hi chaps i just wanted to share my latest project with you. as you can se from the pics its a bit different. frame number 30525, contract C11102 on 5/7/1941. It was delivered to a RAOC workshop in 1941, it was then issued to the RAF, it then found its way into the WD land agent/monitor to keep an eye on the farmers in the local areas & maintain quotas, since then it’s had a few other uses & was finally decommissioned at the end of the 2nd world war.
The bike was then reduced to a sectionalised model in the 1950s and then was a teaching/training aid at bordon barraks reme workshops in hampshire & finally abandoned in the late 70s.
what do you think












thanks, barry

email (option): fullerbarry@hotmail.co.uk

I think that even an M20 might keep up with this Matchless...... It's a pity some of the features on this bike, such as cutaway petrol tank were not adopted for road bikes to allow better access to carb and tappets! Really interesting display and looks superb.

email (option): Fergusanckorn@icloud.com

Its a shame my dad is not still alive to see this. He did his REME training at camp Bordon . He passed away AUG 2 this year he always talked about his training and the fun he had.

Cheers Steven in Ottawa

email (option): goodbell@ripnet.com

My father was attached to the 29 engineer wing at Bordon. I was thinking of putting REME colors on the tank of the 40 ariel. Does any one have any photos of the 29 engineer vehicle colors

email (option): goodbell@ripnet.com

Very Nice Barry!..Someone has already taken a lot of trouble with that one...I guess 'the project' is to put it all back into a WD finish?....

Henri has a complete Norton 16H 'cutaway' and a complete M20...

Here's another 'REME Rarity' currently here waiting for some TLC...A completely sectioned first pattern WB30 engine...

It must be the only one in existence I should think and was probably done in 1940 when they thought they were going to have a lot of them in service!...

I quite like the engine stand they made for it...

Ignore the M20 barrel and head in the background...they grow like weeds round here... ....Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

hi ian love that engine.
my intentions are leaving the bike like this for a while and then at some point getting it back to a WD bike. its a bout time to have a project with no rust for once. I was lucky to get a good deal on this and it came with a lot of parts. all the proceeds or going to the national poppy federation or similar charity.
to be honest I think the bike needs to stay as it is and its history, plus its probably a one off, like you say all the hard work that's gone in to this, it prob is a shame to spoil it.
steven sorry to hear about your dad, I spoes it comes to us all one day.
you never know he may have trained on the G3L.

thanks, barry

With the WB30 engine and that chassis it would be possible to make a cutaway replica of the Matchless/WB30 prototype....if it didn't get too confusing first..

Wouldn't it have been in a military finish when it was sectioned?...

It seems to me that as that was it's last function that would be the 'correct' finish historically..

I would have thought its current finish would have been the arbritary choice of a subsequent owner......Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

i brought the bike from bordon, i believe the chap i purchased it from may have worked or works in the borden REME museum, which i think are closing down.
the bike sat at REME for years until recently it was dug out, every think striped back to bare metal and re sprayed, they couldant find any of the other parts, the tyres and seat cover were shot.

thanks,barry

email (option): fullerbarry@hotmail.co.uk

hi chaps i just wanted to share a couple of pics of my ex cutaway matchless which is now complete and running, bit of paint stripping and welding and a lot of NOS parts. ive also added makings the same as the airborne matchless, maybe mine rode beside it..









thanks, barry

email (option): fullerbarry@hotmail.co.uk