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Camping trip: How to do a motorcycle tour before the First World War.

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Photography: MORTONS MEDIA ARCHIVE

Detailed in the June 24, 1914, edition of The Motor Cycle, here we see Ralph Bankes-Jones (signed as ‘RBJ’ in the original article) as he makes dinner alongside his trusty P&M, during the summer which preceded the start of the Great War, which began on July 28, 1914.

Bankes-Jones was clearly an experienced motorcyclist, and he seems to have had ties with the P&M concern; he was part of the maker’s team at various trials in the immediate prewar period. In the article (entitled ‘Camping in Devon and Cornwall’) RBJ talks about his preparations – explaining that pre-tour the P&M already had 10,000 miles under its wheels, it had been rebored and the piston was ‘tight’ prior to commencement and duly ‘nipped up’ three times in the first 50 miles, as the rider headed west, into a gale, traversing the route covered by the London-Exeter trial.

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