Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2024 i Classic Bike

Mark Graham Qualified mechanic, long-time bike journalist, hillclimb competitor and Seeley AJS 7R owner goes to Cumbria to see the Surtees 7R that’s been restored for Team Obsolete by Steve Tonkin. Rick Parkington A former storeman at a Honda dealership, Rick can quote part numbers for CBX1000 valve shims, but he’d never ridden one before. He’s got his own unique take on the six-cylinder experience. Rupert Paul  Rupert grew up with metric motorcycles and considered old Brits to be Neolithic. He’s now matured, and bought himself a BSA Thunderbolt project. This is the story of getting it road-ready.…

Dragstalgia Santa Pod July 5-7 The famous double-engined Norton drag racer built in Wisconsin in the 1970s by Tom Christenson and John Gregory is to run again at Santa Pod this summer. The bike has been on display at the National Motorcycle Museum since being acquired from America in 2004, but hasn’t been seen in action in the UK since Christenson last ran it at Santa Pod in 1978. Hogslayer was the second bike to get under eight seconds for a standing quarter mile, with a fastest ever run of 7.83 seconds. The 1760cc 300bhp-plus bike’s name was an obvious dig at rivals with Harley-Davidson powered drag bikes. The bike is currently being recommissioned for action at the Dragstalgia event, taking place at Santa Pod on July 5-7. The rider…

Harley-Davidson RR250 Having read the interesting piece in your 1974 issue about Walter Villa, ‘When Harley beat Yamaha at their own game’, I felt I had to send in some pictures of my latest project. After a fair bit of searching, I managed to get hold of a 1974 Harley RR 250 – a machine built entirely in Italy by Aermacchi, then a subsidiary of Harley-Davidson. It’s a full-blown 250cc Grand Prix racer – a very rare bike, we think there are only four or five in the country. It was in a bit of a sad state when I got it and, given the nature of the beast, I felt that it had to have a complete rebuild. Thankfully, the previous owner had had a lot of work done…

It’s like it says on the tank: ‘Double Overhead Cam – 24 valves’. As I float along on this magic carpet ride, it’s hard to conceive that so many components are working furiously away beneath the big silver tank. It takes my mind to the Isle of Man – but weirdly, not Hailwood on the Honda six. I’m thinking of the Victorian looms at Laxey woollen mill – so many little pieces at work, rustling away together effectively in the service of mankind. You have to be relaxed for your mind to ramble like this – and I really didn’t expect to be relaxed today. I’m used to light singles and twins and, although owner Marc Earl told me you don’t notice the weight when you’re rolling, his immaculate CBX1000Z…

Sometimes it’s hard to separate cause and effect from simple coincidence. After fitting a new cable, the Burman clutch on Fergus Mercer’s 1948 AJS Model 18 dragged badly – but adjusting up the cable further just made it slip so badly he couldn’t turn the engine on the kickstarter. He says: ‘With the cover off, it looks like the inner two of the five plates stick together before clicking open; there’s some burrs on the clutch splines, but nothing serious. Should I remove the plates and look further – it was fine before the cable broke?’ The innermost clutch plates usually wear more than outers so it’s certainly worth taking them out for inspection: if they work harder, they get hotter, so maybe they’re sticky with burnt oil. Wear in…

A restoration in three parts to entertain you while Project Harris reboots (again) As bought, looked OK Purchased for £2500, on the face of it the Thunderbolt offers the basis of a good-looking bike with single-carb simplicity. But what lurks beneath...? A friend indeed Two Ruperts are better than one, surely? With friend Rupe Farnsworth offering to rebuild the engine, the job’s as good as half done already, isn’t it? PROJECT BSA Thunderbolt Rupert Paul: 1971 BSA Thunderbolt A life in bike journalism, with a career change sideline in making wiring looms, has given Rupert Paul an over-sophisticated motorcycling palette. Which makes his choice of project all the stranger. Let him explain... Louis Armstrong once said: “If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.” I feel almost…

