Introduction
Iceni CAM Magazine
This is the home of the Iceni CAM
Magazine—a free e-magazine about Cyclemotors, Autocycles,
Mopeds … and more. It was launched on 15th April 2007 and
the most recent ten issues can be downloaded
here. All the articles from all the
previous magazines are on this website. For
non-computerised folks, printed copies are available at £1.50 per
edition; we can accommodate mail order too at £2.40 for single
edition or £9.60 for a year’s subscription.
So what’s it about?
It’s an e-magazine all about cyclemotors, autocycles and mopeds
that carries road test & feature articles, rally reports, free
adverts and other assorted information. Although we are an
independent production, we have strong ties to the EACC and also to the
New Zealand Cyclaid Register.
We are based in East Anglia, but are by no means limited to that
area. Much that appears in the magazine is of universal
appeal. We welcome contributions, whereever they are from, and
are also happy to help to publicise any events for cyclemotors,
autocycles and mopeds.
When’s it published?
We publish four times a year at the beginning of January, April,
July, and October. Iceni CAM is purely an enthusiast
production, and all produced on a tiny budget. The free
downloadable version will be posted on this website on the same day
as the printed version goes on sale.
All the issues of CAM Magazine that we’ve produced have been very
well received. Thank you all for your comments; they are much
appreciated. Several of you have also made donations, which has
helped enormously in keeping Iceni CAM going.
What’s in it?
The July 2024 edition is available now on our Downloads Page.
Was this the biggest single article
we’ve ever produced? It sure felt like it was!
Like some impossible lost world, it’s quite incredible that a
production Raleigh moped could remain completely unknown,
unidentified, and undiscovered for nearly sixty years, but that’s
exactly what happened, and nobody knew!
Within just days of each other, two contact e-mails from Southern
Ireland about two ‘Ghosts’ set the ball rolling at the end of July
2018, but the article couldn’t really begin until we completed a deal
to get our third decrepit example shipped back from Ireland in 2021,
though the opportunity to begin restoration couldn’t start till
October 2023. Meanwhile we’d been trying to research it, but
the trail had long grown cold … just nothing; by the time we’d got to
the end of the restoration, we still knew little more about ‘The
Ghost’ than what we’d been able to conclude from examination of its
parts.
When our previous Batavus lead feature The Flagship went to publication in April
2024, it finished with committed trailer to produce the ‘The Ghost’
for next edition, so now things really had to get serious!
Since the fabric of the article was going to be so obviously
dependent on research and conclusions, it was decided to assemble the
text in the sequence of discovery as we progressed—you have to try
new things sometimes, which explains the somewhat unusual
structure.
Analysis of the Raleigh–Motobécane contract and supplements
explained how and why the ‘Super’ came about, but didn’t confirm
whether it might have been the speculated RM3.
We tracked down the black & white scans and the illustration from
another source, as each piece of successful research allowed more
conclusions to be formed from it and added to the growing text
file.
Running out of time as the editorial deadline approached, there
was nothing else left but to visit Nottingham Archives and search
through the most likely files.
©2024 Inspire Nottinghamshire Archives
Ref: DDRN6/28/1/4/404
While finding nothing on our Ghost, there were several other
‘unusual’ photographic and negative files that looked ‘particularly
interesting. Four of these were in negative form, so while you
could hold them up to the light and appreciate ‘that looks
something’, it isn’t until receiving a reprographic scan of the
photographic print that you can really start to appreciate what
you’ve actually found.
As the article says, the 64-year-old, deteriorating and untitled
file negative of the unknown Sturmey–Archer engined MkIII prototype
proved to be more than we could have imagined. Analysing the
image we steadily began to appreciate this was the most significant
find of all, and the realisation that this was the lost RM3
prototype, as the interview notes with David Denny back in September
2009 came into view. It’s very sure that this negative had sat
in archive files, unprinted, for over 60years; nobody had seen it and
no one knew what it was.
We were hunting one ghost, but found another completely different
ghost.
The Irish ‘Raleigh Super’ is unquestionably the rarest production
Raleigh moped, but it’s not the RM3.
The Sturmey–Archer RM3 ghost wasn’t the only archive ghost we
found either, but that’s another story for another day…
Producing the main article also resulted in a number of curious
‘spin-off’ items, regarding contracts, Irish manufacturing plants,
early reed-valves, powder clutches, and other snippets.
