Remembering the notorious record of Handcross village in the old days, we treated its speed limit with every respect, but the undulating stretches beyond simply invited a speed burst, and so we indulged to our heart's content, all the while grip�ping the bars tightly in order to detect as much engine vibration as possible. Of this, however, there was extremely little - it did exist, certainly, at high speeds, but was unnoticeable if the bars were held in the ordinary way.
Approaching Brighton we turned off to the right just before coming to Preston Park, having been told of a hair-raising hill with an impossible gradient. This turned out to be a steep little roadway running up the hillside, and fu1ly 1 in 3 at the top, where it rejoined the carriage-road which ascended by easier stretches. As we expected, the Indian made light of the climb on bottom gear, and also started away on the clutch from the bottom of the steepest portion. We made the ascent several times to satisfy the photographer, and then headed for Brighton and a much-needed lunch.
This over, a run along the front brought us on to the cliffs, and, after a short pause among the ruins of the houses which have been demolished on account of the erosion of the cliffs by the sea, and which looks as if it will soon endanger that beautiful bit of coast road leading to Rottingdean, we turned our wheels once again towards town.
Incidents on the Return Journey.
A few miles outside Brighton occurred our one and only mechanical stop. We were humming along at well over 40 m.p.h., when a sudden grating noise from the back wheel caused us quickly to apply the brakes and stop. On dismounting, the cause of the disturbance was easily to be discovered - the edge of the chain guard had just touched the chain run�ning over the wheel sprocket and had got turned under, so that it rubbed continuously on the chain. A second's work with the screwdriver was sufficient to cure the trouble, and then on again.
The next item of interest was the hill leading up into Handcross, but this proved no obstacle to the " Scout", which soared over the top at fully 35 m.p.h. We were very pleased with the carburetter (a Schebler), which at all speeds and throttle openings provided a perfect mixture, and was wonderfully good for starting up. Although now and again we endeavoured to alter the mixture by opening the extra air shutter, or by slightly obstructing the main air port, yet it seemed impossible to improve on the automatic carburetion provided by the instrument. Perhaps it will be unnecessary to say that this carburetter has a jet easily adjustable when the ma�chine is running, also a device by which, by merely moving a pointer on a small dial, the richness of the mixture may be varied on large throttle openings without affecting the setting for slow running. The petrol consumption on this run worked out at 85 m.p.g.
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