Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2022 i Real Classic

We recently asked you which bikes you would like to see more of in our somewhat eccentric magazine -and you replied. Well, maybe not you, exactly, but a minor army of other readers did, and reading those replies was as entertaining as it was inconclusive. Basically, the overwhelming message was that we should keep on doing what we do. There were of course a fair number who want to read about new bikes – retros, if you like – which was balanced out pretty much by others who swore blind that they’d cancel their subscriptions if we ever featured anything built after 1970. Or 1960. Or maybe 1945. More modern classics – which I think means more recent machinery which qualifies for classic insurance. Again, these were balanced out by…

The last time I wrote an article for RC I had just acquired a Harley-Davidson, a 1977 FLH1200 Electra Glide. Now I’m back, but with a 2001 FXDX-T. I blame Editor Frank for this – partly – and also I acknowledge the good and bad times I enjoyed with the Electra Glide. I had the Electra Glide for a little over a year and 5000 miles. In that time, I found it to be mostly reliable, comfortable, heavy, slow, numb, pretty, idiosyncratic, remarkably able, hard work, and many other things too. It was like many bikes of its age; a victim of many hands and much love and abuse. It could have been a great bike, but to be the great bike I wanted it needed to be stripped down…

I’ve bought and sold several small Italian motorcycles from the 1950s-80s in the last couple of years. I’m also the dating officer for the Italian Motorcycle Owners’ Club. The sheer number of different marques which we’ve dated in recent months – Bianchi, Morini, Bon-vicini Capriolo, Ceccato, Ducati, Gilera, Itom, Malanca, Guzzi, Motom, MV Agusta and Sterzi among them – suggests that these bikes are gaining in popularity. They’re an alternative to the traditional British bike. Perhaps the appeal is the cost, or the excellent engineering in a relatively small package. Most Italian bikes have marque clubs in Italy which are keen to support owners with information. Certainly, having a motorcycle that does not leak oil and is easy to look after are considerations. One of the main attractions of these…

Happy days! The 250 Matchless is a runner – just in case you’ve forgotten last month’s moment of triumph. Not a moment of Triumph, that’s different. Discontented with simply starting the engine once to see that everything works, of course I had to start it several times, to see that everything still works. Which it did -uptoapoint. Although I was sore tempted to take to the local lanes using the portable fuel tank to supply the fuel, somehow I managed to resist the temptation. Even though it was very hot and indeed sunny – ideal pushing conditions. There is a minor fuel tank dilemma here. I enjoy dilemmas; any opportunity to sit on my Shed stool and contemplate nothing at all important is welcome. In this case, neither of the…

Who doesn’t adore the looks and lore of the Gold Star? Back in the day, Martin and his pals simply salivated over Gold Stars but the prices ‘were so high they might as well be on the moon.’ So for 30-odd years Martin rode the next best thing, an oily rag 1949 B31 and a selection of other rigid BSA singles. But his dreams of owning something like a Gold Star never quite faded… The post-war Goldie was unveiled at the 1948 Earl’s Court show as the alloy-engined B32 – it adopted the ZB designation a little later – with its 71mm by 88mm dimensions giving 348cc. Almost immediately the plunger-framed Goldie was offered alongside a wallet-bending selection of optional upgrades which effectively makes it impossible to define the specification…

In 1968 I was posted to Cyprus with the RAF for two and a half years, and I planned to save enough to buy my dream bike on my return to the UK. That would have been an Egli Vincent from Roger Slater, which cost around £525. Unfortunately on only £14 per week I didn’t make it, but I did save nearly £300. So on my return I went to Conways in London to buy the next best thing, a Vincent 1000. The salesman didn’t seem very impressed with a 20 year-old kid. He told me if I was interested then I should come back at 2pm as he was about to go for lunch! So I set off for Coburn and Hughes who had a Norvin with a Rapide…

One of my schoolmasters rode a Triumph Bonneville – he rode to school every day in a Belstaff Stormcoat, gauntlets and a reversed flat cap. If I’d suffered from heroes he would have been one. He also taught Latin and told seriously filthy jokes – all the boys loved him, while most of the staff disliked him, not least because he was some kind of war hero and could put the letters ‘MA Cantab’ behind his name, rather than a mundane ‘BA’ or the like. He also owned a Brough Superior, but I never saw that. As an amateur swot, player of combat bridge and juvenile motorcyclist, I once asked him, cleverly, as lads do, what made the Brough superior to the Matchless Model X, with which it shared an…

The Smiths speedometer drive on the rear axle is often neglected until it goes wrong, which can be too late. I discovered this when the flickering chronometric needle froze at my travelling speed. A broken drive cable wasn’t to blame, thankfully, nor was the speedometer, which left only the drive from the back wheel to look at. A close look revealed the double-slotted crown in the hub was still engaging with the two drive pegs of the gearbox, but this had stopped turning the forward-facing drive to the speedo cable. Faced with either a pricey secondhand replacement of unknown condition from that popular auction site or a cheap modern copy made somewhere east of Ipswich, I took a punt at the latter and soon regretted it. When a shiny casting…

It’s a Missing Link in the ongoing revival of Britain’s historic bike brands. Triumph, Norton, Ariel, Métisse, Brough Superior, Matchless and now BSA – all these and other less famous names from Britain’s two-wheeled yesterdays have already been resurrected to join Royal Enfield, which never actually went away, in the born-again biking section of British motorcycling’s history store. But there’s still no sign of the real time revival of the biggest one of all – Vincent. Ever since production at Vincent’s Stevenage works ceased in 1955, after founder Phil Vincent’s uncompromising insistence on the highest quality of manufacture and engineering, coupled with world-leading performance, was ultimately found to be sadly incompatible with also making a profit, there have been various attempts down the years to relaunch this historic marque. But…

It’s almost impossible to avoid Chinese motorcycles these days. Much like Japanese motorcycles 60 years ago the names were unfamiliar, but within the space of 20 years the factories became household names and had decimated the British motorcycle industry. I don’t think that the Chinese will have the same impact, as there’s no low-hanging fruit to pick off these days. Even so the Chinese entry into the small capacity market has taken many sales from the usual suspects, and I’m sure they are taking very serious notice. Such is the growing influence of manufacturers from the developing world I doubt there’s a western brand that does not have a link to a Chinese or Indian factory these days. In many cases, traditional companies are now owned by one. Those of…

A few years ago, global traveller John Young (the cover star of RC209) was passing through Ontario on his legendary and well-worn 1969 Triumph Trident. Thinking that we might have a few things in common – long rides, old bikes, etc – we arranged to meet for a coffee and something sticky and artery-clogging. We did indeed find plenty to talk about, but eventually John had to continue his journey around Lake Superior to Wisconsin. Our two bikes had been parked side by side. The ground beneath his massively-travelled Trident was spotless. The ground beneath my less well-travelled 1976 Moto Guzzi Convert wasn’t – a fact that John took delight in recording for posterity and continues to enjoy by posting the picture on RC’s Facebook group whenever he gets the…