Indian Chief Project -£12,000 Mint -£30,000 Harley Panhead Project - £10,000 Mint - £25,000 What’s the attraction? These two bikes neatly encapsulate the appeal of the traditional American motorcycle, with big-capacity low-revving V-twin power, relaxed riding position and art deco looks. The Indian offers the soft power of the old-school side-valve that dominated American pre-war era of motorcycling. The Harley offers a heady taste of the new ‘modern’ era of (slightly) quicker revving and overhead valves. Both look great, sound great – and would be sure to bring a smile to your face. Which is the obvious choice? With production spanning the 17 years from 1948 to 1965, there are far more Panheads about than big Indians, making it a more accessible machine. The ohv Panhead engine (the name refers…

Lightweight bikes are the new big thing in the classic bike market – if that’s not a contradiction. I’ve sold 13 bikes of 250cc or under in the last few months – and I’ve just been tasked with finding a nice Honda CB250RS and a CB400N for customers. When I got into bikes, my mates and I had to ‘make do’ with lightweights – but only until we could scrape the cash together for something bigger. Now, potential buyers are actively seeking out sub-250cc bikes - and paying good money for them. There are some practical reasons for the new-found popularity of tiddlers. They’re easier for older riders to handle, they’re often more affordable and the ongoing maintenance and servicing should be less than a superbike from the same era.…

SOLD FOR £10,400 1967 Velocette Venom Thruxton Spicers sale, March 23rd Proof that it pays to keep an eye on the catalogues from regional auction houses as well as the big international outfits comes in the shape of this very original and rare Velo Thruxton. The Thruxton is regarded by many as the ultimate development of the pushrod Velocette single and only 1108 were built. This one has a known history from new, with the vendor having bought the machine new, then sold it to its second owner in 1977, before buying it back in 2010 at a Bonhams sale. Bearing the patina of use, the engine was rebuilt by Velo specialist RF Seymour in 1976 (there is a detailed receipt on file) and has covered just 12,509 miles. spicersauctioneers.com…

Nortons by the hundredweight The Norton Owners Club are planning a 100-bike event, which will feature models ranging from flat-tank singles to brand new 961s from 2014, as well as Wankels, Commandos and Manxes. It’s free for spectators and will take place at The Wharf Inn, Welford, Leicestershire on May 19. nortonownersclub.org Norton sponsor classic racing Revived (and now Indian-owned) British bike manufacturer Norton will sponsor the 2024 Lansdowne classic race series for pre-’64 350 and 500cc machines. The Lansdowne is the premier UK classic race series, with seven race weekends this summer. The next one is at Darley Moor on May 4-5. lansdowneclassic.co.uk Micron arm search Ivan Towersey has acquired the blue 250 Suzuki X7 magazine project bike Sidewinder I that took four Elvington speed records in 1982 and…

THE BIKE SHED SHOW has redefined the UK’s indoor motorcycle shows, and set a standard others struggle to emulate. A group of disillusioned enthusiasts and volunteers fronted the funds to organise a showcase for the then new breed of neo café racers, street trackers and scramblers. The first, held in 2013, was small – not many more than 50 bikes under a Shoreditch railway arch – but the show’s expansion was almost explosive. Now the show is firmly established at the Tobacco Dock site in East London, and upwards of 200 bikes are on display from Friday night to Sunday afternoon, every May Bank Holiday. The Bike Shed also has permanent restaurant/ retail sites in London and Los Angeles. So, what to expect? Hundreds of bikes ‘curated’ to ensure they…

Smoking bargains With FS1-Es heading north of £5000 you need to be canny to get a two-stroke bargain. Mark Graham is your guide Yes, it’s a GT, with the emphasis more on Turismo than Gran. Demure, mundane even, compared with Suzuki’s three-cylinder offerings of the 1970s, but do not be swayed by those who would seek to dismiss this durable twin. A late development of the long-running T500 (1968-1975), the GT500, like many last knockings of most mainstream manufacturers’ models, is super-dependable and bug-free, although not entirely viceless. The T500’s starred history informs appreciation of the GT: launched in high summer, with a US press ride through eastern California’s Death Valley (highest recorded temperature 57ºC). None of the 498cc twins wilted in any way. It was ample proof that what…

