Mead & Tomkinson racing

Mead & Tomkinson was a car and motorcycle dealership in Hereford and Tewkesbury. Three of the Tomkinsons, sons Chris and Patrick, and their father, Mike, successfully built and fielded racing motorcycles. They concentrated on the Isle of Man TT and on 24-hour and 8-hour endurance races at Spa, Barcelona, Thruxton and the Le Mans Bol d'Or. One of their riders was Neil Tuxworth (later head of Honda UK racing team).

A modified BSA B50 Gold Star 500 entered by Mead & Tomkinson and ridden by Nigel Rollason and Clive Brown won the 500 cc class in both the Thruxton 500 miler and the Barcelona 24 hours (at the Montjuïc circuit), and won the Zolder 24 hour race outright. Also, a Mead & Tomkinson B50 ridden by Phil Gurner once held the class lap record in the Production TT.^[1][2]

Mead & Tomkinson came to fame in the mid-1970s with their specially-designed endurance racer, nicknamed "Nessie"^[3] (after the Loch Ness Monster) because it was a less than attractive machine. The engines were conventional roadster engines, tuned for racing power. First they used a 1,000 cc Laverda Jota triple, and later a 1,000 cc Kawasaki four. Feeling that racing bikes design was too conservative, the Tomkinsons gave Nessie a number of innovations:

• Whereas motorcycles conventionally have the (light) exhaust pipes below the engine and the (heavy) fuel tank above, Nessie reversed this order to lower the centre of gravity. An inverted triangle in cross-section, the fuel tank was underslung beneath the engine.
• Whilst most bikes have telescopic forks, Nessie used an adapted version of Difazio hub-center steering,^[4] whereby braking forces were directed to the frame via a pivoted fork (rather than through the steering head). This allowed neutral steering and an absence of brake dive.
• The rear suspension was a parallelogram arrangement, to provide stiffness without weight. This device was not entirely successful, possibly because of having so many rose-joint linkages.
• The rear suspension pivot (like the Hesketh V1000) was concentric with the drive sprocket to maintain constant chain tension. This feature meant that (i) a smaller drive chain could be used and/or (ii) the chain was less stressed and therefore less likely to break.
• Nessie had its ignition circuitry in a removable "q.d. cassette", so that if it proved faulty, it could be unplugged and replaced with ease.

Thirty-five years later, some of these special features have been adopted by mainstream racing and road bikes,^{[citation needed]} but Nessie remains unique in having them all on a single machine.

References

1. ^ "BSA B50 racing". B50.org. 20 January 2004. http://www.b50.org/mead.htm. Retrieved 10 October 2011. 
2. ^ "General B50 History". Classicmotorcycles.org.uk. http://www.classicmotorcycles.org.uk/b50/b50_history.htm. Retrieved 10 October 2011. 
3. ^ "Lot 417: The ex-Mead & Tomkinson, 1976 Laverda 1,000cc ‘Nessie’ Endurance Racing Prototype - Bonhams". Invaluable. 20 October 2007. http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/the-ex-mead-amp-tomkinson,1976-laverda-1,000cc-1-c-buc79u7b7k. Retrieved 10 October 2011. ^{[dubious – discuss]}
4. ^ Foale, Tony (2002). "STEER FOR THE FUTURE". http://www.tonyfoale.com/Articles/Steer/STEER.htm.