Innholdsfortegnelse for January - February 2017 i Motorcycle Classics

Sales of new motorcycles peaked in the U.S. in 1973, with more than 1.5 million units leaving showrooms — five times the number of bikes sold in 1992 and triple 2015’s figures. And while the sales surge could be attributed to the baby boom, there was another factor at work; the OPEC oil embargo. The price of a barrel spiked from $3 to more than $12, and many stations simply ran out of gas. So it made sense to keep a commuter bike in the garage that you could fill from your lawn mower gas can and would better 45mpg — at least four times a typical gas guzzling auto. Combining most of the comforts of a bigger bike with small size and nimble performance suiting both experienced riders and…

TThe 73,000 visitors to last October’s 12th annual Barber Vintage Festival might have been pardoned for thinking they were seeing double when visiting the Motorcycle Classics stand to view the bikes on display for the magazine’s annual Barber Vintage Bike Show. There, gleaming in the Alabama sunshine, were not just one, but two examples of the bike that’s widely recognized as the most iconic and simply most desirable Ducati production street bike made since the Italian manufacturer began selling V-twin motorcycles in 1971. Only 401 green-framed 750SS were built in the Bologna factory’s race shop in 1973-1974 — Ducati’s first customer desmo V-twin and a close replica of the factory racer Paul Smart famously took to victory in the 1972 Imola 200. 750SS values have skyrocketed; witness the 750SS that…

WWho would have thought that a Harley-Davidson model would have its origins in Nazi Germany? That’s the case of the small-bore Model S-125, launched in 1948 following Germany’s defeat in World War II. To the victor go the spoils, and since the Allied Forces (led by the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union) were victorious in World War II, they helped themselves, in the form of war reparations, to some of the loser’s goods. Among the booty, the Allies gained access to intellectual property belonging to Nazi Germany for such things as the V1 rocket (space travel, here we come), submarine and jet-propulsion technology — and motorcycles. Wait, motorcycles? Well, yes, and in this case the reparations included plans for a small bike powered by a 125cc single-cylinder…

CClassic motorcycle enthusiasts are typically interested in noteworthy classic cars, so chances are good you’re familiar with what many simply refer to as Car Week, the classic car event held every August in and around Monterey, California. It’s been taking place in one form or another for 66 years and currently includes vintage racing, car shows, auctions and special events. Here’s something you may not know: There were also some spectacular motorcycles at the 2016 Monterey Car Week. Sprinkled amongst the many ongoing events were rare and fascinating old motorcycles, especially at the famed Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, which now has a motorcycle class every other year. For 2016, BMW bikes were featured on the lawn in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the marque. Bayerische Flugzeug-Werke, the predecessor of…

Bing constant velocity carburetors as used on BMW R75/5s and up are wonderful devices, generally trouble free and long wearing. Yet overhauls are still occasionally necessary, as we found with our subject 1973 BMW R75/5. Suffering from deteriorated jet and throttle shaft O-rings, the carbs were impossible to properly set and the only solution was a full overhaul. For parts, we turned to the Bing Agency International (bing carburetor.com). After describing our carburetors’ condition, Fay Laughridge suggested their #6 32mm CV rebuild kit, which comes complete with every gasket and O-ring needed, new throttle slide diaphragms, new slide needles and jets, new floats, float pins and float needles, new float needle seats, and new throttle plate screws. A comprehensive Bing rebuild isn’t cheap. Our kit with optional needle seats came…

Carburetor issues Q: I rebuilt the carbs on my 1974 Honda CB550, and the bike runs better except for one new problem: When the bike has run for about 10 miles, it will idle too fast, about 2,000rpm, for a while. At a long signal, it will settle back down to the correct idle, or if I let out the clutch a bit to slow the motor down, it will stay slow. I thought it might be a problematic spark advance, so I replaced the points with a Boyer electronic ignition (which controls the advance with software), but the problem remains. I have sprayed water on the intake manifolds to check for an intake leak, but found nothing. The throttle stops and mixture screws were set on the bench, and…

