FYI What Silk Engineering did after the bikes.

[Staffs]

Hi saw the Silk boys at a party on Saturday and was told of a You Tube clip of the Flange facing machine we made at Silk/Furmanite. Thought you might like to see it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZU8vUX9I9o
I am on it looking board no whiskers or grey hair. I remember the most important thing that the non mechanical pr woman that was in charge insisted on was we had a Furmanite tie on and we stuck to the script about setting up the machines written by a complete outsider. Madness!

[Hendred]

I worked in the power industry for many years and these machines were often called in to re-face cut flanges.

[Staffs]

Hendred, you may be interested to know George Silks next company after Silk Engineering (Furmanite) called Mirage Machine Tools Derby (Furmanite kept the name Silk) started up in direct competition to Furmanite and if you check out their web site will see that they now do a huge range of portable machine tools and even repair and service the original Furmanite Silk ones. The Furmanite web site does not show you much?
2014 Mirage are doing very well and have expanded into a couple of new units next door the their Derby factory. I reckon at least half who worked for George 12 /13 years ago are with him again. He was an all right guy to work for.