Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i Classic Bike Guide

WHAT HO! AND WELCOME TO YOU, OH lovers of old bikes and dirty fingernails. What a month we’ve had, with the world attempting to restart after the head gasket blew and the ignition cable snapped, retarding our ignition for a year. Meeting folk, riding for the hell of it without an excuse and enjoying the summer weather has felt as nice as a newly fitted chain, and while to many it’s been somewhat strange, it is, I’m sure, welcome. Apart from remembering what we all look like without masks. I’m still getting nightmares. We had to find our Norfolk passports, bathe, shave and rid our robes of moths to live it up at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where we met many old friends. Goodwood is primarily a car event…

Watsonian has built a concept sidecar for the BMW R 18 Classic cruiser, featuring an all-new body shell and many bike-specific details. Demand for sidecars has remained strong over the past 18 months, particularly from owners of retro and cruiser machines, and Watsonian recognised the new BMW R 18 Classic would be suited to sidecar duties. Inspired by BMW’s rich heritage, the design team at Watsonian chose a new body shell that has been in development during lockdown, because its lines match those on the bike and its shape is evocative of BMW sports cars of the 1930s. There is a new platform chassis, with independent suspension, and an R 18 front wheel for physical and aesthetic balance. To mount the sidecar as close the motorcycle as possible, a section…

The seventh National Motorcycle Museum ‘Live’ event is to be held on October 30/31. This great event is when the museum throws open its doors free of charge to all. Now one of the largest events in the biking calendar, there will also be a host of free attractions. These include an indoor trade and autojumble area, ‘meet the experts’ sessions, Steve Plater introducing Henry Cole and Friends live on stage, and a live start-up of a selection of race bikes old and new. Parking is free to bikes, and £10 for cars. Parking is limited and car sharing is encouraged. We’ll be there and we hope to see you there too. To find out more visit www.nationalmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk/event-directory/museum-live…

Having just passed my bike test at the sage old age of 68 and now with the addiction of riding on two wheels, I’ve got the hankering of getting my hands dirty and squandering lots on restoring a classic bike. I’m relatively up on mechanics, having restored Second World War Jeeps and trucks with engine rebuilds, but for some reason I’m dreading buying a ‘restoration project’ as I haven’t a clue what I’d be looking at... it could be an a**e end of a donkey for all my knowledge of bikes! So my quandary is – what bike should I attempt first? My leaning is a BSA 1950s onwards, but again... so many sweets in the sweetie shop! Andy Jones PS. Should I spend my money on a psychiatrist instead?…

August 29: Autojumble, Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum: New Milton, Hants. www.sammymiller.co.uk 29-30: Notts Classic Car and Motorcycle Show: A two-day bank holiday weekend event full of motoring heritage. Ideal for enthusiasts, families and day trippers, this event will feature an exciting display of vintage, classic and modern classic motorcycles and cars. The will also be trade and autojumble stalls, and food, drink, and ice cream. The event will feature a full vehicle concours and awards ceremony. Awards will be presented for a range of vehicle age groups. Each participating vehicle exhibitor will also receive a complementary commemorative plaque. To show off your bike, just turn up on the day and pay a reduced £5 entry fee per classic vehicle with up to two adults. Thoresby Park, near Ollerton, Notts, NG22…

AS A KID I GREW UP UNDER CARS, my dad being a motor mechanic. I first saw a cam belt on a car engine (possibly a Cortina) when it had broken with the resultant carnage sometime in the mid to late-1970s and made my mind up then that they were not a ‘good thing’. Far too complex compared to the overhead valve (ohv) pushrod engines I was used to. Of course, I now understand the advantages of overhead cam engines and that design has moved on a little with cam belts, overhead cam (ohc) being the norm in car engines. The belt solution for ohc drive has not become so popular in bike engines for some reason, although Ducati & Honda seem to use it to some success; the Honda…

A time when a chap was young enough to cope with pushing a comatose Norton until he could find a phone box of the Tardis variety and ring the supplying dealer WE ALL HAVE OUR FAVOURITE machines. Well… I certainly do, although I shouldn’t pretend that everyone’s the same, of course. And some of us probably have unfavourite machines as well. Well… I certainly do, although I’d not want to be more specific in case folk take offence, in the mysterious modern way of things. However, I wonder how many of us also have a jinx machine? Not one specific motorcycle, but a single model. Mine is a Norton, the 650SS. I know, I know – lots of enthusiasts claim that the 650SS is some kind of perfected Norton twin.…

