Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2017 i Real Classic

RC readers write, rant and rattle on... Summat to say? Send your comments, hints, tips, tales of woe and derring-don’t to: RCHQ@RealClassic.net PO BOX 66 BUDE EX23 9ZX BIG BEESA/LITTLE BEESA? At the conclusion of his story about his BSA A7 Shooting Star in RC156, Craig Whittaker wonders whether he should swap it for a Golden Flash. My advice would be‘probably not’. Back in 1964/65 I was running a 1954 500 Matchless G9 Clubman; good looking, well-engineered, but a bit slow for my 20 year-old self. I decided I needed a 650, and found a late 1950s Golden Flash advertised by Slocombe’s of Neasden. I’d owned several BSAs, including a couple of elderly A7s, so knew roughly what to expect, but I still can’t believe what I did next. I…

Teething problems are to be expectedwith a ‘new’ bike that’s nearly fifty years old, but I’d been lulled into a false sense of security by the sheer exuberance of this diminutive middleweight in a lightweight’s clothing. Then it happened. As I accelerated away and changed up, the bike stopped doing what it does best; ripping up the rev range like a tomcat with a ten foot head start on the vet’s snippers. It was as if the brakes were suddenly on. The airbox was still howling like a banshee, but the increase in speed was pedestrian compared to normal. I checked the plug caps in case one had popped off, but all was OK. So firing it up again (easily), I turned back for home thinking it felt like it…

It would be difficult to claim that I really needed another bike. I already had an excellent modern Japanese machine and an excellent British classic. But you knowhow it is: every three or four years the desire for something new to play with starts to nag away insidiously and is very difficult to shake off. Since both of the existing bikes are definitely keepers, a third bike it had to be. In the years which have passed sincemy 1967 debut on an Ariel Arrow, I have owned and ridden a lot of bikes, but neveraMoto Guzzi until now. I have always admired the purposeful look and sound of that transverse V-twin but never got round to owning one. Somehowor other, it was the V50 which took my fancy rather than…

The headquarters of the VMCC were opened in 1991 by the club’s founder, Titch Allen. Based in Burton on Trent, they house the admin functions to this international club of around 15,000 members, as well as a busy retail shop and reference library. The library, which covers all of the first floor, has extensive shelving with large collections of reference books, associated literature and copies of motorcycle magazines dating back to before 1903. There are also individual archives inherited from people like Dave Minton – familiar tomany long-time RC readers. This means the VMCC library acts as a specialist resource and hosts journalists, authors and individuals who are undertaking private research ranging frommodel identification to historical race results. One of the first activities I undertook was to go back through…

PART ONE Ihave a disease. An incurable disease. Maybe you have it too; the main symptom is that I can’t stop buying old bikes and rebuilding them. Most of mine have been Royal Enfields and some would say that is a separate, terminal disease in itself! The first one was a Crusader Super 5, followed closely by another Crusader, an Indian Bullet, a Constellation and then another Indian Bullet. Some of these have graced these pages in earlier editions. Since retiring, the intensity of the disease has increased. Something to do with extra playtime, or somy wife tells me. So the time between starting rebuilds has shortened, and the shed has become more full of old iron. But this one is a slightly different. In between Royal Enfield rebuilds, I’ve…

Once upon a time, long, long ago (September 1983, actually), I’d moved over to the fourwheeled mode of transport when I found myself parked right outside the Barley Mow pub next to an AJS, looking magnificent and gleaming in the sunshine. It inspired me to ask my assembled friends if anyone knew where there was an old British bike for sale. Richard, who dabbled in selling cars, immediately responded. ‘I’ve seen a bike for sale in St Albans.’ I asked the Better Half howmuch we could afford for a bike, and we agreed £300. At this stage I had no idea of what marque it might be, let alone the condition. Not to miss the opportunity, the next day I went to the address where the sign read ‘John Gordon…

I’m not a Harley fan. I was once. At age 14 I promised myself I’d own a Harley one day. It was 1968, the Sunday Times ran a colour supplement on the California Hells Angels. I pasted it on the wall next to my bed, Sonny Barger and Freewheelin’ Frank, all hair and sunshine and huge chrome V-twin engines. One day, I told myself... It took 21 years. I was in my mid-30s before I had chance to buy a Sportster. But hey, I finally had my Harley. And my first ever, brand-new, zeromiles motorcycle. The novelty soon wore off. It was slow, it didn’t handle, the brakes were appalling. Within 1500 miles I had to strip and rebuild the gearbox after discovering that lots of the early Evo Sportsters…

Sitting around at Christmas, digesting the turkey and spouts, I drifted into an enjoyable daydream remembering a Christmas many years ago, BWC (BeforeWife and Children). I was out riding with some mates onmy old DBD Gold Star. Ah! The bikes we sold that we wish we’d kept. Anyhow, it got me thinking about building a café racer. Could it be done on the proverbial shoestring budget? Howmany usable bits were there lurking beneath the bench? I’ve always been an admirer of Rob North’s Rocket 3 frames and realised that the Kawasaki ER-5 frame was very similar. Would a Triumph unit twin engine fit into one, I wondered? I happened to have a pair of crankcases and a crank somewhere. Surely there were enough bits left over from previous projects to…

PART THE SECOND Pulling apart the poor Viceroy was an interesting exercise simply because it was all new to me, plus its design and layout were way off the norm. It is certainly not a Venom or a snortin’Norton. It is also totally different to the Lambretta models that I amvery familiar with, as we used to sell and service 30 amonth of them way back when. All the Viceroy’s components except the gearbox were stripped down for examination, and repair if required. Everything I opened up was as-new and consistent with the previous owner’s claims that the bike was very low mileage. Mr Smiff’s instrument showed only 700 and a bit miles covered from new. Another example of little use: the brake shoes were not yet worn in to…

