Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2020 i Real Classic

This is probably the strangest and most difficult editorial I've had to write. Rea/Classic is a magazine all - and I do mean 'all' - about bikes, mostly ancient and sometimes a little bit modern, and the lifetimes of entertainment and delight they can supply. Observe how, even now, I am studiously ignoring the spanner-flinging frustration of working on a BSA A65. Positivity in all things. Wherever possible . Which is the key to this hopefully unique editorial. As I write this, it's the evening of Mothering Sunday, as we classic types should call it. The sun is shining, the skies are marvellously blue, my Triumph has just got a pair of new tyres, as well as a new chain and sprockets. It's even booked in for a big service,…

TWIN CARBS – gorgeous! With their pancake filters they are the crowning glory on a bike which is beautiful from any angle. The TR6 may be better overall, but who cares? Edward Turner’s Bonneville changed the look of motorcycles forever; everyone followed. Even today modern retros copy its style THE LATEST ROCKER cover gaskets hold the pushrods in place, making fitting the rocker boxes easy, Great idea! IT’S A PERFECT CLASSIC: fast enough to keep up with modern traffic, reliable, eye-candy, economical, easy spares availability. PEOPLE STOP to chat and say that they/their dad had one and it’s way better than modern bikes……

CRANKSHAFT BALANCING: the best improvement you can make It transforms the bike MULTI-FUSE BOX: it makes faultfinding simple and you don’t lose all power just because there is a short on the rear light AMAL PREMIER CARBS: beautiful quality. Easy to set up and they stay balanced. They make starting first-kick every time and control fuel consumption PAZON ELECTRONIC IGNITION: fit it and forget. I still check the timing every 3k miles but it has never varied. SMITHS ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENTS; a little faffy to fit but look authentic, give an accurate steady reading and easy to read in the dark HIGH OUTPUT ALTERNATOR and Podtronic regulator; loads of power, can you have too much? Caution; check the rotor’s timing mark is accurate, by degree gauge or crankshaft groove after fitting.…

The PUB Vincent is fine again, after sorting its battery – indeed it was out last weekend as this is written. So too is the Suzuki, whose leak proved to be due to a slightly short acorn nut (PUB’s fault, long story) becoming threadbound on a slightly long stud (Suzuki’s fault). With that sorted and a new O-ring under the cover mobility is restored – which means shifting attention back to the old nails. With no other workshop woes to report it will have to be something different this month. Bryan King, who wrote a letter in RC185 (September 2019) with fond memories of his 225cc Francis-Barnett Cruiser, despite having had a serious accident on it, probably imagined that his request for PUB to write something about the model had…

Besides my life-long interest in old motorb ikes, I am interested in local history and volunteer at Frenchay Village Museum near Bristol. Each year the museum hosts a vintage vehicle day, and about 15 years ago I got talking to another museum volunteer. He was clearing the house of an old friend and was throwing lots of old motorcycle related materials into a skip. Would be interested in any of it? There were hundreds of original pen and ink drawings by a technical artist named Francis Simpson who, it transpired, was technical artist with The Motor Cycle magazine from 1916 to 1932 and also marketing manager with Douglas Motorcycles. The drawings were mostly of motorcycles, and sectioned engines/ gearboxes, with the internal working shown . Amazingly, they included the originals…

There are a few things Lawrence doesn’t like about his Bonnie… TWIN CARBS: access around them is a pain; undoing the rocker caps, fitting carbs etc. They used to need frequent rebalancing, although that hasn’t been the case with the new Premier Amals which have been ‘fit and forget’. With two carburettor springs to pull against, the throttle is a hard hold. After a 300 mile trip it is wearying on the wrist. Two carbs, pah! HANDLEBARS: I cut 3” each side from the standard bars and they are still wide. At least I can now filter to a degree. But if I buy cables they are now 3” too long! TOP END CHATTER: adjusting the rockers is a pain. It is impossible to do it accurately. There is no…

This new flat-tracker is intended to be fast as my Rotax, but a machine I’d built myself like my Beesa. The thought process has been a little more detailed than that and began with… weight. Or better still, no weight, or as little as possible. I’d worked wonders with the A65. From 395lb stock, my target weight had been to get under 300lb, and with plenty of applied Colin Chapman, I’d ended up at 272lb. Impressive for a 750 BSA. But that was still 30 or 40lb heavier than the bikes I was racing against. My thinking is that I can build a Can-Am a lot lighter than that. My target weight is 210lb. If I can hit that, that’s the equivalent of more than a sack of spuds sat…

Before their joint venture with OEC, the Tinkler brothers took their innovative motorcycle to the Isle of Man TI races in 1927. Their adventures were reported at the time; Almond had apparently been working flat out to complete his radical racer. It was a water-cooled, unit construction, overhead cam, horizontally-positioned single, with the crankcase at the front, behind the radiator. The magneto was driven by a skew gear from the crank, and the entire powerplant was hidden inside an aluminium casing. The Tinkler wasn't finished in time for the first week of TI practice but appeared on track during the second week. It was, apparently, 'not very fast' and seized after the radiator started leaking. Tinkler completed a lap in a cloud of steam, but ~ too slowly to qualify.…

In the early 1970s I was hurtling round England on a nearly-new 1969 Triumph Bonneville. Ah, how I loved that bike. The performance, the power, the glamour, the shameful lack of maintenance. Ah, how I abused it. It was my dad’s bike, you see… Clearly worried that I would get a P45 for nonappearances after a trail of broken-down motorcycles, PopH loaned me his shiny T120. Never give an eighteen year-old a fast bike, they’ll do just what I did; hoon around on/over the redline. I was commuting to Leicester. One day I made the thirty-mile trip in 28 minutes. Outside built-up areas I was rarely under the ton. Why not? The tyres became mysteriously bald, the oil was never changed, maintenance was skimped or non-existent. Instead of a new…

LP WILLIAMS: they are wonderful, easily the best I have dealt with over 26 years. 01524 770956 / triumph-spares.co.uk HUGHIE HANCOX VIDEO: still available as a DVD and still the best. Beware of internet advice/videos NORMAN HYDE: still improving Triumphs. 0333 8002300 /normanhyde.co.uk T&L ENGINEERS: every service you could want including dynamic balancing. 01234 352418 / vintage-engine.net AUTOMOTIVE SERVICES (Northampton). Lovely guys, very helpful, very skilled. 01604 722064 /automotive-services.co.uk CENTRAL WHEELS / Wheelhouse Tyres. Extensive range of classic-suitable tyres as well as wheel building services. central-wheel.co.uk /wheelhousetyres.co.uk WORKSHOP 14. Particularly AMC orientated but very skilful engine builders rather than parts assemblers. 07802 740672 BURLEN FUEL SYSTEMS for Amal. Perfected goods and excellent service. 01722 412500 / burlen.co.uk PAZON IGNITION. Has never missed a spark for me. pazon.com DIGITAL SPEEDOS. Are they…

BMW AIRHEAD TWINS by Phil West Part of Crowood’s ‘The Complete Story’ series, this hardback / ebook is dedicated to BMW’s iconic air-cooled horizontally opposed twins. The chronological chapters start with the birth of BMW; explain how the marque moved into motorcycles in the early 1920s; document the war years then how BMW went from boom to bust to Berlin; consider the superbikes of the 1970s, the age of adventure in the 1980s, and concludes the story with the end of the airheads. Includes almost 300 photos, details of the personalities behind the development of the bikes, profiles of each of the R models, and detailed specification guides and production numbers. £20 from crowood.com HOW TO RESTORE: NORTON COMMANDO by Chris Rooke A meaty manual written by an RC regular,…