Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2020 i Real Classic

The letter about DMWs in RC182 brought back memories of how I came to race one of these machines in the 1967 Diamond Jubilee Isle of Man TT, despite being an out and out Greeves man. After several years’ trials riding, I started road racing in the late 1950s on a special built by Manchester frame builder Bert Foster. It initially used an RCA 324cc engine, then a 250cc Villiers, both twin cylinder two-stroke engines. I and other local lads became close friends of Bert and Nellie his wife, and spent many evenings at his workshop. After my first season I switched to racing Greeves Silverstone 250cc production racers, from the first RAS model right through to the last one made, the RES model. I rode that in the lightweight…

Rumours of Royal Enfield’s big twin circulated for years. When the Interceptor and Continental GT 650s finally arrived last year, everyone was talking about them. We took a quick spin, intending to follow up with an in-depth feature a little later. Like the bikes themselves, that story took longer than expected to reach you. Apologies for the delay: blame the importer who went curiously silent when we asked for a long-term test bike… However, plenty of RealClassic riders have put the new 650s to the ultimate test. They’ve bought the bikes, spent the money and clocked up some miles. Who better to tell you what a motorcycle is like to own and ride than the people who’ve actually paid for it? That is, after all, what RC is all about.…

A handful of photos of motorcycles crossing the picturesque hills of long-ago rural Wales intrigued me. How many of these scenes from the 1949 International Six Day Trial would be recognisable today? These thoughts became a plan to retrace the route of the 1949 ISDT when a very helpful lady at the VMCC replied to my long-shot request for a copy of the original event programme. Jacqueline in the library at Allen House said that most of the place names on the old maps in the programme could be read when enlarged on a computer. My wild idea was actually viable. The International Six Day Reliability Trial, as it was originally known, was conceived more than a hundred years ago by the Auto Cycle Union to test the reliability of…

One of those improbable revelations has just happened – a factory blueprint of the 1947 engine has turned up! Although I’ve only recently seen photographs of parts of this drawing, I’ve no doubt that is a genuine blueprint copy of the Bracebridge Street original. It is dated 25.10.1946 and is titled ‘Engine Arrangement 500cc Twin’, carries Part Number T1088, and a sub-description of ‘Twin in ES2 Frame’. It has obviously been a factory working drawing as it has been hand-annotated in several places with part numbers for some of the individual components. The differences between this engine and the 1944 ‘gearbox’ engine are sufficient to convince me that they are two different designs which, very slightly, resemble each other. From my initial examination of the ’44 engine and the ’47…

Who among us has not been bitten by the bug of wanting to relive some dear dead days beyond accurate recall? And thus we surf the internet, semi-casually hunting for bargains, and pore over the classified columns in search of some relic of our past when waistlines were slenderer and / or we could get out of an armchair without grunting. My third motorcycle was so terrible, I’m amazed I kept on riding the damn things. A Honda CB200 bought from a back-street Exeter bike shop, it was horribly unreliable and as I was then devoid of even basic mechanical skills, I was able to ham-fistedly make it even more so. If it rained you could watch it dissolve. I finally managed to pass my test on it after a…

First impressions are important, especially where motorcycles are concerned. Thrills mix with need at speed on a big road bike, and the better it is, the better you are. The track-ready Ducati 900 SS was a truly memorable superbike of its time, and what still stands out is feeling the very texture of the road translated through its grips. This was the near-mythical attribute which converted many to the Bologna way, so credit is due to Ducati for not engineering it out of the following 900 Sport Desmo Darmah. Sleek and surprisingly elegant, the 900 SD was unveiled in 1976 and gained the favour of Ducati riders who were losing interest in kick-starting and squeeze’n’stretch ergonomics. Cagiva’s adoption of Ducati in the early 1980s meant that corporate focus shifted to…

I was highly entertained to receive a lengthy grump from a German Frank – he was called Frank and was a German, so there’s nothing subtle going on here. Frank was grumpy because – among many other things – I’d never written up a Tiger 750, the single carb version of the Triumph’s almost certainly legendary 750 twins. I was sure I had, in fact, but memory is a fickle beast at best, so I had to go check, which in this electronic age is pretty easy to do. Guess what? He was correct. I’ve never written up a Tiger 750 for RC – unless you know better, in which case please feel free to enlighten me. That said, I’ve ridden quite a few of them and have almost always…