Astride a Kawasaki Z1000 superbike on a cold, wet night in Paris, 22-year-old Graeme Crosby must have been wondering what he’d done to deserve this. OK, he’d signed up to race the bike at the Bol d’Or, starting on Saturday, September 15, 1977. But having to ride the Z1000 to the track on the Thursday before race day – a 150-mile slog to the other side of one of the busiest cities in Europe via damp cobblestones and autoroutes – was never in the plan. It’s a last-minute dash, after the airline lost the Kawasaki for three days and the team’s transporter turned out to be a nine-seat Peugeot wagon with no room for the bike. We’re talking an on-the-fly, minimal-budget assault on the famous endurance race here, launched by…

READER BRAN PETHERHAM got in touch about my update on the Bradbury V-twin Project (CB March and February) to say that, having himself restored – and since sold – a Bradbury V-twin, he could help me out with a few parts including some old steering head bearings. The originals were missing and getting new ones made is much easier with something to copy, so thanks very much Brian! In his email, Brian admitted that talking about the Bradbury had rekindled his interest and he was regretting selling it! That got me thinking. I’d say personal nostalgia has nothing to do with my bike buying. Nostalgia for times before my own is definitelt a factor – but getting stuck with a 50cc was bad enough at 16, without reliving the experience…

My mate Will Coleman is using his CB Project Thunderbird from last year – and his next build is already at the fire-up stage. It’s a TriBSA – a pre-unit Triumph engine in a BSA frame and it’s... er, a chopper with 14in extended forks. It’s a long story in many ways – but after starting the freshly rebuilt engine for the first time, he rang me for advice because no oil was returning to the tank. It can take a worryingly long time before the pump fills the engine to a level at which it can return, and many people choose to push the bike around in gear with the plugs out until the oil comes through. Personally, I just fire it up for 40 seconds or so; if…

Q Any idea where I can get 6205UU wheel bearings without paying motorcycle manufacturer prices? I can see loads of SKF and the like on the Simply Bearings website, but none with the UU suffix. Am I right in thinking they’re interchangeable with 6205RS? Dan White, Facebook A Like you, I prefer to avoid the massive mark-up manufacturers place on generic bearings. The cost savings can be huge. The ‘UU’ suffix indicates that these are sealed bearings, as indeed does ‘RS’. When both sides are sealed, you may find them designated DDU or 2RS, although you may also be offered double-sealed UU and RS marked bearings. So you are right to think UU and RS are interchangeable. The important considerations are to match both type and quality for the application.…

£975 circa 1956 Peugeot 98L Delightful French lightweight with a 98cc Villiers two-speed S2G engine. Good compression, a strong spark and has run, but will need recommissioning. Not UK registered. 07545 872993 £995 1999 Honda VTR1000 A one-owner bike that starts and runs, but is in need of a bit of love. A few bodywork marks and cracks, but a lot of bike for the money and the 26,300 miles on the odo is believed to be genuine. 01536 219091 £750 1988 GasGas Aire   If you’re after a cheap trials bike for the popular air-cooled mono class, this could be it. Not used for a while, but starts and runs with just a bit of piston rattle. Rear brake needs servicing. 07397 031404 £799 1970 Hodaka Ace 100  Hodaka…

SOLD FOR £4600 1959 Triumph T120 Bonneville First-year models are always in demand – and even though the Bonnie’s striking ‘Tangerine Dream’ colour scheme didn’t find universal approval on its launch, 1959 models remain sought-after by collectors. This matching-numbers example left the factory in September 1959 and was restored to a good standard around 10 years ago. It has covered very few miles since that time. The vendor acquired the bike four years ago, with the intention of riding it – but due to his age, he never did. Having remained unused during his ownership, it will require some recommissioning, but looks to be in excellent cosmetic order. Seems like a very good buy. SOLD FOR £10,580 1917 Sunbeam 8hp V-Twin  We’ve heard of barn finds, garage finds and shed…

