Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2022 i Classic Bike Guide

Meteor 350 When I rode the Meteor 350 at its launch, I liked it a lot but I wasn’t keen on the lack of top end performance or the heel and toe forward gearshift that took me a while to get used to. Fast-forward six months and I’m trying another Meteor, this one on very different roads. Instead of smooth Cotswold tarmac and idyllic little villages, there’s bumpy, wide Cornish highways and insanely twisty coastal tracks. The gearshift is now better positioned, and with a few thousand miles on the clock, the Dorothy’s Speed Shop Meteor is an altogether more usable motorcycle. It’s comfier with the seat broken in, barrels along nicely, and while it still struggles a bit at fast highway speeds, it feels a whole lot smoother than…

Seat Made from the best seat foam known to man and more comfortable than it deserves to be. Pillion seat is high, but does include the famous ‘Blade boot’, which will take a rainsuit or sarnies. Tank The ’Blade is wide. Enormous tank hides huge airbox, but also gives decent range when just touring. Clip on ’bars are not too low and depending on your size, it can be a good distance muncher, living off that torquey engine. Engine All depends on previous owners. First year bikes had clunky gear shifts, sorted for ’93/94. Due to price, many will have fallen into skint hands, so do your homework and quiz the seller on care and maintenance – there are enough around. All the usual Honda rules apply; shouldn’t smoke, rattle…

AT LAST I’VE BEEN ABLE TO FIT the rear wheel into the Yamaha AS1’s swingarm. It’s all taken far longer than it should but that is quite often the very nature of motorcycle restoration. When you study the rear wheel assembly of a period Japanese machine, you can see the thought and detail within the design that allows it all to be so easily built up. First up is the sprocket carrier, which runs its own bearing in addition to the pair with the rear hub. With a new, sealed bearing there’s apparently no real need for the seal. However, the seal also functions as fixing for the LHS wheel spacer, which in turn acts as a guide for the threaded sprocket shaft. The re-zinced pattern sprocket was fixed with…

The AS1’s clutch will be fitted with brand new springs regardless of what came with the bike/project/wreck. The normal arbiter for such springs is a relatively simple assessment of their overall length, which is said to be sufficient analysis of their viability. Sadly, previous experience with a very similarly designed and built Yamaha YL1 has convinced me that length is only part of issue. Even when these springs are within specification in terms of length, they can still fail in use, as very annoyingly proved with the smaller twin. Even when equipped with new friction plates, the clutch span up in top gear and slipped like mad under load. The only reasonable conclusion was that despite ‘being within specification’, the springs had weakened over time. Some detailed Googling has subsequently…

Here we see the rather pretty, if not well-known, Csepel 350cc on show at the 1951 Dutch Motorcycle Show. They had a good stand with 125, 250 and this 350cc on display; all two-strokes, as well as bicycles. The Hungarian manufacturer made bikes until as late as 1975 which tried to find a market in the USA. But they would have looked out-of-date, thanks to a lack of development due to Eastern politics. Back in 1951, the 350cc looked to be remarkably forward-thinking with tech, including a unit engine and four-speed gearbox, shaft drive, telescopic forks and plunger rear suspension. The seat also sports a cantilever-sprung saddle, a good-size front drum, smart, swooping frame rails and a rather unusual side port for the exhaust. I wonder if any made it…

THE DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN’S RIDE WAS AN IDEA thought up in Australia back in 2012 for riders of classic-style bikes to dress up once a year in their best attire, go for a ride, and raise money for men’s health charities such as prostate cancer and suicide prevention. In those 10 years, the idea has spread around the world to 115 countries, hosting multiple rides on the same day each year with more than 50,000 riders. And to date, around £30 million pounds has been raised – a remarkable achievement. To support such a worthy cause, we all donned our best rags and rode down to join in with the Bury St Edmunds-based ride in Suffolk, organised by an old boss of mine, Bernard Adams, along with many others, including local…

