Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2018 i Classic Bike Guide

SOMETIMES WE COME across a picture in the archive, that for no reason fascinates us. Not much detail is known of where this print came from. It’s taken in America, at Tom McDermott’s motorcycle shop, Sunnyside road, in Glen Falls (now known as Queensbury), New York. McDermott was a BSA factory racer and the first American to earn a gold medal in the International Six Days Trial, the ISDT. He also competed in AMA Nationals during the 1950s and scored four top-five finishes in the Daytona 200. The shop is still going strong and is now a Harley-Davidson dealership, with Tom’s 1956 Gold Star on display. For copies of this photo or to search through the extensive archive, visit mortonsarchive.co.uk…

MOTORCYCLE DEALERS AND one-time manufacturers Vale-Onslow have left the Sparkbrook premises in Birmingham that they occupied for more than 80 years, to move to a new location. Vale-Onslow had been a feature of Stratford Road in Sparkbrook since the 1930s and in British motorcycling’s 1960s hey-day the shop would see hordes of riders turn up on Saturdays for spares, while the company’s 1970s magazine adverts promoted café racer and custom bike parts by mail-order. Vale-Onslow was originally set up by Len Vale-Onslow Snr in the 1930s, following on from his exploits as a pioneering motorcycle manufacturer in the 1920s, creating the SOS or Super Onslow Special brand of JAP and Villiers powered racing and sports machines. The fourth generation of the Vale-Onslow family is now involved in the business. All…

IF YOU MISSED out on buying an ex-White Helmets Display Team Triumph Tiger at the recent sale of the team’s assets, do not despair. Bonhams sale on April 22 at Staffordshire County Showground will see five more of the L F Harris-built Tiger 750s go under the hammer. The sale will also see an ex-Edinburgh police 1931 Brough Superior with an upper guide price of £220,000 sold, with the proceeds to benefit the Search and Rescue Dog Association, Royal National Lifeboat Institution and Salvation Army. There are also a bevy of Vincent twins as well as a handful of more modern and affordable classics on offer.Visit bonhams.com.…

THE WEATHER MAY have been iffy but there were plenty of magnificent bikes and stands at this year’s Bristol classic bike show. The South West always has some bikes it keeps to itself, but welcomed all with some fantastic club stands, best in show going to the Wells Classic Motorcycle Club, with its inventive shopfront theme, which attracted the eyes of judges and visitors alike. New Imperial and Gold Star came in a close second and third. Tony Pashley’s award-winning 1934 Model 95 Sunbeam was awarded bike of the show. It was once on display at the National Motorcycle Museum where it was a casualty of a devastating blaze in 2003, but was then passed into the hands of top restorer John Phizacklea, who lovingly rebuilt it to its current…

“A SPORTS MACHINE in the true tradition… the Star Twin has few equals as a machine for sustained high-speed road work”. So said The Motor Cycle in April 1952, reviewing the latest example of the BSA A7. It is fair to say that The Motor Cycle liked the A7, praising its: “zestful acceleration, excellent road holding, and the ability to devour the miles in unobtrusive fashion”. That zestful acceleration was provided by a motorcycle with a 92mph top speed and a 16.8 second quarter mile. The glowing 1952 verdict was about the plunger model, a frame design soon destined for the annals of history. Within a few years BSA would drop their rigid and plunger models for a new swingarm equipped frame of a design that would endure for BSA…

5TA details may be of help I ENJOYED THE article on the 5TA Speed Twin but feel obliged to point out a couple of discrepancies. Meriden Triumphs of that era were never fitted with aluminium hubs; they were ribbed cast iron painted silver (to look like aluminium). The dreaded slick shift mechanism was never fitted to the unit C series motor/gearbox. Harry Woolridge, author of The Triumph Speed Twin and Thunderbird Bible, agrees with me. The Speed Twin barrels were painted black not silver, it was the Twenty One/3TA that had silver barrels. I have had both over the years and the recently purchased NOS barrels for my 5TA-engined Bultaco/Metisse special were black on arrival. I was pleased to see the front of the gearbox cover had not been cut…

