Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2020 i Classic Bike Guide

UNLIKE MOST, I LIKE MONDAYS. I GET to read the various club mags that have come through, I may even peek through a rival mag or two, and then start on my chores. This week was the turn of ‘Horizontal View’, the mag of the Cossack Owners’ Club, and it had some fantastic stories inside. I don’t understand some, it has to be said, but the enthusiasm and amusement I get from the mag is brilliant – and I don’t even have a Cossack! I also like the reason behind why people have Cossacks. One journalist I know, and it has to be said, normally respect, wouldn’t be seen dead on any bike unless it was perfectly restored, well-revered and usually costly (he drives a Range Rover – get the…

READER JOHN KING is trying to track down his old BSA for a romantic reunification. John writes: “I’m hoping for readers’ help. In 1960, I bought a BSA A7 Shooting Star and later that year my fiancée and I were married, on July 23, in Chester. “Following the wedding reception, we set off on our honeymoon to Minehead, Somerset, on the A7 Shooting Star, registration number YTC 843. “Later this year we will have been married for 60 years, celebrating our diamond wedding anniversary. It would be marvellous if we could make contact with the current owner with a view to having our photograph taken with the old bike, 60 years on.” The Shooting Star is still on the DVLA database and a new registration document was issued in September…

A BRIGHT BUT CHILLY RIDE PILOTING THE mighty BSA Starfire on slippery Somerset roads was an invigorating start to the Carole Nash Bristol Classic Motorcycle Show weekend for me. The show was bracketed by torrential downpours and storm-force winds, but for once the actual show weekend was blessed with February sunshine – and a stiff breeze whistling across the site. There are many things that make Bristol – well, Shepton Mallet actually, around 20 miles from Bristol – worth the trip, not least the elbow room. Clubs get big pitches to play with and though the wind kept most folk indoors, apart from those queuing for a pasty or a bacon sandwich, there was still enough room and variety to satisfy jaded winter palettes. The best thing about the Bristol…

UNLIKE THE JAPANESE and European manufacturers we’ve looked at over the last couple of months, the British motorcycle industry didn’t embrace the small capacity motorcycle enthusiastically. Big bikes were where it was at and the industrial might of the nation was engaged in ‘export or die’ practices, desperately trying to make enough money to pay off the war debt, something that didn’t finally happen until 2006. US buyers were the biggest market and they wanted big bikes. One British manufacturer stated that they were happy to let the Japanese make small bikes as it saved them the trouble, and those new riders on 125s would buy British later. What they didn’t appreciate was that the Japanese would start making big bikes too. Not everyone ignored the threat from the Far…

IT’S A RED HOT DAY IN A RED HOT Mexican desert in June, 1969 and the Doug Douglas/Jim McClurg team has just crossed the line after winning the inaugural Baja motorcycle race. Their mount is a standard Ducati 350cc Scrambler, which looks more like a commuter machine than a desert racer. Despite this, it’s done the job. Later, the Baja 1000 would be immortalised in the 1972 film On Any Sunday but the 1969 event is scarcely documented – except for an old pamphlet picture on Google (and even then McClurg’’s name is spelt wrong). But publicity vacuums aside, the 1969 Baja marked a hugely significant stage in the evolution of Ducati’s off-road output –including the two machines in this feature. These machines – an R/T 450 Desmo and a…

The BSA Bantam flew through many people’s lives in one way or another. From 1946 until 1971, the two-stroke, unit single became a byword for lightweight, easy to ride and generally reliable transport; and, for many, the route to larger bikes. The design for the engine was taken, as it was by others, from German manufacturer DKW after the Second World War from their RT125 model. This was what the world needed to get moving again and the RT125 was simple to manufacture and a great design to boot. And simple to copy too, although BSA decided to produce the engine with a right-hand gear-change and imperial fixings to integrate with the rest of the range. The 123cc engine made between 4-5bhp from the loop-scavenged two-stroke design running a 24:1…

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEENS litter the history of motorcycles. In Britain there are the Norton Cosworth Challenge, The BSA Fury and the modular Triumph V5 to name but three. And there is the Clymer Indian Enfield. For many, this Anglo-Italian bitsa is up there with the pre-unit Bonneville, the Vincent Black Shadow and the Ducati 916 as one of the most beautiful motorcycles ever made. Floyd Clymer was a colourful character. A Ford main dealer at the age of 15, he raced Harley-Davidson bikes at 18, becoming one of the fastest men on two wheels. He started one of the first motorcycle magazines, Motorcycle Topics, before he was 25. He served time in the notorious Leavenworth Federal Prison for mail fraud in 1930/31, while at the same time helping his…

