I read with interest the You Were Asking column in May’s TCM, as always nicely written by Richard Rosenthal.

Regarding my dad’s contribution to the hub centre alternative steering system for motorcycles, and only for the sake of historical accuracy, please may I make a couple of slight corrections to Richard’s excellent appraisal?

Richard Difazio at Thruxton in 1968, on the AJS 7R-engined special.

Firstly, the first solo hub centre machine was in fact entirely of our manufacture (not my Norton Manx) using the engine and transmission and rear wheel of an AJS 7R, which I raced on the short circuits for about a season.

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Second, we actually built the first Mead and Tomkinson ‘Nessie’ for them, and as I remember it, their subsequent run of machines they built themselves using our hub system.

Read more in the July 2019 issue of TCM – on sale now!


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