Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2019 i Real Classic

SUPER SPECIAL I’ve got to say that I am totally blown away by the Triumph/Kawasaki special featured in RC177. Massive kudos to the builder, I admire his skill and ability. John Measures, member Long-time RC reader GordonG built the beast and indeed it is an extremely well put-together package. Take a bow, that man Gordon! RowenaH STUCK RUBBER This photo was taken during preparation of my Yamaha Serow for my Class O entry in the MCC’s Exeter Trial. This is what you have to do when an old tyre has become corroded onto a rim. I carefully dissected the cover to remove the inner tube first without damaging it. A bit like the thoracic surgery you see on telly, you have to be sure you don’t go too deep with…

It’s the sort of motorcycle we all know bits about. Swiss, isn’t it? Ducati engine? Army? That sort of thing; a bit of an oddity really. In fact, the Swiss concern has been around since 1893, putting them squarely in the group of early motorcycle manufacturers. WW1 accelerated development and by the mid-1920s eleven Condor models were available to choose from, often using engines specially built for them by Motosacoche, Villiers and Zedel. This golden age saw the company’s machines set several speed and competition records. As the world rolled inexorably into the next conflict, neutral Switzerland had obvious problems buying engines from abroad, before settling on a boxer twin designed in house that closely resembled the Zündapp of the period. This A580 model continued in production until the late…

Mick Holmes is one of those all-round decent guys who not only gets great pleasure from restoring classic motorcycles, but he also tell his wife how much he spends on them. Whatever next? So it was most fortuitous that I should meet up with him only a couple of months after he commenced his rebuild of a classic 1961 Triumph Bonneville. Mick has an impressive collection of classic metal, including a very tasty 650 Super Rocket and a Rocket Three – the early one, I hasten to add. But in the autumn of 2015, just when he was hankering after a project, he came across an unloved Bonneville at the Stafford Show being sold by Yeomans Motorcycles, a company established back in 1972 that deals especially with classic bikes and…

It is like a dance, isn’t it? A chap gets all prepared, puts on special clothes, takes a deep breath and … heads to the shed. The Shed in my case is currently home – as you may recall – to an amusing number of projects, most exhilarating of which is this 1971 BSA – the one the pics hopefully nearby will reveal. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve started to inflict my skills and enthusiasm upon it, and in fact I’ve actually forgotten how long I’ve owned it! However, sparked up by the understanding that if I don’t make progress at some point in the very near future I will join that sad legion of folk advertising a ‘project’ for sale, inaccurately claiming that only a few…

‘My Ratier is better than any BMW!’ proclaimed my new friend Marcel as he knocked back what surely wasn’t his first shot of marc that morning (it’s the French version of grappa) as another little helper to get him through his day. Marcel worked as a delivery rider in Paris for the French sports daily L’Equipe, starting at 4.30 each morning as the first edition rolled off the presses in that pre-internet era. ‘It may resemble a BMW, but it was created with French style, and Gallic passion. Anyway, Monsieur le Président’ – de Gaulle, back then – ‘personally chose the Ratier for his Garde Républicaine to escort him with. Vive la France!’ I got to know Marcel in life before bike journalism by occasionally sharing with him the zinc…

I always keep an eye on the events in Outward Bound in RC each month, and marking the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year by getting out on one of the bikes seemed a great idea. Come the day, given that there was no snow, ‘deep and crisp and even’ or otherwise (it was actually fairly mild) I decided to go for it. I was joined by my wife on pillion, as we took our Bullet 500 out for the 50 mile trip to Avebury. It was a nice ride but very windy, with the Bullet struggling into the headwind at times. Arriving at Avebury it was very busy although not with druids, just the general public with a similar idea. So the photos come from the…

Back in the 1920s and 30s it wasn’t uncommon for a motorcycle journalist to praise a sports bike for its docility; not something that’s likely to happen today. What they liked was a bike’s good manners when pottering around town or taking a gentle spin through the countryside. This was praise indeed for a motorcycle which did both fast and slow equally well. Today’s marginally derogative equivalent might be to describe a bike as suitable for a novice. The reincarnated Moto Guzzi V7 sometimes gets this treatment and it’s for all the right reasons. This Moto Guzzi V7 Café from around 2011 has these same good manners and much more too. In many ways it bridges the gap between old classics and the new. It’s a proper modern retro, not…

