Geoff Monty

Geoff Monty was an English professional motorcycle racer, constructor, rider-sponsor and retail dealer, initially based in Kingston on Thames and later – under the name Monty and Ward – Twickenham areas, near London, with a move to Edenbridge, Kent by 1968.

In the mid-1950s he produced and campaigned his own brand of racing motorcycle known as the "Geoff Monty Special" (GMS), based on his own design of semi-spine frame with rectangular-section swinging-arm and a 350 cc BSA Gold Star engine having modified internals to achieve a capacity slightly under 250 cc.

In 1964 AMC announced their brands would be no longer produce any race machines – the 500 cc Manx Norton and Matchless G50 or the 350 cc AJS 7R.

Monty, in conjunction with his business partner Allen Dudley-Ward, a renowned Triumph tuner and ex-racer, recognised a business opportunity and developed a new machine initially named Monward, based on his proven GMS frame and swinging-arm, initially fitted with a 650 cc Triumph Bonneville engine which was used as a test-bed by then-contracted rider, Bill Ivy.

The name Monward derived from their surnames Monty and Dudley-Ward. The concept was then further developed – as Monty had done with the BSA Gold Star engine – by reducing the 650 cc capacity to under 500 cc, retaining the standard bore of 71 mm but shortening the stroke to 62.5 mm, using a new crankshaft having a shortened throw made by sidecar racer Owen Greenwood together with 10 mm shaved-off the standard cast-iron barrels. Additionally, an option was to instead fit the contemporary Triumph production engine with a standard 500 cc capacity. Both types of engine were tuned and built by Allen Dudley-Ward featuring his Manx Norton oil pump conversion.

The now-oversquare modified engine used the 650 Bonneville twin-carb cylinder head having bigger valves, ports and carburettors than a standard Triumph 500, allowing for efficient air-fuel intake at racing speeds. The 650-size crank journals and main bearings were larger than a 500 which allowed for greater reliability.

...
Wikipedia