While working through the Raleigh records it was very noticeable
that there were very few archive files referencing the RM1 and RM2
models. There were no Research and Development records of RM1
and RM2 models, and only minor records on the RM4. This leads
to the conclusion that Raleigh completely ‘cleared the decks’ of all
the previous generation of discontinued models to focus on the new
Motobécane based models.
Our NVT Ranger came from Paul Hunt of
SIM-50 fame when we were making the
first ‘Speedway In Miniature’ feature published in October
2009. The Ranger had been lying, dead as a Dodo and abandoned
in the back of one of his storerooms for many years, and as we were
leaving after returning his Mk1, he offered the dead Ranger, so we
put it in the van.
Not only did it look dilapidated, with bent forks and a very
ravaged appearance, the kick-start was broken off, the engine was so
worn out that it was impossible to feel any compression rotating the
mag flywheel, and the main bearings were so slack that the flywheel
contacted the stator poles on rotation. How any motor could
even get so completely worn out was incredible (and even worse was
still to be discovered inside the motor later)!
It then got stuffed into the darkest corner of our workshop for
15 years, until March 2024 when we thought, ‘Oh, better do that
for an article’.
The littlest NVT proved significantly performance restricted by
its reduced drive ratio, seeming as if it wasn’t expected to go over
20mph. It could easily be re-fitted with an Easy Rider 30T rear
sprocket, and maybe a 14T front sprocket to gear back up to a similar
final drive ratio as the Easy Rider for around 30mph, then a switch
back to the 12/14 Dell’orto carburettor to restore the expected
torque loss.
Our bent Ranger ‘lightweight’ front forks did seem a bit
inadequate, and reports of broken springs were not uncommon.
Since replacement fork springs and bent leg replacements are probably
no longer available, it was just easier to fit an old set of heavier
duty Easy Rider forks, which look rather more capable, and fitted
straight in.
The Ranger is probably now a classic kid’s bike, we wonder if
they’re becoming collectible?
‘Raleigh Safari’ was only suggested as
a possible small fill-in third feature for the July 2024 edition,
because the main article was obviously going to be so big. This
last minute addition wasn’t even looked at until the last day of the
editorial deadline, then pulling up these 15-year-old notes, we
realised that there could be some useful mileage here.
It wasn’t planned, but just happened like this, that David Denny
came up in two items in the same edition. When the Safari
fill-in was proffered, we had no idea that the Denny interview notes
would be contributing at the last minute to the Ghost feature.
Only a small article, but it contained some interesting insights
of RM1 pre-launch.
What’s Next?
The next magazine is scheduled for publication at the beginning of
October 2024.
Next Main Feature: for 17 years we’ve been producing
IceniCAM, and never managed to get a sniff of one of these sporty
Raleigh mopeds for road test and photo-shoot—then, just like buses,
two come along at once.
Next First Support: one of the main Italian lightweight
manufacturers since 1968, and somehow we’ve never actually managed to
fall upon a single one of its many models. Now we have one,
hopefully we can scrape together a story. It had a simple
tubular frame with blade girder forks and was the lowest priced
machine on the market, listed at a mere 14 guineas, though it came as
standard with no lights.
Next Second Support: The 21st Century returns to
cyclemotoring days with ‘Ye Olde Legend of the Worme’.
What else?
Well, there’s this Website … we’ve put a lot of useful
information here, and we’re alwas adding to it. We have a
directory of useful people to know.
Information on local events and, after each run, we put photos of the event on this website.
There’s also a market place where you can
buy and sell mopeds, autocycles, cyclemotors and other related
items
As each edition of the magazine is published, we add to our
collection of articles. From
Edition 3 of the magazine, we introduced another
evolution. Previously, features in the articles section had reflected what appeared in
the magazine, but you may now discover a bit of extra content has
crept into some items as they’ve transferred to the website—you might
call it ‘The Directors Cut’. The problem with printed magazines
is editing everything to fit page sizes and space, and there can
sometimes be bits you’d like to include, but they have to be left out
to fit the available space. The web articles don’t need to be
constrained by the same limitations so, although the text will remain
the same, the ‘Directors Cut’ graphic in the header indicates the
item carries extra pictures and bits that didn’t make it to the
magazine.
We also have an Information Service—if you
want to know more about your moped, we can help.
What we do
Iceni CAM Magazine is committed to
celebrating all that’s good about the Cyclemotor, Moped and Autocycle
scene; researching toward the advancement of the pool of knowledge
about cyclemotors, autocycles, old mopeds, and other oddities; and
the publication of original material. We are a declared
non-profit making production, though we still need to fund everything
somehow to keep the show on the road.
The magazine is free on line, and the nominal price of supplying
hard copies to non-computerised folks is pitched only to cover
printing and postage. All advertising is free since we believe
that the few people left out there providing
parts & service for these obsolete machines do so as a hobby and
an interest. This involves far more effort than reward, and
they should be appreciated for the assistance they provide. Our
Information Service is there to help anyone
needing manuals to help with restoration of a machine. We make
a small charge for this but, again, we have set our prices so the
just cover postage and material costs. However, we are trying
to make this free too! We are setting up an on-line library where you can download
manuals at no charge.
Overheads involve operation of the website, and particularly the
generation of features. Articles like Last Flight of the Eagle can
cost as little as £20 to complete, while others have cost up to £150
to generate, eg: Top
Cat on the Leopard Bobby. With these overheads, you may be
wondering how we get the money to keep it all going. So do
we! But, somehow, it works, helped by a number of generous
people who have sponsored articles or made donations to keep the show on the
road.
How long does it take to research, produce, and get these feature
articles to press? Well, up to two years of preparatory
research in some cases, where little is known about the machine or
its makers, and where nothing has been published before. Then,
collating all the information and interviews, drafting and
re-drafting the text, travel and photoshoots typically account for up
to 40 to 50 hours to deliver the package to editing.
There are many examples where these articles have become the
definitive reference material for previously unpublished machines
like Mercury Mercette & Hermes, Leopard Bobby, Ostler Mini-Auto, Dunkley Whippet & Popular, Stella Minibike, Ambassador Moped, Elswick Hopper Lynx, and many others.
We’re committed to continuing to produce these articles, because
we believe it needs to be done, and we’ve got a proven track record
for achieving it. Nobody else has done it in 50 odd years, so
if we don’t do it—who will?
To whet your appetite for what’s ahead, here’s an
updated list of machines with developing articles for future
features: Ariel Pixie, Beretta–Mosquito, Capriolo 75 Turismo Veloce, Cyc-Auto (Wallington Butt),
Cyc-Auto (Villiers), Dot ViVi, Dunkley S65, Dunkley Whippet
Super Sports, Elswick–Hopper VAP MIRA test prototype, Gilera RS50,
Hercules Her-cu-motor, Honda Gyro Canopy, Honda Model A, Honda
CD50, Honda SS50, James Comet 1F, MV Agusta Liberty, Norman
Nippy Mark 2, Norman Nippy Mark 3, Powell Joybike,
Rabeneick Binetta, Raleigh RM12 Super 50 Simson SR2E, Solifer
Speed, Sun Autocycle, Sun Motorette, Vincent Firefly, Yamaha
FS1-E.
The working list changes all the time as articles are completed
and published, and further new machines become added—so as you see,
there’s certainly no shortage of material.
Readers have probably noticed a number of the articles collecting
sponsorship credits, and we’re very grateful for the donations people
have made toward IceniCAM, which certainly assures we’re going
forward into another year. We don’t need a lot of money since
IceniCAM is a declared non-profit making organisation, and operates
on a shoestring (and we’d like to keep it that way)—run by
enthusiasts, for enthusiasts.
It’s easy to sponsor an article by either picking a machine from
the forward list, and we’ll attach your credit to it, or simply
making a donation. There is no fixed amount, it’s entirely up
to you, and however large or small, we’re grateful for any
contribution to keep the show on the road.
If a vehicle you’re interested in seeing an article about isn’t in
the list, then let us know and we’ll see about trying to add it in
the programme, but we do need access to examples—perhaps you have a
machine you’d like to offer for a feature?
See the Contact Page for how to:
Sponsor an article–Enter a free advert–Submit an article yourself–Write a letter to us–Propose a machine for feature–Offer your machine for test feature …