Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2018 i The Classic MotorCycle

The first H&H motorcycle auction of 2018, is on Sunday, March 4, at The National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham. Consignments include a 1969 ex-John Lennon Honda Z50A monkey bike, while one of the star lots is a 1969 Honda CB750 prototype, which featured in early press coverage of the model. There’s a wide variety of lots in the auction, to suit all tastes and pockets, from a couple of vintage AJS projects through to 1970s Japanese ware, plus lots of mopeds. Contact info@handh.co.uk or 01925 210035.…

It's well known that during both the First and Second Word Wars, manufacturers on both sides of the conflict turned their hands – and machines – to making motorcycles for use on both the battle and home fronts, but what’s often overlooked is what the respective governments did before the factories swung into action. The Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) – passed in the United Kingdom on August 8, 1914, four days after it entered the war – gave government the power to requisition buildings, land, vehicles and anything else needed for the war effort. It also ushered in social control mechanisms like censorship, and banned the flying of kites, the starting of bonfires and buying of binoculars. Feeding wild animals bread, discussing naval and military matters and buying…

There’s a place within Mortons' head office that ought to have a health and safety warning. No, it’s not the press hall with all that machinery. Instead it’s a seemingly innocuous room across from our desks For many, an archive may be a notional thing, images stored on their laptop or on their shelves at home, but not here. The Mortons Archive is very real indeed, and there’s not an issue of TCM that doesn’t contain some form of classic image. And while it wouldn’t be impossible to put the magazine together without access to the imagery, it would be a whole lot more difficult and arguably less of a read. The problem is having used the archive on a daily basis over a 16-year period it becomes something you…

NORTON ATLAS THE SPECIALIST Membership of the Norton Owners’ Club gives access to an enormous pool of knowledge and experience. In addition, the parts and services offered by various trade outlets are capable of tackling just about everything to do with anything produced by one of Britain’s most illustrious manufacturers. Club member and long-time Norton Atlas owner John Langridge shared his experience for this guide. ■ Norton Owners’ Club: www.nortonownersclub.org MODEL HISTORY In 1949, Norton’s first parallel twin was of 500cc. Gradual increases in engine size led to 650cc versions by 1961. Overall performance was on a par with similar models from other manufacturers, but all inevitably suffered from vibration. However, the Featherbed frame guaranteed impeccable road manners, while the restrained styling added a measure of distinction. Norton tried to…

YOUR EVENT SHOULD BE HERE The Classic MotorCycle is anxious to learn all about your motorcycle-related events. Contact us at The Classic MotorCycle, Mortons Media Ltd, Diary Listings, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ or email obmfreeads@mortons.co.uk MARCH 3-4 Carole Nash MCN Scottish Motorcycle Show. Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh.www.scottishmotorcycleshow.com MARCH 4 Malvern Drive-In Classic Car & Bike Autojumble. Three Counties Showground, Wye Halls and outside, Malvern, Worcestershire, WR13 6NW. Tel 01484 667776. www.classicshows.org Sidecar-Trike-3Wheeler Day in aid of NABD. Ace Cafe, Ace Corner, N Circular Rd, Stonebridge, London, NW10 7UD. london.acecafe.com MARCH 10 Kempton Park Motorcycle Autojumble. Kempton Park, Staines Road East, Sunburyon-Thames, Middlesex, TW16 5AQ.www.kemptonparkautojumble.co.uk Tel 01507 529529. LE Velo Lancs & S Lakes, Annual Lunch. Ferrari’s, Langridge. Tel 01772 782516 to book. MARCH 11 Kenley Autojumble. The…

Welcome to this special issue, celebrating the fact that, in 1958, Triumph launched its Bonneville, a model that was to become such a seminal machine and a motorcycle which changed a lot, despite the fact its launch really was accompanied with little fanfare. It’s surely fair to claim it’s the best known British motorcycle, while it also represented something new – the start of motorcycling as a leisure activity, led by the American market, where the Bonnie (as it was tagged almost immediately) excelled in terms of performance and popularity. In this special publication, Dave Manning details the Bonneville in all its various incarnations, as well as a little bit about where it came from and where it’s ended up. I’m fortunate in that I’ve ridden pretty much every incarnation…

