Alex Svendsen 1957 AJS 10R Special

Matchless/AJS Rally. Alex and Frank went to the recently held Matchless/AJS rally at Rotorua where Alex won the premier award, "most desirable bike", for his recently completed project - a 1957 500 cc Camy AJS. Over 100 bikes were included in the rally ....... Jo

Background. I received the above in an email from Jo Svendsen, so I caught up with Alex and got a bit of a background to his recent project:

Alex decided to build an AJS 10R as he did own an original of the model in the '50's, which he used as daily transports to and from work, as an apprentice engineer.

Alex has been planning and making patterns for around 3 years. Pattern making is a huge part of such a project with 100's of hours going into the patterns. Once patterns & designs had been completed the next issues faced included machining both halves of the crankcase & timing covers on limited machinery available in Alex's workshop. Alec then built a new timing shaft, mainshaft & crank pin. The crankpin was sent to Auckland for case hardening. When finishing of the 3 shafts was required, Alex acknowledges the help Dave Griffiths gave by making his cylindrical grinder available to Alex for him to do the finish grinding.

One of the least obvious but most complex parts of the motor was the Oil Pump Carrier casting, which houses two oil pumps, and numerous cross drilled cavities to transfer the oil to and from the big ends & head. Alex built a special brake plate, which includes Air scoop and twin leading shoe cams, for a standard AMC front wheel.

A racing style seat, which Alex build, sits astride a the '57 AMC frame which has been modified to incline the rear spring units forward by 4 inches, this meant the Spring Units had to be extended by 1 1/2" in length. The repositioning of the spring unit mounts reduce the space available for the oil tank, necessitating a reduction in size by 25% in all directions, this was achieved by cutting the original into 4 and re-welding, likewise the Tool box had to be resized. The Petrol tank needed a completely redesigned base, to accommodate the more bulky shape of the timing cover & head used.

Ongoing Project. The bike is still and ongoing project, Alex is going to fit Jam Pots to the rear suspension, these will also need to be extended by 1 1/2". Alex is looking at modifying the muffler to something that is more appropriate to the bike. The target is to have these modifications completed by the National Classic Rally, which is being held in Manawatu in November this year.

Well done Alex, another project for us all to be amazed by .......... The Editor
(Article and photos kindly supplied by the Editor of the Manawatu Classic Motor Cycle Club)