LIKE SO MANY riders of the time, my first bike was a BSA Bantam D14/4 – I quickly passed my test on it and used it to commute from my home in Liverpool to Salford University, along the A57 before the M62 was built. I was an undergraduate from 1973 to 1976, and for our final two years at university, myself and three friends rented a semi-detached house with a garage in Bury, to the North of Salford. We were all motorcyclists and between us had a varied stable of motorcycles, which used to get the neighbours’ curtains twitching on a regular basis. The black and white photo shows my Bantam along with Bob’s Triumph Bonneville, Ian’s Triumph Trident and Nigel’s Triumph Thunderbird 6T, plus a Yamaha YAS1 he also…

THE LAND’S END TRIAL was first run by The Motorcycling Club in 1908, as a reliability run for motorcycles. Back in those days, they ran from London to Land’s End and back again, which is a decent test of a single-speed bike with acetylene lighting riding on unsurfaced roads. As bikes and roads improved, the challenge shifted from reliability to hillclimbs, special tests and off-road sections, with navigation thrown in as an additional challenge. And the bikes only had to travel one way. The 2024 trial, on March 29-30, was the 100th running of the event (it didn’t take place during world wars and Covid) and around 400 competitors on bikes, sidecars and cars took part. There are three start points – Launceston, Cirencester and Popham – and around 350…

BARRY SYMMONS, who died aged 79 in March, was one of the most successful team managers of the 1980s and ’90s, steering Joey Dunlop, Steve Hislop, Ron Haslam, Roger Marshall, Trevor Nation and Wayne Gardner to dozens of victories. Barry worked his way up from the bottom, starting as a gofer for Phil Read, following him from MV Agusta to Honda in 1977. “He won the first TT Formula One race in the Isle of Man,” Barry told the Belfast Telegraph in 2007. “At the same time Stan Woods and Charlie Williams were in the World Endurance team, and this helped to push me forward into the mainstream of world class motorcycling.” He became Honda Britain team boss in 1981, seeing Joey win five consecutive TT Formula One World Championships…

What a great feature in the April issue on my favourite circuit – the magnificent Cadwell Park. My dad was a regular visitor from the mid-’40s (I think) and my mates and I would often ride up the Fosse Way from Leicester to enjoy great racing at all levels. I well remember the likes of Phil Haslam battling with Alan Pacey and John Newbold, and later Ron Haslam against top-level guys like Phil Read, Barry Sheene, Roger Marshall and co. I always enjoyed the ‘chairs’ too, especially when my best mate and I helped out as ‘gofers’ for a local (to us) rider Brian Mee, with Colin Taylor in the sidecar initially. One particular memory was riding the Konig Wedge down to scrutineering from the top paddock (albeit without the…

INTERVIEW I did have a lot more stuff,” says Mick Broom, as he welcomes Classic Bike into his workshop, “but it all got destroyed when the hovercraft caught fire.” For a moment, my brain is distracted by the concept of him having ‘more stuff’ when I can already see a plane, two steam engines, a curious hub-centre-steered bike, numerous machine tools and what looks like a gas turbine around the place. Then the phrase ‘hovercraft fire’ sinks in... “I’d got a Kohler V-twin for the plane, and to test it I’d put it in a hovercraft that I’d built,” says Mick casually, as if fitting aero engines into home-made hovercrafts is what we all get up to at weekends. “Being lazy, I sprayed Easy Start in to get it going…

Regular readers of Classic Bike will be familiar with stories of forensic restorations, meticulously documented rebuilds and ingenious specials. This is not one of them. It’s all about a bike and its builder, Dek Crutchlow (see his CV on the last page of this feature) from a different time, when stuff just happened and people weren’t obsessed with ‘creating memories’ – in fact, a time of very blurred memories... In 1960s Coventry, five miles from Meriden, there was no shortage of Triumphs to fuel Dek and his mates’ Easy Rider aspirations. “Basically bikes were just around; they changed hands and you never saw them again. I wouldn’t for one minute know who I bought 507 AHP off. Or did I get a frame, and then an engine, and bits and…