Edward Turner’s last production design before his retirement was a development of the all-alloy pre-unit twin that not only saw the new capacity of 649cc that debuted with the 6T Thunderbird, but also brought in a standard fitment of twin 11ff16in Amal carbs (which had previously only been available as a factory upgrade for the single carb’d Tiger and which, on the early Bonnies, utilised a T110 head casting that was adapted to take twin inlet stubs) and the use of the Tiger’s hotter inlet camshaft. All of this helped to spin a new, stronger, one-piece EN16B forged crankshaft with bigger journals and bearings and a wider flywheel, combining to give an output of 46bhp, six horsepower more than the Tiger. So confident was the factory in this new twin…

A definitive move towards bringing the Bonneville up to date came in 1971, with the deletion of a separate oil tank, using a new huge three inch spine frame as the oil receptacle instead, updating the twin in an interesting engineering reversal of Honda’s CB750, which had a separate oil tank and had been launched in 1969. It was something of a controversial move, and given that while the Bonnie certainly needed updating, it would probably have been better if those improvements had been to the brakes, or to equip the bike with an electric start or maybe even a five-speed gearbox… The new frame brought some issues, including the fact that the new ‘oil tank’ had the filler cap and dipstick at the front of the rider’s seat, where…

Launched in 2016, the most recent iteration of the Bonneville name is a truly modern motorcycle that continues the process of upgrades with a further capacity hike, although there are actually two versions – a full fat 1200cc and a sibling of a ‘mere’ 900cc that followed in 2017, although the air-cooled 865cc engine continued in production with the Scrambler and air-cooled version of the Thruxton. The ‘high torque’ eight valve, water-cooled parallel twin now has a 270° crank for more of a V-twin punch (and less of the traditional rorty 360° sound that many consider to be part and parcel of the Bonnie feel), although this does result in 77.4lb-ft (105Nm) of torque – 54% more than the previous version! It may have a radiator but the powerplant still…

This fascinating picture shows riders setting off at the start of the 1920 Humber Staff Trial, where members of staff from the various departments at the Humber works pitted themselves against one another, in what would now be reported as a ‘team building exercise, but which was more eloquently described in The Motor Cycle of July 8, 1920, thus: [The trial has become]… ‘an annual event to which the contestants look forward with more than usual keenness mixed with no small rivalry. That this is so fulfils the spirit of the trial, for when works can beat the offices, or department prove its valour against department, that spirit of emulation is produced which will form the foundation of a more friendly regard.’ There are seven motorcycle competitors lined up in…

It has been said that Triumph’s model numbering equates to the performance each machine was capable of, ergo the Tiger singles in the Edward Turner revamped range of the 1930s would do respectively 70, 80 and 90mph for the Tiger 70, Tiger 80 and Tiger 90 models. When, under Turner’s leadership, the Meriden company produced the Tiger 100 a short time later, as the high performance version of his phenomenally successful Speed Twin, it was reputed to do 100mph. Would these figures stack up? Maybe, maybe not – all manufacturers of the day were quite capable of manipulating the truth and only one example of a machine had to achieve the magical model number/ performance figure for it to be deemed acceptable. There are believable tales of journalists being invited…

It becomes even more understandable why the aforementioned previous owner was less than enthusiastic about offering his Red Hunter up for the war effort, upon reading of a Motor Cycling road test of the later variant in 1939, such was the glowing praise the tester heaped upon it: “... the mean timed speed over the measured quarter mile being 68.72mph, an outstandingly good figure for so small a machine...” “... steering of the most delightful sort, dead accurate under all circumstances yet light as a feather when crawling at a walking pace in thick traffic. “The finish was excellent, and the economy factor good enough to suit the most slender purse.” Our tester heaped yet more praise on the comfort of the riding position, and remarked that there was “...…

Cigarette in mouth, Stanley Gill positioned his 345cc (76x76mm bore x stroke) Balham, South London built Alecto on the Brooklands track to go record breaking, on Tuesday, August 3, 1920. An unlikely choice, with its huge outside flywheel, the belt driver built by Cashmore brothers ticked no boxes, but off went Stanley, initially at 43mph, later slowing to 41mph, as he and the Alecto tired. He took 21 records, from nine hours and 400 miles upwards, including 10, 11 and 12 hours and 500 miles for solo classes B (350cc), C (500cc), D (750cc) and E (1000cc). His Alecto was the first two-stroke to set a series of long distance track records. Despite this impressive publicised record spree, Alecto sales remained ‘steady.’ BMCRC (British Motor Cycle Racing Club aka ‘Bemsee’)…