The Isle of Man TT and Ireland’s North West 200 take place on public roadways, but for the most part “road races” are not road races at all. They’re closed-circuit races held on dedicated courses resembling public roads. But in 1967 a group of enthusiastic California closed-circuit racers who normally competed in AFM (American Federation of Motorcyclists) club races at Cotati and Vacaville race tracks got the notion to promote a road race through the streets of the California State Fairgrounds in Sacramento. It would be known, according to AFM literature of the time, as a “Grand Prix Road Race.” The July 2, 1967, race was part of the Sacramento Motorcycle Festival and Safety Fair, a two-day cycling carnival featuring field events, a bike show, a midway sprinkled with vendor…

We The Cheaters Lovely piece by Dain Gingerelli concerning us miscreants at the dawn of Superbike racing (Skeletons from the Closet, November/December 2016). A couple of tiny corrections, though. The rules never called for “stock mufflers”; they specified stock muffler SHELLS. So most of the interior modifying we all did was legal — assuming we could make it through the sound test. Speaking of which, there were times we did use our special tach to get past the scrutineers, and there were times we didn’t. Our “tech tach” read a shade high. The inspectors called for “half redline RPM.” For us, that meant 4,200rpm. At that indicated engine speed, on this tach, Old Blue was still way short of getting up on the cams — and nicely quiet. We weren’t…

Bonhams to auction the Motorcycle Classics Project Honda CB350 The annual Las Vegas classic motorcycle auctions return in January and they promise to be bigger than ever as Mecum Auctions expands from a three-day event to a four-day event, with 1,000 motorcycles slated to cross the block Jan. 25-28, 2017, at South Point Casino and Exhibit Hall. Bonhams will hold its annual one-day sale on Thursday, Jan. 26, at the Rio Hotel & Casino, with an estimated 250 motorcycles to be offered. Mecum generated almost $14 million at its 2016 sale and Bonhams almost $5 million. Featured lots at Mecum (mecum.com) include a 1938 Indian Four and a 1913 Henderson Four, plus eight rare Italian bikes from the Guy Webster collection, including the only known surviving single- and twin-cam Ceccato…

AA lot of people have family heirlooms. One family cherishes the Niagara Falls plate that Great-Grandma Letitia stole from a restaurant in 1907, while another esteems the knight’s casque, saved for generations, that hides an awful, bloody secret that no one actually remembers. Dane Berens’ family heirloom is much more mundane. It’s a Honda Super Cub. A Honda Super Cub may not be the most beautiful or powerful or imposing motorcycle ever built, but it is an important part of transportation history, all the same. The Honda Super Cub is probably the most successful motor vehicle ever produced. Introduced in 1958, it is still being sold in many countries and is the most produced motor vehicle in history. Production hit 87 million in 2014. There’s nothing at all special about…

MMore than a few motorcycle manufacturers have diversified into snowmobiles and other recreational products to make their business less seasonal. Ski-Doo maker Bombardier did it the other way around. Joseph-Armand Bombardier was born in 1907 in Valcourt, an eastern township of Quebec, Canada. Always interested in mechanics, at age 19 he opened an automobile repair shop. One of his first challenges was that Quebec’s brutal, snowy winters kept most motorists off the road in winter, making for plenty of downtime. Only main highways were plowed, so many drivers stored their cars away for the season. It was a personal tragedy that provided the incentive for Bombardier’s first product. One particularly bad winter, his young son fell ill. Because of the heavy snow accumulation on the roads, he was unable to…

Skat Cat 40 blast cabinet Whether your restorations are for love or money, a good abrasive blast cabinet is a must. Nothing makes cleaning and prepping parts easier, and if you don’t already own a blast cabinet it’s probably only because you’re not sure what to get. Looking for a cabinet for in-house projects at Motorcycle Classics, we turned to TP Tools and ordered their Pro Shop Skat Cat 40 abrasive blast cabinet. The side-loading Skat Cat 40 features a generous 40-inch by 28-inch by 28-inch interior work area, big enough to accept some frames and ample space for cylinders and cylinder heads. We used the Skat Cat 40 on various small bits during our recent 1970 Honda CB350 rebuild, and it was nothing short of revolutionary, making fast work…

