American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 235 February 2019 | Page 32

twin that raced in the 1906 International Cup in
Austria.
JAP used that engine as a basis for three 120 mm
stroke 2,714 cc engines that went to various owners,
one being used by Matchless for a bike that never
made it into volume production, one being used in a
cycle car and the third being raced (unsuccessfully) at
the 1908 Isle of Man TT. That is believed to be the JAP
engine that eventually found its way to the Forster
brothers at NLG.
The engine had apparently been too powerful for the
single loop frames of the day, and Will Cook built a
much stronger twin-loop cradle and did much else to
it besides before, weighing about 113 kg (250 lb) and
took it to Brooklands to have a crack at Henri Cissac’s
flying-start kilometre and mile motorcycle world
speed records set at the Brighton Speed Trials in 1905.
The NLG proved to be a beast on the banked circuit.
It had no brakes and no suspension, and with the bike
constantly trying to climb the concrete banking, Cook
was hardly ever able to stay in the saddle at speeds
above 70 mph, which is how its nickname came into
being some years later.
Although Cook was never able to break Cissac’s
records, he did post 26.553 seconds for the kilometre
(84.247 mph) to set a new unlimited Brooklands
track record, but not a world speed record. On a return
visit to Brooklands later in 1908, unofficial stopwatch
timing said he averaged over 90 mph.
The bike was subsequently displayed by NLG at the
Stanley Show in London in 1908, but after further
cracks at the record in 1910 the Forster brothers
disposed of the bike and it subsequently disappeared
from the record, along with the two other engines -
ultimately no trace was left of the JAP 2,714 cc 80
degree JAP V-twin or ‘The Beast of Brooklands’ itself.
Fast forward 110 years and Pavel Malanik rolls his
replica into the AMD World Championship at
INTERMOT Customized in Cologne, Germany, and
jaws dropped and grown men drooled!
Two years ago Malanik took his handcrafted replica
to the famous banking of the Montlhery circuit in
32
France, and on the 1.5:1 ratio that proved to be
Cook’s glass ceiling it produced 100 kph/62 mph at
1,000 rpm and a top speed of 160 kph/100 mph on
3.00 x 21 inch Avons.
As Classic Bike magazine reported, Pavel Malanik is
“the master of lost masterpieces”. He has previous
form when it comes to recreating legendary
motorcycles and he puts an incredible amount of time
and effort into it.
A prior project was the inline four-cylinder Laurin &
Klement CCCC, of which only four examples were
ever made, with no survivors. “So he scaled up the
only two period photographs in existence and
researched the engine’s construction. A toolmaker
specializing in press tools for the automotive industry,
Pavel spent approximately 2,500 hours in his home
to create that replica.
“His next project was the 1909 Torpedo, a semi-radial
in-line V4 Torpedo racer with a capacity of 1,640 cc
and a top speed in excess of 120 kph.” The one-off
original of that bike had disappeared too.
As with his previous creations, Pavel thoroughly
researched the NLG-JAP and used period
photographs to make scale drawings. “To make the
crankcases, he machined them from a block of alloy
using his lathe, milling machine and a rotary table so
that the 80° angle between the cylinders would be
perfect.
“He bored right through a block of alloy so that the
main shaft bearings would be in
line, roughly machined the
AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - FEBRUARY 2019
main external shape, and cut the alloy block in
half along the vertical line. Then he milled out
the timing chest and bored holes for the cam
wheel shafts, tappet blocks and engine bolts.
He machined the conrods from billet steel and
made the cams, followers and gear wheels.
“Pavel fabricated frame lugs and bent the
frame tubes to shape before pinning and
brazing them together. He also made the forks,
carburetor and ignition system, and spun the V-belt
rim from sheet steel.”
Our thanks to Phillip Tooth whose Classic Bike feature
on Pavel’s labor of love helped inform the history and
detail that was ‘lost in translation’ when I spoke with
Pavel at the AMD World Championship last October.
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