Danny has to call "Mayday" on a Wing and a Wheel.
Most of the time at Thorney we were blessed with very fine weather, and the "Winged Wheel" could really come into its own. I reckoned my commute as 14 miles door to door, and it was all pretty level. Around 45 minutes was enough to do it comfortably.
I think it must have been in the spring of '59. It was a pearl of a morning as I set off about 0700 and buzzed up the quiet lanes of Hayling and over the Langstone bridge which connected it to the mainland. I exchanged a cheery wave with the toll box keeper, who knew me well enough by sight (and had been alerted by the approaching sound as of an angry wasp). In those days there was a small toll (only a few pence IIRC) on traffic going onto the Island, but anyone in uniform was exempt, and I suppose the island residents had some sort of a Pass.
On the far side was Havant; I turned East on what I now see is the A.23, the coast road, and opened throttle wide to get up to my 20 mph cruising speed - (acceleration was hardly jack-rabbit with only about 40cc to play with). Having wound it up to that point, I throttled back a bit to take things easier. Or rather, I moved the throttle lever (not a twist grip - but on top of handlebar left ) back a bit.
And that was all that happened, except that the Bowden cable bowed out slightly. The little throttle block in the tiny Amal carb had jammed at the top of its travel. Frantic waggling failed to clear it, so the W/Wheel now had the bit firmly between its teeth, and quickly got up to 25 mph, which was Vne.
This had never happened to me before. There was no ignition switch, so the first, obvious thing to do was to clamp the brakes on hard and kill the engine. There was the usual "pull-up" thing on the front wheel of my old-style bike (lever on RH) and the W/Wheel's internally-expanding device in the back, actuated by back-pedalling. These together produced a lot of noise, but little effect - speed reduced to 24, but no more. No salvation by that method; persistence would only add burnt-out brakes to my woes.
Now I'd some serious thinking to do. The A.23 was a straight stretch of some three miles, then when you reached Emsworth, there was a considerable dip, then a fairly steep RH climbing turn out of it into the village. This would be quite busy with early-morning traffic; something had to be done before I got that far, or it would be messy. I reckoned I had 4-5 minutes at most.
Option 1: Fall off. Even at 24 mph this would result in GBH for me (no helmets then), and a Cat.5 bike.
Option 2: Hold clutch out (lever under LH handlebar), brake to standstill, hop off keeping clutch clenched, try and do something about it before engine overspeeded to destruction - with added risk of losing grip on clutch and bike taking off like a kangaroo (and there was light traffic about). Cat.5 bike (probably) again
Option 3: Keep RH on bars, lean back supine on saddle and try to get left hand underneath the flat tank (on back carrier), feel under it for fuel pipe, run up it till the slide on-off tap and cut fuel supply. Extreme caution would be needed so as to not to lose fingertips in whirling extra-strong spokes, or touch plug (car 14mm, taller than the pot, no insulation on connector tip). And I would be at full stretch backward, not too easy to maintain S&L on bike.
I tried Option 3. It took ages, my cap fell off (the least of my worries) but thankfully I managed it. The motor died about half a mile short of Emsworth. It had, in the words of the great Iron Duke after Waterloo: "Been a damned close-run thing". It was the work of a moment to put it on its stand, whip the top of the Amal off, pull the slide out, clean it off (and inside the barrel), put all back, test for Full and Free Movement, fuel 'on', fire-up and backtrack for my Cap, S.D.
Against all expectation, Mr.Bates's finest was on the roadside half a mile astern, had not been pinched or run-over, and was generally in good nick (only six years old, anyway). The incumbent was still shaving in the Tower when I came in, so he didn't mind my being a few minutes late.
Good-day, gentlefolk.
Danny42C.
"Mind my bike" (might be a limited audience for that).