Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2023 i Classic Bike

July 3, 1983 The 1983 500cc World Championship was a season-long all-American battle between three-time title winner Kenny Roberts and upstart 21-year-old Freddie Spencer aboard the equally upstart three-cylinder Honda NS500. Coming into the weekend of the Belgian Grand Prix, Freddie had won five of the first eight races while Roberts had been suffering reliability issues. But at the previous GP at Assen, Roberts had won, thereby eating into Spencer’s championship lead – and at Spa they were so close after practice that Freddie’s pole position time of 2m 32.7s was just .09s faster than the Yamaha man. In the race, Spencer had a three-second lead by lap ten, which Kenny cut to just one second by lap 13 before a dramatic pass at the La Source hairpin the following…

DEALS ON WHEELS Brilliant buys to get you on the road this summer! Under £1000 Suzuki GSX600F 1988-2001 • 599cc • 80bhp • 197kg • 125mph Buying a good, useable road bike at under a grand involves patience or luck. Set your sights too high and be prepared for disappointment. Select carefully and good machines can be had – and 1980s and 1990s middleweights are a target-rich environment. Sure, Honda CBR600s are brilliant, and there’s lots out there, and Yamaha FZ600s are fun – but at under a grand those two models would need work, so look for less fashionable machinery We’ve always had a soft-spot for Suzuki’s GSX600F. When new they were overshadowed in every 600s group test, but 30 years later the slight deficiencies in…

1Air ‘rattle gun’ is ideal to undo the rotor nut, using shock against engine inertia without need to wedge anything in the chain. Applying brake in gear is recommended but seldom works. If you do wedge the chain, by putting something between it and the sprocket, make sure you’re not overloading anything else. 2 Open coil alternators had more space, but with later resin-encapsulated type it’s best to use reduced hex (next spanner size down) nuts on the stator, giving room for a slim socket or box spanner. Carefully remove the stator; the laminated core tends to snag the threads of the studs so keep it flat. Don’t force it. 3 If you’re lucky, the rotor will be a tight enough fit on the crank to not simply pull off…

What’s the attraction? In the ’70s, the motorcycle world was only just waking up to the concept of genuine, go-anywhere bikes that were equally at home on the road or dirt. Trail bikes were hot tickets in Europe and the US, with Yamaha’s DT range and Honda’s XL models probably the pick of the bunch. In 2023 they are still a really compelling proposition, offering great looks in a lightweight, fun and easy to ride package. Which is the obvious choice? The Honda arrived in 1972, with the four-stroke XL combining gorgeous styling with decent off-road capability. It might be heavier than the Yamaha stroker, but the Honda makes up for it with its wonderfully forgiving power delivery. Later versions of the XL250 may be more competent on the trail,…

£20,000 - 22,000 McIntyre Matchless G50 H&H sale, July 12 There are plenty of Matchless G50s around – but this is something a bit different, as the 500cc ohc single engine is housed in what’s believed to be a Bob McIntyre frame. McIntyre, famous for achieving the first 100mph TT lap, developed the revised frame for his own AJS/Matchless race bikes in the early 1960s and then supplied a number of replicas of the frame. The vendor, who is also selling a Beale replica G50 and replica AJS 7R in the sale, bought this machine in dismantled state in the early ’80s. He subsequently restored it – although it has never been raced. handh.co.uk £28,000-32,000 £5000-8000 1971BSAVetterRocket3 X-75prototype H&H sale, July 12 Now here’s something rare. One of only two…

MARK BRYAN SILVERSTONE AUCTIONS Competition bikes are a slightlyunpredictable category of machine for auctioneers. Road racing machines with an association with a famous rider almost always do well – and tidy trials or scrambles bikes that can be used in classic competition are fairly easy to sell, too. But the in-between machines, without a glamorous back story, can be a little more tricky. So offering a collection of 16 grasstrack and speedway bikes, as we did at our sale at the MCN Festival of Motorcyling at Peterborough on May 13/14 might have seemed a bold move. In fact, we were delighted with how the Dennis Bagshaw collection fared. It helped that the bikes were all being offered without reserve, but the fact that they were all in delightful ‘barn find’…

