Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2025 i Classic Bike Guide

May your diary be filled with riding and your lawn not need mowing. For it is zero hour, when months of waiting and weather-whinging turns into doubled-up diary dates! We started with our neighbours firing up the Garrett and Savage tractors for a jolly in prep for that world’s events coming up – a wonderful sound, sight, and smell. Garretts were built down in Suffolk, while Savages came from King’s Lynn – though this one has just been built! An incredible feat. The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride is covered elsewhere on page 32 but is always a nice meet-up with friends and ours started with pub breakfast – what better way. This is preferable to the other day… catching up with the TT Superstock race while having a little lunch in…

CCM goes into administration Just before this month’s issue of Classic Bike Guide went to press, it was announced that legendary British motorcycle manufacturer CCM had collapsed into administration after more than 50 years of manufacturing specialist motorcycles. Trials rider Alan Clews founded CCM as Clews Competition Machines in the early 1970s, when he bought huge quantities of surplus stock from BSA of its 500cc unit single engines as the Birmingham company went under. Clew’s machines were made with updated versions of the BSA engines in Clews frames at Jubilee Works in Bolton and flew the flag in British off-road competition for decades. More recently, CCM made road-legal off-roaders including the awesome GP450 rally bike, bikes for the British Army, and in 2017 a new range of radical roadsters appeared…

In 2012, Mark Hawwa started a ride in Sydney, Australia, to raise money and awareness for certain men’s health charities. It was inspired by a photo pf a TV character in a smart suit, riding his classic bike. It just looked cool, and Mark thought it could work as a fundraiser. Riding an old-style bike in your smartest finery with many like-minded souls may not be as tricky as hiking up Kilimanjaro but tell folk why you’re doing it, and many are happy to sponsor you. Thirteen years on, the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride – DGR for short – is still massively popular, raising more than £7,000,000 last year in 110 countries, and it continues to grow. This year the CBG gang met up with 40 or so friends, organised and…

CONSIDER THE SCENE. IT WAS A RAINY day, but I had a need to be elsewhere. Getting into and indeed out of the West Country can be a considerable and tedious challenge in the less chilly and wet months, so two wheels were my only option. I may dislike filtering, but needs must, as politicians are prone to pretending, so I took my mostly modern bike, for all the usual reasons. Indolence is high on my personal list here. On the way north, having negotiated the vast underwater carpark which pretends to be the M5 south of Bristol (I can’t figure out a route into Wales which avoids this), I pulled into the first fuel stop-cum-lunchtime-eatery to replenish man and motorcycle. It was raining. My nearly-new and enormously expensive top-quality…

Few elements in racing bring spine-tingling stories like the road racing world. Comebacks like Mike Hailwood after his 10-year hiatus, on a Ducati which few thought would finish (it actually broke going over the finish line)… Joey Dunlop winning the Senior in 2000 on a Honda, when many had written him off another ‘big bike’ win… and the one that gets me, when Michael Dunlop won the 250 race at the North West 200 in 2008, after being told not to race and being smuggled onto the start line having witnessed the tragic death of his father in the Thursday race, just two days earlier. Hollywood scripts couldn’t get close to the emotion of that one – and they’ve tried. Let’s take a look at this great story. In 1961,…

I like this show, and I use it to recharge my enthusiasm for projects at home. It is for custom bikes, and many are based on classics, while there are some truly individual takes on how people want their bike. Maria likes the show because of the completely different and broad mix of people coming to see the bikes. The average age is half of standard classic shows, really bringing home the fact that if you make a show worth coming to, they will come. It’s based in this unusual old dock building with lovely lighting, adding to the cool vibe. The food is not your usual rubbish, but hugely varied and lovely, if still not cheap; there are three bars, but it could do with more coffee outlets. Toilets…

