Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i Classic Bike Guide

FUCHS SILKOLENE ARE to relaunch their Silkolene Classic range of motorcycle lubricants. The oils will come in a brand-new, yet traditional four-litre metal container with an authentic label design dating back to the very origins of the world famous Silkolene name. Dalton & Company was founded by William Dalton in Belper, Derbyshire in 1908, but it is as Silkolene that it became universally known and as it will be remembered in history. During the early years of the British motorcycle industry, Silkolene developed their oils to be used by motorcycle manufacturers such as Triumph, BSA, Norton, AJS, Royal Enfield, Brough Superior, Velocette, Matchless and Vincent. With its instantly recognisable rich red colour and classic Silkolene logo, these oils are much sought-after by classic motorcycle enthusiasts around the world. The new…

PRESCOTT BIKE FEST 2018 will finally arrive after a two-month delay caused by what seemed to be a never-ending winter. The popular, family-friendly event will return to the Gloucestershire hill climb on June 16-17. The event was postponed in April due to waterlogged ground. Saturday, June 16 will be a day for wandering around the paddock, beer and gin, jazz and blues, while Sunday sees the serious business of going uphill very fast. There will be extensive displays of historic, modern and racing motorcycles throughout the weekend with a Paddock Specials Show ’n’ Tell featuring the best in historic, customised, road, race, factory builds, prototypes, shed builds, wacky, jet powered and record-beating machines. You can chat to the owners and bike builders on the Saturday and watch them take to…

You would have to be truly mechanically crass and insensitive to actually destroy a CG125’s motor but it has been done on occasion. Number One Killer is engine oil; change it and use the correct, motorcycle specific grade. The engine runs a centrifugal oil filter which Honda claims needs occasional cleaning; owner’s forums suggest it never contains anything significant. Six volt electrics will require every terminal to be clean and devoid of corrosion/dirt. The chrome mudguards of the earlier models can rot; preventative action with a decent protectant will save money and hassle. Models running points will appreciate the occasional cleaning and gapping. Other than that you’ll be good to go simply because Honda really did design and build a legendary tiddler.…

IT’S BEEN A week of globetrotters passing through my corner of the world. Octane Press had sent notice of the upcoming American edition of Elspeth Beard’s autobiography ‘Lone Rider’ noting that Elspeth herself would be in San Francisco on a book promotion tour. A few emails later And the passage of a week found Ms. Beard herself in conversation about her tour and life in my own living room. The book blurb notes she was “the first British woman to motorcycle around the world”, which sounds like asterisks in a bold claim, but what’s most interesting about that particular journey (1982-84) is she did the bulk of it totally solo, with no plan or even maps to guide her beforehand. It was a different world in the 1980s with no…

Don Cronin is on a mission. He’s travelled more than 60 miles from his home near Kinsale, on Ireland’s south coast, to Adrigole, a village on the Beara Peninsular. The 580cc flat single thumps out a deep baritone as he turns off the coast road and heads for the Healy Pass. This is one of the finest biking roads in Ireland, rising 334m as it twists and turns between two of the highest peaks in the Caha mountain range. If any road is going to prove that the Rondine was built to be ridden, then this is it. With his friend Mick O’Shea, Don had won the 2013 AMD World Championship in Essen, Germany with the café racer-inspired motorcycle they spent two winters building in the workshop at the bottom…

Bespoke deckchairs THESE DECKCHAIRS FEATURE images from the enormous Mortons Archive which dates back to 1903. The chairs can be made from one of the images that we have selected or from one that you choose via mortonsarchive.com, providing the original image is of a high-enough resolution. You can also have one of your own images used to make it truly unique. The standard moulding for our deckchairs has a cross-section of 22mm x 47mm. This provides great strength and a noticeably more solid feel than some spindly domestic deckchairs. The deckchairs are very hard-wearing and durable – the frames are made with merpauh wood, treated with teak oil which provides excellent protection against the elements, extends the working life and enhances the natural appearance. The deckchair slings are made…

