Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i Classic Bike

Mick Duckworth PAGE 24 The most authoritative journalist in the classic biking world, Mick has been writing fact-packed stories for Classic Bike since the 1980s. He’s got the exclusive story on the T180 triple. Tom Stewart PAGE 40 Tom’s misspent youth riding Yamaha two-strokes was followed by a misspent middle age road-testing cars for Top Gear magazine. He’s now heading heartily towards a misspent retirement, back on Yamaha two-strokes. Jim Moore PAGE 64 A child of the 1980s, Jim has an astonishing (and perhaps not totally healthy) understanding of period Japanese motorcycle model codes. He was editor of the much lamented Practical Sportsbike magazine for years.…

John Giles started riding trials in his native Kent after World War II – and by 1951 at the age of 21 was part of the Triumph factory team. He first competed at the International Six Days Trial in 1952, when it was held in Austria; his last was in 1970 at Escorial in Spain mounted on a Cheney Triumph, when he won Silver. In between were two more Silver medals and 12 Golds. Giles was an underrated scrambler too – but as Triumph did not contest all the major events with an official team, he tended to be overlooked in this area. For several years in the 1960s he travelled to numerous European Motocross meetings, chalking up countless wins and podiums, and was well placed in UK events. After…

DEC 10 & 31 My father started doing Taverners’ trials 41 years ago, when I was 12 years old. It looked like such good fun that I badgered dad into making me a bike, so he converted an ex-GPO Bantam for me, and we’ve both been involved ever since. For years he was Clerk of the Course with me helping him; now it’s the other way round – and the grandkids are taking part too. We’ve once had six members of the Monk family in one trial, which is great in itself – but it also is what Taverners Trials are about. We want to encourage young riders, we want to keep the older riders active and keep the old bikes in use too. We run a series of nine…

When Triumph’s 750cc Trident was updated for 1975, it finally got an electric start as well as inclined cylinders and updated styling that made it one of the best-looking British bikes ever made. But that wasn’t enough to keep it competitive when superbike buyers were gawping at the spangly new 900cc Kawasaki Z1 and BMW R90/S on showroom floors. Norton Villiers Triumph engineers knew the bike needed more capacity too – even as the T160 was launched, a big capacity version of the triple was in development. Sadly, the demise of the NVT manufacturing operation the same year meant it never saw the light of day. The big-capacity triple, designated T180, had been well advanced when NVT folded, with a complete machine built from pre-production test parts, plus a second…

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Imperial Fixes Problems with old on iron? Rick can help Graham Markey is thinking about buying a Panther single, but asks whether what he’s heard about the 650 model is true. ‘They’re supposed to burn a lot of oil compared to the 600,’ he says. ‘Is that true or just urban myth – surely an extra 50cc can’t make any difference?’ You wouldn’t think so, but in this case it might. While it’s common to enlarge bore diameter to increase capacity, Panther increased the stroke of the 598cc Model 100 to make the 646cc Model 120. They also reduced the flywheel diameter so the piston skirt would clear it on its deeper drop. Panthers have a basic oiling system. The ‘sump’ is on the front of the engine, separated from…

Years of regrinding gradually erodes a valve seat, leading to the valve becoming ‘pocketed’ in the head – like a sunken manhole cover. Given that a valve begins feeding the cylinder the moment it opens, being down a hole obstructs cylinder filling as well as interfering with things like tappet adjustment and valve striking angle. That’s why Job Hutchings sent away his worn BSA BB32 Goldie head to have the seats replaced. But seeking a figure for the exact height of the original seats to give the engineer, he can’t find the information anywhere. “I’ve been told: ‘There’s no measurement – you just grind it by eye, flush with the head’. Can that be right?” he asks. “These heads are rare – I don’t want to risk getting it done…