■ Another Era Great riders, amazing engineering, futuristic aero and old-school circuits... Bill Lomas on the Moto Guzzi V8 runs wide at Glemseck Kurve after outbraking Geoff Duke on Gilera 4-Cilindri in the 1956 German GP at the Solitude circuit. ‘Dustbin’ fairings helped the bikes hit huge top speeds and increased the spectacle of these futuristic machines, with Duke hitting 99.97mph in 1955 at the Isle of Man, and Bob McIntyre hitting the magic 100mph in 1957 – both on the Gilera 500-4. The fairings were banned shortly after for their lack of stability in sidewinds, and fans liked seeing the incredible engineering underneath – none more so than the Moto Guzzi V8, an engine before its time – and before chassis, tyres and most riders’ ability, too. Lomas was…

The VMCC is offering vehicle insurance to VMCC members at competitive rates. The scheme offers low-cost cover to members, and classic insurance for both young and older riders who might be finding it difficult to obtain classic cover. The scheme is run by Peter James Insurance. The club suggests that for the great majority of members VMCC Club Cover is likely to be the cheapest available on a like-for-like basis, but advises members that they should always shop around for quotes. VMCC Club Cover is primarily aimed at members’ bikes and three-wheelers over 25 years old. The policy can also include modern machines, machines not registered for road use, machines undergoing or awaiting restoration, modern and classic cars, private-use vans, and trailers. The key exclusion to note is cover does…

British bike specialist SRM is offering a range of sump filter kits, designed as a direct replacement for the original steel sump plate. The CNC billet alloy sump has a stainless steel sump drain plug featuring an integral magnet, to capture any steel or cast-iron deposits. The drain plug is useful when performing an oil change and handy for draining crankcases, prior to starting, if the bike has wet-sumped or been standing. The kits come with gaskets and fitting screws. They fit BSA unit and pre unit twins and pre unit and unit singles and pre unit Triumphs. Kits are £52.02 plus postage. Visit www.srmclassicbikes.com…

He may have raced modern bikes, but it seems only fitting to mark the retirement of one of (if not THE) greatest motorcycle racer we have ever seen. At the end of the year, Valentino Rossi will retire from racing after 26 years. Speaking at the Styrian Grand Prix in Austria, where the Italian won his first Grand Prix race in 1996, he said: “It’s difficult, it’s a very sad moment because it’s difficult to say and to know that next year I will not race motorcycles. I’ve done this for more or less 30 years so next year my life will change. But anyway, it was great, I enjoyed it very much, it’s a long, long journey and it was really, really fun.” If we look back at the…

DESPITE YEARS OF ‘GOING ALONG with it’ and walking miles around exhibition halls and animal sheds at county showgrounds, I have never been able to comprehend the idea of a static motorcycle or car show. The whole idea of vehicles is that they move; they stir our passions by taking us on rides that we hear, feel and control. This displeasure plateaued some years ago when I saw an admittedly beautiful-looking Honda get a Best In Show award – congratulations. The 40-year-old bike looked brand new, and must have taken some time and patience to get so gorgeous. And then – like finding out your horse came second, not first – I discovered it had been brought in a van and had never been started, as it had no engine…

THE CHAP FROM HAMLINS Engineering said: “I’ve got some good news and some bad news.” The good news from the engineering shop really was good – for my pocket, at least. I’d presented Hamlins with a mushroom crate containing four barrels for the Morini. Two were the originals and two from my parts engine. I also had two standard bore pistons. I took the barrels to Hamlins for checking, as parts supply was going to be an issue. Oversized pistons up to 63mm are unobtainable, but I could get new standard bore pistons or I could get the barrels rebored out to 64mm, increasing the capacity by 25cc. Pistons for this, known as the 375 conversion, are also available, but it does make the liner very thin at the bottom.…

IMAGINE YOUR BIKING HISTORY IS THAT YOU RODE A Suzuki X1 sports moped on L-plates, then after you passed your bike test in 1997, you rode a Honda VFR400, a Husqvarna 610, a Kawasaki ZX7R and a Honda CB600RR. And then you decide you want a British classic. Where should you start? The man facing this dilemma was Paul Cross. He works for Williams, the F1 car builder, in its advanced engineering department, and has been working on developing a battery to supply Triumph for its proposed electric sports bike. Then Paul found a Norton Navigator for sale locally. “It just came at the right price” he said, snapping it up, bringing it home, and getting to work, having decided to turn it into a café racer. It fits in…