As the least damaged of the two bikes in the incident, Robin Watson’s 1953 500cc BSA A7 twin needed the least amount of work on the face of it but there were a few things which, while not urgent, were just begging for an excuse to be looked at. A lot of these detail issues have been addressed in the previous parts of this rebuild and it has got to the stage now where the A7 is just about back to full working order. It’s actually so close the only thing left to do is refit the front mudguard, which happened a few days before I popped along. It will be obvious from the picture of the forks the front guard isn’t on, so what happened Robin? “I’d got everything…

Rather than a detailed ‘how to’ technical feature, this is intended as a dash through the drive systems employed by makers since the first motorcycles and motor tricycles went into production. To date, no system is perfect and, likely as not, never will be, but with refinement, whatever the type, they’ve become efficient. Initially, makers of early pioneer machines tried four options: ■ connecting engine directly to the cranked axle of the rear wheel by the con rods ■ direct chain drive using then-current cycle type chain, but as most didn’t fit a drive system shock absorber, engine pulses and the effects of opening and closing the throttle set-up caused ‘jerkiness’ of drive ■ gear drive, found more commonly with tricycles than motorcycles, again usually without a drive system shock…

EDITOR James Robinson Tel 01507 529405 Fax 01507 371066 email jrobinson@mortons.co.uk CONTRIBUTORS IN THIS ISSUE Tim Britton, Rachael Clegg, Jonathan Hill, Roy Poynting, Richard Rosenthal, Martin Squires, Jerry Thurston, Alan Turner, Phil Turner, Andy Westlake, Steve Wilson. PRODUCTION EDITORS Sarah Wilkinson Sarah Palmer SENIOR DESIGNER Kelvin Clements DESIGNERS Michael Baumber, Libby Fincham PICTURE DESK Paul Fincham, Jonathan Schofield, Angie Sisestean PUBLISHER Tim Hartley DIVISIONAL ADVERTISING MANAGER Billy Manning ADVERTISING Sarah Mitchell-Savage Tel 01507 529418 email smitchell-savage@mortons.co.uk SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER Paul Deacon CIRCULATION MANAGER Steve O’Hara MARKETING MANAGER Charlotte Park COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Nigel Hole PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Dan Savage EDITORIAL ADDRESS PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ VISIT OUR WEBSITE www.classicmotorcycle.co.uk GENERAL ENQUIRIES & BACK ISSUES Tel 01507 529529, 24-hour answerphone email help@classicmagazines.co.uk www.classicmagazines.co.uk ARCHIVE ENQUIRIES Jane Skayman jskayman@mortons.co.uk Tel 01507 529423…

While the Bonneville didn’t actually reach production until late 1958, it would never have come to fruition were it not for Edward Turner’s 5T Speed Twin, first shown to the public 21 years earlier at the Olympia Motorcycle Show in 1937. This was just one year after Turner started working at Triumph, and his swiftly-penned design was an all-new 500cc, overhead valve parallel twin of a format that was made to reference the twin port single cylinder machines built previously, but with the significant point it could outperform those previous standard setters. Chassis-wise, the Speed Twin was nothing new – a rigid frame with girder forks and small drum brakes that was essentially a Tiger 90 chassis – but it was the powerplant that was the focus. The usual format…

For many Bonnie aficionados, this was the ultimate, and the best, Bonneville, especially of the pre-unit era. And this wasn’t merely due to the improved aesthetics over the inaugural model, with the headlamp nacelle replaced by a conventional light, slimmer mudguards from the TR6 Trophy line being used, and the gaudy bright orange being replaced by an understated Azure Blue. There was also the fact that Triumph addressed the handling issues that befell the previous year’s bike with the 1960 model, with the poor swinging arm mounting being countered by a new duplex frame. This construction saw twin downtubes at the front of the frame rather than the previous single tube, improving handling thanks to an increased rigidity that would rid the bike of the high speed wobbles that plagued…

As usual, The Classic MotorCycle Show will bring you a fine selection of everything needed for a weekend of motorcycling indulgence, this year being held over April 21/22. Held at Staffordshire County Showground, you’ll find a feast of trade stalls, autojumbles, club stands and private entries. Guest of honour will be Neil Tuxworth, Honda’s racing boss, though also an owner of a veteran Rudge Multi among others too. To buy advance tickets call 01507 529529 or see classicbikeshows.com…

