Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2022 i The Classic MotorCycle

Posed at Victoria, in London, SW1, at the RAC Engineering Department in Lupus Street, on June 22, 1951, the British-starting sextet were among 74 riders (although actually 61 set out) who were attempting to ride a distance of 1500 kilometres. Actually though, distances were 1567km as the shortest, 6km more for the longest) from different starting points across Europe – Amsterdam, Barcelona, Biarritz, Brussels, Geneva, London, Milan, Monaco, Paris – to all finish in Monaco. Based upon the enduringly popular Monte Carlo car rally, this was the second motorcycle running, organised by the Moto Club de Monaco. The Brit starters had 40 hours 19 minutes to make it there (anyone on a sub-175cc machine would have had an extra three-and-a-half hours) which allowed nine hours for the ferry crossing from…

I was interested in Steve Wilson’s article on the Triumph Trophy Trail (January 2022) and particularly Tony Page’s mention of Chris Buckle and Roebuck Motors. I think Chris and his friend Ian Robson started Roebuck around 1967/8 with a shop in Acton High Street (my home town). It is nice to know that the lad is not forgotten. I was a lifelong friend of Chris as we met at senior school and much later he married Barbara, my sister’s best friend. They became honorary members of the Mander family clan. My two visits to the TT were as passenger in Chris’s sidecar outfits, the second being more reliable than the previous A7 outfit which broke down on the way back near Stoke. I was allowed to steer them in the…

Three days short of 70 years, the Ariel Owners’ Motorcycle Club recently celebrated its anniversary at the very same place it was formed by a small group of London-based enthusiasts on November 24, 1951 – the famous Ace Cafe on London’s North Circular Road. The inaugural meeting had just 12 members sign in, with seven visitors – this time organiser Lawrence Fox managed to get just under 40 members to sign in, including a German member who had made the trip for one day, while Lawrence didn’t count the hundreds of other interested visitors looking at the 24 Ariels displayed. Backed by the current Ariel factory, who obviously had an example of the current Ariel Ace motorcycle and the Atom car on display, the firm (see TCM April 2021 for…

As recounted last issue, in 1993, I acquired my BSA A10, Anneka. Years full of adventure have followed, while many things changed – mobile phones (useful) and sat nav (not for me) arrived and, by 2006, the Ridgeway trail was mostly prohibited to motor vehicles – a shame, as Anneka had always enjoyed an off-road blast. The years passed, with a couple of modern motorcycles and, sadly, a deteriorating marriage. Anneka’s annual mileages were in the low hundreds. In 2009, I went to Africa where I turned 66 and covered 5000 miles from Cape Town to north-east Zambia and back, raising money for schools around Luangwa, riding a poorly prepared and fundamentally flawed 1954 500cc Ariel single. The big end let go 150 miles short of the finish, by which…

THE SPECIALIST For more than 70 years, the LE Club has catered for anyone interested in Veloce’s pioneering horizontal twin. Owners of the later air-cooled Valiant are equally welcome, indeed, some club members have examples of both. Charles Phillips is the present LE technical secretary, so thanks to him for guiding us through this less well known variation from Hall Green. ■ LE Velo Club: leveloclub.org.uk MODEL HISTORY The 1948 launch of the Velocette LE was supposed to give the world a motorcycle suitable for everyone. Veloce’s confidence was sadly misplaced and only the sales of the revised Mk.II offered some redemption. The Valiant, announced in 1956, was also a gamble, but by then, much less was at stake. The newcomer had more conventional styling than its predecessor, although there…

Published in the May 20, 1915 issue of The Motor Cycle, this picture was shown with the caption: “The late Captain A F Wilding, in the sidecar of Lieut-Commander G W Hillyard’s 10.8hp Zenith machine. Both were keen motorcyclists, although, of course, they were known best as lawn tennis players, especially Wilding. The latter was killed a few days ago.” Alongside the picture came an obituary, explaining: “Undoubtedly Captain Wilding, R N D, who was killed in action recently in France, was best known in the world of sport as a lawn tennis champion, but the part he took in the motor cycle pastime was by no means inconsiderable. “From the earliest days he was an enthusiastic motor cyclist, and the first important competition in which he took part was…

Spanish flavour Reading the article on the Ducati Street Scrambler in the November 2021 issue of TCM, and the model history in the Restoration Guide in the same issue, has led me to this query: In 1976, following an advert in MCN, I visited Mick Walker’s shop in Wisbech to view a 1974 Mark IV Ducati 450cc Street Scrambler. Mick informed me that this model, built in Spain, was one of only 48 brought into this country. However, your article made no mention of this Mark IV model, which was not Desmodromic. Was there a reason for this? After agreeing a purchase of the Ducati I set off for the ride back to Stockport, only for the Ducati to expire 10 miles into the journey. A phone call back to…

There was something new for the 50th anniversary staging of the Circuit des Remparts on September 19, 2021. And that was something that Angoulême, in Western France, hadn’t seen for the past 22 years – vintage motorcycles thundering around the testing, technical 1.28 kilometre road circuit on, over and below the south-western slope of the rocky plateau on which the old city is situated. Although the Circuit des Remparts – one of the few road circuits in France on which competitive motor racing still takes place – is better known for vintage racing on four wheels, when it was revived, postwar, there was motorcycle participation in 1947-52. Due in no small part to the tragedy at Le Mans in 1955, which brought an end to most road circuit racing in…

