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Dave McMahon's 100 Year Old Rudge Dave McMahon brought along his 100 year old Rudge to the April 15th club night. Dave bought the single speed machine from a fellow Rudge enthusiast when the previous owner, who needed money to buy a house, kept his promise to give Dave first refusal if the machine was ever for sale. Dave showed us some of the fascinating features of this formidable belt driver such as a hole through the petrol tank to allow a valve to be ground in situ. The story of how he set about improving the machine was very interesting especially his modification to the belt drive. His highly successful if somewhat radical solution was to cut out a frame tube and fit a modern endless industrial belt before welding the tube back in. I wasn’t aware that this single speed machine has a clutch but found that it is ingeniously mounted on the engine mainshaft and contains 40 plates approximately 1½ inches in diameter. Overuse can end up with all the plates welded together. His story also had some intrigue as the National Motorcycle Museum have what was supposed to be the oldest existing Rudge but on checking numbers it would appear that Dave’s is the oldest. Eddy.
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