I KNOW CORNWALL PRETTY WELL, HAVING FIRST experienced it in back in 1987 when my Morini 350 was stolen by two lads from Camborne who used it to get home from Bristol and I had to go and pick it up from the police station. I spent a week hooning round the county and I’ve loved it ever since. Yet, to be honest, the signs for the Land’s End trip weren’t good. My obsessive checking of the weather forecast showed that things were not too promising. Still, it was a good ride to Barnstaple, using the old North Devon route through Wiveliscombe. This road is the old main route to the Devon/ Cornish coast, now replaced by the terribly dull North Devon Link Road. The old road twists and twines…

THE ORIGINS OF THE MOTO GUZZI V-TWIN engine aren’t entirely clear. One legend is that it first appeared in 1960 as the powerplant for a tricycle half-track for the Italian Army. There are also suggestions that the V7 engine was based on a 500cc, 90-degree V-twin motor designed for Fiat. The designers of the first 700cc engine were Guilio Carcano and Umberto Todero, who said they designed the Guzzi engine from scratch. This doesn’t stop Guzzi owners referring to their twins as ‘tractors’, tongues firmly in cheeks. The original Carcano-Todero V-twin was designed in the early 1960s as an air-cooled, longitudinal crankshaft, transverse cylinder, pushrod 700cc V-twin, producing 45bhp. It was built to win a competition sponsored by the Italian government for a new police and military bike and was…

I BOUGHT A USED GUZZI V7 STONE IN FEBRUARY, AND I think I may have found my perfect motorcycle. It’s 10 years old, and as it’s the early model it has a five-speed gearbox, not the six-speed, lacks ABS, and quite a lot of that modern stuff. The great thing about the V7 is – everything, really. You fire it up and it does the transverse V-twin-rock-from-side-to-side thing. It vibrates. Not a massive amount, but just enough to make it feel real. It’s light for a 750cc retro. It handles superbly and I expect it will handle even better once I swap the Pirelli tyres for something better... as they wear down, things are getting a bit twitchy. But that’s hardly the Guzzi’s fault. Power picks up immediately – more…

You don’t need more power unless you’re unhinged, but a good quality exhaust system and free-flowing air filter with some jetting adjustment on the dyno should give the best response possible, and a little more power. More than that needs new cams with more duration and cylinder head porting work with raised compression. And by now, possibly new rings and more. Fit a steering damper – essential. A good rear shock is £1000, so look for a second-hand one. Remember these are not Superbikes now, so you’re more likely looking for comfort. Front forks will be transformed by a good suspension firm to sort the rebound and give a well-needed service. If you are going on track, you may wish to fit higher footrests. New tyres are amazing, so sports…

I’M FRUSTRATEDLY BORED WITH THIS project right now. Hours of no success with the electrics is harrowing. All those thoughts of riding across the country to see friends on my Seventies stripey superbike are fading, lost presently in flashbacks of wiring diagrams – BMW seemed to change it every year and mine is an ‘S’ with an ‘RS’ fairing, so that makes it worse. It was all going swimmingly, too. And having to document the rebuild of this 1978 R100 every month feels a chore, stopping in the moment of every job to move a tripod, focus, get the right exposure, set the self-timer and then run to do – or let’s be honest, pretend to do – the job being described, then write it up. It’s more than doubled…

SUMMER’S HERE AND THE TIME IS RIGHT FOR going motorcycle touring. But what to take? Something shiny and new, covered in panniers and fairings? A large-capacity classic? Well, how about covering 8000 miles and doing it on a 1920s flat tanker with a Soviet-era Czech Army surplus bag to carry your kit? There’s a reason for this apparent madness. Twenty-three-year-old Harry Bott is taking on one hell of a challenge, but he’s doing it all for the worthiest of causes – raising money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). And the bike was his great grandfather’s, a 1926 Sunbeam that’s four times as old as Harry is. Harry is visiting all 238 RNLI stations in the UK and Ireland on his family’s oily relic. The side valve Sunbeam has…

