The Bob Thomas Veteran 500.

I'm a volunteer at the Milntown Trust in the Isle of Man, working on the collection of cars and motorcycles.

I am doing some work on the Bob Thomas Veteran 500, as it hasn't run for a number of years. It has the Armstrong three speed countershaft hub gear with tank mounted hand change and also foot pedal on right hand side connected to that side of the hub gear. I cant get any movement out of the foot pedal to hub gear connection, and am curious about its purpose.

Any advice is welcome.

if you ask giovanni for my contact details i can put you in touch with the man who refurbished it for bob some years ago, he will explain to you how it works. if you are a member of the vmcc i am first on page of marque specialist for contact details

Hallo All,
A photo of a machine that must be very similar to Bob's, appears on various websites. (The photo is characterised by a grilled window in the background, and might be in Spain).
Anyway, the foot pedal on this machine's RHS is clearly part of a kickstarter mechanism. But the photo isn't sufficiently clear to show the pedal-to-engine connection. The midships-mounted Armstrong three-speed hub gear is almost certainly 'in the loop'. Does the kickstart drive go via the rear wheel?
I would suggest that the Milntown trouble could be cured by an application of oil to the kickstarter lever's bearing!
By the way, this machine was the only one that Bob did not allow anyone else to ride!

As i understand there are only 4 surviving 1913-1918 motorcycles of 500cc, one racer on Brooklands one on the Isle of Man one in Spain and one in New sealand, is that correct?

By one racer on Brooklands do you mean the 1916 racer model (currently in Australia or New Zealand?) in this picture?



Keith has the oldest engine number I know of and probably there are still a few other engines around but I have no record of them.

No the gray one in Gallery.
How many complete motorcycles are still around?