West Country motorcycling legend Henry Body will forever be associated with his indecently fast Douglas sprinters, but his motorcycling interests are wide ranging. Every year he seems to find something new and interesting to bring to the Bristol Classic MotorCycle Show and invariably he’ll see me early on and say: “Come and see, I’ve something interesting to show you…” And this year – as every year, to be fair – he’d excelled himself. There were three wildly different machines from Henry, each fascinating, each with a story to tell. Plus a photograph, but we’ll come to that later. The unlikely trio from Henry’s treasure trove could not be more different. First off was a machine I’d coincidentally been looking at a picture of just a couple of days before the…

The first Sunday in December is the usual date when the constant din of traffic from the nearby M25 fades more into the background. The clock is turned back for the day as the air on Canada Heights, near Swanley, is punctuated with the sounds of bikes from previous generations negotiating sections in the Jack Thompson British Bike Trial. Competently organised as ever by the Sidcup & District MCC, this year was the 28th in the series. An impressively long time, yet there are still three riders who have competed in every one and a few more who have nearly done so. The 2017 trial attracted the biggest entry yet, with 126 bikes, some obviously modified, some subtly so and even some virtually original. Jack Thompson's family was also represented,…

There’s something special about an old, unrestored motorcycle. It is still an inanimate object but it is given life by its wonderful patina of faded paintwork, the dents and scrapes from its scores of adventures and journeys acquired over the years. This 1946 G3L Matchless certainly ticks all of the correct boxes and is one of a collection of similar unrestored machines belonging to west country enthusiast Ron Axon. I initially met Ron at last year’s Bristol Classic Motorcycle show where he was displaying a very rare 1966 175cc Bridgestone and in conversation I soon discovered the Japanese lightweight was just one of a dozen others or so that share space in his well-equipped Dorset workshop. Later in the year, I went along to sample six of his British classics…

With a postwar potential of increased sales across the Atlantic, Triumph needed a way of promoting its products to the affluent American market, and sporting competition was the obvious answer. Conveniently, this came with the first increase in capacity for the ‘Turner Twin’, when the bore was increased by 8mm to 71mm, and stroke tweaked by additional 2mm, giving a 649cc capacity, which first saw life in the new-for-1950 6T Thunderbird. With the simple increase in bore and stroke, the engine cases remained the same as the Speed Twin and Tiger, so the frame could be the same, meaning that there were virtually zero development costs for the chassis, with only the new rear sprung hub deviating from the fully rigid rear end that had been previously used. While the…

With a move to unit engine construction in 1963, the Bonneville gained a smaller, more rigid powertrain in a new, single downtube chassis that had additional bracing at both the steering head and swinging arm, and carried new running gear too. Despite having the same basic architecture and dimensions of the pre-unit engine, very few parts were common to the two, although the lighter, stronger and cleaner engine proved to be an instant hit, despite the braced frame not improving the engine vibration issues that the factory ceaselessly tried to improve upon with a variety of crankshaft weights and balance factors. 1966 saw Triumph’s first victory at Daytona with Buddy Elmore, and this was followed in 1967 and 1968 with Gary Nixon taking the AMA Number 1 plate for Triumph,…

An increase in engine capacity – defying Edward Turner’s maxim that 650cc and 6500rpm was as much as the layout was capable – in late 1972 brought about the T140V (the V in the model name coming thanks to the new five speed gearbox), initially up to 724cc in little more than an engine upgrade from the T120 (although it did also gain indicators!) and then to 744cc in conjunction with a disc brake at the front in 1973. A rear disc brake joined the fun in 1976, when the gear change moved to the left, while the ‘Environmental’ model that was designed to meet new smog regulations, the T140E, came in 1978 with a new head with parallel intake ports and Amal Concentric MkII carbs. An electric start finally…

Launched at the Munich Motorcycle Show in September 2000 by the Hinckley Triumph concern created by property magnate John Bloor, a new Bonneville went on sale in 2001, in a departure from the modular three- and four-cylinder bikes that the Leicestershire factory had been producing. The new parallel twin, of a double overhead cam, four-valve per cylinder, 790cc format, was the first of the true Triumph retros, being an air-cooled twin rather than a water-cooled triple. Design had started as early as 1997 on what was termed by factory insiders as the 908MD project, using nothing from the water-cooled bikes aside from the gearbox from the 955i triple, that was turned on its head to give a final drive on the right-hand side. Behind closed doors, the first new Bonneville…