As the British motorcycle industry disappeared up its own exhaust pipes at the end of the 1970s, there was a small flurry of activity that saw the surviving remains pair up with foreign companies and countries in an attempt to keep something going. The Meriden Triumph co-operative struck a deal with Moto Guzzi to assemble a version of the Italian company’s 125cc two-stroke single on Saturday mornings. The model was badged as a Moto-Meriden Co-Uno and turned out to be a bit of a disaster, as the bike wasn’t very good quality and there were many warranty claims that swallowed up the profits (if anyone has a Co-Uno we can test, please get in touch). Suzuki very nearly bought a big chunk of Meriden in 1977, but the collapse and…

There is a well-known theory which suggests that bike builders finally get their bikes exactly right, as perfect as they’re going to get, and then immediately celebrate the achievement by ceasing production and introducing something else. Or by going bust. I like this theory, personally, and could quote a whole load of examples to support it. The T160 Trident is one to be going on with. The opposite theory is that the very first version of a machine is closest to the manufacturer’s original concept and is therefore the purest. A good example of that would be Sunbeam’s S7. As well as theories, there is a personal appreciation thing. I appreciate manufacturers that have a great idea and stick with it, developing and nurturing it against all opposition. They believe…

BUYING CABLES IS EASY AND cheap – for most bikes. But if you’ve an unusual model, an older or rare machine, or have modified a part, you may need bespoke cables. And how many classics are standard? A good friend needed this – he has got a rather uncomfortable hernia that has meant some taller handlebars on his Royal Enfield 500 Bullet. This should get him feeling happy while riding again. At the same time, he’s fitted an AMAL carb from Hitchcocks motorcycles, purveyors of fine Enfield things, to make the single-cylinder a little quicker, but that needs a separate choke control, adding to the cables! So, our list is a front brake, decompressor, choke, throttle and clutch cables which need making, and all unique lengths, with the throttle cable…

This could possibly be the best- kept secret in the world of old bikes. It is an event which takes place every two years in Australia, restricted to just 120 riders and their machines, which must have been built before 1970. Ten days of riding, with optional day trips interspersed with a couple of rest days for vehicle maintenance, sightseeing or simply socializing – which entails riding 1500 miles on near-deserted, well-paved roads through some of the most scenic and diverse countryside on the planet. It used to be held every three years, given that the organisers arrange it all in their spare time. But in response to popular demand, as they say, their recovery time was cut back to two years from the 2020 event onwards. This event is…

The Kempton Park Show isn’t as high-profile as Stafford or Bristol and only goes on for a single day but is well worth eight hours of a sunny spring Saturday. The show contained extremely sparkly restorations of all kinds of machines. While many of the big bike builders and trade outlets are absent, it is the only show where you can touch base with one of the original café racer builders – indeed, the outfit that can be said the have started the whole game off in the first place: Dresda. Dave Degens no longer takes part in bike building operations, having retired after six decades, but the Dresda company still turns out some stunners, including old-school Tritons and more modern creations with engines from modern Triumphs and other manufacturers.…

In 2015, the motorcycle industry’s direction had been the same for decades. The Japanese were at the top, the Chinese at the bottom, the Europeans were specialising, and the Americans ploughing their usual furrow. The Indians were just turning out their pushrod singles. And then Royal Enfield threw a 650cc spanner in the works with its low-priced, highly desirable retro twin. And the rest of the world has been running to keep up ever since. In June that year, Royal Enfield’s parent company Eicher Motors announced that it had acquired the legendary British motorcycle performance expert Harris Performance. A month later, the CEO of Eicher, Siddartha Lal, told the Indian press that he was moving to the UK: “We are in the process of developing engines for the international markets…

MANY OF US ARE CRITICAL OF THE recent trend for barn finds. I never knew there were that many barns – and I live in bloody Norfolk! Someone somewhere is making a mint selling spray-on dust and bird poop, I feel… But my good friend Matt, who is always scouring Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Gumtree and all the other collection points for old crap, saw this Norton and instantly made contact. A little haggle later and it was on the way to his workshop. What’s it like? This 1957 example has sat for many years, this is clear. But it is also remarkably intact, with nothing missing – that we can see so far – apart from the footrests, twist grip, rear brake spring and the Prince of Darkness badge on…