THE HIGHLAND RALLY attracted participants from all over the UK, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, and even as far afield as Malta, to the leafy Victorian spa town of Strathpeffer. Nestled north-west of Inverness, the town served as a base for three full days of touring the majestic Scottish Highlands. Organiser John Makinson has been a member of the VMCC for over 30 years, but had never put together such an event before – let alone an international gathering involving 120 people. “I wanted to put on a rally where everything was laid on – accommodation, food, suggested routes – but also gave people the space to do their own thing,” he explained. He and fellow conspirator John Proffitt (of Clyde Valley VMCC) put together an eminently affordable package including…

JULY 2 1-2 CRMC Snetterton 300, Snetterton Circuit, Norfolk crmc.co.uk 1-2 Wulfsport King of the Castle Motocross, Farleigh Castle Circuit, Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset A feast of twinshock motocross action at the legendary circuit. 07887 407590 1 Vintage Speed Trials, Grimsthorpe near Bourne, Lincolnshire Pre-’39 cars and bikes take to the hill at Grimsthorpe Castle in a wonderful evocation of pre-war motorsport in a stunning setting. speedtrials.co.uk 2 The Brooklands Motorcycle Show Brooklands Museum, Surrey. Classic bikes galore at the atmospheric home of British motorsport. brooklandsmuseum.com 7-8 Beezumph 30 Anglesey Circuit, North Wales BSA and Triumph triples in track action on the swooping Anglesey circuit, plus a special celebration of the Triumph Hurricane. tr3oc.com 7-9 Dragstalgia Santa Pod Raceway, Podington, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire Hot rods and…

When famed motorcycle engineer, entrepreneur and multiple world speed record holder Norman Hyde was an apprentice at Meriden, he asked to borrow a bike for the weekend. “Be careful with it,” said the manager, handing over a Trophy. “It’s Steve McQueen’s.” Alas, the young Hyde didn’t take quite the care Steve would have liked and, when riding back to the factory, he let a Tiger Cub flywheel that was stuffed up his jacket slip down and scratch the tank. “I was crapping myself,” says Norman as he awaits an intriguing lamb dish at a gastro pub round the corner from his home near Warwick. “But they said: ‘Don’t worry, kid – we’ll stick another one on’.” When you were working in a factory producing 1000 bikes a week, that sort…

‘Its last outing had ended in mechanical disaster when an accidental over-rev caused two of the rear pot’s studs to snap’ When the planets align, things happen. Call it serendipity. Either way, without it, James Patterson’s beautiful Ducati 900SS would still most likely be a pile of parts marinating in a Cumbrian shed. “Sometimes what you’re after is right in front of your nose,” says James of his Duke. “In 2016 I was on the hunt for another project. I’d just finished refreshing my Yamaha DT200WR trailie and prior to that I’d restored an early DT125LC. Having briefly toyed with idea of a 250 or 350LC build – quickly dismissed on the grounds of cost – Igot chatting with my mate Mark about what I could do. He said, ‘What…

TRIUMPH T140 A kick with worn teeth David Reid is having trouble kicking over his 1972 750 Bonneville. Having pulled the bike out after winter, he freed the clutch plates with a kick – but when he tried to turn the engine found it was stuck. Concerned it had seized, he removed the plugs. It then turned fine – until he replaced them again. Clutch lifted, the pedal freed enough to start the bike – but once stopped, it stuck again. “Any advice would be appreciated in case I’m causing damage to the engine,” says David. I’d blame kickstarter ratchet wear. The teeth are designed so that if they meet point to point, they slip into engagement, but wear makes the points sharp and less able to free up, especially…

PROJECT HARRIS MAGNUM Alan goes back to the source in an attempt to revive his butchered frame ACCORDING TO THE records at Harris Performance Products, when this Magnum 2 – frame number HP699 – was dispatched from their Hertford workshop in December 1984 it was fitted with Marzocchi forks, Harris yokes, Dymag wheels, and was intended to house a Suzuki GSX1100 engine. All those ancillaries were long gone when it came into my hands last year. And time, and multiple owners, haven’t been kind to the once elegant tubework, either. The Magnum 2 was launched in 1982, intended for eager sports bike riders who wanted a chassis capable of exploiting all of the performance of the large-capacity four-strokes of the day. Fabricated from bronze-welded Reynolds 501 tubing, the perimeter frames…

‘Classic owners have to get their hands dirty’ I’ve been thinking about the differences between a classic bike and a new retro machine. I always try to give my customers good advice when they’re looking to buy a bike – but some recent experiences have caused me to rethink what constitutes good advice on whether to buy an old (classic) or new (retro) bike to ride. I’ve had a misty-eyed T120 buyer who was expecting a newly-restored bike to behave like a new machine and probably should have bought a Hinckley twin. An older gentleman, who was put off the new Gold Star over quality doubts, bought a lovely Tiger 100 but found it too hard to start and ride – then headed back to try the new Goldie anyway.…

