Words: Roy Poynting Photographs: Terry Joslin
This is actually from a year before the James model name ‘Comet’ was coined, but is in all essence the same model.
I’ve had great affection for James’ motorcycles since I took to the roads on an old Comet as a teenager, and while I’ve since had several other models made by the Greet, Birmingham, factory, I’ve always hankered after another example of its smallest product.
Enjoy more Classic MotorCycle reading in the monthly magazine.
Click here to subscribe & save.
Well, fate eventually played a hand when a 98cc Villiers-engined James turned up in the collection left by the late Martin Tiller, some of whose bikes have featured in these pages.
Luckily I was able to purchase the machine via a mutual friend and ended up with the pretty little James featured here.
So, I’d got a Comet again. At least to all intents and purposes I had, but when I did a bit of research I was surprised to find that James didn’t use that moniker for its tiddler when it was introduced in 1949.
Read more in October’s edition of TCM
Advert
Enjoy more The Classic MotorCycle reading in the monthly magazine. Click here to subscribe.
