Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2021 i Classic Bike Guide

“Some of the wiring was a bit confusing, with the same grey wires used for connecting many things, but the actual wiring job was very well done.” T WAS ONE OF THOSE SERENDIPITOUS MOMENTS. MY mate Johnny had posted a picture online of his latest acquisition, a 1954 BSA M21 with an old Watsonian chair attached. As he already owned several desirable classic motorcycles, I needed to know how he managed to keep coming across them. He revealed a few closely guarded secrets... and then he mentioned that he had heard of a 1956 Matchless G3 that was for sale, complete with the famed Jampot rear suspension. Now, I had fancied a Heavyweight AMC single for ages, and this seemed right up my street. Arrangements were made to come and…

THE FIRST DAY OF MARCH DAWNED with clear skies as I left the south coast, aiming to beat the inevitable traffic chaos that central London would undoubtably bring. Destination, Kensington to meet fellow biker and thoroughly good egg Howard; plus one semi-complete Honda PF50 Novio with several large boxes of ‘rusty gold’ from the 1970s. A frame from an Amigo moped, spare engine plus a plethora of parts that had all met with an angle grinder or mig welder in a distant past. Anyway, I spent most of my time admiring Howard’s 1980s CB900 custom, especially the open-ended pipes that most of the nation’s capital appreciated when he fired her up for my pleasure. The story behind all these items (that I would pay too much for) revolved around a…

I BLAME YET MORE MONEY LOST TO THE BIKING CAUSE on my friend, BMW stalwart and all-round good egg, Rob Bensley. For years Rob has been spending his own time and money organising superbly-organised ‘better riding’ trackdays, used to race boxers and still thinks nothing of shooting up to Scotland or down through mainland Europe on his modern bike – and yes, it’s a boxer. His contact list is broad and wide, so when I read his round-robin email saying some friends had an early R100 for sale, I inquired. Some emails, phone calls, a house move and a lockdown later, Maria and I were coming back with, for once, a bike that was better than hoped-for in the back of the van. FIRST IMPRESSIONS Magazines, the tool kit, the…

I HAVE A NEW TOY IN THE SHED, A 1947 MODEL G Royal Enfield; it’s quite pretty, certainly compared with the states in which I usually acquire my personal bikes. The bike starts and runs okay-ish... but I like to give all my bikes a bit of a going-over before anything else, it helps to get to know a bike on a spanner level, and certainly better than you can when viewing a bike to buy. A couple of new tyres were fitted, as the ones it came with appeared that they could have been almost original fitment, the carb was removed to give it a looking at, as it was a little leaky. One of the other jobs on my list was to inspect the ignition timing. I find…

Think of 50cc bikes as ‘just’ a 16-year-old’s steed at your peril – these tiddlers have seen some serious racing action over the years. The 1963 IOM TT saw the first and only overall win by a Japanese rider/bike combination when Mitsuo Itoh aboard a 50cc Suzuki averaged 78.81. In the same race, Bill Ivy rode the ‘Sheene Special’ which was designed and constructed the previous winter by Frank Sheene, a lifelong road racer who regularly competed across the country accompanied by his young son Barry. The Sheene Special finished an excellent 7th overall at an average of 61.12mph and powered by a Spanish Ducson that offered 9bhp at 11,000rpm; the bike tipped the scales at just 38.5kg. In 1977 a 50cc Kreidler-powered streamliner named Black Arrowed was piloted by…

NMM REFUSED COVID GRANT, SELLS BIKES THE NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM has sold off some of its classic motorcycles as it tries to raise the money it needs to keep operating. The sale follows the refusal of a grant from the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund, a move described as a “bitter blow” by the museum. The fund was established by Government to “provide funding support to organisations across the heritage ecosystem that were financially sustainable before Covid-19”. The National Motorcycle Museum receives no external funding, relying on the support of visitors to the museum, and on the income from the attached conference business and two sister hotels, to stay open. In rejecting the application, The Heritage Lottery Fund said that it “did not meet the criteria for the programme, and the…