OLD STROKERS CAN be machines of pure delight if fed the basics of petrol, quality oil and filtered air. They can run quite happily for an age with no apparent issues. However, what you just might pick up on is a slow decline in performance over time. Many a stinkwheel devotee has played chase-the-fault and gone round in circles checking timing, air filters, carburettors and crank seals, but all to no avail. Over time carbon and oil builds up in silencers partially or totally blocking vital exhaust gas paths both on the removable baffles and internal passageways. When every other potential issue has been addressed there’s really only one other thing you can do – yes it’s decoke time! OILS, THEIR REMOVAL AND MODUS OPERANDI Before rushing in with the…

MAY 2018 30 VMCC (Essex section) 1st Wrinkly Run. Outside 1st Antiques Shop, 2 Maltings Rd, Battlesbridge SS11 7RT. 31-3 Unwanted MCC’s Annual Bike, Trike & Custom Show. The Rockbar, Shobnall Sports & Social Club, Shobnall Road, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire DE14 2BB. www.unwantedmcc.co.uk JUNE 2018 1 JULY ISSUE OF THE CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE 2 JUNE ISSUE OF OLD BIKE MART 2 Japanese Bike Day: Sammy Miller Museum, www.sammymiller.co.uk 2 Classic Motorcycle Show: Halls Green, Weston, Herts, SG4 8DP. 2 West Country Autojumble: New Cattle Market, Driffield Road, Cirencester GL7 5QA. 2-3 Shetland Classic Motor Show and Tours. Further details at shetlandclassicmotorshow.co.uk 2-3 Coventry Motofest: 15 Queens, Coventry, West Midlands, CV1 3DE. www.coventrymotofest.com. 2-3 4th Lechlade Annual Vintage Rally & Country Show: Hosted by Lechlade Collectors Club, LechladeCollectorsClub.co.uk 3 Wells CMCC Tortoise and…

If you’re going to be riding a CG rather than just admiring it then at some point you’ll be needing spares. For service items and beyond look no further than Wemoto, which can supply cables, bearings, tyres, clutch and electrical parts galore. David Silver Spares supplies similar but can also offer engine and transmission parts as well as the occasional panel etc. Not cheap but still worth bearing in mind, your local Honda dealer will be able to supply parts others may not be able to source... which is good to know if you’re in a real bind. And finally there’s good old eBay, which is always worth a punt not forgetting that the CG125 was sold globally, so surf likewise!…

Marmite divides opinion less than Harley-Davidsons. Some riders let them become their world and would never look at anything other than the finest V-twin Milwaukee metal, while others would rather be seen riding a carousel pony than be seen on an American ditch pump. Until recently I was unashamedly on the fence. As a high-mileage rider the smaller bikes just didn’t fit my remit; to be fair at just over six foot I didn’t really fit them. And the tourers felt too cumbersome at slower speeds, which someone who’s ridden for over 20 years shouldn’t feel (though I’m told by many that, like anything you get used to it). But I’ve always admired their ability to keep to their ethos, stay loyal to their core customers and, somehow, keep those…

I WRITE THIS sitting in a sun-flooded study; okay I’m in the kitchen. Like the best of saddles, Spring has finally sprung. This marks many things – for some it’s the emergence of their bikes from hibernation, washing off the protective grease and throwing away perfectly good petrol because somebody on the internet has told them it’ll have gone off. Others, like me and possibly you, have ridden through the winter and our bikes always look like that, there’s no need to judge, thanks. But that means we get to enjoy that time-honoured ritual – getting out the summer kit. The thick jacket and trousers that still only manage to be water resistant rather than waterproof are safely crammed into a carrier bag and stowed under the stairs. The leather…

Greetings from the Great Southern Ocean I borrowed the February issue from the AA testing station recently (no worries – I’ll return it once I’m finished)… I see in your welcome editorial the wee 350cc Honda. I used to have a thing for the street scrambler-looking twins back then. A nice article. I am also commenting on the photo in that editorial – a small boy covered in motor oil is on camera looking for the cracked frame tube! Once the Cycle magazine published a fantastic engine strip down photoshoot of the XL250 motor, down to every fastener! I realised how superb Japanese engineering was – I loved the XL250 but I still rode a 1971 B50T. Henry Balfour PS: This month in Real Classic (CBG’s sister title) magazine is…

