| Frank Sheene 1912 to 2008 Road Racer and Engineer | ||
| Frank Sheene lived for the sound of the motorcycle race engine and all the smells and smoke that the two-stroke could produce for as long as he could remember. In another day and age he would possibly have been as famous as his son is now. What he couldn't do with a spanner was not worth twisting. Whilst Frank rode many larger bikes this is targeted towards the 50cc class that he was always so interested in. | ||
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| Frank would ride the ITOM at most race circuits in the South and this picture is of him on the developing "Special" shows the new cylinder head and barrel, note the cow-horn exhaust pipe. The lad helping him is son Barry, the year 1958. Frank had a number of riders but perhaps the four best known are Bill Ivy, Howard German, Charlie Mates and Barry Sheene his son. |  |
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An Extract from the Motorcycle News in the 1960's
"With its record of eight wins in nine starts last season, it's difficult to imagine that much could be done to improve performance of the 50cc Sheene Special. But Frank Sheene it's constructor, has not been idle during the winter and when the machine appears on the line again this year it will be apparent that it has undergone a considerable face-lift.
Frank has been developing this ITOM based machine since 1955 and has now reached the satisfying stage where the potential from the engine demands handling qualities tantamount to a real-racer
It is in this respect that attention has been concentrated in preparing the machine for this coming season.
As speed from the engine have increased, so has the tendency for the front wheel to hop; to combat this the front forks have been modified by the introduction of oil-damping on the re-bound. Additionally the font wheel had been rebuilt with heavier spokes for increased stiffness.
For added stiffness too , the frame has been shortened slightly by cutting a section from the main frame beam just behind the steering head. A further stiffening of the assembly has been effected by by converting the frame to full duplex cradle pattern by incorporating a pair of high tensile angle section struts from the steering head cradling the power unit and terminating at the rear fork pivot point.
A result of this work is that the overall height of the machine has been lowered a couple of inches.
That the engine is basically ITOM is true: but other than the bare crankcase, little remains of the original unit. In the four years Frank has been developing this machine he has fitted his own flywheel assembly (including big-end and con-rod) cylinder and cylinder head, and the main bearings as fitted are bigger than standard.
Coil ignition replaces the original flywheel component and the camplate of the German contact-breaker united fitted is modified to make the ignition setting easily variable. A mica condenser is fitted to stand the high rpm.
To make full use of this hopefully added urge, the machine is fitted now, for the first time, with a glass fibre fairing manufactured by road-racer Gerry Turner and Harry Nash, of Nash Fibre Glass Products of Hatfield. This same firm fabricated the new 2 gallon fuel tank.
Mentioning the fuel tank brings to mind a point that indicates the limits that Frank Sheene goes to in preparing his machine. He mixes his fuel to the ratio of 7% oil per 100ml of petrol.
So far as performance is concerned, Frank tells me that 10.000 rpm represents 68 mph ... and revs can be taken now well over the 11.000 mark. Quite a point especially when Howard German, the very able rider of the Sheene Special, takes the machine on to the line, the all-up weight of the machine will be just a few ounces over 95lb!. " Charlie Rouse.
| The Sheene Special was entered for the 1963 Isle of Man TT and was ridden by a young lad named Bill Ivy who came 7th behind Ian Plumridge who was riding a CR110 Honda. The engine configuration of the ITOM was still similar to the article above and the other riders can still remember the "round barrel and head" of the machine. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The 1963 50cc TT
was won by Mitsui Itoh on a Suzuki at an average speed of 78.81 mph.
There were eight finishers. #23 is Dave Simmonds on one of the two Tohatsu machines that started. He failed to finish. Brother? Mike J Simmonds finished in eighth place on a similar Tohatsu nearly a half hour behind the winner, at a speed of 54.02 mph. #20 is W.D. (Bill) Ivy who finished seventh on his Sheene Special. |
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