Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2022 i Classic Bike Guide

GREETINGS ALL! MAY THE SUN BE shining in your general direction and your cockles be warm. As I write this (in the middle of December) it’s brass monkeys and I’ve just returned from my local army/navy surplus with new (to me) thermals, jumpers and boots. Tight, me? Call me Wee-willy-winky… It is all change as the seasons move around here at CBG Towers. Playing on, repairing or even riding our bikes has given way to chainsawing wood for the ‘burner, giving the Land Rover a birthday and moaning about ‘how quick the days go dark’. Was it really just three months ago we were sitting at a bike meet, drink in hand, with nothing but an ageing shirt under our jacket? Still, it happens every year and we really should…

NAKED NORTON Norton Motorcycles has revealed a prototype of the V4CR, a naked Café Racer derivative of the V4SV superbike. This is the first prototype to be designed, engineered and built at Norton’s recently opened UK facility. Sharing the 185bhp 1200cc V4 engine and engineering advancements from the V4SV, the new V4CR’s stripped-back appearance is of a 21st century Streetfighter rather than classic 60s café racer. The V4RC features a polished aluminium frame and single-sided swing-arm that have been CNCmachined from billet, as well as all-carbon fibre covers over the engine’s top end and a carbon tank. There are Brembo brakes, Ohlins suspension and what looks like a very loud exhaust and a shorter subframe and tail section than the fully faired SV. Firestone rubber for classics and customs Looking…

SOME READERS MAY RECALL OUR APRIL 2021 feature about ‘Mike the Bike’ and his rather splendid Norton Dominator 99. Mike, we learned, is fortunate to have a shed stuffed with desirable British and Japanese classics. I also knew Mike had recently acquired a lovely 1958 Model 50 (pre-featherbed) – a classic bequeathed to Mike by his late brother, Ian, following a terminal illness. The brothers were members of the Scottish Classic Motorcycle Club, and Ian’s Norton was much admired at local classic events and during SCMC club nights. I was a fan of Ian’s 350 and had relentlessly pestered Mike for its story when writing up his 99. I had the good fortune to swap bikes with Ian once during a classic gathering at Loch Tay, and I never forgot…

Honda CB400F The CB400 Four is an excellent motorcycle. In its time it was a groundbreaker and for a while you couldn’t move for them on the street. Developed from the CB350 Four that never made it into British showrooms, the sohc four had a decent spec. Honda increased the bore of the 350 to take the engine out to 408cc, modified the cylinder head to raise the compression ratio and there was a sixth gear, too. It ditched the K-series look to make things feel far more European, with lower handlebars and slicker styling. One of the key features was the striking four-into-one exhaust system, that swooped elegantly around the front-mounted oil filter. And it had another benefit, as when it was launched in 1975 nobody else was making…

WHAT I WANTED TO SAY WAS I ENJOY riding a motorcycle as much in winter as I do in summer. Sadly, although that might be an eye-catching theme, it’s not entirely true. Even the most hardy of enthusiasts must surely confess that they prefer riding in T-shirt and jeans weather rather than in climes demanding that we wrap up like bouncy polar explorers. So, an exaggeration. Maybe. But when I was (even) younger and (even) more foolish, I did in fact derive considerable self-satisfaction from riding out on my motorcycle whatever the weather. But, really, that is all it’s about. Self-satisfaction. That private smug sensation that some of us suffer from when sitting on a wild moor or a screaming ocean clifftop while sleet howls in from the north and…

And you thought we’d seen some changes in the last couple of years? This superbly caught photograph was taken in 1910 – that’s 111 years ago. Even the youngest of children looking at the Triumph rider, being questioned by the police officer about his licence, would be around four of five years old and, judging by the scene, were rural children. A single-speed Triumph would definitely be something to rush out and see as it chugged past! The policeman on his bicycle was less lucky, though I wonder if he flagged down said motorcyclist or chased him? What was to come their way... in a few years’ time, what they all knew would change forever thanks to the First World War. I’m guessing none of those pictured would have been…

IT IS ALMOST FIVE DECADES SINCE THE last BSA rolled off the production line in Small Heath, Birmingham. Now BSA is back, with a new owner and a range of five new models, all called the Gold Star and all fitted with a new 650cc single-cylinder engine. BSA say their new bikes are: “Designed in the UK, engineered in the UK, industrialised in the UK”... and it hopes to build them in the UK, too. BSA has launched big, showing off the five new models with different paint, levels of trim, and accessories. The top-of-the-range Legacy Edition has the silver paint and chrome detailing of the original DBD34 Gold Star, while other models have paint with a touch of US scrambler flair or tough black, silver or dark green glossy…

January? How did that happen? Your last chances are coming up to finish off that winter project and make no excuses about how cold the shed is. Dining rooms/bedrooms are easily converted into workshops, after all... tell anybody who complains that you have our permission. In the meantime, there might not be too many runs or meetings going on but there are plenty of shows and jumbles in the next few months, so dig out the bobble hat and fingerless mittens and let’s go shopping. We’ll be at Newark, so come and say hello! January 2022 1 New Year’s Day Gathering: Bank Holiday Meeting of all kinds of historic vehicles, plus a short run out organised by VMCC Somerset section, 10am at Huntworth Cattle Market, A38 near Bridgwater TA6 6LQ…

