Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2024 i Classic Bike

THE SIGHTS AND sounds of WSB’s glory years will resonate around the UK’s race tracks again this summer, when the Classic Racing Motorcycle Club’s new eligibility rules allow four-cylinder 750cc and twin-cylinder 1000cc superbikes, produced before January 1, 1995, to compete in the series for the first time. That means machines such as Honda RC30s and RC45s, Kawasaki ZXR750RRs, Yamaha YZF750SPs, and Ducati 916s fighting it out in a new Post Classic Superbike Championship. It’s set to be a mouth-watering prospect, especially when the series arrives at Donington Park, Leicestershire, at the end of July – the scene of many epic WSB battles during the ’90s, and the place in 1992 where future four-time champion Carl Fogarty took his very first win on a privately entered Ducati 888. Welcoming these…

Moto Guzzi Eldorado This is my 1973 Moto Guzzi Eldorado. I found her in a barn in 2010, where she had been in storage, covered with pigeon droppings and mouse dung. After a quick clean-up and a riding season, just to check it out for any running issues, we pulled off the metalware and painted everything. The only mods were European Norton Commando ’bars, a 1973 Yamaha light/horn/turn signal switch to replace the unreliable Italian CEV ones, and a Greg Bender digital relay kit for starter and high/ low beam. The motor has never been apart and runs like the proverbial sewing machine! Over the years, I’ve owned three Triumphs, a Norton and two /5 Beemers – all great machines, but this is by far the best machine I have…

At the age of 25, Gregg Hansford was on the cusp of taking his fourth Australian Unlimited Championship in five years. Speculation was rife in the second half of 1977 that he would move up to the world championships the following year. He had impressed so much on flying visits to the USA and Europe that Chris Carter, the editor of top-flight bike racing annual Motocourse, rated him number five in the world in the 1977-78 edition – before he’d even started a GP. Looking at his results, that’s no surprise. In September 1977 he won both races at the Canadian World Formula 750 round, was on the podium twice in the USA round at Laguna Seca, and out-foxed Gary Nixon to win the US 250 championship round at the…

LAST MONTH I mentioned that the lack of power from my Blackburne ‘Scarlet Runner’ (Rick Rides...) was due to valve timing after the crank pinion slipped its (unkeyed) taper. This month, I went to fire up the 1923 Rex Acme and this time it was the other side; reverse shock from a backfire loosened the big outside flywheel, leaving it spinning uselessly on its crank taper. The wheel’s taper is worn and has been bodged with shim stock; it needs sorting but has held until now. As I re-tightened the nut, I made a mental note to check and nip it up occasionally – and maybe use an air rattle gun to get it really tight. Care is needed, as air power can twist a shaft in its flywheel, although…

What’s the attraction? For a whole generation of riders in the early to mid-’70s, the sports moped provided a first taste of freedom on the road. Legislation passed in the UK in December 1971 had robbed 16-year-olds of their right to a provisional motorcycle licence, prompting the industry to respond with a crop of so-called sports mopeds that – while they had pedals that worked after a fashion – were really thinly-disguised 50cc sports bikes. Cream of the crop in terms of performance were the Garelli Tiger Cross (and roadster-style Rekord) and Fantic’s Caballero. They’re also probably the best looking. That’s not a bad start. Riding either bike today is just as much fun as it was back in 1972 when they were unveiled to an eager teenage audience. They…

The move into our new premises has gone smoothly and seems to have worked well. I carry a little less stock than I used to, but it hasn’t affected the way I do business. And because we operate by appointment now, it’s given me the bonus of a little more time for other things – like riding bikes, for example. Someone recently pointed out to me that I always seem to have a lot of V-twins in stock – and it’s true, they account for nearly half the bikes I have at the moment. The V-twin thing has been something of an obsession since I got into bikes. I started work as a salesman for Surrey Harley-Davidson back in 1990. I went on technical training course at Harley’s training school…

ESTIMATE £60,000-70,000 1939 Brough Superior combination Wherever there’s an auction, there’s a Brough. Or so it seems, anyway. But this outfit does look rather special. Described as being one of the most complete and original Brough Superior SS80 combinations ever to be offered at auction, the sidecar is the original Brough-made Alpine Grand Sport Cruiser – with fuel-bearing main frame spine – that was supplied with the bike. The history of this matching-numbers outfit is known from new. It’s all documented in the fat history file that includes the factory build sheet, the original order form (including details of the Monarch forks, sprung rear hub and Amal touring handlebars, which are all still fitted), together with numerous receipts and some spares. ESTIMATE £3000-4000 1939 Velocette MOV This thoroughly delightful pre-war…

