Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2017 i Real Classic

I wrote about my pair of Laverda twins in RC136, ending the article with a teaser about my 1975 Moto Morini 3½ Sport. Here in Canada that machine is as rare as compassion from your investment banker: it’s just never seen. I reached the age of 60 and have been involved in motorcycling since the age of 12, but I have never encountered a single Moto Morini on the road, and only one at vintage race days. I knew they existed, thanks to the 1979 edition of that wonderful publication ‘World Motorcycle Catalogue’. At the time the US custom bike trend consumed almost the entire marketplace; sports bikes were few and far between. I craved Italian machinery but they were hard to find, expensive, and sadly out of reach. I…

In May 1919 the Hanwell brothers, Cedric and Oscar, submitted a patent for improvements in spring forks for motorcycles. This was essentially a housing with a spring under compression which allowed backward, forward, and up and down movement. Then in October a second patent was applied for in respect of improvements to motorcycle under-shields. These patents may not have been entirely original as there is a passing resemblance to Triumph equivalents. But that very same month a two-page article appeared in The Motor Cycle heralding the introduction of the Cedos 2½hp motorcycle. ‘An entirely new and well-designed lightweight embodying many practical features.’ The brothers’ father, Herbert, was a plumber, and the London Gazette of January 1919 advises that the Hanwell Pendant Company Ltd had acquired Herbert’s gas fitting business. It…

Once upon a time… a friend had a petite Métisse rolling chassis which never quite got built. After 20 years he sold it to me. I had a spare BSA WD B40 motor tuned to SS90 specification which I fancied would fit. Then it occurred to me that a Triumph unit T100A motor would also fit – and then a new motorcycling acquaintance mentioned that a mate of his also had a Rickman Métisse, this one with a Triumph engine already fitted. It was in bits and he’d lost interest. You have to go and have a look, don’t you? Inevitably I parted with cash and had me a basketcase Métisse. It’s funny really; I never liked jigsaw puzzles and I dislike artificial problem solving, but a real problem is…

Designed to commemorate the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, the Royal Wedding was a popular model on both sides of the Atlantic, arguably more so than the previous Silver Jubilee Bonneville. Times were extremely tough at Triumph during the emerging 80s, and even though a new Conservative government had written off Meriden’s substantial £8.4 million debt there was still an outstanding £2 million tax credit to be settled. It was a feather in Meriden’s cap that their workforce managed to remain optimistic despite a UK recession, limited funds, depleted resources, crippling rates and an out-dated product in the shape of the T140V. Competition from Europe and Japan threatened to overwhelm the UK industry and in order to survive Meriden needed to roll out new models, and fast. The…

After owning a Sunbeam S8 for 20 or more years, I decided I needed another bike, so I could have one to ride while working on the other, as you do. The bike I really decided I needed was a BSA Golden Flash, a great classic bike with good handling and a great engine that allows for motorway cruising when required. So my search began, constantly scouring the TradeMe internet site, which is a New Zealand version of eBay – although way better. Unfortunately, BSA Golden Flashes weren’t coming up very often, and the few that did went for the better part of $10k for a good one with the great swinging arm frame. Several months later: no joy, which led me to start looking at eBay and the UK…

While pondering on a way to introduce this feature, it struck me that not everyone is familiar with the joys of riding a GR (girder / rigid) motorcycle. Among my friends and acquaintances, nearly everybody in the local area owns at least one GR, to the extent that it’s easy to believe that they are normal classic bike fodder. It’s only when you stop to think about it that you realise they might not be relatively commonplace to a great many riders. It’s probably fair to say that many of us tend to be re-living our youth in one way or another (or some of us never left it) and, as such, bikes of the 1950s and 60s figure the most highly; either bikes we’ve owned, or bikes we always…

Odd. Odd looks, odd engineering, odd handling, odd sounds. Odd owners, some would say. BMW’s motorcycles have always been a little to one side of mainstream, but the things that make them odd are obviously the result of development by a team who rode the bikes they built. The best way to understand, to appreciate, those oddities is to ride a BMW as intended. So let’s take a 1977 R80/7 for a day trip to the seaside. The bike sits on its centrestand with its front wheel waving proudly in the air, but there’s method in this madness. If you need to remove the front wheel, it’s easy. And if you have to remove the rear wheel, the change in balance as that wheel is parted from the bike will…

It is indeed a rite of spring (that’s a musical joke; look it up), because for some reason all my bikes get their MoT tests in the spring. Which cannot actually be much of a surprise, as I am a dully unimaginative chap who wants his bikes serviced, set up and certificated ready for the allegedly better weather of the summer. And I have genuinely no idea why this should be so, but I always somehow dread the MoT test. Why? No idea, like I said. I dread it as much as my own bodily check-ups and servicing – and those are actually important! I was chatting with a pal – yes, yes, an endangered species; I’ve heard all the jokes – about how great it is that several of…