27 Nov 2021
#LetsTalk: Classic Motor Racing- Fred Walmsley
FRED WALMSLEY HAS BEEN BUILDING AND DEVELOPING MANX NORTON RACERS SINCE HE WAS 19. BUT ALL ALONG HE WAS PLANNING TO MAKE THIS. Most people’s first go at building a custom bike involves a shed, an angle grinder and too much enthusiasm. But Fred Walmsley is no novice; he’s spent a life in racing. His exquisite singles grace the Isle of Man, Phillip Island and Goodwood, and their quality has attracted the best riders in the world: Wayne Gardner, Barry Sheene, Michael Dunlop, and so on. So although this is Fred’s first custom, it’s as good as it gets. “For years I’ve wanted to make what you might call a bobber,” he says. “I decided to call it a Fredder, ’cos I’m not Bob, and it’s my bike.” If you can see a hint of speedway in the bike, that’s because Fred’s dad was a speedway rider at Belle Vue in Manchester. “Peter Craven was world champ and my dad used to be fixing his bike with our bloody lino rolled up behind the back of the settee. That inspired me a bit, but I liked a comfortable, powerful bike and it’d always been in my head to build one. I’ve got this bucket list. I’d done all sorts of things and I thought, ‘I’ve got to build a Fredder.’” The resulting 500cc masterpiece broke cover at Goodwood's Festival of Speed last year, where three-time world champion Freddie Spencer became its first fan. “Freddie sat on it and said, ‘I’d like to flat track this!’ I said, ‘You tell me where you want to flat track it and I’ll bring it.'” A few weeks later, at the Classic TT, the Fredder pulled more admirers in the paddock than any race bike. “People said it doesn’t look like a special,” Fred says. “It’s a real creation. And it’s all about the engine.” It’s a modern Manx, with a short 86mm stroke, one-off cylinder head, and newly-produced barrels, cases and crank. “I built it for Goodwood in 2016,” Fred says. “It cost me over £25,000. The magneto’s worth two grand! At Goodwood Ken’s man [Ken McIntosh: another formidable Manx builder] complained about it. Charlie March [who owns the event] said I could still use it, but to save any controversy I put a long-stroke engine in the bike. It’s what jigged me on a bit. I had this engine and thought, ‘What am I going to do with it? I know! I’ll put it in the Fredder.’” Fred has spent decades developing Norton’s famous race engine way beyond what it could do in the 1950s. It’s the usual story of marginal gains everywhere, but the main factors are camshaft design, and new thinking on combustion chamber and port shape. Norton quoted 49bhp at the crank, where a Walmsley Manx probably does 60bhp (55bhp at the wheel). It’s a great achievement, but Fred’s just as interested in the motor’s emotional appeal. “When I see one stood on my bench, ready to go in a bike, it’s a sculpture.” Fred’s appreciation for big singles dates back to his teenage years in the 1960s, with ton-up thrashes from his home in Lancashire down the empty M6 to Mallory Park. “Back then everybody built Tritons and stuff like that. I built a big Matchless single. They’d get away, then there’d be smoke coming out and I'd peg ’em back in. They lose 15% of their power when they get hot.” As an apprentice Fred helped his friends race, and built his first Manx Norton engine aged 19. “In the late 70s and 80s I raced a Manx myself. I seriously got going when the replicas started in the mid 1980s.” Original Manxes used welded tube frames, but for this bike Fred chose older tech: straight tubes brazed into lugs. “The frame came from a 1952 19R. To accommodate the motor I cut the front and back out, and bent new tubes to fit. I put the motor and frame on blocks, made cardboard templates, then made mounting plates. Forks are modified Norton, I think from a war-effort 16H.” The one-off tank that gives so much attitude is designed to leave the engine exposed: “I took a picture, printed it out, then got a felt tip and drew an outline to show off the cambox.”
