Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2020 i Real Classic

REALCLASSIC is composed entirely by experts and the odd enthusiast (very odd, some may say) and edited by Frank Westworth of The Cosmic Bike Co Ltd, who is delighted that Rowena Hoseason has returned to work so he been able to have an afternoon off. Several afternoons. Chris Abrams of AT Graphics converts your words and photos into the perfected pages you see before you. Mortons Media Group Ltd at Horncastle handle all the admin, trade advertising, subscriptions and back issues on 01507 529529 READ MORE about real classics at www. Real-Classic.co.uk TRADE ADVERTISERS for the magazine or website should call Sarah on 01507 529418 or email SMitchellSavage@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 you want…

Last month, Jacqueline mentioned that PUB the Vincent was feeling a trifle heavy, and that the cause was unlikely to be either a change in earth’s gravitational constant or because her Vincent had been over-indulging in pies recently. I can offer a possible explanation: syzygy, the fortnightly phenomenon when the earth, moon and sun all get their ducks lined up in a row and tidal forces are commensurately increased. All that combined gravity is enough to tow the oceans halfway around the globe – so it must surely have an effect on the mass of the mighty Vincent twin. My solution? Jacqueline should avoid riding her big bike during spring tides, and only ride at neap when it’ll feel nice and light… Rowena Hoseason, member 002…

It was always my intention to keep a detailed maintenance log regarding my motorcycles. I did start one over 50 years ago when I had my first bike, but it didn’t last long due to persistent tinkering, changes of and multiply ownership, etc. One person who had more success was the late Stan Warner of Wolverhampton. I never met Stan but he was an uncle to one of my neighbours. On 5/6/54, Stan took possession of a used Bantam 125, NRL 841, which had already completed 9881 miles. Over the next five years, to the day, he added at a rate of 9.5k miles per annum, another 47,906 miles, before changing on 4/6/59 to a Douglas Dragonfly, TYP 858. He rode 32,366 miles on the Douglas before another change on…

The original Royal Enfield Bullets appeared in the late 1940s and remained in production with many changes into the 21st century. The name was first used pre-war on sporting 250, 350 and 500 singles as well, and the model designation is still in use to this day. I’ll focus on the most common ones, which kicked off with the G2 semi-unit 350, with its 4-speed gearbox bolted directly to the oil ‘tank’ at the rear of the crankcases. This came from Redditch in 1948 and grew into the 500 ‘JS’ machines in 1953, which resulted in a tougher bottom end for the smaller machines soon afterwards. Ducati were not the first to have ‘narrow case’ and ‘wide case’ engines! At the other end of our timeline you’ll find the Electra-X…

Little weekend rides, in addition to the ‘shopping runs’ have kept PUB on two wheels for very modest mileages, but still fairly lacking in real destinations, and she does like to have a real destination, otherwise every road junction brings indecision about which way to turn. August is the time when Evenley village in Northamptonshire host their ‘Bill Lacey’ gathering to celebrate the famous Brooklands exponent and tuner. It is not the easiest of events to cancel, because so many of the attendees have no club affiliations and ‘just know’ that it is the place to go in early August. Most clubs did indeed cancel their usual organised club runs to the venue, but word was that it would take place anyway, and the local pub would be putting on…

Picture this: a beautiful September afternoon, sun shining, temperature temperate, main roads still unusually clogged with city refugees seeking a little solace in the West Country. An etheric message lands from a friend. It suggests coffee and cake at a café in Devon, about an hour away in an area with which I am entirely unfamiliar. I consider the glory that is Google Maps, understand where it is – down a minor road off a B-road off an A-road and apparently by the side of a cycle track which was previously a railway track. I didn’t even know the place existed. Don’t you just love spontaneity? I should have been doing other stuff, but hey – coffee and cake! Pulled out the Triumph, made sure that the phone was charged…

So good to see Frank back to his humorous best in RC197. The Electra shed adventure had me chuckling into my coffee, after what I can only describe as months in the BSAAMC twin wilderness! Well written with laugh-out-loud moments. Keep it up, Frank! STG Schofield, member I’ve just opened the latest edition of the mag. To my delight and pleasure not one but two articles on bikes that I have personal dealings with. The big Enfield engine; I run an Interceptor which I rebuilt, and the Norton rotary. While an F1 is the prize that I’ll never be able to possess, my own Classic is still a keeper; the pride of my fleet. My one regret is selling my Norton Commander. Thanks for a great mag. Mick Merrick, member…

The Z750B twin was quite enigmatic because it was not what us trad Brit bikers expected from the big K and yet neither was it the UJM that those beginning to convert allegiance thought that they should be making. A conundrum! Most therefore rejected it. My selling the Commando to buy one was for me counter-intuitive, and for a while I thought I’d made a mistake. However it was the reverse of what Frank describes so well with the T140V: a bike that didn’t initially excite much, gradually rising in estimation as the miles built up until in the end I absolutely loved it. Subtle qualities and understatement. You can’t beat that. I am really looking forward to getting my restored 1978 bike on the road in the next few…

