AWJ Grey Fox Email. February 2008

Dad bought 'our' bike back in the early 70s from a Honda dealership in Adelaide who was selling off the collection of a recently deceased acquaintance. It was in very good original condition with only about 1500 miles on the clock.

Pleasant to ride, it was all there, everything worked, even the tyre pump was still on it's tags. It went quite well, for a sidevalve 500 twin.....in fact I describe it's performance to be like an 'asthmatic Triumph'.

Toolbox even had tools, including a grease gun for the Oleomatic fork sliders and an aftermarket manual. It still seemed like new. Only problem was that after any longish storage it would sometimes have a stuck valve which required removal of the valve chest cover and some gentle prying and liberal WD40 spray to free it up. I got sick of this and when it was well stuck one day I removed the cylinder to fit bronze guides instead of the original cast iron ones (this cured the problem sticking for all time).

What I discovered was that the bores still had hone marks on the thrust faces and a quick check with teh micrometer showed the bores were standard in the unlinered cast iron cylinder. Obviously the 1500 miles on the clock was correct! It has been a regular in the biennial Bay to Birdwood rally and occasional club run since purchase.

I believe it was the bike that sat in the window of Fred Jolly's Prospect Road motorcycle shop who was a speedway fanatic and AJW Speedway bike importer. The story goes that he imported only 3 AJW Grey Fox models. Quite a few older guys I know remember it sitting in the window without tyres on it for many years. It was described as a 1949 model in the paperwork but unlike the model owned by Mick Crowe, it has an Albion gearbox and a much larger toolbox.

Period test reports show model more like his model but I've been in touch with one of the Wheaton family who produced the machine and he has suggested that it would not be possible to accurately date the machine in the 1949-1951 period of production because they were hand built by Jack Ball following the sale of the business to him around that time.

Sure enough there were not many produced, in fact Roy Wheaton suggests that the rumored production figure if 70 was perhaps an exaggeration. (Oh, yeah, Arthur John Wheaton was the founder of the AJW bike company and after it's sale in 1948 it flourished (?) on and off till 1981.

He was the son of one of the owners of Wheaton's printing works, established in 1780. Although no longer in family hands it is still a significant printing business today.)

I have seen only one other model over the years. That was back in the early 80s I think. It was incomplete, in pieces and loaded in a trailer ready to depart for its new owner in Geelong(?) the following morning.
Another (or the same one) was in Just Bikes quite a few years ago and Roy Wheaton contacted me to see if I could 'pop in and take a look at it'..I explained that it was over and thousand kilometres away and not just next door.

He sent me some copies of road tests and some letters from and to Jack Ball and also a nice wall poster of the current AJW model range and some earlier pics that was put together by Jack some time in perhaps the 1970s.
Roy and I know of only one other model in the Sammy Miller museum. This makes a total of 3 known to be in existence.....we've never seen the Geelong example completed.

I will probably advertise the bike in Just Bikes and perhaps put it on ebay, I've not made up my mind yet, but I need the $s to fund building my early 50s SOHC Jawa 500cc unit twin race bike up again.
We race an ESO engine fitted to a Manx style rolling chassis in historic racing. The ESO is currently as fast or faster than the current 'standard' replica Manx Nortons and Matchless G50s available, but it is not quite able to match it with the tuned ones ridden by Wayne Gardner and Kiwi Dave Cole.I built it up 23 years ago and I and my mate have both raced it on and off over the years, solo and sidecar, winning one Australian up to 650 championship on the way.

But the single is not fast enough to really beat the top crop of guys and bikes in the historic Period 3 class. So the Jawa SOHC model that I also raced years ago is to form the basis of a replica racer. In fact I already have pattern making underway for new replica cases .... changing it to a 3 bearing crank and upgrade the bore and stroke, fit 6 speed gearbox internals.
Stage two will involve making a replica of the DOHC head that was fitted to the mid 50s works bikes. I will then make at least one other replica to sell so I can recover my costs.

As I have been building and modifying race bikes for years and it is now my business, supplying replica parts to the historic race community worldwide, this silly venture fits well with my skills and life.
The best thing I ever did was chucking in my career as an electronics engineer and later design and development manager position and making motorcycles my life. I'd rather be poor and happy. So, you can see why I need to sell the AJW...lol

Anyhow, I thought you might be interested and also might pass on my contact details to Mick Crowe so we can compare notes and not get in each other's way when selling these bikes...lol!

Sorry for raving on so long....

Cheers,

Greg Summerton
Adelaide

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