Q There’s a lot of oil smoke blowing from the exhaust of my 1985 Yamaha FJ1100. I’ve heard all the jibes about Yamahas burning oil, but this is something else altogether. I’ve run a compression test on all four cylinders and they’re well within spec, suggesting that there is no problem with the rings or bores, and that the valves are seating and sealing correctly. What do you think the problem could be? Arthur Lawrie, email A Oil must be getting into one or more of the combustion chambers via the top end. Likely suspects here are a failed valve stem seal or seals, a worn guide or guides, or the actual stem of a valve or valves. I’m afraid it’s head off time for some closer investigation.…

Q The digital speedometer on my 2003 Honda CBR1100XX Super Blackbird has developed an intermittent fault, frequently turning itself off and on when I’m on the move. The internet told me all about issues with the connector that plugs into the back of the unit, but I have checked that and it is secure and free from corrosion. That leaves the speed sensor as the main suspect. Is there any way to test this before buying a replacement I possibly don’t need? Ken Jones, email A As well as the plug to the clocks, check all associated wiring for corrosion or damage and confirm the integrity of the earth on the clocks as well. To test the sensor, connect it to a multimeter set to AC volts and, with the…

From many angles, the Magnum 2’s aluminium fuel tank doesn’t look too bad, but at some point someone has seen fit to clumsily weld a plate to the back. This has also caused heat damage to the paint. Remedial work will further compromise the paint, making a refinish inevitable. The only way to be sure of a good paint job is to return to bare metal. Many things in life ain’t what they used to be. Paint-stripper is one more to add to the list. Back in 2010, its manufacturers were banned from adding the active ingredient, methyl chloride, to their products. Fair enough, it’s a nasty chemical, but its absence has rendered many over-the-counter paint-strippers next to useless. When the ban first came in, I bought some methyl chloride…

What’s the attraction? Ducati’s original 1975 900SS is a very different beast to the 1990-2002 models. And yet the essence of both models’ appeal is remarkably similar. Both offer ‘enough’ performance - around 130mph - without being scary fast. But both are also blessed with handling and braking to make many contemporary rivals seem almost clumsy. And both the early bevel 900SS and the later belt-drive models possess that intangible Ducati character. The achingly pure styling of a bevel 900SS is beautiful, but the 1990 belt-drive model with its novel trellis-type frame and compact build has an elegance all of its own. Which is the obvious choice? The bevel bike is amongst the most sought-after machines of the ’70s. It has gorgeous looks, the best handling of its era, wonderful,…

I imagine that in 1951 many lads in their early twenties aspired to own a Vincent – but my dad, Peter Williams, went one better and actually made it happen. When he saw the Rapide sitting in a north London dealership, it had been stripped back for racing but wouldn’t start. The story goes that, having negotiated a favourable price and trade-in on his Norton, he wheeled it off the premises, reconnected the earth tag (which was presumably disconnected when the lights were removed) and rode it back to his digs in Stevenage, where he worked in the Vincent design office. The design office, along with the stores, was located remotely from the main factory somewhere near the station, so he was ideally placed to rebuild the bike with the…

WHEN NORMAN HYDE was a Triumph development engineer in Meriden’s Experimental Department, he listed and numbered more than 1060 drawings and parts produced purely for development and racing. He kept the ledger – and has now revealed its secrets, previously only seen by a tiny handful of people. His book Winning Ideas covers the years from 1968 until 1975, the last two being when development staff were relocated in Kitts Green, Birmingham following the Meriden workers’ occupation. Projects range from performance parts for the racing twins and triples, to experiments with belt primary drive and a 650cc twin with a balancer mechanism. Hyde also reviews work undertaken prior to him becoming a Development Engineer, including his boss Doug Hele’s 1964 plans for dohc triples. The title is justified by Triumph’s…

Many thanks for the article by Rupert Paul on the Cropredy Liberator in the October issue. I was particularly interested because, as you can see from these photos, I used to own this bike. I bought it in Newcastle and used it as my main bike for 12 years. The photo above is of me and my fiancée (now wife), returning from Tomintoul in Scotland, where a sheep had headbutted the fairing. The other photo is in Belfast, where we used to live and where the primary chain snapped. I regularly used it to go the Isle of Man, which finally burned out the valves, the fairing also cracking going over the Mountain – duct tape saved the day. I’m more than happy for you to send on my details…

