Flat tank New Imperial

This chap with his sportingly reversed cap and his good lady are posing with a New Imperial. At best guess I would say the New Imp is a 1926 Model. For that year the company produced side valve singles in 300 or 350cc sizes. Externally the bikes were very similar but the 300 was by far the more popular model as it came within a lower taxation bracket.

1926 New Imperial.

1925 New Imperial

After the last post being on a modern bike it's time to get back to the proper old stuff. These pictures are easy enough to blow up and see that the bike is a New Imperial. Model identification is a bit trickier but if pushed I'm going for a Model 1 of 1925 fitted with New Imp's own 292cc side valve motor.

A vintage vintage meet

A couple of pictures from the early days of the vintage movement. Taken at least fifty years ago: the 'modern' vehicles in the background are collectors items in their own right today...

I don't know the location but it could just be an early Banbury Run?

Happy news is that both of these machines still exist and happier still is that the Sunbeam is still out and about being used.

I know this a 1925 Sunbeam 599cc because it is written on
the reverse of the photo and because I checked and it is
still in existence and even better taxed and on the road until
May 1919!

1924 New Imperial. Happily still registered and around
somewhere, less happily it has not been taxed since 1980...

Early thirties club meet

A great photo dating from, by the looks of the bikes, the early thirties. The image is a professional one and quite sharp, for a bit of fun enlarge it and see how many of the bikes you can recognise in the line-up. Look closely and there is some quite tasty machinery in there.

It looks like the chaps were about to engage in something competitive from the attire and the number boards on the bikes. I say about to as the white coveralls some of the guys are wearing are still very clean! The bike on the far right seems to have Brooklands style streamlining fitted.

Flat tank New Imperial

Easy to identify this flat tanker as a New Imperial as it's written prominently on the tank, further than that I am not sure. NI had a rather bafflingly wide model range through the twenties, all with numerical codes. This could be a Model 1, 2 or 3 with perhaps an A, B or C suffix. I'm guessing at a 293 or 346cc motor and a year of arounbd 1925. Any NI experts out there please do chip in.

Unit New Imperial

Unit construction New Imperial dating from the early thirties. The technically advanced unit construction range appeared in 1932 and continued up until 1939 in sizes from 150 to 500cc.

The rider is smartly turned out with leather double breasted trench coat, plus fours and argyle socks.

Rider and machine smartly turned
out. Early thirties unit construction
New Imperial.

1919 New Imperial and the mystery of the rotted frame

I recently dug out a box of old photos in a clear out and came by these two. The bike is a 1919 New Imperial that I imported from India something like fourteen or fifteen years ago. I think it came in with the same consignment as the 1940 Royal Enfield J2 that I still have.

The New Imp was a sweet little bike, all complete except for saddle and fitted with a 293cc JAP side-valve motor. The only real damage on the bike was that the saddle tube was half rotted through, it looked strange when the rest of it was in such a well preserved condition. Apparently this was because the bike had spent a number of years leaning up against a tree and the saddle tube was the point of contact.

There were a couple of interesting features on the New Imp; it had the very wide mudguards seen on quite a few bikes of the era on 'empire models' - ie those which were made for export. Also the front forks have an unusual mechanism: at first glance they look like the mechanically awful but practically effective Triumph rocking forks with their horizontal spring, however they have a series of linkages that transform the vertical movement of the forks in to a compression on the horizontal spring. Unnecessarily complex but quite an elegant mechanism.

I sold the bike on to a guy up in the Cotswolds, he moved it on fairly quickly after that. Funnily I overheard the new owner talking to someone at the Beaulieu Autojumble wondering how the frame had rotted in such a localised manner. I didn't manage to get to talk to him before he wandered off. Sir, if you ever get to read this post, the mystery is solved!

Sweet little 1919 New Imperial, fresh home from 80 odd years
in India and needing restoration.

You can just make out the rotted saddle tube if you look
carefully. Check out too the huge 'empire model' mudguards
and unusual mechanism on the forks.

Early Twenties New Imperial

It's a New Imperial. Not so sure of the model though, perhaps a Model 1 or 3 from 1924. These models were fitted with the JAP 2 3/4hp 292cc side valve engine; the same as fitted to many other bikes and even lawn mowers. Unusually for the day the bike is fitted with electric lighting. More common, though a rare sight these days, are the legshields.

1924 New Imperial