In case you’d somehow managed to ignore this strange fact, I ama magazine editor. This weary state of affairs has been the case continually since 1988, unless you include clubmagazines – and why not? – inwhich case the rot set in another five or six years before that. And, like any other disreputable means of turning a sad shilling, magazine editors learn to learn a few simple rules – trials of the trade, if you like. The first and best rule of journalism (the ignoble art of earning a living from journals) states that All Free Clothing Fits. If this sounds a little mysterious to you, then it’s not. It is profound. Everyone…almost everyone who enters this slightly odd world discovered very rapidly that the world is filled with folk…

Ihave a chequered history with Tridents. No…Make that something about love/hate relationships. Hmmm…One of my few remaining Bucket List Bikes is a T160 – but I’ve managed not to buy one so far. This is because I ran one for a long time a long time ago, and have never actually recovered. Let’s get this straight right away: Tridents are excellent motorcycles. Several RealEngineers have told me that they shouldn’t be, but a decently running triple is a great riding machine. The engines are smooth, powerful, and packed with character and charm, while the bicycles handle and steer very well indeed. The earlier and later ones even have decent brakes – I cannot get excited in a positive sense over the triples fitted with the conical hub 2ls anchors, sadly.…

I was heartened by the letter from RL Smith in RC158 about ‘Zen and the Art…’He expressed the view I share about oily rag, well-used bikes vs trailered showbikes. Most of my bikes came as ‘beyond redemption’ projects and some have turned out quite posh, if not always to manufacturers’ colours. Some time ago I was given an old 450 Honda. ‘You can have it but it’s never going to work.’Well it nowdoes. Admittedly it was a bit of a challenge but it has an MoT and I’ve put a few miles on it around our Dorset lanes. Yes, it looks the same as when I got it (seems appropriate somehow) and my only concern is that the donor might now want some money from me. I’ve been a RC…

TheMotoMorini Corsaro 125 I rebuilt several years ago has given sterling service and has even been to France, conquering several mountain passes. It proves that a small machine can do anything a big machine can do (but slower!). Similarly, my Triumph T100 from 1955 is super reliable. These two machines aremy first choices in all weathers– until last week, that is, when they both let me down. Or did I let them down? TheTriumph performed perfectly on the Saturday and covered over 200 trouble-free miles. On the Sunday, at the start of a VMCC run with an audience, it refused to start when normally first kick and it’s off. The problem was quickly evident: the cap of the Lucas magneto had become loose. A simple fix then. Err, no: the…

‘Ihave an old Norton Dominator that is in original oily rag condition, if you’re interested.’ Those words are guaranteed to excite the interest of someone looking not to buy but to photograph and write about classic bikes. So it was that I set off to see Rob’s Dominator. I was pleased but hardly surprised to see that the Norton keeps company with several other classic machines including a large, turquoise Daimler – Rob is into old cars too. His capacious garage is also home to a 1975 Mk3 Norton Commando, a 1938 BSA B21 which he rebuilt from bits and a Suzuki DR650, although this is currently without MOT – the Dominator is far more fun for local rides. The garage also houses an array of tools and equipment that…

The story starts in 2014 when Mossy, a local character with an eerie ability to unearth old motorcycles, told me and my friend Donald about a stash of ‘barn find’ motorcycles that the owner wanted to sell. To whet our appetites he had a couple of photographs of the machines. I call them photographs, but they looked like they were taken at the bottom of a disused coal mine with a box Brownie using a failing torch for illumination. Even so, Donald and I were sufficiently interested to quickly arrange the 10 hour trip across New Zealand’s South Island before anybody else stepped in. I was particularly interested in the near-complete 1938 VelocetteMAC which the owner said was virtually ready to run. We arrived at the appointed time to find…

PART THE FIRST One evening, mymate Robin (Hoody) and I got talking about a previous road trip around Scotland that we did back in 2007 on Harley-Davidsons. Hoody had bought an 883 Sportster and sat his test specifically for that road trip. He sold the Harley a year later, thinking bikes weren’t for him. Now we were nearing the‘Big Five-Oh’and decided that we needed an adventure. Somehowwe agreed on another trip round Scotland… I still have my Harley Fat Boy, among other bikes including LC350s and a Ducati 916, but they would be toomodern and not much of a challenge. I also have a BSA C15 tucked up in the garage. I bought it several years ago to convert it to a pre-65 trials bike. Like most of my projects…

SEND YOUR SMALL AD by post to PO Box 66, Bude EX23 9ZX, or email words and a pic to TP@realclassic.net Frank's FAVE ARIEL HUNTMASTER, 1956. Recent MoT. Full width hubs, hydraulic front brake. Rebore, mag overhaul. Stainless rims / spokes. FERC, Belt dynamo drive, dry cell battery in toolbox. £3750. 01625 610581 (And THANKS for the very kind thought! Typing Person) WANTS MORINI STRADA 500 or Maestrowanted. Originality unimportant, but rideability is. Consider project if complete. Martin 01566 784526, Devon BITS MOTOGUZZIV7 Classic screen for sale. Unmarked, as new. £100. Buyer collects. Kenilworth, Warwickshire. 07815 102280. T140E FRAME and matching numbers crankcase. Good condition with no apparent damage and with V5 registration. £750. Turner. 07951 820002.West Yorkshire. BATS FRANKTHOMAS LADIES motorcycle jacket, L/M fir size 12. Removable lining, elbow, back…