TRYING TO ENVISAGE HONDA’S CBR600F labelled as a ‘classic’ motorcycle just feels odd to those of us who grew up with them and ridiculous to those older. The initial image of a CBR in your mind bears no resemblance to the similar initial image when asked to picture a classic bike. But time is a cruel mistress and her clock forever ticks, and that one-time winner of everything it entered is now a classic – all but the final two years of production (of the steel-framed models we are looking at) are eligible for the Vintage Motorcycle Club’s 25-year-old rule. And, not only are they classic through age, but also through success. They may also be one of the best buys you ever make. The late 1980s was an exciting…

THE NOW NOT-SO-NEW TO ME Douglas is still on the bench. Other bikes have stopped me getting on with it as quickly as I would have liked, but it is ever so. The bike fires up in a couple of kicks and runs nicely, but there are still a couple of safety-type jobs I want to see to before venturing out on it. One of these is the less-than-secure (in my opinion) mounting of the handlebars. The ‘bars are mounted on dogbonestyle risers from the top yoke, and the risers themselves are obviously homemade, so they don’t clamp the handlebars particularly well at one end. At the yoke end, they are meant to be mounted on a taper but are obviously just located in a drilled hole, giving a line…

HOORAY! ALL THE POWDER coating is back and it looks glorious in the late autumn sunlight. Well, it would do if it wasn’t under the industrial cling wrap! Once unwrapped, to say I’m impressed is an understatement, as Mark Forder at Perfect Coatings in Bedfordshire has excelled himself. Everything looks so much better than I’d dared hope for and, by opting for the zinc-rich primercum-basecoat, most of the frame’s imperfections have been pretty much eradicated. Now I can crack on. First up is the swing arm and its metalastic bushes. As you might hope, there is no powder coating in the tubular registers for the bushes, but I still give the internal faces another a quick whizz with an abrasive cylinder via the Dremel. Taking one bush at a time…

NEW ZEALANDER MIKE NOONAN WAS ALWAYS fascinated with speed pursuits; after he’d been to the Isle of Man TT, he thought of it as an amazing experience. He also realised that it takes a special type of person to achieve top speeds on such a course: “I realised that I’ve got some skills, but not such skills like a TT rider. I’ve always been aware of Bonneville land speed racing (LSR), and it is something where you don’t get tangled up with other people.” Mike’s final trigger of contemplating a Bonneville speed record was watching The World’s Fastest Indian movie – not in the way of copying it, but perceiving it as being accessible to an everyday person. “There were people who said ‘come on, what makes you think you…

TURNING UP TO THE NEW HEADQUARTERS OF Norton Motorcycles at Solar Park in Solihull, Birmingham (embarrassingly in a car), was, in itself, a statement. Gone was the princess palace of Donington Hall and in its place, a purpose-made modern building, complete with security guard to let us in with a cheery wave and a magnificent presence to the frontage. I’m in the right place. The large new reception is, had it not been for the press conference, where they usually house the company collection of historic Nortons for customers to see when visiting to either order, specify or collect their new machine. No one can fail to be impressed. Today though, it is filled with journalists, members of the Norton Owners Club, suppliers, local councillors and the all-new Norton management.…

“Combat Wombat, Road Toad and Dirt Squirt are just a few of the names chosen to get a potential buyer’s attention back in the day.” FORTY YEARS. WHEN FOUNDED BACK in 1982 by Mike Ridley, the nascent club was almost a spin-off of the American VJMC, founded some five years previously. Membership was initially in the tens, then moved into the hundreds, before finally passing the 1000 mark a few years later. Today, the VJMC in the UK has in excess of 5700 members and continues to grow as lads and lasses from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s relive their youth. Truth be told, the VJMC recognises any Japanese motorcycle more than 15 years old, which has always helped widen its appeal. With every model of machine effectively designed and…

My ‘89 is an FJ model. My friend Rachel had it from three years old when we were instructors. Later, I used it (with top box and minus fairing lowers) to start my own training school. It never let me down. After years languishing in a shed, I turned it into a naked bike, hoping to mimic a modern café racer. It took 10 years, but it’s still a joy to ride. My other is an FV, a 1997 model. This was completely stripped, checked and rebuilt with all bushes and bearings replaced to go club racing. It has a Penske shock (fully adjustable and taller), K-tech re-shimmed forks, ported head, later inlet cam, quickshifter, two teeth more on the rear sprocket and one less on the front, a Hindle…

ALL RIGHT, SO LAST MONTH I GOT CARRIED away. I had a shiny, painted frame and subframe, rebuilt forks, built front wheel and I felt compelled to start pulling all the pieces together. I have to say it felt great, any time I was leaving the workshop and closing the door I would have a quick look back at ‘my bike’ coming together. But it didn’t tell the whole truth. There had been many issues before that, so let’s have a look – it may help some folk. How do you clean old alloy parts, then keep them looking good? There are many ways to clean aluminium parts, depending on the material, the amount of corrosion, what tools you have and accessibility to all the surfaces. Or, you can strip…