LIFE CAN ALWAYS be unexpectedly entertaining – if you let it. And in the dodgy old bikes context, the conversations I always, but always enjoy at the big shows can sometimes be outstanding in the entertainment dept. Take the recent Stafford Show… When you were a youth, and assuming you were – like me – a keen bike rider back then, did you or your friends cruise the street on your Norton Dominators looking for 750 Suzukis to race? And when you raced them, did you always but always thrash them? I rode a Norton 650SS for a while back in those misty days, and any attempts to embarrass 750 Suzi riders – or almost any other riders – with the awesome performance were consistently doomed. The Norton wasn’t mine,…

WORLD-REKNOWNED MOTORCYCLE designer Alan Clews passed away on May 2, shortly before his 80th birthday. Alan had continued to play an active role within Clews Competition Machines, or CCM, as he had done over the past 47 years. Alan was a successful Trials and Scrambles rider in the late 1960s and wanted a lighter and modern motocross bike, like the BSA 500cc works specials. When the BSA Competition Department closed, he bought all the available works parts, building motocross bikes in his garage at first. The early CCM models were based around BSA’s unit single engine, significantly improved and strengthened. He made his own extensive improvements to the standard 500cc engine, with bikes built in a cramped two-storey Bolton factory and completed machines rolled down a flight of stairs. In…

If you’re in the market for a CG125, firstly decide what you want it for and why. If it’s going to be as a commuter-cum-daily transport then give serious consideration to the last of the genre. With 12 volt electrics and electric starter, more capacious seat and the benefit of a front disc brake, the 2004 onwards machines are hard to ignore. As little as £500 can buy you one in need of a little TLC and chances are if it’s running quietly now it will continue to do so for years to come. £1000 should buy you a really nice example. If the ‘modern’ look CGs aren’t your thing then the pre-2004 models retain the bike’s original looks and layout. There is some faux snobbery regarding Japanese versus Brazilian…

We started by flagging up how the CG’s design was ‘borrowed’ from an Italian Mondial. The same thing has ironically happened to the CG125 with a veritable raft of manufacturers essentially ripping off Honda’s seminal design. Companies in China and Taiwan have recreated the bike, amending and refining its various facets to suit their own needs and customer bases. Everything from Sym Wolf Classic, Kymco Pulsar 125, Hongdou CG125, Champ Commuter to Warrior Dispatch and beyond have made copies of the humble CG; some being better than others. However, there is only one true CG125 and that’s the one made by Honda, so be warned!…

MOST, IF NOT all of us have a limited budget and a finite storage space. The former is often flexible if constrained, while the latter is easily limited by the square footage available; a shed and/or a garage if you’re supremely fortunate. Unless you are blessed with wealth beyond the dreams of Croesus the chances are your riding stable is limited by default. While many of us would love to own a fleet of 1970s icons – an MV Agusta America, a BSA A70, possibly a bevel drive Ducati and maybe a Yamaha TZ750 – reality is somewhat different. As your parents might say – you have to cut your suit according to the cloth you have. My particular poison was, is, and remains two-strokes of the Japanese variety. Yes,…

THIS MONTH OLI has mostly been polishing and riding his new Triumph T140 that, to his amusement, has been so reliable he and his friend are heading up to the Classic show in Shetland – from Devon! I’ve been trying to ready my Honda café racer for use after an eternity sitting in my dining room – purely to warm the carb rubbers you understand... It wasn’t revving in the mid-range cleanly and once the carbs were off I could see why. The diaphragms were fine but as I tried to drain the float bowls, one refused – a look inside revealed a fluorescent orange crud filling every jet hole. After hours cleaning all four carbs it runs beautifully now – I can’t wait to try it on the road…