Your article on the Douglas MkV (CB October 2023) reminded me of my first bike. My teenage dream bike was a Dragonfly, but I had just started an apprenticeship and, with my 16th birthday coming up, found a low-mileage 1953 MkV for £105 at a dealer’s in Kilburn, North London. After confirming with the salesman (tongue in cheek) that my parents knew that I was there, the deal was done. I had looked at the logbook and the bike was registered December ’53 – I had bought a 54 model for a very low price. When the bike arrived home, I hid it in the shed before breaking the news to my parents that evening – but that was no problem. I then had three weeks of riding it around…

One of my earliest childhood memories is playing with a silver trophy and a small box of medals dating from the mid to late 1920s. The trophy (Brighton and Hove MC Brighton to Beer Trial, 1927) and the medals had all been won by a Miss Margaret Sorby on a BSA 770. My maternal grandparents, Frank and Margaret West (nee Sorby), or Gopy and Nannog as we affectionately referred to them, were truly wonderful people. Gopy was raised in Dover, his father the superintendent of the port, and Nannog from a village in Gloucestershire, the daughter of a vicar. Both were to eventually become intrepid motorcyclists, meeting through their love of bikes and competing in reliability trials during the 1920s. I remember Gopy recounting to me that he had once…

Don Cox Long-time Australian road-race writer Don watched Gregg Hansford go from local hero to GP winner in the ’70s. There’s no one better placed to tell the story of this hugely talented rider. Mick Duckworth Mick has been writing about the British bike industry ever since he started on ClassicBikein the 1980s. He sat down for fish and chips and funny stories with former test rider Bob Rowley. John Naish As a journalist, John’s usual clients are big-name broadsheet newspapers, but as a life-long bike rider, he wanted to investigate the murky world of fakes for ClassicBike. SUBSCRIBE TO CLASSIC BIKE See page 66 for best current offer…

FURTHER TO YOUR plea for contact from the Suzuki Owners Club members who rode three-cylinder two-strokes around the coast of mainland Britain to win the 1974 Maudes Trophy (page 64, January issue), I write to say my brother Roy Bedson and I participated in that event. I am 71 now and was 22 at the time, but it feels like yesterday! We were both members of the Manchester branch of the SOC. The club was only formed about a year before this by a vicar in Manchester called Tony Lloyd who ran a youth club in a church hall in the ’60s that morphed into a bike club. Other bike clubs started using the premises on different nights, and when Tony bought a Suzuki GT750, he formed a club to…

sweeping through this cracking bend at just under 70mph, I feel surprisingly confident; what seemed like a big, heavy bike when I set off is now completely in its element. Handling is stable and pleasantly neutral and the engine is really getting into its stride. It’s comfortable, too – and about the only thing that’s niggling me is the thought that, if I hadn’t seen the name on the tank, I’d struggle to guess what it said. Why? Well, despite the implication that the Hesketh followed the spiritual tyre tracks of Vincent and Brough Superior, I’m feeling little similarity with any traditional British V-twin from the saddle – this is a distinctly revvy motor. But on top of that, where are all those problems I read about at the time?…

Vincent only ever built 35 of its legendary Black Lightnings during its post-war heyday. Now at least 45 ‘genuine’ Black Lightnings survive. The same multiplication problem afflicts many other sought-after superstar classics such as round-case Ducatis, Brough-Superiors –and even some comparatively humble Beezas and Triumphs. How so? Welcome to the dark and mysterious world of classic motorcycle fakes – a horror-story caper worthy of Vincent Price as much as Vincent prices. Now that our beloved old bikes have leapt stratospherically in status from junkyard-dodgers to big-ticket investors’ collectibles, money-chasing fraudsters are cashing in on well-heeled buyers’ greed and naivety. But that’s not the only story. Over past decades many classic owners have, for myriad other reasons, felt compelled to boost, reinvent, revise or disguise their bikes’ humble identities.…

