Classic Catastrophy

CLASSIC CATASTROPHY

Fire guts Britain’s National Motorcycle Museum

IT TOOK 35 YEARS for England’s National Motorcycle" Museum to build up its unique collection of more than 800 Britishbuilt machines, and barely an hour to reduce nearly half of them to charred, burned-out hulks.

A carelessly discarded cigarette butt has been blamed for the catastrophic fire that swept through three of the Birmingham museum’s five display halls last September, destroying many irreplaceable, legendary motorcycles.

The butt lit refuse outside the building-which also housed a conference facility-and started a fire in the roof that spread rapidly. Surprisingly, the museum had no sprinklers or other automated fire-suppression equipment.

A column of smoke from the blaze could be seen from nine miles away, and it took more than 120 firefighters pumping water from a nearby lake to bring the fire under control.

The two display areas totally gutted were the “Racing” and “RecordBreaker” exhibits, plus dozens of BSAs from 1903-72 in an exhibit celebrating the marque’s 100th anniversary.

Famous machines destroyed included the Norton that won the twin-cylinder class at the first Isle of Man TT race in 1907; the earliest BSA known, believed to have been built in 1903; the Texas-built, 650cc Triumph-powered streamliner ridden by Johnny Allen that took the motorcycle speed record to 214 mph at Bonneville in 1956; and factory 750cc BSA and

Triumph racers from 1970-71, including machines raced by Mike Hailwood, Gene Romero and Paul Smart at Daytona.

Also among the destroyed: the 750cc Triumph Trident “Slippery Sam,” heroic winner of five-consecutive Production-class TTs in the 1970s and much loved by U.K. bike enthusiasts; a 1973 John Player Norton monocoque F750 racer and two later Norton Cosworths; and the 500cc Velocette Venom that took the world 24-hour record at Montlhéry, France, in 1961.

Hundreds of roadsters from the museum’s vast collection ranging from ABC to Zenith, including Brough-Superior, Matchless, Sunbeam and dozens of other, more obscure makes, were also terribly damaged.

The purpose-built brick, timber and glass museum opened in 1984 at a major highway intersection near Birmingham Airport. Attracting visitors from all over the world, it was the dream of one man, Roy Richards, an autocratic Birmingham businessman with a passion for British machines, who began collecting in the 1970s and was still regularly making expensive major acquisitions in recent years. The museum is registered as a charity. “We shall rise from the ashes, be sure of that,” Richards said. “We achieved the impossible in building the museum in the first place, and it can be done again. People have been calling up, offering to donate bikes and to carry out restorations for the cost of parts.”

Involved in insurance claims totalling an estimated $18 million, Richards aims to re-open the museum this December. Most postwar British production machines like BSAs, Nortons and Triumphs are replaceable, since plentiful examples and spares exist. Even some of the one-off machines are theoretically repairable, although a huge amount of time and expense will be involved and they will never be quite the same.

While the fire raged, 200 machines at the other end of the building were wheeled to safety by staff, museum visitors and people evacuated from the burning conference facility. Among famous bikes that escaped the fire were the supercharged Vincent sprinter Super Nero, a 500cc AJS Porcupine racer (like the 7R3, being restored by Team Obsolete in New York) and the 1970 Bol d’Or-winning factory 750cc Triumph.

Titch Allen, co-founder of the U.K.-based Vintage Motor Cycle Club, said, “This is the greatest tragedy that has ever befallen the old-bike movement. This collection embodied so much of world motorcycling’s history. But Roy Richards has fantastic determination. If anyone can recover from such a disaster, he can.” -Mick Duckworth

With hundreds of motorcycles destroyed and 75 percent of its structures devastated, Britain ’s National Motorcycle Museum faces a tough rebuild. Insurance will not cover the entire cost of the undertaking. Those wishing to help can send a donation to Friends of the NMM Association, Bogay Hall, Henwood Lane, Catherine-De-Barnes, Solihull, West Midlands, UK B912TH. Make checks payable to National Motorcycle Museum Services Ltd.