THE BIKE SHED SHOW HAS BEEN GROWING SINCE its inception in a couple of railway arches rented for the weekend in 2013, with 3000 like-minded and curious folk coming to look at 55 alternative bikes. It has grown every year, and this time about 20,000 visitors looked at almost 300 bikes. What is the show? Cutting through the marketing buzzwords, it’s for those who want something a little different. Modified bikes, one-offs, specials... call them what you will – it’s about bikes made to be individual. Most are based around fairly modern machines, but there are always some great classic and classically-inspired bikes to see. We thought we’d have a look around and bring you a few of our favourites. At an amazing venue in the heart of London, with…

“If you read the advice on the TET website, it says: ‘Keep a fire alight all night to keep bears and wolves away’.” WHEN I JOINED THE TRANS-EUROPEAN TRAIL – TET for short – to make my way to the most southerly point of the planned route, I was surprised to find a smoothly tarmaced road that wound up into the hills, past some spectacular monolithic war monuments before turning to the more-expected dirt as it dropped down to the warm sunny coast of Albania. A spectacular ride, not too challenging, and finished with a pannier-cooled beer on the beach watching the sun go down. A trail rider’s dream! The next day I began making my way back north and inland, using tarmac roads to skip the section of TET…

Smaller, not further away From a distance you could be easily forgiven for mistaking a Moto Guzzi V50 for a Moto Guzzi 850 T3. The styling cues and mechanical basics that engineer and designer, Lino Tonti, brought across are all present in the newer, but smaller bike. In the new engine, Guzzi retained the tried and tested formula of a 90-degree V-twin, longitudinally mounted pushrod engine ahead of a large dry clutch, five-speed gearbox and shaft drive. It was designed from the start to be used in multiple capacities and a 346cc, the V35, would also be available. As you get closer, the differences of the new small block are clear. It’s a much lower, shorter and slimmer motorcycle, most noticeably at the bars, seat and tank. Unlike the bulging…

EVERYONE YOU WILL EVER MEET KNOWS everything there is to know about Triumph triples. Even if they’ve never ridden one – or indeed any other motorcycle, ancient or modern – they know all about Triumph triples. Years of blessedly brief encounters have confirmed this. Along with rotary Nortons and Harley-Davidsons, Triumph triples appear to inflame opinion in even the most resolutely disinterested folk. If you doubt this, write a story about a Triumph triple and talk some unwary editor into publishing it. Never fails. By now you will have observed that the photos which are hopefully nearby do not show a Triumph triple. Correct. I was intending to write about a truly remarkable – and indeed excellent – T160 Trident but caught myself just in time. And there was of…

RUNNING IN PERIODS, AND WHEN motors should be re-torqued, have oil changes and adjustments made, is neither an exacting or defined process. Everyone has their own opinions and processes, and some of the differences are applicable to different bikes etc. I like to retighten/re-torque top end fasteners to all motors that have been rebuilt after about 200 miles and again after another 500, although I am aware that some bikes (AMC twins for note) need their heads pulling down more than this. Engines where composite head gaskets have been used seem to need more re-tightening than those with copper (head gaskets). If an engine has been fully rebuilt I would probably also re-visit both the crankcase fasteners and engine mounting bolts and studs. With the bike on the bench, the…

“The only thing to do with the AJS, I decided, was to ride the Triumph, which looks appalling, sounds worse, but is so far a complete hoot.” DOES A REBUILD EVER REALLY END? IF so, at what point is that, exactly? My own fairly desperate attempts at reviving some moribund old nail rarely achieve anything like completion, although I know lots and lots of folk who can produce a perfectly running shiny motorcycle from what appeared to be a pile of rusty scrap. Even worse, they then claim to enjoy riding the thing and roar about the place either having a very good time or faking it very effectively. My own attempts are rarely like that. And if they are, if they unexpectedly turn out to leave the bench and…