BRADBURY Rick volunteered to complete this stalled restoration... but it soon became clear it was no easy job. A quick recap on what happened previously I must admit, I did feel a bit like a madman, taking an angle grinder cutting disc to the immaculately glossy frame of the rare vintage V-twin I’d been trusted to restore. Maybe a surgeon feels the same applying his blade to unblemished skin, but in either case where nastiness hides beneath the surface, there’s only one way to deal with it. The 1914 750cc Bradbury twin belongs to the family of the late Bill Crosby, proprietor of Reg Allen Motorcycles and the London Motorcycle Museum. Nobody knew why Bill had stalled part-way through restoration – but having offered to complete the job, I soon…

£1000 1970 BSA B175 Bantam Offered for restoration and without any registration documents, this Bantam nonetheless looks a good buy. BSA Owners Club dating certificate and looks largely complete and original. 07595 106939 £795 1962 Honda C95 project A classic ’60s Honda project with some potential. The original silencers are missing and there are no documents, but the engine turns over. Plenty of C95 parts seem to be still available too. LMT Motorcycles 01536 216420 £795 1975 Kawasaki KZ400 project A US-market machine, but has a NOVA certificate for UK registration. Engine doesn’t turn over and there are a few parts missing, but it looks to be in reasonable cosmetic order. 07885 318285 £975 1961 BSA Bantam racer project Bought on a whim. Did run, but owner has lost interest.…

PRICES Twin-shock and Full-Floater models Mint £7000-8000 Good £4000-4500 Project £1000-1500 IF BIGGER REALLY is better, Suzuki’s air-cooled GSX1100s have got to be worth a look, because air-cooled, four-cylinder superbikes don’t come much bigger. With a wheelbase of 60in and almost a quarter of a ton of polished alloy, bright chrome plate and painted steel, the GSX is certainly a bike with presence. But is it better than its contemporaries? Like any judgement on the relative merits of classic machines, that’s a matter of opinion. But Suzuki’s big GSX can certainly make a case for itself. And at the heart of that case is one of the finest air-cooled four-cylinder engines of its era – or any era, come to that. The 16-valve lump, which benefits from Suzuki’s Twin-Swirl Combustion…

What a year it’s been. As we enter our first full year trading as Iconic Auctioneers, it’s interesting to take a look back at how 2023 turned out for us. Changing our name from Silverstone Auctions to Iconic Auctioneers was a big step forward, but it seems to have gone seamlessly. I think most people understand that we wanted to forge our own identity. In fact, 2023 was our best year yet and it ended on a real high note – our sale at the Classic Motor Show proved to be our best-ever sale, with more than £1 million worth of bikes sold. To build on that success, we need to recruit; we need another me to keep the momentum going. We’re looking for a sales-orientated person with a passion…

CLASSIC NEWS WHAT’S ON YOUR LETTERS SHOW US YOURS Garry Wells, 1982 Honda CBX1000C The Honda CBX Enthusiasts stand certainly had an impressive array of imposing metal. Particularly eye-catching was Garry Wells’ slightly modified 1982 Honda CBX1000C. While some bike owners might buy a scale model to match their motorcycle, Garry did things the other way around, the paint for his CBX being inspired by one of his models. “You won’t find it on any Honda colour chart,” says Garry. “It’s actually a Vauxhall Mokka gold done by Pro Kustom.” It’s a superb job, alright. The deviations from standard didn’t end there. “I made the DIY exhaust header pipes and matched them to Delkevic end-cans. The wheels are CB1100,” he adds. Garry undertook the overhaul and rebuild of the engine…

Slade by a Sei Nice article about the Benelli Sei (CB January 2024). While on holiday in Australia in 2018, we visited the motorcycle and antique museum in Peterborough. They have a special Benelli Sei on display (see photo above). The paintwork has a real ’70s vibe, which shouldn’t be a surprise, as it was done for Dave Hill, the guitarist of Slade! Herman Tollenaar The RD they come I can quite imagine how “the jump in performance” from an RD250 to an RD400 opened David Shuttleworth’s eyes back in the day (page 88, CB January). Imagine how my doors of perception were flung wide open when, in the summer of ’76, I passed my test on a Fizzy modified and re-registered as a motorcycle (GMX 96N) days after my…