I FIRST MET Dave Bickers at a dusty Dunstable gravel-pit scramble in 1957 where we parked our battered Austin A40 pick-ups adjacently. He’d just signed with Greeves, but into his shiny new Thundersley bike had installed the Villiers engine from his previously raced DOT. It was quick for a 197 and upon it he flew, winning two races, plus the main race of the day on his 350 BSA Gold Star. Watching Bickers back then, in full action, was a unique experience; like a Derby jockey, he whipped his bikes along – although seemingly on the verge of frenetic, he rarely fell and was revered by fellow competitors. I was privileged to bump into David throughout the next half century as he shifted from national scrambler to European motocross champion…

Picture a modern day scrambler. You’re thinking of a road bike with off-road styling cues, right? But it wasn’t always that way. Before 1962, a ‘scrambler’ was an off-road racing motorcycle, for hare and hound scrambles, or, as the nomenclature evolved in the 1950s, motocross. It seems Velocette was the first to offer an actual Scrambler model, in 1954, and other factories followed. In 1957 both BSA, with its A10 Spitfire Scrambler, and Harley-Davidson, with its one-year XLH and XLCH Scramblers, listed motocrossers without lights in their brochures. But everything changed for the industry in 1962, when both Ducati and Honda offered iconic models that continue to impact the course of the motorcycle industry. Ducati’s first Scrambler was a classic single-cylinder 250cc ohc roadster (with lights), intended for ‘street riding,…

SUZUKI GSX-R750 Replacing rivets Q Most Alan Seeley of the jobs I had to do to return my much-modified 1985 Suzuki GSX-R750 to original are now complete. I have been putting off the renovation of the original stock exhaust because I’m not sure what to do about the rivets for the silencer heatshield. It seems to me that drilling the tops off will cause the other ends to drop into the can. Also, I don’t think any old rivets from my local hardware shop will be adequate replacements because they won’t seal sufficiently to prevent exhaust gases blowing by. Don Eller, email A You should be able to shake out the remnants of the old rivets or they will blow themselves out or into a corner where they won’t cause…

1949-1966 | 347/498cc | 19/28bhp | 179/185kg | 70/80mph If you want an affordable, easy introduction to British biking, the AJS and Matchless heavyweight singles are a great option. Associated Motor Cycles (AMC) owned both marques and the bikes – the 347cc AJS Model 16 and Matchless G3, and 498cc AJS Model 18 and Matchless G80 – are almost identical. The first post-war models used the rigid frame of the wartime G3L from which they were derived. Swingarm models, introduced for 1949 and denoted by an ‘S’ suffix to the model number, brought the AJS and Matchless thumpers into the post-war age. As long as any of the singles have been put together well and are set up right, starting won’t be a drama. Forget all…

£3600 1973 Honda C70 Cub There’s a growing cult following for Honda Cubs – and the price realised by this earlier restoration from the Dennis Bagshaw collection is vivid evidence of that. A few years ago, Honda Cubs could be picked up for pennies, almost literally – but not any more. There’s no denying the classic credentials of the Honda Cub. With more than 100 million (of all variants) being sold since 1958, it’s the best-selling motorcycle ever produced. Despite not having been used for some time and requiring recommissioning before being returned to the road, this tidy little 72cc model – which, like all the bikes from the collection, was offered without reserve – sold easily. £2475 circa 1955 Rotrax JAP speedway bike Rotrax are an integral part of…

FROM 1968 UNTIL 1971, I was a member of the Royal Marines Motorcycle Display Team. There were three armed forces MCDT’s in the ’60s-’70s: The Royal Signals (The White Helmets), the Royal Artillery (representing the Army) and us – we were known as the ‘Fire Riders’, after a film we made in 1968 of that name, and our helmets were red. We rode Triumph T100s. I was lucky enough to attend a course at the Meriden factory in 1969; I was assembling my own Bonneville from parts at the time, and I (ahem) got a few updated parts for my bike. For the 1971 season, my jump bike was treated to 10.5:1 pistons, high-lift camshaft, close-ratio ’box and straight through tuned exhaust at the factory (see inset picture above). It…