Hugh Viney, another past works rider had been Competition Manager but then became manager of the Assembly Line which he watched over while drawing on his pipe” recalls Alan.
“Bikes were built usually in batches of 200 of each model. It was about 1964 that 200 Trials AJS’s were produced but only a few were sold so, the remainder were stored until the next season, under wraps, in a wooden shed on the flat roof of the factory. They were brought out and cleaned up for the next trials season, a few more sold and then the remainder put back on the roof again. That went on for about four years before they were all sold. Apart from cleaning up, it was surprising the amount of parts that had to be replaced, the original parts having disappeared from the locked store through the year. I bet they would sell a bit more quickly these days” muses Alan.
“I was Test Rectifier to Fred Billot, no mean trials rider and who in 1962 was a member of the British Trophy Team which took second place in the International Six Days Trial, held that year in West Germany. He left AMC in 1957 and I took his place as one of the Production Testers. At that time, there were 6 Production Testers who were each expected to road test 11 bikes each day, including any retest if a testable rectification had been called for. We were allowed a free choice for route and each bike covered about nine miles”
“Each Tester was issued with a crash helmet, Barbour suit, goggles, gauntlets and leather sea boots. The pay was poor but one perk was an unofficial supply of petrol. Each tester was allowed to go home on the last bike that he tested each day so of course he left with a full tank of petrol. This was then drained at home and just enough left in the tank to get back in the morning. Mind you, it was a common sight to see Testers coasting in to work with dead engines, having drained off just s drop too much the night before” laughs Alan.
“The humdrum daily testing was relieved at times such as the panic on the P11. Mike and Joe Berliner, the United States Importers had assembled a hybrid, which was basically a Norton Atlas engine, then being built at Plumstead, slotted into a Matchless G85CS frame. This was what the American market wanted, they said. Soon after the first deliveries had been made in 1967, complaints came back of oil tanks splitting. All Testers were put on to a continuous test from Friday night until Monday morning, up and down the newly opened M2 motorway. Third gear was kept while travelling between 60 and 70 mph as this was the optimum vibration period. Sure enough the oil tanks split and the solution was to mount the tank on rubber, so obvious with hindsight” comments Alan.
“Another major test program was the after the first Commando’s had been sold in the States and several fatalities were reported which were blamed on frame breakage, something we had not experienced. The Federal Authorities threatened that unless the problem was cured quickly, the Commando imports would be banned. For seven weeks we rode test models over pave and jumped them for 30 feet, landing on concrete and eventually the front down tubes would break. Frame wizard, Ken Sprayson, cured the problem with a large diameter top tube, which was fitted to Commando’s from then on. It was only some time late that AMC’s found out that the original breakages had occurred on bikes that had been ridden across desert prior to the breakages happening on the road”
“The American Market was all important and AMC started clearing an adjacent site to build a new factory but news of the projected M25, London Orbital Motorway, coming through the site turned it into the most expensive car park in South London. Government grants were offered to affected firms to move out to New Towns and Sheerness was the favoured area, many of us making arrangements to move there. Then it was changed to Andover but instead of the hoped for 300 employees agreeing to move to Andover, only about 25 finally went. By that time the American market had fallen dramatically because of the Vietnam War but AMC were committed”
“I was asked to go to Andover to set up the Test Department and was attracted by the promise of a brand new factory. The bikes were built in the new factory but the Test Department was to be housed ten miles away in a leaking, wartime hangar at Thruxton. The bikes were brought from Andover on a lorry, tested from Thruxton and then sent back to Andover by lorry for despatch. Even the petrol had to come from Andover in jerricans. On arrival, I was greeted by the sight of 300 Commando’s lined up in another hangar. We can’t pass them I was told, because they are all knocking. I started one and realised that each piston skirt was kissing the crankcase, a problem we had had when the engine was first produced at Plumstead. We had told the Machine Shop to ease the offending part of the crankcase, which they then did on all of them but the drawings had never been amended. These engines, produced at Andover were as per drawing but without the Plumstead knowledge.
CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE