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Archive indexWhile getting my Power Pak ready for the International Cyclemotor News road run recently a neighbour spotted it and told me of an amusing story that took place in 1959. It appears that his father owned one and was working on a troublesome sticking throttle slide in the carburettor. It began raining so he decided to do the repair inside their wartime issue prefab house. In the front room, the bike was put on its stand and started up. The owner then began working on the engine and was trying to find out why the throttle was staying open. The engine's lifting handle was permanently tied down in the lowered driving position to stop the worn locating gate allowing the lever to jump out. After running for a while the spinning rear wheel gripped a small mat and sent it flying behind the bike across the floor. Undaunted, and much to the dismay of his good wife, he carried on fiddling with the carburettor and giving it large handfuls of throttle. This in turn was rapidly filling the room up with blue smoke. Again, the rear wheel hit the deck, but this time without the mat beneath it. The wheel bit into the floor sending the bike at full power forward and pulling Dad after it, hanging on to the handlebars for dear life. The front wheel hit a settee on the far side of the room, bounced up onto it and momentum sent the rest of the machine following through. The would be repairman ended up standing on the settee with the front of the bike trying to climb up the wall, and yelling out for someone to help him. Through the thick blue smoke haze now came the pungent smell of burning rubber. The roller was slipping on the tyre (probably under inflated?). Nobody knew how to help dad so he was left choking and wrestling with the would-be 'Wall of Death' machine until there was a subdued bang. The rear tube had blown out; the roller had worn a hole through the tyre. The engine speed now picked up to a deafening crescendo, but at least now without its driving grip Dad could get it off the wall and settee. Beside himself with temper, the bike was wheeled to the rear door and thrown outside still at full bore, never to be used or seen again. Or maybe you, the reader, own a dented Power Pak with ...
no, you can't be that unlucky.
First published - October 1987