WHILE WE were watching Ron Lyon bent down and pressed a tiny sticker to the tank
of the glistening blue motorcycle - just in front of the name.
"Made in Australia" was the message on the sticker. And "Alron 250" was the name
on the tank.
For the first time in nearly 20 years Australia had a motorcycle to call her own
... quite distinct from the English Sprites sold under the Alron badge; quite
distinct from the few competition machines which have occasionally appeared from
Australian workshops.
For the Alron 250 is designed to be sold off showroom floors across the country
- a road-and-enduro motorcycle to tackle the Spanish, European and English
makers at their own game in the cut-throat race for sales.
Ron stepped back: "There it is. What do you think of it?" There could be only
one answer. It looked as professionally turned out a machine as a trail rider
could wish to see. For a first effort it was magnificent.
"It's been a long time getting here," said Ron's father, Mr Syd Lyon, who has
backed the Alron project. "But I think old Ron's done a good job." And old Ron -
actually he's only 32 - had done a good job. The finish was first rate, there
was a feeling of "rightness" when astride the machine, and the basic design was
obviously sound.
This first Alron 250 was rushed to the Perth International Motor Show only a few
hours after it was finished, and there Ron Lyon began the second part of his
battle to build an Australian motorcycle - selling it.
But taking the machine to the show was immensely satisfying in itself to the
quiet Englishman who decided 18 months ago that he wanted to go into the
motorcycle game - and the motorcycle manufacturing war.
Some people told him openly he could not do it. Many others thought the same,
but kept it to themselves. Ron himself knew he faced no easy task.
"I certainly have never thought of giving it up," he said. "But at the same time
it has taken me a lot longer than I first thought it would.
"We reckoned in the first place to have the Sprite-made machines on sale in the
middle of last year, and our own Ossa-engined Alrons a few months later. "But
there were delays - some of which I had absolutely no control over, some others
where I just thought we could make progress quicker than we did.
"There were problems with materials - even this prototype will be a bit heavier
than production versions because we couldn't get the right tubing in time. "And
testing took a long time too. We started out with a frame much like that of the
Sprites because we knew that handled well. "But we have gone on from there,
testing, modifying," testing and modifying yet again. "All told it's been quite
a job."
Builder Ron Lyon with the completed road bike ... "there were delays".
An early shot of the prototype on the Jandakot production line. The plans are to
build 40 a month for three months to test demand.
TWO WHEELS was the first publication in Australia to reveal details of the Alron
plans. That was in June 1973.
Ron Lyon said then that he wanted to build a 250 cm3 enduro machine as good as
any in the world.
Only riding it can demonstrate whether he has succeeded, but he has deviated
remarkably little from the specifications he spelled out in wary fashion when
first interviewed last year.
The engine of the Alron 250 is the Spanish Ossa, the same unit as that factory
uses in its latest six-day replicas. Ron Lyon chose it for its excellent torque
characteristics and reliability.
The frame is the double-tube cradle type, but differs from most in that it has a
deep kink in the right-hand side tube where it sweeps up from the swinging arm
pivot.
One might expect this to rob the frame of strength, but Ron Lyon says rider
testing has shown this not to be so.
Apart from that the frame is quite conventional - lightweight and strongly
braced at the critical points of' head-stem and swinging-arm pivot. Some
designers prefer tube bracing round the steering 'head, but Ron Lyon has built
his frame with gussets made of sheet steel. But what does set the frame apart
from most is the finish - it is nickel-plated.
Production frames will be readied in a jig at Alron's factory in the outer Perth
suburb of Jandakot and then welded by an aircraft tradesman. There should be no
doubts about the quality of the job. Aircraft tradesmen play a big part in the
rest of the Alron too.
Mudguards and seat will be made by the only fibreglass worker In WA licensed to
work on aircraft. And the blue paint used on the Alrons is' the same as that
used on aircraft. Ron Lyon wanted to have the colour impregnated in the
fibreglass but was advised against it. Infrared light conditions in Perth would
make it alter colour inside a year he was told.
When he was told he could have the parts finished in the same paint that resists
fierce sunlight in high-flying aircraft he decided that was the thing for his
machines too. It was a good choice. The blue paint is deep and lustrous and if
it wears as well as its reputation says it should, it will keep the Alron
looking good long after other machines begin to show the wear of continuous bush
use.
The front mudguard of the show Alron was metal because one to the proper
specification could not be finished in time. But the back guard was the same as
the production machines will, use and is of most interesting construction. It is
not, in fact, fibreglass - or fibreglass reinforced plastic, the correct
description of most "unbreakables". Instead of being built up with resins worked
into fibreglass sheet or mat, the guard is built up on a type of linen with the
result that it is more flexible again.
But the Alron that went to the show did have some incomplete details. The most
glaring was the backlight. The mounting was borrowed from a Yamaha to finish the
machine for the show. It made the Lucas light high and vulnerable on the back
guard and it will be changed on production models.
Ron wants buyers to have as little trouble as possible stripping off road gear
for serious enduro events. This means he will probably shy away from the type of
flush fitting light used on the Rickman machines he sells and which use the same
basic Lucas fitting.
The other problem was that there was no tool kit - nor allowance to fit one. So
what Ron Lyon plans to do is raise the battery - there is already some waste
space underneath it - so that a toolbox can be fitted.
Only more testing in wet going will show whether the air-filtering system is
good enough. On the show machine the filter was the same as fitted to Ossa
engines as standard but it had no shielding other than that offered by the
plastic casing round the element.
Ron Lyon is a firm believer in competition success selling machines - and
showing up any faults in them at the same time. So Graham Sully - the former WA
enduro champion who has done most of the development riding on the 250 - will
ride one in competition this year. "If we find anything wrong then we will
remedy it in production models," says Ron Lyon.
Ron Lyon announced he would take orders for the Alron 250 immediately he set up
his stand at the Perth motor show. He planned an initial run of 10 machines and
then 40 a month for three months to test demand. The machine is as handsome as
any on the market. It has a well-proven engine. Sully is an experienced rider
and the Alron has been modified to meet his ideas of how an enduro machine
should handle.
Now only time - and the Australian public - will tell.
(Printed in 1974)