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SDAMC Articles |
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Phil
Pearson, BSA Gold Star Specialist
© Mike Loper, 2003
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The city of Great Yarmouth and the adjacent town of
Belton lie on the shore of the North Sea, 150 miles northeast of
London in East Anglia. It’s
a magical place defined by windmills, fens, and the Norfolk
Broads, shallow lakes and waterways created by medieval peat
excavations. Standing
on the dike next to Church Farm Bed & Breakfast one brisk,
fall morning, Peggy and I watched the tide creep toward us, drew
in the salty earthiness that can only be sensed where the land
meets the sea, and anticipated our meeting with the Pearson’s
later that morning.
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The Church Farm B&B is Next to This Ancient Church and is Also a Working Farm, Hence the Name Church Farm |
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I
purchased
my Gold Star from Paul Lima at GP Motorcycles several years ago.
Now that I had finished restoring my 1967 Triumph TR6, I
was free to begin the GS in earnest.
Gold Star crankshafts are the weak link in an otherwise
strong running engine, and Phil has designed a crank that is
durable and well built. So,
based on recommendations I received from other Goldie owners who
have had Phil work on their engines, I recently shipped my
engine to him for a complete rebuild.
Since Peggy and I were in the London area anyway, it was
only natural that we try to see Phil’s operation. |
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Phil’s Shop
Note His Gold Star On the Right
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After arriving at Church
Farm, we called Phil and his wife, Linda, and invited them to
dinner at the Farm’s pub, just below our room.
Walking into the pub, I immediately recognized Phil from
photographs on his website.
Greeting me with a relaxed smile, we shook hands and sat
down for the evening and the four of us got to know each other.
While rolling his own cigarettes and sipping a pint, Phil
said his machine shop knowledge was mostly self taught during
the period he was working for North Sea oil companies.
He eventually grew tired of being in the employ of
others, and decided to concentrate on his passion:
BSA Gold Stars. He
has one motorcycle: a BSA Gold Star with over 41,000 miles on
the clock. At the
end of the evening, we made plans to go over to their house the
next morning.
The magic in the Norfolk Broads occurs in Phil’s shop
where he takes tired, well-used, or broken Gold Star engines and
breathes new life into them.
Lined up for rebuilds along his shop wall were Goldie
engines from all over the world.
It appeared that half were to
be used for racing, while the other half were for restoration
projects or rebuilds. I
saw my engine neatly placed against the shop wall in the queue.
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The shop is small, but
that’s no reflection of the quality of his product.
He showed me one of his “Pearson Crankshafts” and
then placed it in his lathe.
“Here Mike, check the run out on this journal.”
I slowly rotated the crank in his vintage Colchester
Lathe. The run out
was a miniscule 2/10ths of a mil; that’s 0.0002
inches…..incredible!
At the Colchester Lathe with a Pearson Crank Between the Head and Tailstocks
For
me, it was inspiring to stand in this small shop, smell the
cutting oil, be among the jigs, cranks, engine molds, and
miscellaneous parts neatly place on the shelves and in the small
bins along the wall.
Walking back into his house,
he pulled out a collection of original BSA Gold Star pencil and
sepia drawings from the factory and gingerly spread them onto
the dining room table where we could study them.
I looked at the lines drawn carefully by draftsmen over
50 years ago and began to realize the fullness of history before
me and began to understand that Phil is more than just a
craftsman, he’s an artist with exacting standards, interested
in pursuing modifications that will improve the reliability and
quality of Gold Stars and keep the marque going well into the
future. The Gold
Star marque is in good hands.
Phil on His Goldie: We Started It Up in His Shop-Quite a Roar
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