‘This is the fourth motorcycle that I have owned and the only one where people wave me down to talk about it,’ says Scott in Ohio, USA. ‘These twins have such a classic look that I was instantly drawn to them. It’s possible to build a café-style bike myself but I was able to buy this and ride it rather than wrench on an old bike. It’s the perfect ‘hop on and go’ bike, yet it’s also ready for a more serious ride. The styling is just top notch; even stock, is a joy to look at. ‘I have just under 1000 miles on my bike, commuting to work, riding around town for fun and short trips to the local coffee shop. I was used to an upright large cruiser,…

Recently, I sorted out a Panther to get it going well enough to be a reliable ride for Frank, its owner. I have already brought two 600 / 650 Panther singles back to life, but this was the first time I had encountered a Model 70. It dates from 1947 and uses a rigid rear end and originally had Dowty air / oil telescopic forks. This model preceded the Model 75, which had an upright cylinder and swinging arm rear suspension, as well as a totally different type of Burman gearbox, as we shall see. The Panther’s owner had been looking for a rigid motorcycle and came across the Model 70 by chance. ‘I wanted something from an earlier era than the mostly 1960s machines that I currently own; a…

TRITON TIMES Triumph-engined featherbed specials will take pride of place at the South of England Classic Motorcycle Show at Ardingly on Sunday 29th March this year, where Dave Degens is the show’s special guest. Recognised as one of the UK’s leading tuning specialists, Degens started his racing career back in the 1960s. He built Tritons for the café racer tribe and then successfully tried his hand at endurance racing in the late 1960s and early 70s, winning the Barcelona 24 Hour Race in both 1965 and 1970 as a privateer against the big manufacturers. The bike which took top honours at Barcelona in 1970 was a unit Triumph engine in Degens’ own Dresda chassis. Dave will be available to chat to show-goers in one of the five indoor halls full…

I am often amazed by how little people tackle engineering tasks or even basic maintenance themselves. You might see a nicely restored bike where the owner says they ‘did it themselves’. A little questioning and it transpires that the majority of the work was farmed out. I tell others that my bike’s engine has been rebuilt and I’m asked who did the work. Utter shock appears on their faces when I tell them I did it myself, as I do all my engines, gearboxes, etc. Of course I’m being very unfair indeed. I, along with many others from my generation, had an engineering apprenticeship followed by an engineering based job for life. This opportunity no longer exists and few younger people now have the skills to weld, use a lathe,…

The regular reader will recall the story of my friend Brian’s cammy Velocettes in RC186, which made more than passing reference to Brian’s old A7. Having hopefully piqued your interest, it seemed only polite to go back and get the fuller story. As always, Brian tells his own tales better than I ever could, so in his own words… The story of ‘the old A7’ has quite a connection to the tale of two Velos. After being given the Velo crankcases, I struck up a friendship with the lad who gave them to me, whose name was Owen. Together with his brother he was having a go at sand racing at Wallasey on the Wirral coast. I’d not seen sand racing before, but I sort of tagged along and started…

‘In 2014 l bought a standard Bullet, joined the club (great local branch) and did more than 16,000 miles,’ says Roger Brown, an experienced older rider. ‘I eagerly awaited the new twins and went to my excellent local dealer (Bowens in Kent) with the firm intention of buying one. I rode both but did not find either comfortable. Later I took longer rides with Enfield Classic Tours. That trip convinced me that unfortunately the new Enfield twin was not for me, despite me really wanting to buy one. ‘I tried lots of other bikes from different manufacturers over the next few months, and bought a new Honda CB500X for no more money than the Enfield. l really didn’t want to like the Honda but is really great and I’ve done…

Looking back on the photographs I took of this engine, I’m still puzzled about the apparent lack of history and for which type of product it was being developed. For the former, we need some nonagenarian gentleman to read the articles and say ‘I was working in the Norton factory then, I know all about it, and I’ve got photographs.’ Improbable, but such things have been known to happen. Possible options for the latter include: • A solo motorcycle with an open shaft drive (like Sunbeam and early BMW) to a bevel box at the rear wheel • A tricycle with a motorcycle front end and two driven rear wheels (as used now in China) • A sidecar outfit with a driven sidecar wheel • Or, in a flight of…

This is a sad and familiar winter’s tale. I spend decades perfecting the perfect winter motorcycle – in this case the noble Royal Enfield Bullet, of course – and after diligent and indeed tireless effort and expense I get it ready for the road. The Better Third positively purrs with approval … then sells it. It’s just happened again. Not a problem, of course, because domestic happiness is more important than any personal achievement (other views may of course be available) but in this case the sudden and unexpected departure meant that you, gentle reader, aren’t able to properly enjoy the gripping topic I had planned for this month’s Shedisode. My great plan was that I would drag out an ancient plonker (no no, this is not a political party…