Think Moto Guzzi, and the transverse V- twin engine configuration springs to mind, but the proud Italian marque’s history began many years before that particular design. So it is that, to another generation, the Moto Guzzi name meant a horizontal single. Some bikes are synonymous with an engine design – even though manufacturers such as Triumph, Vincent, Panther and Harley-Davidson have made various models and engine formats over the decades, they are famous for only one. Thumping purposefully along on this 1936 Moto Guzzi flat single couldn’t be a much more different experience to my introduction to Guzzi machinery – a ride on an 850 Le Mans V-twin that belonged to a mate. However, that was more years ago than I care to remember – and, glancing at my reflection…

Classic Workshop 82 74 Imperial Fixes Rick Parkington is your man for Brit tips 78 Metric Fixes Al Seeley is the decimalisation dude 80 Project Harris Magnum Part 6 Post-dry build strip and prep for paint & engine 86 Our Classics Rick jockeys steeds, Mark’s T3 does donkey work Classic Market 93 93 Buying & Selling Ducati 900SS: ’70s bevel vs ’90s belt drive 94 Deep Pockets & Loose Change Bikes for sale that have piqued our interest – from a £28k Indian 101 Scout to a £450 VFR. Plus market insight from Anthony Godin 96 Auctions Standout results from the Stafford Show, plus a round-up of all the latest auctions Get in touch at: workshop@classicbike.co.uk…

Russ Jackson has a 1928 Sunbeam Model 9 like mine, and got in touch asking if I could advise about a problem he’s found with his Amac Type 15PYJ carburettor. I’ve said before how difficult it can be solving problems for bikes where little information was ever printed, let alone still survives – but in this case it was actually the printed material that was causing the confusion. The parts list showed two copper washers between the main jet holder and where the separate float housing joins the carb body or ‘mixing chamber’. Having found a washer to fit the recess here, Russ noticed it blocked off a drilling. ‘Is this correct?’ he asks. ‘And is it there as a shim to locate the jet holder or is it a…

Metric Fixes European and Japanese classic bikes sorted with Alan Seeley Q One of the cylinders keeps dropping out on my 1997 Honda VFR750. I put some marker paint on the headers and three discoloured a little, while one burnt the paint clean off. Could that be fuel burning in the exhaust rather than the cylinder? The fourth cylinder will kick in at higher revs sometimes. I have changed the inline fuel filter, but there wasn’t anything blocking the old one when I checked it. Mark Brunning, Facebook A Yes, its likely fuel burn in the exhuast of the duff cylinder is causing the rogue reading. The fact that the cylinder chimes in at higher revs suggests a blocked pilot jet while a compression test will show if the problem…

£999 1971 Yamaha AT1M-C Rare competition variant of Yamaha’s 125cc AT1 features a high-comp piston, performance exhaust and larger carburettor than the trail model. An unusual project for pre-73 motocross. D&K Classic Motorcycles 01782 338737 £450 1989 Honda VFR750FK OK, so this bike’s a non-runner – in fact it hasn’t run since 2019 – but it looks in pretty good cosmetic condition and should reward a little work at this price. marvelmotorcycles.co.uk £995 1970 Suzuki TC90 Another rare US-market off-roader – this time one of Suzuki’s ‘Trail Cat’ TC range, which feature an ingenious dual-range gearbox. The engine’s seized, but looks pretty complete and original. 07392 763658 £999 1994 Yamaha TDM850 Low mileage and looking in decent condition, this would make a great winter ride. Needs a new battery, but…

It’s pretty quiet for the classic bike trade at the moment. In fact, it’s like someone’s pulled the plug out. Although, to be fair, it always gets a bit like this as Christmas draws close. It just seems a little earlier than usual this year. It’s not just Christmas though, we’ve got other issues. Of course, the cost of living crisis is having a huge effect on many businesses – and families. But I wonder if the new wave of retro bikes is beginning to impact on the traditional classic bike world. There are some cracking retro machines out there, after all. I haven’t ridden a new BSA Gold Star yet, but they certainly look the part. They’re well finished and, if they go as well as they look, there…

