Greetings Chaps...and Ladies

Message

BuzZz · #11 Post by **BuzZz** » Sat May 16, 2009 7:26 am

Well Mr Thump, any promotion you find on this site has been arranged with the site owner to both party's satisfaction, or is soon removed. The owner, Mike.... aka totalmotorcycle, is a pretty easy guy to get along with so I suggest contacting him and working something out with him.

He is also in England for this year, so maybe you would want to have him drop by and check out your machines. I hope you can arrange something, I am curious as to what these bikes are all about myself.

BuzZz · #12 Post by **BuzZz** » Sat May 16, 2009 7:54 am

BTW, I hate being forced to register on a site to gain access to whatever the big secret is. And I hate it even more after joining and seeing pics of parts and pieces and not the whole bike. What are you trying to do? Build new bikes in early 20's style or restore old bikes or what. It is still not clear to me.

I do think a new 1925-ish bike is cool, but not too sure how it would sell. However I have no real idea, so maybe it will be popular. I would love to have something like that, but it would have to be in addition to a few other bikes and it would have to be reasonably priced.

dean owens · #13 Post by **dean owens** » Sat May 16, 2009 8:08 am

Johnj wrote:mirth

i had to look that one up. i think i'll try and start using that word every now and then.

ceemes · #14 Post by **ceemes** » Sat May 16, 2009 9:57 am

Erasmus Thump wrote:
Mr. Cruise, I am a little bewildered by your question. I have been looking through this community for some time and noticed that many people here talk with pride about the cycles they own or build. And there are many references to other websites contributed by many of the members here. Some of these people seem to be selling things and others not. I simply want to share our pride in the fine sporting machine we have created after a long sojourn. I suppose I could simply paste in vast quantities of text and images of the machine right here but I thought that would be much more interruptive and not in the pattern of previous behaviours by existing members. Was I incorrect in this assumption? If there is a better way in which I might share news of our accomplishment amongst a community of fellow enthusiasts I am all ears. Or are you politely trying to tell me that the content of my website is not relevant or of interest to this community?
As for spam, isn't that like the bully beef the doughboys brought over here during the great war? I am not sure of the relevance of war rations to your point...please be patient as I have been...away...for some time.

Thump

Dear Mr. Thump,

I feel I must at this junction inform you that the aforementioned Mr. Cruise is like your esteemed Mrs. Ramsbottom, in fact a member of the fairer gender and should be address accordingly. Acceptable terms of honourifics in addressing Ms. Cruiser include but not limited to are, Ms. or Miss. Cruise or Madam Blues or her Ladyship.

I am sure that as a true British Gentleman, you will be shortly be forth coming with an appropriate and heartfelt apology to Madam Blues and will endeavour in future to avoid such erroneous errors when addressing our members of the fairer sex.

Sincerely,
Ceemes, Esq.

Erasmus Thump · #15 Post by **Erasmus Thump** » Sat May 16, 2009 10:02 am

Gentlemen,
Rather than further ruffling feathers, especially as I am clearly the junior member of this august assemblage, I have removed any reference to the Phantom website from my first post so that the owner of this site, and none of those following this conversation will be offended.

I had, innocently, assumed that you chaps would be as interested to learn more about machines such as those we have produced in the past, as well as the news that we have decided to return to our destined vocation. I suppose if any of you would like to know about such machines you could contact me directly in some way through this site or seek it out on your own.

If there is some way I might contact the owner of this site and invite him to visit The Phantom Works I would be grateful for help in doing so. Or perhaps he might visit the gathering on June 19th?

Ahh, Mr. Buzzz, my apologies for our requirement of keeping the pictures at such an arm's length. You see, as mentioned on the site, the dislpay machine is being prepared for display with the last bits of plating beang finshed off as we speak. Final assembly takes place this week and photography shortly thereafter. Also, there are a number of publications in England, Germany, France, Italy, the United States and Japan, who have asked for advance photographs of the EG when they are available. In fact, some will be coming to Donnington to test the machine personally. As is the case with the media, they ask for a certain lead time over public disclosure, particularly the news-oriented publications. So what we have agreed is that members of our site will be allowed first look at the machine along with the news publications, the monthlies and general public come shortly after.

You would be amazed at the nature of the industry visitors we have seen come tour site. Think of any major consumer motorbike manufacturer and someone from their headquarters has visited us at least once. We compete with none of them, yet they seek inspiration..it has always been this way. We are not a mass producer. As you say, we produce thing as we did in 1929 when we last closed our doors. All frames are made by hand, double butted and bronze gas welded, and so on. but we have also updated some of our key technologies such as our Phantom "Sneezer" fuel atomiser, and our "Clamper" stopping system, both of which would hold their own with any modern technology.

