Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2017 i Real Classic

REALCLASSIC rasped into action this month, ignited by Rowena Hoseason and Frank Westworth of The Cosmic Bike Co Ltd, and Mike Baumber, Kelvin Clements and rest of the Mortons production team at Horncastle Heaps more bike features are posted throughout the month at www.Real-Classic.co.uk TRADE ADVERTISERS for the magazine or website should call Helen Martin on 01507 529574, email hrmartin@mortons.co.uk EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES should be sent to Frank@RealClassic.net or to PO Box 66, Bude EX23 9ZX. Please include an SAE if youwant something returned or a personal reply SUBSCRIPTION INFO is on pg114. Call 01507 529529 to subscribe or renew or buy back issues SUBS QUERIES, late deliveries, or changes of address should be directed to 01507 529529, or email subscriptions@realclassic.net ALL MATERIAL in RealClassic is copyright its authors, so please…

Check out the Real Classic Facebook page for up to date details of forth coming old bike events, and to see if the RC Crew are on manoeuvers. Visit www.facebook.com/realclassicmagazine and‘like’ the page. In the‘like’options, click to ‘see first’ in your news feed. Then you’ll always know what’s happening! SEPTEMBER 1ST AND 2ND The annual EUROJUMBLE extravaganza returns to Netley Marsh near Southampton, SO40 7GY. Opens 9am both days. Features a Charterhouse auction on the Friday. Bikes and club displays both days, plus an entire field full of jumble stalls with many unusual items offered by traderswho’ve come over from the Continent for the weekend. Free parking. Admission £10 on the gate: discount tickets from 01507 529529 or classicbikeshows.com SEPTEMBER 2ND AND 3RD The CLASSIC REUNION MEETING is at Cadwell…

Let me share a thing with you: we receive some fairly strange correspondence here at the RC rest home for ancient motorcycles. One of my favourite was from a guy writing to tell me why he was not renewing his RC sub. We receive very few of these, happily, but we always read them–mostly they make perfect sense, some of them are very sad, but a few are just… strange. This chapwasn’t renewing because even I (even I? what does that mean?), FW, had taken a pile of parts to be powder-coated. It appears that I should have refinished them myself by hand using skill and ancient paints, several of which I’d never even heard of. Curious. What is more curious is that being as what I am – a…

I had a dream. That’s always good opening line for a short story – or even a speech! Anyway, this is a short tale about a motorcycling dream. The dream started off like this… I’ve long been a considerable fan of Nortons – although not of the famous featherbed variety, unusually. I’ve always enjoyed the non-featherbed singles and twins, the 750 hybrids, Commandos – even the lightweights! And I have ridden more miles aboard rotary Nortons than aboard any other British bikes: when production ceased I was seriously unhappy. The great 1990s sillinesses followed, with obviously daft ideas like the V8 and the like polluting the great name of Norton. And then, much later, friends in the USA sent me details of a new Norton, an air-cooled parallel twin labelled…

A recent MoT on my 1964 Francis Barnett Cruiser 89 led me to reflect on the 1979 pop song‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’ sung by JohnnyCash.Why? This bike has, over the past three years, only averaged some 25 miles a year. I keep it as a reminder of whatmotorcycles have meant to me for over fifty years. Youmay be able to see the photoof the odometer readings on this year’s MoT. When I first had the F-B tested in 2014 the reading was 18437. In 2016 it was 18489, a total of 52 miles. At its annual test this year the recorded total had jumped to 18811, although I had only ridden an annual total of 22 miles. This should, if my maths are correct, give a grand total of…

An appreciation for comfort and practicality inamotorcycle has crept up on me almost unnoticed in recent years. I now find myself looking seriously at functional features and designs that I barely gave a second glance ten years ago, such as the Royal Enfield Airflow range, for good reason. It was squarely aimed at the sensible dad market sector, which I have seemingly grown into. The story behind a dramatic black and white photograph intrigued me, particularly as it unfolded only yards away frommy workplace. The events took place thirty years beforemy arrival, wheremotorcycle and aircraft development very briefly overlapped. The British defence industry suffered heavily from budget cuts during the 1950s, and had to diversify in order to survive. The Bristol Aeroplane Company (BAC) was keeping afloat by involvement in…

It struck me recently that I’ve had my Hesketh V1000 for rather more than a decade, and that this was roughly the same period of time that I had previously owned a 1340 Harley LowRider Sport. Before that, I’d had a 1938 Series A Rapide Vincent, again for ten years. That had been preceded by ten years of post-war Vincent ownership. It seems I engage in ten year bouts of – what? Masochism? Pleasure? Addiction? I bought my first Vincent, a D Rapide, in 1968 when I was a 17 year-old student. They were cheaper then and I paid its first owner, a local farmer, £129 for it. That was a ludicrously high amount, given that my previous 500 Triumph had set me back only £60 and was three years…

I attended a‘Biker Down’course last evening. Over the years, I’ve had more first aid training courses than I could count and have used the skills learned more often than anyone would want. I didn’t expect to learnmuch that was truly new, but firmly believe you can never have enough refreshers and opportunities to practice in a safe environment. The question of helmet removal was going to be covered, so that was sure to be interesting and informative. The first major surprise was that the team, besides representing paramedics, police, fire, Blood Bikes, and IAM, were all motorcyclists who commanded the respect of those attending by making observations that reflectedwhat we know to be true, rather than what non-riding officials tell us. Good start. The next revelation was that, although this…

Back in 1963 I was an engineering apprentice living in Bristol. I’d owned a succession of bikes since I was sixteen. By 1963 I’d already had three bikes on the road, as well as having a number of ‘projects’ – vintage wrecks liberated from a local scrapyard. In March I replaced my everyday bike, a 1948 350 Royal Enfield Bullet, with a some what rundown 1954 Triumph Tiger 110, registration number NDF 457. I bought it from a chap for £12/10/0, all very official, with his signature across a 2d stamp on the receipt. He, or another previous owner, had crudely hand-painted it with a red frame and black tank, so it looked a bit sad but it went well. A friend took a photograph of me sat on the…

PUB has been fairly busy in the workshop, but mostly on cleaning up jobs, which she hates. The pre-war project has various gearbox parts – almost enough to assemble two boxes with. All parts, however, were smothered with 80 year-old grease, and the casing was packed with the stuff. Very messy to clean off – neither does PUB have a parts washer (something she should perhaps have acquired?). The rear suspension springboxes (this is a Vincent- HRD, so of course it has rear suspension) were also greased, but they are unsealed so that grease was filthy to boot. Previous owner was of that breed who dismantled machines completely, down to the last nut and bolt. He did sometimes keep bits together in bags and boxes, but much of that regime…