REVIEW The Autumn Stafford Sale October 14-15, 2023 bonhams.com SOLD FOR £59,800 Ducati 750SS Any example of Ducati’s super-desirable 750SS will always be the subject of strong bidding – and this bike proved to be no exception to that rule. It’s one of the last machines to be produced in 1975 and was first registered to an Italian owner in Collegno, who planned to race the bike. Financial constraints meant that he never realised that dream and the bike passed through the hands of a number of Italian owners – one of whom partially repainted it in pink – before it was placed into storage in 1986. The bike then resurfaced in 2014, when it was comprehensively (and mercifully) restored to the original condition that you can see above. SOLD…

Here’s one my dad made earlier Legendary designer Massimo Tamburini’s daughter Simona visited the Altinier stand to take a look at an MV Agusta-based special that her father built before she was born in 1971. He transformed a 600cc MV four-cylinder shaft-drive tourer into a 750cc café racer with chain final drive and precise handling. The subsequent demand for similar beauties led to Tamburini founding the Bimota brand along with Valerio Bianchi and Giuseppe Morri in 1973. However, the first Bimotas had 750cc Honda engines because Count Agusta refused to supply his units for series production. The special’s bodywork was changed by a private owner – but because it was seen and approved by Tamburini, it remains in place. MV Agusta factory turbo project revealed This extraordinary prototype 998cc turbocharged…

Enthusiasts of Velocette singles are traditionally sniffy about the ugly duckling motorcycle-for-everyman LE flat-twins that were made by the marque between 1949-71, but the innovative water-cooled bikes have always had their own following. Two new books celebrate the models, and the Velocette prototypes that led toward their development. The Three Twins, by Brian Agnew and Velocette restoration legend Ivan Rhodes, links the story of the LE to that of the Roarer, Velo’s supercharged pre-war prototype racer, and the Model O, a 600cc tourer that was developed during the WWII years. That might seem a big leap, but the Roarer’s twin contra-rotating crankshafts and shaft drive were taken into the Model O, and the Model O’s shaft drive and pressed-steel chassis technology were taken into the LE, so you can argue…

SEND YOUR PHOTOS TO letters@classicbike.co.uk Triumph Tiger Restored Having had the crankshaft of my 1972 Triumph Tiger appear in the August issue’s instalment of Rick’s Fixes, I thought that fellow CB readers may be interested to see the rest of it now that it’s back up and running. This picture was taken outside the café on a recent ride out to the picturesque Ingram Valley in Northumberland National Park. After the usual settling-in issues following the rebuild, and sorting some other long-standing niggles, the bike is now running as well as it ever did. So much so, in fact, it has relegated my other classics to the back of the garage and become my default choice. It’s the perfect ride for exploring the many wonderful roads we have up here…

So this is us: Tom, Don and Martin, three baby-boomer biking buddies who, having recently moved down south from London, now semi-coincidentally live within a few minutes of each other. And, in addition to our more modern, big-capacity two-wheelers, we now own our first classic motorcycles – namely three early ’70s Yamaha stinkwheels, the likes of which we each owned back in the day. I’m happy to admit that I’m largely responsible for this. I’d been idly leafing through the ads in CB and browsing the classified ads for a few years, but funds, commitments and garage space prevented me from taking the plunge. The bikes I was most drawn to were Yam RD twins, particularly a ‘pre A’ 350, a 400C, a 400E or an early white/blue 350LC, as…

If you’re going to think big, sometimes it pays to aim small. That’s what Suzuki did 40 years ago, when it launched the RG250 Gamma. It may have been only 247cc, but the RG redefined what a performance bike could be – and in doing so, kickstarted a trend that would shape motorcycling for the following two decades. More remarkable was Suzuki’s timing, particularly for us in the UK. Only a year earlier, in February ’82, the demand for 250s was killed overnight by a new law restricting learner riders to a maximum of 125cc. The quarter-litre sector was all but dead, and yet here was Suzuki launching a new model into a seemingly deceased marketplace. Or so it seemed. The RG Gamma represented a fresh start for 250s and…