THERE’S A PHOTOGRAPH IN EXISTENCE OF the gates of the BSA factory in Armoury Road in the late 1960s. Riding through the factory is a helmetless test rider, on what looks like a 650 Thunderbolt, and a tired Ford D Series lorry is exiting the site. Parked by the side of the road are a Mini, a Hillman Minx and four motorcycles. There is a venerable old BSA B31, and an unidentifiable Villiers engined commuter. And there are two Hondas. Given the damage Honda were doing to BSA’s business by recklessly building superior small two-wheelers, it’s surprising that anyone would be so provocative as to park their machines, like tiny Trojan horses, right outside the Small Heath citadel of British motorcycles. BSA management were not overly concerned about these tiny…

DO YOU OWN A CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE? GREAT, aren’t they? You’d ride them all the time, if you could. But sometimes, well, it’s just not practical. Perhaps it’s raining and your electrical system is troublesome. Or the farmers have been out spreading the contents of their fields over the roads. Or the nights are getting darker, and that six-volt headlight bulb isn’t exactly illuminating. The magneto is playing up, and the clutch needs a tweak. And those city streets are a bit slippery too and the five inch 50-year-old drum brake isn’t really up to it. And you just want to nip down the shops, or to the pub, and know the bike will start when you’ve got kitted up and when you want to go home, possibly after a 15…

THE FIRST AMC TWIN I RODE WAS A NON- roadworthy Matchless 500 on Southport beach with a friend when we were just 15 years old. It was the early 1970s and at that time there was a selection of young men in Southport, Merseyside, who would push their motorbikes and scooters down to the beach and ride them for miles. On the beach there were no licence, MoT or insurance laws. Our particular push to the beach would take us through Birkdale, past a pub where a boy would make rude gestures at us; that boy was Lee Mack, now a famous comedian. The other claim to fame on that push was we went past Ginger McCain’s stables, home to Red Rum, where we would often see the famous racehorse…

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE SUMMER OF 1980. I was at an agricultural show in Devon, because that’s what teenagers did in Devon for weekend entertainment in 1980. You went to an agricultural show, looked at tractors, and then retired to the bar where the licensing regulations were purely advisory. Inexplicably there was a motorcycle dealership with a stand. Not just any dealership either, as the bikes they brought along were a bit special. There was a Benelli 750 Sei, a Ducati Pantah and a bright orange Laverda Jota. And the dealer did not mind people sitting on them, which was another surprise as at most of the dealers I knew of, just looking at a bike closely was tantamount to jumping on board and riding off. I tried the…

A FEW YEARS AGO A MAN FROM IRELAND phoned Tony Leenes. Tony, known as Mr Indian of Holland, has an Indian museum in the town of Lemmer, but also sells vintage Indians, parts and restores old Indians. The Irishman asked: “Will you please do a restoration on my motorcycle?” To which Tony replied with: “what is that ‘please’ for?” The answer was that he had received the same answer from pretty much all renowned Indian restorers all over the world... namely a firm ‘no!’ The reason being that all said that ‘that thing’ was too bad and far too incomplete. Disappointed, the man continued his search for somebody who could do a restoration job, until a friend told him about Tony. “I know a man in the Netherlands that I…

FOR TOO LONG I HAVE BEEN IGNORING THE FACT that when I switched on the lights of my otherwise nearly perfect 1956 BSA DBD34 Gold Star, the ammeter swung over to the minus side; the battery was being discharged. As my riding is during daylight hours and the noise from the bike is a pretty good warning to others of my presence, I didn’t worry about it. Until my chum Alan, a Norton fan, suggested that he and I go out for an evening blast – he on his newly rebuilt Manx. I am confident that the Goldie would storm ahead, but I would certainly not be in the lead after dark. Something had to be done… With my trusty digital multimeter I checked the battery at rest and then…

Being an ‘S’ model, there should be a headlight bikini fairing and the logbook says it should be red. Yet we have an ‘RS’ fairing and a really professional paint scheme that must have cost a fortune. But Brian bought the bike as it is, so couldn’t shed any light. Oh I love a little detective work! Brian and Denise had owned the R100S since August 1983, when it was a mere five years old. They had holidays on the bike, both children had their initiation into motorcycling on it and Brian even taught other riders on it as he was in the ambulance service. However, the last tax disc is from 1996, when Brian was no longer able to ride. The bike stayed with the family until reality hit…