Imperial Fixes Problems Rick cogitates with old on iron? your imperial Rick can problems help Following my Project Bradbury frame re-tube article, Edward Sargent got in touch about his veteran 1906 Rex. The frame broke en route to the Pioneer Run, fortunately while it was on a trailer. Now, it may not surprise you that a 118 year-old bike falls apart – but this isn’t old age, you could call it a warranty problem, because the brazing isn’t full-depth in the steering head lug. Only the first inch of tube is brazed, and the lug has fractured where it stops allowing the rest of the tube to just pull out, with the broken bit left like a cuff around the tube. The loose tube runs under the engine and back…

John Scott has a question relating to his BSA M20. First, he says, with these softly-tuned side-valves, he usually applies rule-of-thumb spark timing – full retard at TDC – and uses ‘feel’ to advance the lever when riding. But this time he finds there’s far too much lever travel beyond an ideal advance, and wonders if the spark will be weakened by not being at full magnetic flux. If you’ve never had magneto ignition, this may make little sense, so here goes. Being self-generating, magneto current alternates in a wave. Mags are internally timed to coincide points-break at full advance with peak power. John’s bothered that his points are now breaking well after that peak, losing the optimal spark. It’s true that retarding does weaken the spark – a dodgy…

Q How old can oil be before you don’t trust it anymore? I bought this Suzuki Katana Powerscreen as a non-runner after it had been parked for seven years or so. The owner had been working through a very big service job – oil, valves, bearings and so on, but couldn’t get the carbs to work properly. It has never been used since. I have fitted some other carbs and all is well. I intend to strip the bike soon, to donate the engine to a greater cause, but before that I’d like to just use it for a bit. Do I or don’t I change the oil? There’s little chance that I’ll put more than about 500 miles on it. Rene Schilperoord, Facebook A I wouldn’t risk using the…

Q My 1999 Suzuki Hayabusa never has any problem starting from cold on the choke. Once warm, it will restart happily as long as I don’t leave it for more than a couple of minutes. Any longer than that and the bike struggles to fire up again, sometimes to the point of flattening the battery. Alfie Bose, email A I wonder if there isn’t a rich-running issue here. Hayabusas have a condensation trap in the airbox which is often overlooked. This requires regular draining to get rid of any moisture that has built up. Also check that the air filter isn’t clogged and that the fuel filter is still serviceable. If all of that checks out, take a look at electrical connections and wiring for corrosion or damage, particularly in…

Four-cylinder motorcycling may not have started with the Henderson marque – that accolade goes to Belgian manufacturer FN in 1904 – but they were certainly one of the more ardent advocates of the inline four concept, producing nothing else between 1912 and the summer of 1931. Founded in Detroit by brothers William and Tom Henderson, the first Henderson – a 934cc inlet-over-exhaust inline four went on sale in January 1912. Year on year improvements to their machines were halted by the damaging effects of World War I on the firm’s finances and the brothers sold up to Ignaz Schwinn – the manufacturer of Schwinn bicycles and Excelsior motorcycles – in 1917 and production was moved to the Excelsior plant in Chicago. But it wasn’t the end for the Henderson four.…

Sometimes, I feel that the regional auction houses get overlooked a little. And that’s a shame – for vendors and would-be buyers alike. Because the diversity of machinery offered by smaller auction houses is well worth seeking out. We realise that not every potential buyer has bottomless pockets and we always try to ensure we have something to suit all tastes and budgets. There’s an upside to being a smaller outfit than some of the big guns on the auction scene. With lower overheads, we can take on the smaller and less exotic machines. And, because we deal with a lot of probate sales through our other departments and can handle an estate sale that may include a couple of bikes along with other items in one package, we often…