Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2018 i Real Classic

It’s been interesting reading articles and letters about the Sunbeam S7/S8. Here’s a photo of a ‘customised’ S7 that I owned in the early 1960s, taken in North Wales in 1964. I think it shows they didn’t have to be dressed as a gentleman’s motorcycle. I took my inspiration from an American magazine called Home Mechanix. As you can see, the bike had a petrol tank from a BSA C12 and its mudguards were brass, the saddle was an old racing seat I bought secondhand. Custom bikes weren’t seen much then so it really turned heads. I don’t think you can compare an S7/S8 with a BSA Shooting Star 500. In my opinion the latter was far superior. Back in the day, considering its handling, performance, ease and cost of…

MikeH, the builder and owner of this fine Velocette, is by no means a purist. He is however a very talented machinist, which means that when he decided it was time to dip his toe into the world of bobbers, his first thoughts weren’t of small Honda twins or air-cooled BMWs, but rather a 1930s Velo. It’s perhaps worth noting that Mike has something of a track record where Velos are concerned. He’s rebuilt and restored dozens of Hall Green’s finest over the years, so utilising a Velo from the era when bobbing first took place wasn’t quite the odd choice it might appear. Mike’s objective was simple: build a light machine with some modern touches like decent brakes; lose the electrics except for the mag; fit large diameter, skinny…

When people talk about Norton’s cammy singles they typically mention the Manx first and the International… well, eventually, maybe, as a bit of an afterthought. Hardly fair, seeing as the International came first and the Manx model popped up post-war. The Inter was the 1930s race-bred roadster equivalent of the works overhead cam competitors. Joe Craig and Arthur Carroll drew up the new Norton cammy engine for the 1930 season, to cure some of the groundbreaking CS1’s idiosyncrasies. The CS1 was an impressive engine, but it was technically tricky to keep in tune and riders found it tough to extract its peak performance. The Inter was a smaller machine overall, with a shorter wheelbase and lower riding position which favoured the vintage style of ‘lean out’ cornering, knees gripping the…

Motorcycling, like life, is shaped by culture. Registered as a 1980 machine, the Benelli 254 displayed here was first introduced as a sports pocket rocket in Milan around 1975, then left to languish in a displacement class which was twenty years past its prime. This might explain why Benelli’s 250 four is well known, yet very rare on the ground. As envisioned by Alejandro De Tomaso, a wave of new multi-cylinder machines emerged from Pesaro from 1974, our feature bike being the smallest of a line leading up to the range-topping Benelli 900 six. All except the 254 drew heavily upon pre-existing designs from Honda, possibly explaining why some consider it the best of the bunch. One glance at its flash, angular styling and red/orange colour scheme dates the 254…

During the build-up of the flat-track BSA (that series started back in RC160), I was at pains to praise the Amal Mk2 as a very worthy replacement for the old original Concentric, and promised to reveal how using a pair of them panned out in practice. In principle the Mk2 doesn’t differ massively in principle to the Concentric Mk1 (or in many respects even the old Monobloc), so I decided to combine a report on fitting the Mk2s with a look at tuning Amal carbs in general. The principles involved in tuning any carb are the same – mixing air and fuel in the right ratio to get the best combustion. And the symptoms of getting it wrong are the same too. Settings that are too lean (not enough fuel)…

Slightly wonderfully, the BSA A65T of fond regard (ha!) arrived complete with a clutch cable, a truly hefty device, which bodes ill for a light operation. However, it’s there, so that’s one insignificant expense saved. I am trying to cheer myself up. How is it that what at first seemed like a cheap, quick and easy rebuild can so easily turn into that oh-so familiar tale of woe? I imagine we are as one in this, thee’n’me, and that you also suffer from False Dawn Syndrome, a common condition I’ve just invented to describe the endless ability of simple tasks to turn into mighty projects. Like the clutch cable. Somewhere nearby may be a pic of it. Handsome, no? However, although it’s not easy to portray in a flat 2D…

The Sammy Miller Museum in New Milton, Hampshire, UK is crammed full of interesting machines – including one of the biggest collections of exotic racing bikes in the world, and all are runners! These include the V8 Moto Guzzi, AJS Porcupine, Mondial 250 with dustbin fairing, Nortons, Ducatis, Suzukis, Hondas, Velocettes and many more! The Road Bike Hall includes a huge collection of factory prototypes and exotic designs from all over the world, and of course there are plenty of dirtbikes and trial icons, too – over 400 bikes in total. The Museum is open to visitors daily from 10am every day at New Milton, Hampshire B25 5SZ. 01425 620777 / www.sammymiller.co.uk…

When I first clapped eyes on the AJS Sceptre Sports perched proudly upon Sandy Bloy’s bench, I fell on my knees and begged my friend for a ride. On catching his charitable grin I risked pushing Sandy a little bit further. ‘How about a road test for our revered magazine?’, I teased. The jolly good fellow and RC member patiently nodded, not at all fazed by my tomfoolery. He knows I’m an excitable chap – especially when confronted by an unusual and rare motorcycle. Fortunately we share a common love of post-war classics, and there are far too many in Sandy’s emporium that I would like to ride home. Sandy Bloy needs no introduction to readers, being the proud owner of two Norton twins already immortalised in RC ink. I…

➤ WE WANT TO PUBLISH more stories about real life classic bikes. You don’t need to be an inspired writer to see your story in RealClassic, but you do need to say something relevant. We like profiles about a single model (or maybe two very similar ones; a pair of Triumph twins, for example), which should be at least 1000 words in length. Most RC features are between 1000 and 2500 words. If your story is longer than that then it’s heading towards being a series (or a book!). If your thoughts run to under 1000 words then they’ll probably appear in the letters section. ➤ TO SEE WHAT WE MEAN look at Oily Boot Bob’s Crusader stories, the Velo MAC or Norton Big4 articles in RC142. These are just…

Having rebuilt the MI-VAL 125 GS/GL it was time to road test it to see how it performs – and of course have a bit of a shakedown to see if everything works as it actually should. I decided to have a ride up over the Yorkshire Wolds on the backroads to Seaways Café, a popular meeting place for bikers close to Fridaythorpe. Total mileage about 75 miles, that should sort it out. On the route there were a few interesting hills and narrow traffic free roads, ideal for a first ride on a strange machine. When filling up the tank and adding the 2-stroke oil, I decided to use the modern recommendations on the oil bottle I bought, as I felt that the MI-VAL recommendations were a bit heavy…