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Greetings From Spain

                                               

When I first arrived here just over five years ago, 23d May ’00 to be exact, I had to go back to the UK ten days later for an engagement I’d previously committed myself to. Quietly sitting in the carriage taking me down to Barcelona the train pulled into Sils, a station a couple of stops south of Girona and there covering what had been the goods yard in days gone by was the most incredible car and bike jumble I’d ever seen. Judging by the acetylene lamps I could see sticking up a lot of the bikes were early—but I had a plane to catch!!!

When I got back from England I found out that this was an annual event and held on the first w/e in June. The event organisers also have a small motor museum at Sils, La Selva on route N11, km.698 which was well worth my visit.

So every year since I’ve cleared the diary, i.e. NO visitors, gone AWOL from gardening or any other ing" and scampered of to Sils. This year had the usual Spanish offerings and a goodly number of French machines but of greater interest was the number of American machines, being offered on older Spanish plates, which were obviously sold here when they were new. There was a very tasty Henderson Super X, a nice 1940 Junior Scout (frame and engine matching # EDO/540 267) caring a ticket to the effect that it was a 1939.

This sort of erroneous information, that would get you into all kinds of deep/hot water in the UK, is fairly frequent here. I’ve also seen a "skirted" military Chief with the wrong date and described as something much more exotic. I don’t believe they are doing this deliberately or maliciously it is just ignorance. Also at this year’s Sils I saw a Hendee engine (# 80-R-103) complete with gearbox and other ancillary eqpt but minus carb and also a rather strange mating of a French Deblades & Sigran - Malterre frame of approx. 1926 vintage with an Indian Hendee engine (# 87J536 is this a 1917 Motor ?).

 

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Also, back in December of last year, I went to the annual Auto Retro fair at Barcelona. This is for cars, bikes and tractors! There was an Indian single cylinder engine but the price wanted made me catch my breath, to the extent that I completely forgot to make a note of the serial number. Since arriving here, in an attempt to master some (or any) of the technical language, I’ve taken to buying MotoCiclismo Clasico their version of The Classic MotorCycle.

The classified adds this month, in the form of a pull out section, contained the following:-1918 Power Plus €24000, Excelsior Super X complete for restoration €12000, Excelsior Big X complete for restoration €12500, Indian 101 complete for restoration €13000, a Junior Scout which could be the one I saw at Sils, no price given, an Excelsior 17 Super X circa 1920 lOOOcc phone for price, a 741 restored to concours (Ha! no speedo, plastic battery etc.) no price, a Power Plus with sidecar €36000, a large Schebler carburettor model unknown and an original Corbin speedo minus glass and bezel which appears to be the lOOmph. 1932-35 or ‘38.

This is a very large country physically so there is going to be a lot more "unearthing" in the years to come, however many of the natives are fairly new to this lark and have an inflated idea of what some things are worth but as more and more people have more disposable income for recreational purposes we have to get used to the idea that old machines are going to cost us more to buy.

Services are still pretty limited when compared to Germany or the UK but they are improving. I have seen engine cases on display which have been reduced to scrap by blast cleaning with grit, not a pretty sight and to think they were selling their work as a new process!

That’s it for now except to say we could do with some rain here-we’ve had approx. 2 days worth since Christmas!

Regards

Tim Winterson

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Indian Motocycles - you can't wear them out                                  Indian Motocycles - built to last  
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