OLDER BIKES ARE much easier to change tyres on than modern bikes with their wide, low profile tyres. Bikes would often come with the tools needed to remove a tyre and with poor road surfaces, it was a common necessity to be able to fix punctures at the side of the road. It’s still a really useful skill to have, saves money and time. Just basic tools are required. As we’re mostly dealing with metal rims, a wire brush may be needed, along with some anti-corrosion spray. We find XCP Rust Blocker very good. You need two, or preferably three long tyre levers; ours came from an autojumble for a few quid, as cycle ones are too short and will bend. A soft mallet, some diluted washing up liquid will…

I’VE BEEN CHATTING with friends who’ve ridden the latest phenomenon, Ducati’s Panigale V4. Phrases ‘game changer’ and ‘revolutionary’ were banded around. It’s not ‘just’ the 214bhp (in standard, warranty-friendly road trim) V4 MotoGP inspired engine. Hardened racers talked of the near-perfect balance, the counter-rotating crank and one ex-Superbike racer said “It’s the only bike with electronically controlled suspension I could race.” With all this excitement the price is almost forgotten – £24,000. Oh, that’s for the poverty-spec model – the limited edition V4 Speciale, with more power (because you need 226bhp, don’t you) and various parts made from exoticum – will cost you over £35,000. Game changing, maybe, eye-watering; definitely. It seems crazy, but you can easily spend that and more on a bike that was built decades ago, has…

ISLE OF MAN legend John McGuinness will campaign a Norton at this year’s TT. McGuinness will join Josh Brookes in the Superbike and Senior races on a factory V4 Aprilia-engined Norton racer, after years of riding for Honda. He suffered serious injuries in a crash during practice at the NW200 in 2017 and it was feared it might have ended the 45-year-old’s racing career. Speaking about his new role he said: “It goes without saying I want to win, and I don’t really see any reason why we can’t win. I watched the Norton and it looked a really competitive package. Josh got the bike round at 131mph, so there’s no reason why we can’t run right at the front.” McGuinness last won the Senior TT in 2015, breaking the…

AN HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT Honda CB750 is up for grabs at the H&H Classics auction on March 4, at the National Motorcycle Museum. A late pre-production model, it is one of only four built, only two are known to still exist. Although it is estimated at £35,000-£40,000, the other machine sold for £88,900 in 2014. H&H Classics believe a world record price is in the offing. The bike for sale with H&H is a rare machine, mostly hand-made in Japan in 1968. The bike came over to the UK in 1969, was registered by Honda UK and was used by them in the UK launch of the then new CB750 model. It is frame number CB750-2110. It has been in the same private collection for the past 35 years and was…

THERE WERE MANY fine motorcycles launched in the 1970s, but not many as widely respected as the Moto Morini 350 V-twin. The adorable lightweight punched way above its weight when launched, and featured innovations that bigger manufacturers would not adopt for more than a decade. It was rapid rather than fast, handled and stopped as you wanted it to, looked gorgeous and was respected by most who rode one. First shown as a prototype in 1971, but not readily available in the UK until 1974, the 350 Morini was sold in both Sport and Strada versions with different levels of engine tune and trim. The 350 arrived after the death of the company founder Alfonso Morini, who had run the company since before the First World War. Morini was then…

Nowadays the term ‘Bobber’ has become as ubiquitous as café racer or street tracker, with manufacturers jumping on a potentially profitable bandwagon. But Fred Walmsley, 71, is old enough to remember genuine Bobbers first time around, when they were created in the USA post-Second World War. After toying with the idea of building one for 50 years, he’s finally gone and done so in the well-equipped workshop attached to his farmhouse on the edge of the Lancashire fells. Except it’s not a Bobber, it’s The Fredder – as in, built by Fred, not Bob, using an array of Norton parts to create a cut-‘n’-shut, street-legal, vintage racer with heaps of attitude. This Anglo-American concoction sits well with the 1952 straight-six, ¾-ton Chevy pickup it shares the Walmsley farmyard with, or…

At just 19 years old, Irfan Sheikh had lost both his parents, a circumstance that challenged his outlook on life; a serious curveball that could have altered a carefully planned future. Needing something to turn the tide, a temporary loan from his uncle offered the chance to make a special acquaintance, one that lasts to this very day, with a 1954 Triumph T100 Tiger. TRIUMPH IN 1950S INDIA Motorcycle exports to the sub-continent were limited during the early 1950s and Irfan’s bike, chassis no. 56009, would have arrived in India for one of two purposes. It could have been chosen for duty within Government, used as a police outrider but most likely it was a rather indulgent purchase by a wealthy maharaja. The export-or-die philosophy of UK manufacturers was ingrained…

