The Egli Story
In the late sixties I was production racing a Vincent Rapide and was getting lots of help from a guy down the road who was in the VOC called Ron Kemp. It was he who brought my attention to the fact that Mr Slater of Chaddersley Corbett was importing a new frame from Switzerland. With the help of my mate Nigel I scraped together £110 pounds and bought a S/A frame (one of the first batch of 20) metal profile forks and a Robinson 4 leading shoe front brake .With the 1000 engine in the frame I clocked 132 down the old Norwich straight in the speed trap at a bantam racing club meeting, the next week again at snetterton with the BMCRC I added a half fairing and went even quicker, it was however the death knell of the Robinson brake which pulled up to the twist grip and expired and then as I sat in the gravel trap up to my knees in gravel with smoke billowing from the wheels the back brake drum (Vincent) also split with a loud crack!
When Ben arrived the Egli had to go and it was not until 1989 that I got the chance of lot 193 this was an Egli that had done a lot of touring, I did some speed events before the engine needed some work. By then Ben was starting to race the Comet and when the original specials class arrived it seemed a good idea to build a egli comet (with the twin frame) and a twin Vincent for the road with my selection of what I consider the best parts. My twin was a success as the ‘alphabet twin’ (D engine C frame B forks) but the Egli was not a winner (especially as the class was increased in capacity and dominated by bigger bikes) so it languishes in a corner of the workshop awaiting a return to the road.
By 05 we decided to go back to full racing again and I said I would develop a methanol motor using the Egli comet motor as a basis. At the same time I had built up a basket case series D to standard spec and by the time it was completed it owed me a lot of money. When I finaly rode it I must say I was ( like many people) not enamoured by the high riding position the general design vis a vis the C –B, however there are still some who liked them and so when I sold it in 07, I was in a position to press on with a racing twin and buy a new twin crankcase, a bright unused frame and obtain lots of parts like heads barrels B-TH mag ,banana tank(see Friends) and a Bob Newby Belt Drive etc. Ben sourced any ‘modern parts’ ( modern = 1972) like the twin disk Brembo brakes.
Finaly after 4 months of hard work the project was completed, and the bike was tested at a practice day on 1st of April 2008. You can read more about the Egli here.