This pair of Moto Guzzi singles allowed their young owner, Trevor Barnes, to join the continental circus in the 1960s. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was the dream of many British motorcycle racers to join the continental circus and lead a nomadic life from one race weekend to another, while roughly following the Grand Prix calendar in the hopes you might be given a prized place on the entry list to at least try to qualify for a race. But a key priority above all was attending the numerous non-championship races held annually in little towns all over Europe, where a privateer’s meagre resources could receive much-needed cash injections by way of start money, and hopefully an occasional share in the prize money pay out. You might even win…

The motorcycle display section of Brooklands Museum features an eclectic mix of machinery. All the exhibits have some relevance to the rich history of what was, for years, Britain’s only dedicated race circuit. Manufacturers recording success in racing or record-breaking were almost guaranteed a sales fillip. During its heyday between the wars the tuning sheds and circuit were constantly busy. The museum has representatives of many famous marques, but the inclusion of an example from the long-defunct Rex-Acme concern might well pique a visitor’s curiosity. Rex linked with Coventry Acme to produce bikes in 1922, but production only lasted until 1933. The Brooklands exhibit is a 1926 350, with a Blackburne engine. The minimal build looks more in keeping with an Ultra Lightweight, but its achievements merit a far greater…

One should never make assumptions, everyone know that. However, I’m going to cast caution to the wind and assume that everyone involved with old motorcycles will know the spark at the end of the sparkplug must occur at a precise point in the induction cycle of a petrol engine. The crankshaft turns, the piston(s) rises and falls and, in the case of a four-stroke, a cam or cams operate valves which allow a fresh charge of fuel/air in and the spent charge out while the two stroke has ports opened and closed by the piston. Again, the assumption everyone knows all of these elements have to combine their actions at the correct point in the cycle and this is known as ignition timing for the spark and induction timing for…

Back when my Bantam was new in 1968, never in my wildest/weirdest dreams would I have ever thought I would be restoring one 54 years later. As in 1968/69 all I wanted was something cool and fast… and that was not a Bantam! Truthfully, even now it isn’t really either of those things, but it is iconic and a bit of motorcycling history of which many (most?) motorcyclists owned at some point between the late 1940s and mid-1970s. It’s estimated that nearly half a million of the lightweight bikes were built by Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA), starting out as a 125cc bike with an exact rip off engine of the German DKW, built in Chemnitz and now is Audi. I did actually own one way back when, but never…

The unseasonably warm weather that marked the arrival of 2022 meant the many scheduled classic vehicle gatherings became very popular destinations. The East Sussex Section of the VMCC received a warm welcome at the Six Bells pub in Chiddingly. While some clocked up the miles to a Kent destination, others meandered local lanes to the Laughing Fish, another friendly East Sussex pub destination, at Isfield. Dave Masters’ MOV Velocette and Tim Eade’s Ariel Square Four are among the bikes in the Six Bells car park.…

It was at the Bristol Classic Motorcycle Show in February 2016 that I first saw this glistening, superbly restored Triumph Bonneville, but it wasn’t until I had the opportunity to do the research for this article, I realised quite how rare it is. The unit construction T120C Competition Sports carrying the registration number of LKE 421B is now owned by West Country enthusiast Roger Chapman, and is just one of the 227 examples made by the Meriden factory between 1963 and 1965. In the USA, where it and all of its 226 siblings were sold by Triumph’s east coast distributor TriCor, it is now believed to be one of only three examples resident here in its land of original manufacture. The Bonnie’s present owner, Roger, has a truly eclectic collection…

“I first bought a Moto Guzzi in late 1959 when I was 21. I was an apprentice at D Napiers in Acton, who made the Sabre aero engine and the Napier Railton cars. With a fellow apprentice, Bob Smart, we used to go to a lot of race meetings on our motorbikes. I had an AJS 500cc twin, to which I fitted G45 cams, twin carbs and close-ratio gears, and with stiffened suspension it was quicker than most of the Triumph T110s and 500cc Gold Stars that I’d come up against on the roads. “In the end we decided to go racing ourselves. I was to buy the bike, Bob would provide the transport, and we’d share the riding expenses. Being a bit of a romantic, Bob liked Italian machinery,…

As detailed last month in part one, Val Page spent what little time he had after joining Ariel and before the annual autumn Olympia Show, designing new engines for the company’s motorcycles. And rather than accord model names alone as employed in Selly Oak’s recent past – such as ‘Lightweight’ or ‘Touring’ – Val also gave each model an individual model identification letter, leaving no one in doubt of model type. Drawing mainly from his JAP experience, abetted by examination of Ariel’s previously favoured White and Poppe concept, Mr Page designed, developed and entered into production with two new engines for Ariel’s four 1926 season models. For the single cylinder A (Sports) and B (Touring) motorcycles a 557cc (86.4x95mm) side-valve engine, and for the C (Super-Sports) and D (Touring) machines…

For 1973, Amal launched a new-looking, stub fitting (with moulded rubber mounting hose) carburettor marketed as the ‘Concentric Mk.II.’ Despite its looks, other than it had a cold start device (plunger), Viton tip to float needle and hard anodised aluminium slide, its internal design followed established Amal Concentric practice. While many Mk.IIs had their cold start operated by a carburettor mounted lever to raise and lower the plunger, cable operation was available. On launch of the Mk.II, the 1966 launched for 1967 season Concentric series became known retrospectively as the ‘Mk.I.’ Both marks were then manufactured and marketed alongside each other, although with the decline of the British motorcycle industry and with fewer makers worldwide using Amal carburettors, not all detail variants were made, or, if made, produced in small…