A year ago, when organizing the Western America Adventure Ride for Zongshen (one of the largest motorcycle companies in China), the request from our friends in China was simple: Show us the best the U.S. has to offer. I had several destinations in mind. One I had always wanted to see but never had: Hells Canyon. Our route was a grand one, starting in Los Angeles, California, arcing diagonally northeast all the way to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, and visiting every National Park along the way. We would then head west to the Pacific and follow the coast highway back down to Los Angeles. We visited Hells Canyon on our trek west as we rode to the great Pacific Northwest. Bisected by the wild Snake River and spanning Washington,…

It’s possible, just possible, that the Barber Vintage Festival is finally peaking. Not in terms of excellence — it’s hard to imagine putting a cap on the scope and quality of people and machines that define the event — but in terms of sheer size. Until this year, the event has grown almost exponentially every year, from an estimated 6,000 attendees in 2005 to more than 69,000 in 2015. For 2016, that rocketing rise finally ebbed: Just over 73,000 enthusiasts attended the three-day festival, held Oct. 7-9, making this the first year it hasn’t seen double-digit growth. That’s hardly bad news. As the event matures it keeps getting better. Ease of access to and from the park was the best yet, and if attendance growth really is slowing it means…

I“I got out of the Army in 1976,” says Ken Armann, proprietor of Ken Armann British Motorcycles in Campbell, California, and owner of this 1975 Norton Commando Mark III. “My mother-in-law gave me the money to buy a bike. She was an incredibly special woman.” The bike Ken bought was a 1975 Norton Commando 850 Mark III Electric Start. Ken was working at FedEx and commuting 100 miles a day, and the need to keep that bike running with as little downtime as possible — leaving the bike at a shop meant no way to get to work — induced Ken to learn to work on his Norton. He soon learned he had a knack for keeping the bike fixed. “I put 120,000 miles on that bike before the camshaft…

IIt all began during a simple conversation between two friends about Triumph’s legendary Grand Prix race bikes. During a discussion with Bob Klassen about how much we both admired the famous Triumph GP race machines built between 1948 and 1950, I pointed out that I had a rigid Triumph frame and parts of an all-alloy 500cc T100 engine sitting around. Bob mentioned he had a T riumph fork, a BSA Gold Star 8-inch front hub and a Borrani alloy rim, a pair of Amal carburetors with a remote float, a magneto, and parts of a gearbox. What happened next surprised both of us: We decided to pool our parts, share the expenses and build a “tribute” Triumph race motorcycle. As a paraplegic, there’s no question that I’ll ever be able…

IIn the early 1990s, Herb Harris struck up a friendship with the legendary Triumph tuner Jack Wilson, builder of the 650cc Triumph twin engine that powered rider Johnny Allen to a 214.4mph world record at the Bonneville Salt Flats on Sept. 6, 1956, a feat that cemented Triumph’s reputation in the U.S. and launched the iconic Triumph Bonneville. A lawyer-cum Vincent restoration specialist, Harris is perhaps uniquely appreciative of the value of documentation, a matter of extreme importance in law and increasingly important in vintage motorcycle and car circles: It’s one thing to say something is true, and often quite another to prove it. Much has been written about Wilson, Allen and J.H. “Stormy” Mangham, the American Airlines pilot who built the Texas Ceegar streamliner. Harris and Wilson talked often…

IIt might not be one of the fastest classic bikes in the world and it never earned a reputation as a racetrack tool, but that big sloping cylinder makes the Panther Model 100 one of the most iconic British motorcycles of all time. This is a sloper with a history that stretches way back to 1904, when Joah Carver Phelon and Richard Moore started making the P&M motorcycle, using the engine to replace the frame’s front downtube. That same layout was still the most noticeable thing about the last big Panther when the factory closed for good in 1966. The Panther name first graced a P&M gas tank in 1923 with the introduction of a sports version of the 555cc sidevalve single. But the 1951 Panther featured here is the…