[rewdco]

Hi Paul,

Thank you very much for your investigation! But it looks as if the Kitson Pease gearbox mystery hasn’t been solved yet…

However, I have found some new information about the Burman gearboxes. The Birmingham library, who holds the Birmingham air raid maps, has confirmed that incendiary bombs fell close to the Albion factory during raids on 25/10/1940, 22-23/11/1940 and 3/12/1940. The bombs of 22-23/11/1904 being so close that they may have actually hit the Albion factory. High Explosive bombs fell close to the factory on 15-16/6/1940 and 26/10/1940.

But the demand date for the Burman equipped motorcycles was 14/03/1942, this was long after the air raids… I am pretty sure that there must have been another reason for this special contract. By the way, many motorcycles from this contract have been despatched to “Dudley Zoo”, according to the old factory ledgers… I wonder if this location had anything to do with the NFS during the war?

This “Kitson Pease gear box” specification was for contract number S/3357. This contract was initially for 5000 motorcycles, but according to the factory ledgers, only 1500 of these have been built. This information is now confirmed: on this card, the 5000 has been replaced by 1500. The dating officer in the Royal Enfield Owners Club told me about the S/3357 contract: “Most of the machines have a first despatch date of 1945 (14/06/1945 onwards) and either came back or were not sent and the second date is shown as 1946.”. This phrase plus the fact that 3500 bikes were canceled (?) at the very last moment makes me think that (most of) these bikes were never used by the forces. It looks as if all these bikes have gone to dealerships for private customers. Let's not forget that the war in Western Europe was over when they were made!

On the back of this card, there was another note: “All vehicles to be made suitable for the TROPICS”. For as far as I know, this was the only contract to be equipped with the Vokes filter, and the only contract with the simplified WD standardised electrical system (no ammeter, modified lightswitch under the seat). I’m pretty sure that the Vokes filters were removed when these bikes were sold to the public in 1946…

REgards,
Jan