This Velocette Venom, which still has its original buff logbook, started its life in 1957 in the Lancashire fishing port of Fleetwood, owned by local motorcycle dealer and grasstrack racer, Nick Lancaster. It subsequently settled into long-term ownership within a ‘Velocette owning family’. Its owner started out motorcycling on a Valiant – which he reckoned was a good little bike, a ‘proper Velocette’ despite what some people say – and moved up to the Venom in 1972 after passing his test. Over the following years the Venom was downgraded from the prime position as P&J and into a winter hack. The owner commuted by bike all year round. His summer ride was another Velo (of course), an immaculate Thruxtonised Venom, but that meant the ‘winter Venom’ had an extremely hard…

In 2018 an early R100/7 airhead arrived in my shed. Years ago, I enjoyed a R60/7 so it was like getting reacquainted with a long-lost pal. The clutch and brake levers on the R100 quite literally ‘fell to hand’ – it was like revisiting an old friend. Wearing my rose-tinted specs, I recall that the R60/7 was a fine rider’s machine, only hampered by occasional pinking. My current R100/7 has an ace up its sleeve; the extra torque from its increased capacity. The 60bhp produced by my R100/7 may actually be more accessible than the ‘full-fat’ RS/RT variants. It’s definitely different to the sporting R90 and R100S models, the ‘futuristic’ R100RS and the excellent touring 100RT. The /7 is different – but not necessarily ‘less’ – and I’ve found it…

With Spring very much in the air, my project was picking up some pace. Warmer weather, longer days and my shorter, flexible working hours made for more shed time. I invested some of this on riding my Triumph to a classic vehicle show in Corbridge. This was 50 or so miles of very pleasant riding up through the Northumbrian countryside. The bike thrummed along with its usual even beat and I reflected that the Norton would do well to match the Triumph’s reliability. Corbridge, on the River Tyne, was an excellent setting for the show, which featured a sunny day, live music and a Norton Owners Club stand. As I had hoped, there were several Commandos on show so I could chat with the owners and get some pictures showing…

The Sammy Miller Museum in New Milton, Hampshire, UK is crammed full of interesting machines – including one of the biggest collections of exotic racing bikes in the world, and all are runners! These include the V8 Moto Guzzi, AJS Porcupine, Mondial 250 with dustbin fairing, Nortons, Ducatis, Suzukis, Hondas, Velocettes and many more! The Road Bike Hall includes a huge collection of factory prototypes and exotic designs from all over the world, and of course there are plenty of dirtbikes and trial icons, too – over 400 bikes in total. The Museum is open to visitors daily from 10am every day at New Milton, Hampshire B25 5SZ. 01425 620777 / www.sammymiller.co.uk…

Histories are marvellous things. When a personal history overlaps with actual real history, it can be even more marvellous, not least because comparing personal memories of what happened with official versions of what actually happened can be seriously entertaining. And I’m talking only about motorcycle history … and motorcycling history, which may or may not be the same thing. Take my own formative riding years: the very end of the 1960s and the early 1970s. It was a time of considerable irreverence and sudden and unexpected mobilities, both personal and social. It was of course a golden age … if only for me because I lived then and very much of the remainder of my life has been stimulated by those times. And bikes were central to that. As were…

I have restored a number of bikes over the years but, having retired and going into pensioner poverty, I was considering selling all my tools. To that end I was at my friend John’s house where he was doing computery things, supposedly selling my tools on Fleebay… but in fact he was looking at restoration projects. ‘What is a Royal Enfield Turbo Twin?’ he asked. ‘A Crusader frame with a 250 Villiers 4T engine,’ said I. ‘Rare, only around 900 made.’ ‘It’s got a V5C,’ he said. Worth doing, possibly, if it had an MoT. But it was a basketcase – ie. a money pit. An incomplete basketcase, in fact – a big money pit. ‘You should have it and bring Lazarus back to life,’ said John, encouragingly. I knew…

At most motorcycle rallies you’ll find a group of riders trying to coax a spark from a machine’s reluctant magneto. I’ve been there a few times myself and sympathise with them. The endless kicking, running and bumping – or being pushed – result in a couple of tantalising ignitions, while pints of sweat pour down the inside of your waterproofs. It can test anyone’s patience. There are also more subtle magneto-related problems: the bike feels like it is running out of petrol (but isn’t), it misfires on wide throttle openings, hesitates on sharp throttle openings or refuses to start when hot which might indicate a weak spark. There are four main types of motorcycle magnetos: fixed magnet, fixed HT coil and switched magnetic field (Dixie or Splitdorf) fixed magnet and…