It is natural when walking, and more so when marching, that the original combination is ‘right foot with left arm / hand and vice versa, thus the selection by British motorcycle manufacturers to use this for motorcycle controls: right hand and left foot for brakes with left hand and right foot for clutch and gear operation. Maybe the opposite selection for these operations by other manufacturers was just to be different to the UK – this also seemed to be adapted for driving on the right-hand side of the road. I have owned and ridden BMWs for approximately 30 years, riding to Scotland on a BMW R100R on many occasions to watch The Open, once doing the John o’Groats to Land’s End run. One not exactly funny incident happened on…

Engine Air-cooled ohv single Bore/stroke 82.5mm x 93mm Capacity 498cc Carburettor Amal 389 Monobloc Clutch Multiplate wet Gears 4-speed positive stop Brakes 7-inch sls drums, full-width alloy hubs Frame Duplex tubular cradle, brazed and bolted Front suspension AMC Teledraulic multi-rate forks, two-way damped Rear suspension Swinging arm, twin adjustable Girling shocks Front tyre 3.25 x 18 Rear tyre 3.50 x 18 Wheelbase 55 inches Seat height 30 inches Weight 390lb dry Fuel economy 64mpg at 50mph Braking 29ft from 30mph Top speed 87mph…

The Troglobike was a 500 Royal Enfield I built for long distance trials. From the outset, we bonded. The bike proved reliable (apart from the new electronic ignition some twerp sold me), it proved my theories about what was suitable and we had some great times. It came to an end when I dropped the bike on a slippery steep hillside in Cornwall. It was difficult to stand up, never mind pick the bike up! I’ve not got older but my birth certificate has, and after that incident it was obvious that I needed a lighter bike as the certificate was only going to get older… So started a strenuous thinking and planning process. I was convinced that a British engine was better for these events, but which? After much…

It was interesting reading about the Yamaha XS750 in RC197. Some bikes are totally unremarkable. The XS750 may have been a good bike but it was not a machine you would crave after or which would stick in your memory for long. I was a bike trader from the late 1970s until the early 2000s and thousands of bikes passed through my hands in that time. When people ask me ‘Did you own a this or that?’ some I recall ‘yes!’ straight away, but others I just can’t remember if I had one or not. The XS750 is one of those bikes. Not outstandingly good, not outstandingly bad. Just another bike. Sean Smith, member I’m old enough to remember the release of the XS750, and it was viewed by many…

Reading Dave Baddeley’s letter in RC196 regarding his Honda electrical problems reminded me of issues I had years ago with condensers. This experience prompted me to always scour autojumbles for new old stock items in their original packaging. If there’s no joy in finding these, and you’ve bought a box of new ignition parts, it’s a good idea to swap these over one at a time to see if the problem is overcome. Doing this would save the experience Dave had in finding his original coil was working and was not the cause of the bike’s misbehaviour. Pete Trow, member 13,396…

Back in 2016, I’d finally got some miles on the Square Four which had been featured in RC the previous year. I’d learned a bit about Ariels, mostly through the splendid Ariel Owners’ MCC, which had started me thinking about buying a girder-forked single. During idle moments, I’d look at the adverts. Snooping around the internet one day, I found a likely candidate advertised as a 1948 Red Hunter and located in Castiglion Fiorentino, a small town in Tuscany. It was a rather good price that I could afford and I started asking questions, starting with the history of this model… Val Page’s Ariel single was already a well-developed design when the W/NG was laid out for the War Department. Elements of the engine could be traced to the famous…

I had a reasonable if rattly MZ ETZ 250. I had an ambition of having the engine overhauled to remove the rattling, give it a little more power and remove the kickback. Then a sparkly red Honda appeared for sale at £600 or thereabouts. It was a CB250 Nighthawk, 233cc, based on the CB185/200, dated 1995. Not a Super Dream, a completely different animal. It started and ran so I gave it a trial ride. It was OK but the steering was a bit erratic. Money changed hands and the deal was done. ‘Oh,’ said the PO. ‘The carb might need cleaning. It’s been standing a while.’ Innocently, I rode it away and took it for an MoT. ‘Failure,’ said the examiner. ‘Steering head bearings shot, it’s unsafe.’ Oh dear.…

Like many things in life, there is no shortage of opinions on two-stroke tuning. With Google as your friend, research becomes not the time consuming chore it once was, but a lively jaunt into endless information. Of course, you come across two types of people. People who think they know about two-stroke tuning and do know about two-stroke tuning, and people who think they know about two-stroke tuning but actually know nothing about two-stroke tuning. I stand in neither camp, my feet firmly anchored to the ground in ‘I know nothing about two-stroke tuning and I know I know nothing about two-stroke tuning.’ One thing I did know, if carburetion and exhaust play a large part in four-stroke tuning, they are ultra-critical in two-stroke tuning. A four-stroke might be tolerant…