OWNERS OF THE POPULAR INDIAN single would probably agree that it’s not a motorcycle that turns heads or seduces dedicated riders of fashion. Obvious flaws are the grotesque dualseat, elongated silencer, bloated toolboxes and one of the blandest facades ever to ornament a motorcycle. On the upside, mechanical simplicity and everyday reliability are strong points – however, flowing lines and classic beauty score woefully low on the Bullet’s résumé. So as Louis’ pampered special left my garage, I picked up my well-thumbed Hitchcocks catalogue and began to think long and hard about my own Indian single... BRITANNIA RULES Down the years it would be fair to say that my Indian Bullet 500 has proved to be an excellent touring machine. Already the recipient of several Hitchcocks upgrades, it also benefits…

WHEN THE JAPANESE FACTORIES finally got to grips with making commercially viable motorcycles, they rapidly standardised the small but vitally significant components that can make or break owner satisfaction. One such item was the humble fuel tap and for once the device wasn’t a rework of an existing design, it was a completely fresh take on the concept. Careful to avoid tapered holes, springs or corks, the major players all opted for variations on the theme of a rotating lever carefully channelling petrol through just two chosen drillings. Key to the set-up were fuel resistant synthetic rubber gaskets, precision aluminium castings, along with connections to the petrol tank that were impervious to both fuel and vibration. Until the advent of fuel injection, the basic design of the humble Japanese fuel…

STEVE MCQUEEN MADE A BIG IMPRESSION ON bike riders all over the world when he jumped a Triumph over a barbed wire fence in The Great Escape. His air force leather jacket, chinos and blue sweatshirt with cut-off sleeves added to the ‘King of Cool’ legend. But McQueen didn’t make the jump. That was his close mate, Bud Ekins. So North One Television, who make Guy Martin’s programmes, along with Triumph Motorcycles and Dick Shepherd came about the idea to not only recreate the famous jump, but to clear both barbed wire fences – a feat not managed in the film. As with many things in TV, it’s big business. Working with North One Television, Guy’s TV programmes typically attract four million viewers in the UK and another 20 million…

WE LOST LES WILLIAMS LAST year – one of the characters who made Triumph at Meriden so successful. But this is not an obituary – lots of good scribes have done that already – as he had a sense of fun that hasn’t all been told in detail. You may have read about some of these tricks, but I hope when you read this it makes you smile and remember a man who was seldom in the limelight, but still a big influence. He was called up to do his National Service in 1952, but opted to sign on for three years as a regular soldier. As an apprenticed motor mechanic and a keen rider, he got a place with the Royal Corps of Signals and then made it into…

What’s on in April 2020 2 Mod ’n’ Mini Night: Ace Cafe, Ace Corner, N Circular Rd, Stonebridge, London NW10 7UD.london.acecafe.com 3 Bike Night + Streetfighters: Ace Cafe, Ace Corner, N Circular Rd, Stonebridge, London NW10 7UD. london.acecafe.com 3 MAY ISSUE OF THE CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE 4 APRIL ISSUE OF OLD BIKE MART 4 Mid Wales Cycle Jumble: National Cycle Museum, Llandrindod Wells. www.cyclemuseum.org.uk Enquiries stalls/ donations contact Steve on griffith531@hotmail.com 4 Kempton Park Motorcycle Autojumble: Kempton Park, Staines Road East, Sunburyon-Thames, Middlesex TW16 5AQ www.kemptonautojumble.co.uk 4 VMCC (Isle of Wight section) Isle of Wight Vintage and Classic Show: Winter Gardens, Ventnor. Tel. Keith Hadfield 01983 730559 or email keith. hadfield1@btinternet.com 5 The 2020 Cardiff Classic and Contemporary Motorcycle Show: Llanishen High School. Heol Hir, Llanishen, Cardiff CF14 5YL. Admission is…

A RARE NORTON RACER IS TO BE SOLD TO HELP save a listed building and arts centre for a west country village. Classic biker and former RAF pilot, Bill Southcombe, has put his 1930 Norton CS1 up for auction and will donate all the money raised to a campaign to buy an old church in Stoke-sub-Hambdon, Somerset. The old URC Church was built by one of Bill’s distant relatives. The Norton will be the third bike sold by Bill to help save the church which has been converted into a popular community arts centre. He’s already parted with a Model 23 New Imperial and a Norton ES2. The CS1 Is a very special machine. One of the first batch of OHC Nortons, it came off the production line on December…

AFTER TAKING A BREAK OF several months from my Norton ES2, I thought I would be looking at much progress, quite quickly. I was wrong. Despite ‘stepping back’ and just having a break, the problems were still there. So it was time to take stock of the whole project and see if a plan could be devised. Once I’d cleared a bench, all the parts, old and new, were laid out so I could see what we had. This was bought as a part-started project from a gentleman who was able to finish it, but wouldn’t be able to ride it once he’d put all the hard work into it, so he had decided to sell. It was stripped and some new parts were included, as well as some used…