Derek Rickman, one half of the sibling team that built the famous Rickman motorcycles, has died aged 88. As well as being the builder of road and off-road racers and beautifully handcrafted road bikes under the Rickman banner with brother Don, Derek was a champion motocross racer. He won the Motocross des Nations five times with the British team and the 750cc Coupe d’Europe series in 1966. Derek and Don Rickman sold their late father’s garage business in Hampshire and used the money to open a motorcycle shop and workshop. They designed their own off-road frame and came up with the idea of containing the oil inside its nickel-plated frame tubes, and idea later copied by BSA/Triumph, who also painted their frames dove grey to emulate the Rickman’s’ nickel plating.…

49 euro, delivered This landmark model made its public debut in October 1992, almost 30 years ago, and continues in production today – albeit in 2021 for the first time ever with anything other than a tubular steel trellis frame. Written by revered motorcycle journalist Alan Cathcart, who is no stranger to the Italian marque, this is the first of two volumes telling the Monster’s story and includes a detailed description by its creator, Miguel Galluzzi, of how the original concept came about. This first book covers the desmodue two-valve models built over the years, with a second volume covering the desmoquattro versions with four valves per cylinder coming later this year. Ducati Monster has been published in two languages, English and Italian and full details are available at www.motoitaliane.it/en/books.…

RetroClassic Clothing has launched the perfect range of apparel for the classic-vehicle enthusiast in the family. Whether their passion lies with two wheels or four, or even with propellers or steam, the latest designs will make the ideal gift. They’re not just T-shirts – they’re an emotive slice of history and a celebration of a bygone era. Since launching its first range of T-shirts in January 2012, RetroClassic Clothing has grown from being run out of a spare room by founder Adam Allen to an international business shipping an ever-growing range of quality apparel around the world. The designs encompass a variety of themes, with new designs created for this year, including iconic aircraft such as the Lancaster and Spitfire, classic hot-rods, and two-wheeled legends such as Matchless and Harleys.…

ORIGINALLY, THIS STORY CAME VIA a problem. The daughter of a reader, Maria Camilleri-Fischer, who lives in New York, USA, but buys a subscription to Classic Bike Guide for her father, Michael, who lives in Malta, had an issue with said subscription. We subsequently got onto the topic of old bikes, as one does, when we realised it may be of interest to others. Michael moved continents, but his love of old bikes still exists, even when living on a small island like Malta, where parts are not so easy to get! I’ll let Maria take the story from here... Your gesture to mention my dad and his bikes in a future issue inspired me to document his love for his bikes, and I am in the process of creating…

I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE. DESPITE SPENDING four decades or so riding motorcycles, until a few weeks ago I’d never ridden a Norton. Fortunately, this sad omission from my record was solved by James Ward, who offered me a ride on his Norton. What delight did he have to tempt me? A Featherbed-framed Dominator? An Atlas? Maybe a Commando? Or, heaven forfend, a Manx? It was, in fact, a Model 77. A what? The Model 77 was that most semi-sensible of things – a 600cc Dominator engine in a straight-forward frame built primarily for sidecar use. James’s example had its chair removed long ago. “I bought it in 2006,” he says. “It had been the favourite bike of Pat and Sylv Ifold, who were members, like me, of Wells…

I WENT TO A SMALL BIKE SHOW IN A LOCAL pub car park at the weekend. Billed as an ‘Interesting Bike Show’, there were some superb classics and customs. These included a few immaculate Italians, including a gorgeous round case Ducati 750 and a rare Laverda SFO 750 twin. There was a spotless Dresda Triton, and a few lovely 1970s AMF Harley-Davidsons. I parked my somewhat dog-eared T140 Bonneville in the corner, feeling a little embarrassed at the state of the thing in such illustrious company. Yet, to my surprise, the old Bonneville attracted attention as it sat there marking its territory with the odd drip of 20-50 multigrade, much of that attention being appreciative. Many of the visitors started their conversations with “I used to have one of those”,…

AFTER THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS OF problems with paint reacting from oil getting into the air supply via the compressor, this month has been a rather frustrating time of rubbing down the frame, subframe, stands and fairing mounts. Again. Seems easy, if laborious, yet I cannot help but miss areas of parts on fiddly subframes and fairing mounts – and that includes when I’m painting! I used an angle grinder with my favourite Norton Blaze discs to remove the old paint and rust on the untouched parts, but the subframe has some niggly areas, like where the shocks mount. So I blasted them with sand and blew clean with the air gun. The frame was great other than where I’d missed sections (underneath), so that just needed roughing up…