We know that we have a relatively small window in which we can produce a quality machine before others take their cues and produce similar machines of lesser quality and price. It was this way in 1929 and it is still that way today. In fact the only difference I can tell is that the time to copy is much shorter now. And will we be able to produce a machine of such quality for the price of a mass-produced machine? No. Our machines are usually commissioned by long-time customers, their sons, and their son's sons. we do not have a marketing department, dealerships, or sales staff. Mrs. Ramsbottom answers our only telephone line, and it is ex-directory. Our friends over at Rolls Royce used to operate in the same manner. but as they and their ilk have sold themselves to large conglomerates, they have been required to become more like an Austin, and less like a Bentley. We are three chaps and a widow who own and run Phantom and we are beyond that kind of change to be honest.

Sadly, this means that sometimes we must inconvenience our potential customers in the lead up to a launch, but doing this makes further launches possible. This is the nature of being a very small, but dedicated producer of quality, sporting machines for discerning gentlemen. My apologies for the frustration. but I hope you will agree, when the final images are revealed, that it was all worth the wait.

Kindest regards,
Thump

#16 Post by **blues2cruise** » Sat May 16, 2009 10:30 am

My Dear Mr. Thump

First let me thank you for your good manners and understanding.

If you wish to contact Mike....Mr. Totalmotorcycle....click on the link to total motorcycle moderators at the top of the Total Motorcycle Talk forum....
you can send him a Private message by clicking on PM by his name.

Respectfully....Ms. Cruise....aka B2C (blues2cruise)

Erasmus Thump · #17 Post by **Erasmus Thump** » Sat May 16, 2009 11:33 am

I stand humbled Miss Cruise, an honest mistake my dear. I was just recalling the only other woman I had met who rode sporting motorbikes. I believe her name was Gwenda Stewart, nee Glubb. She was most famous for her amazing speed in automobiles at Brooklands. But I met her at Monthlery where she had taken up with a racing driver and was testing and racing Terrot machines. Nerves of steel that woman....faster than most men. Seems incredible no one much hears about her these days. She was certainly famous in my time....

Tally Ho!
Thump

#18 Post by **totalmotorcycle** » Tue May 19, 2009 4:00 am

Mr E. Thump has indeed just contacted me and I've given him the OK to post about his Phantom Manufacturing Company as long as he keeps the posts as non-commercial as possible.

He was also very nice in his PM, which was much appreciated.

Mike

Erasmus Thump · #19 Post by **Erasmus Thump** » Tue May 19, 2009 4:18 am

You are a gentleman Mike, and I thank you. As I said to Mike, if any of you are in the vicinity of Donnington Park on 19-20 June we would be happy to share a bacon butty with you and, ahem, display our wares such as they are. The URL for the site, as always, remains www.thephantom.co.uk.

I am reminded that I procurfed a Terrot 350 factory racer, as well as a 'hot' Magnat Debon 350 whilst on a trip to Monthlery. It was a few years after having met Mrs. Stewart at that fine autodrome. I hioghly recommend you to Giggle or Google or whatever you do to find out things on the internet and learn more about Gwenda Stewart. She was a phenomenal woman and racer. Anyhway, I still have these machines parked in the back of the works. the Terrot was recently brought back to life by one of the boys and he rode it at the centennial event at Brooklands last year. He still rides it about on the weekends. It has a 1926 japanese OHV 350cc motor which runs like a top to this day. The other machine is A Magnat Debon, a sister brand to Terrot. It was owned by an odd gentleman who was a friend of mine...a friend in need. He offered to sell the machine to me as he was in dire financial condition at the time. I paid him double the asking price and stored it ever since. It was brought out of the back of the works by another of our lads and he has restored it from top to bottom. the camshaft was just resurfaced and hardened as it had rotted badly over the years. I believe akll he has left to do is install the cam, attach the exhaust pipes, and mount a final drive train and it will be ready to set fire to the thing.
When Andre rode the machine in the 20s he was famous amongst the Bordeaux constabulary as he ignored all rules of the rode, including the one requiring the licensing of the rider and machine. Eventually they gave up arresting him and just let him be. I always felt that a throttle was superfluous on the machine as he always seemed to only ride at full throttle anyway.
If I can figure out how to doit, I will post some images of the two machines.
Thump

#20 Post by **totalmotorcycle** » Tue May 19, 2009 4:41 am

Erasmus Thump wrote:You are a gentleman Mike, and I thank you. As I said to Mike, if any of you are in the vicinity of Donnington Park on 19-20 June we would be happy to share a bacon butty with you and, ahem, display our wares such as they are.

I am reminded that I procurfed a Terrot 350 factory racer, as well as a 'hot' Magnat Debon 350 whilst on a trip to Monthlery.
If I can figure out how to doit, I will post some images of the two machines.
Thump

Thank you very much, it's very hospitable of you. I'll see if I can make it up. As for posting images, you can do it in 4 (and more) ways...

1. Find a image hosting website where you can upload the image there, copy the image URL it give you and then paste it here with [/img]

#4 would be like this:

http://totalmotorcycle.com/BBS/album_sh ... ic_id=4684

Would love to see photos from you.

Mike[/img]