Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2020 i Real Classic

I 'look after' a Birmingham Scott, a 1957 Flying Squirrel, for a local couple. They are not into maintenance or cleaning, etc, so for the love of it and in exchange for an occasional ride, I do it for them. In many ways, the Birmingham machine closely resembles the older, 'true Scotts' built at Shipley. For those readers not fortunate enough to be familiar with this superb (but slightly off-beat) smoker, I'd like to introduce it. The'Birmingham ' is apparently not a true Scott, but a later incarnation after which real Scott fans lust. It's a 600cc two-stroke twin, thermosyphon water-cooled, with three gears, siamesed exhaust, deflector style pistons, 6V coil ignition, etc. All pretty much what you'd expect ... until you mount up. The chassis dates from the 1950…

I have to say, this isn't my kind of motorcycle in the slightest. A local newspaper asked me to test ride it, so they could blag some advertising off the dealership. I was the only person they knew with a motorcycle licence. I was told to go to the dealership, pick up an unidentified motorcycle, ride around on it for a couple of days, write a few words and take it back. I didn't sound like the toughest job I've ever done, certainly, and would mean I'd get out of typing out six pages of flower show results. And so I mounted my somewhat careworn Kawasaki GPzSSO and bumbled off. The dealer and I had a somewhat inauspicious moment on my arrival, when the head salesman, after a brief greeting…

Isn't it entertaining when an idea which you've previously considered, failed to achieve, forgot about, then pondered again ... quite suddenly and entirely unexpectedly and with no planning at all - actually happens! What am I talking about? Well, as you might recall from last month's magazine, my everyday go-to machine is a mostly modern Triumph, a Street Scrambler of a thrusting 900cc capacity . Its styling is a cleverly deliberate derivation of soft-roader Triumphs of long ago - a retro, if you like the term; a roadster for most modernists . And it's great, as I have said probably a hundred times already. When the modern Triumph concern rose from the ashes of the classic Meriden company, its Top Chaps all confirmed that the new company wanted to distance…

The term 'barn find' has come in for much abuse over the past few years - so much so that anything described as such must be regarded with suspicion. An amusing Facebook posting summed it up very nicely. The picture showed a bucket of water with a carrot floating in it. The advert said 'Barn find, snowman - will need some reassembly: So why did I succumb to purchasing a Canadian barn find in the shape of a Yamaha RS? I needed a project and had a yearning to re-live my misspent youth. Although I never owned a two-stroke Yamaha, I rode plenty as part of my part-time job at Wraggs Motorcycles in Mansfield during my late teens. My recollection was that the 250cc to 400cc Yamahas were faster, lighter…

Records reveal that this bike left Ariel's factory on 27th Oct 1942 bound for the No3 MT Stores at Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire (which still exists as the'Defence Storage and Distribution Centre, Ashchurch'}. Beyond that it's impossible to track. The contract was C12540, which was for 2000 machines equipped with pannier frames and pillion equipment at a price of £62. The AOMCC factory despatch records show that the engine and frame numbers match - unusual for a military bike. The lack of an engine change suggests that the bike saw little use. It may be that it was left behind in Italy as the allies advanced north, perhaps ~ being left in a stores dump until the war ended. There is no evidence of the brass plates usually riveted to a machine…

BEST SINGLES ANYWHERE Early in 1970 I had a good friend who was a professional motorcycle mechanic employed in a 'government department '. Under threat of secrecy he related a story to me of how he had once borrowed, as emergency transport , a 833 from a mutual acquaintance of ours in exchange for agreeing to 'look at its engine' which was reported to be making strange noises. The bike's owner had no mechanical idea and only owned a motorcycle as a means of commuting to work. Suffice to say the BSA had to be towed home from Liverpool, having blown up in a big way while my mechanic friend had used it for holiday transport at that year's TT. This result was not surprising in view of the state…

A few seasons ago I had the pleasure of comparing two of the best ohc singles this isle has ever produced, riding them back to back. The Velocette 350 KTS was beautifully made, a real labour of love from the skilled engineers at Hall Green. Yet this 350 gem compared less favourably with the Norton 500 International, despite the Velo being the better bike in almost every respect. Except one, the one that really matters: performance . The Velo exuded quality and rode and steered with a poise belying its 80-something years, a true'gentlemen's express; based as it was on their fabulous racing cammy singles. But its performance was modest, to say the least. The old stories that the ohc machines were left in a low state of tune deliberately…

Contrary to belief, a post-war Vincent motorcycle is not beyond the reach of normal people. They are expensive but, like anything in life, if you really want something then you can have it. This article will hopefully help you on your journey to buying a Vincent and explain some of the pitfalls. The views and opinions expressed are my own, of course! After WW2 Vincent-HRD resumed production with their new Series B Rapide which took the motorcycling world by storm. With its unit construction 1000cc V-twin engine and cantilever rear suspension, it was streets ahead of the competition . Within a couple of years, the Black Shadow, the fastest production machine in the world at the time, and the 500 single-cylinder Comet were launched. The world saw Rollie Free in…

This being an article about magnetos, it will not say much about the coil ignition that became commonplace in the 60s, with the arrival of alternators . However one thing that should be apparent from the 'high tension coil ignition' diagram is that there is almost nothing to it, and the only moving parts are the cam and contact breaker lever - especially when a bobweight ATD (automatic timing device) provides the advance retard function. That means very simple fault finding. Mechanically, the cam needs to be snug in its bearing or bush (10 thous of slack will wreck the effectiveness and timing of a 12 thous opening!), and the moving point needs to move easily on its pivot but not be sloppy, or the pivot wobbly . Electrical fault-finding…