Turn to page 96 for the Bonham’s Stafford Auction results Well, that’s another Stafford Classic Bike show over – and I’m happy to say this year I drove back in a more upbeat frame of mind than I have for a wee while. Like so many other things, the show took a beating from the lockdowns of the recent past that have been hard to overcome, but this year felt back on track and more optimistic, with good crowds and busy club stands. Interestingly, although this year’s theme was bikes from the 1990s, it still seemed a pretty good mix of largely ’70s/’80s classics and British oldies. I know some people complain about auction coverage in CB, but I think it’s the truest indicator of market trends – and if…

Wayne Coaker’s had his Harley-Davidson SS 250 two-stroke since 1976, when it was made, and has been restoring it over the last few years. He’s now about 85% there – the next job is the electrics and he asks if I can suggest a suitable replacement for the original rectifier. The rectifier seems to have had five terminals, and being a pretty unusual bike I asked the Furry King of Rewires, Ferret, to see if could catch him out... As if! “Ah yes, funny system these,” said he. “They have a weird relationship between alternator and ignition switch that converts the windings from series to parallel to create two different outputs for varying demand. I’d scrap that and fit a V Reg regulator/rectifier from Paul Goff (norbsa02.freeuk.com) which simplifies the…

Q My recently acquired 1998 Yamaha YZF750 has been sitting for four years. I’m going to get her back on the road ready for next spring. There’s lots to do, but I’ve started at the front end, cleaning and rebuilding the brake master cylinder and calipers. Next up are the forks, but I’m unsure as to what weight of oil to use. The Haynes manual says to use Yamaha ‘01’ fork oil, which appears to equate to 5w. This seems very light to me. What should I use: 5w, 7.5w or 10w? Mark Taylor, Facebook A You would need a doctorate in chemistry and/or fluid dynamics to truly understand the world of fork oil. It’s all about such things as kinematic viscosity stokes (yes – ‘stokes’ not ‘strokes’) and other…

Q The electrics have gone awry on my 1989 Honda CRM250. I can’t get a spark. As you will be aware, these off-roaders have no battery, instead relying on a capacitor to get DC volts where they’re needed. If I fit a battery in lieu of the capacitor, the bike will start and the electrical systems function too. However, I don’t want to permanently fit a battery and risk damaging anything, particularly the hard-to-find ECU. How do I go about tracing which part of the electrical system has failed? Kieran Walden, email A With the bike running, using your jury-rigged battery, hook a multimeter across its terminals and see if the DC volts rise when you rev the bike. If so, the capacitor would appear to be at fault. If…

It’s taken a year to get the Harris Magnum project to this stage. Engine installed and turning on the button, suspension and wheels in place, wiring harness in situ. Pity that it now needs to come apart again, so that the frame, wheels and other components can be painted. The dry build is an important part of any project – but with a special it’s absolutely vital. Our Harris’ mix of bespoke frame, engine from a Suzuki GSX1100, front wheel from an Aprilia RSV, forks from a Hinckley Triumph Speed Triple, rear wheel from an R6 Yamaha and miscellaneous other oddball components mean that nothing is likely to fit without modification. Best get all that right before painting. And I think we have. Harris checked the chain run when they…

FOR SALE £28,750 The Scout 101 is widely regarded as the finest bike Indian ever produced, featuring the compact and lively 740cc (45cu in) engine from the previous model, in a new frame with increased steering rake, longer wheelbase and lower seat height. It proved to be the recipe for one of the sweetest handling machines of its era. However, the 101 Scout only enjoyed a brief production life, being replaced by the 1932 model Scout. And that short production life means 101s are now harder to find than other Scout models, making this machine all the more desirable. Owner Neil Armstrong found the bike in a Belgian classic dealer’s stock about 10 years ago. “It ran OK, but not great,” he recalls. “I believe it was originally supplied to…