Egli, Switzerland Fritz Egli won the 1968 Swiss hillclimb championship using a Vincent twin housed in a home-made frame. His design featured a large-diameter top tube to provide rigidity, which became an Egli trademark. Chassis for Japanese fours quickly followed, and were used by the French Godier/Genoud Kawasaki team to win the FIM Endurance Championship in 1972. Egli sold the business in 2015, though remained involved. Sadly, the owners ceased trading in 2023 and have put the business into liquidation. Segale, Italy Motorcycle dealership based at Vigevano, near Milan that made chassis in the 1980s and ’90s. Their usual format used aluminium sideplates to mount the rear of the engine and swingarm pivot, mated to a lightweight tubular upper member and headstock. Later they also featured magnesium single-sided swingarms. Using…

Simply scan the code from your Smart phone Visit greatmagazines.co.uk/classicbike or call 01858 438884 NEXT MONTH Rick Rides... The amazing Series A Vincent Rapide. Plus a Saxon Triumph, the sidecar racing Hanks family & more On sale February 21 A subscription to Classic Bike gives you access to great tales from motorcycling’s heroic past, brilliant reader restorations and rebuilds, buying advice and workshop tips to help you make great buys and keep your bike running sweetly. Choose from a Digital, Print or Digital + Print subscription to read all the content in Classic Bike magazine. With a Print subscription, you’ll get 12 issues per year delivered to your door with free UK delivery (overseas postage applies). With a Digital subscription you can read the magazine on your desktop or digital…

CB’s editor is a Matchless, Morini and Mobylette owner who doesn’t have a garage, only an ill-equipped basement workshop. Vaguely looking for a nice Honda VFR750 if you’d like to tempt him. Is a tatty old 1960s French moped worthy of inclusion in Classic Bike? Moot point maybe – but judging by the climbing values of gutless old commuter bikes, lots of people understand the appeal of lightweight comedy machines of any era. Especially if you get a gang of similarly-mounted mates together for idiotic excursions. My 1964 Mobylette has been involved in three of the National Autocycle and Cyclemotor Club’s excellent Coast to Coast runs, has lapped the TT course and climbed (with extreme pedal assistance) up Wensleydale to the Tan Hill Inn, all in the company of other…

One of the driving forces behind the popularity of adventure bikes has to be the Paris-Dakar Rally, which captured the motorcycling public’s imagination instantly at its launch in 1978/79. By the early ’80s, the motorcycle class was dominated by big BMW flat twins. It was an era that captivated a young Steve Hague, then already competing in motocross and enduros in the UK. ”It just seemed so glamorous,” he recalls. “I got to ride – and finish – the 1999 and 2004 Dakars on a KTM, but when I saw Gaston Rahier’s 1985 Dakar-winning BMW at the Art of the Motorcycle exhibition at the Guggenheim in New York in 1998, I was blown away.” Rahier’s bike was built by German BMW specialists HPN, who were contracted by the BMW factory…

SOLD FOR £5800 1977 Suzuki GT500 HJ Pugh, November 24/25 Pugh’s always seem to attract some interesting machines to their classic bike sales, usually including everything from projects to immaculate restorations. This smart Suzuki two-stroke twin finds itself somewhere inbetween. GT500s attract a lukewarm reception sometimes – a shame, given their practicality and rugged reliability – but this bike is a notable exception. Described as original and unrestored, it certainly looks that, with all original tinware and exhaust system. The odometer shows 5242 miles and, judging by the bike’s appearance, that may well be genuine. Certainly, the selling price would suggest I’m not the only one to think so. hjpugh.com SOLD FOR £5100 1985 Moto Guzzi V50 Mathewsons online, November 15/16 Now, here’s something unusual – a military V50. It…

Oh boy, 1975! Here I am on my ’69 Sportster, maybe six months after getting out of the US Navy. I kept the Harley for 13 years, and it went through several ‘style’ changes (the one in the photo is a ‘Fresno chopper’ with lower z-style handle bars). For a couple of years, it was my only mode of transportation! We lived in Florida for the bulk of this time, and that is a nice riding climate, but when we moved back to my wife’s home state of Washington, the bike was sold. I struggled to ride it in the rain – no front fender, no front brake, tons of torque, all bad for damp roads. Do I miss it? Honestly, not so much – but I like the romance…