The cat runs away in disgust, appalled at the singing. Maybe. She may of course be a spy from the Ability Police, who check up on hapless unintentional destroyers of priceless classic machinery and inflict dire unspecified punishments. WHEN ASKED FOR advice – stop laughing at once, it happens remarkably often – I always suggest sticking to a single rebuild project at a time. It’s far too easy to become doubly discouraged, to confuse parts and to throw two machines into the canal of frustration instead of one. Which is more expensive, of course. There is little logic in any amateur blighting their lives with more than one rebuild at once. Which is why I’m currently ravaging my few remaining follicles while at the same time, battering my brains against…

AS DUSK FALLS on a farmyard somewhere in the south west of England, Ray Loxton is tinkering with the oil pump on his pre-unit Triumph Bonneville. “I’m not getting the pressure through, brother.” Ray calls everybody brother. “It should be coming through the end of the crankshaft, but it isn’t. I’ve got a new pump coming. I hope it’ll fix it but if not I’ll just keep replacing things till it’s sorted out.” Ray has been riding motorcycles since he was a child and among his earliest memories are the trips to the coast on his father’s BSA A10 Super Rocket, coupled to a Steib sidecar. “I’ve got the frame of one of those Steibs somewhere,” he says, waving his hand at a pile of scrap steel and welding cylinders.…

THE TRIUMPH TERRIER and Tiger Cub Club have inaugurated an award to be presented each year in perpetuity to an individual or organisation considered to have contributed most to the furtherance of the interests of owners, restoration of existing examples and the preservation of the marque in general. A trophy made and contributed by a member, in the form of a clock mounted on a Tiger Cub primary chain case, will be presented at a club show stand during 2018 and each year in future. Each year’s winner will be asked to choose his successor from a shortlist the following year. The winner of the trophy for 2017 is Triumph Terrier and Tiger Cub guru Mike Estall. Now in his eightieth year his “Register of Machines” is invaluable and he…

MARCH 2018 1 LE Velo Lancs & S Lakes, Blue Anchor, Bretherton. Tel. 01772 782516. 2 APRIL ISSUE OF THE CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE 3 MARCH EDITION OF OLD BIKE MART 4 Malvern Drive-In Classic Car & Bike Autojumble. More for those hunting for those elusive parts to finish off their winter rebuild, this event is a classic car and motorcycle autojumble featuring over 100 stalls located within the Wye Halls and the outside hardstanding. Expect to see stalls selling hard-to-find car and motorcycle parts, accessories, tools, manuals, merchandise, paints, signs, vintage items and clothing. More than 100 trade and autojumble stalls. As an autojumble event, there may be a very limited number of vehicles on display. The event runs from 10am-3pm. Admission is £7. Three Counties Showground, Malvern, Worcestershire, WR13 6NW.…

IN 1973, IF you didn’t have the cash to splash on a Trident or a Bonnie, Triumph’s Tiger was a slightly tamer, more affordable prospect, with the promise of performance almost on par with the Bonnie. Triumph introduced its oil in frame T120 Bonneville 650 in 1971, accompanied by the single carb TR6 Tiger. The frame, seat and shocks all combined to create a machine particularly well suited to taller riders, with a seat height of 34in (864mm) and rather wide at that. In 1972 a modified frame and new seat followed, lowering the height by a couple of inches. By this time owners could also opt for a five-speed gearbox. Edward Turner believed the evolution of his twin would reach a comfortable limit at about 650cc. More cc’s predictably…

THE SPA CIRCUIT has seen some sights over the years. This amazing photograph shows what seems to be the first lap – you can see a bike just starting in the distance where the grid would have formed – and the officials watching the riders head down through Eau Rouge and up towards Raidillon corner. Leading is Rod Coleman on the AJS Porcupine (the last year it would race), with team-mate Simpson following and Kavanagh on the dustbin-faired Guzzi and Maurice Quincy (Norton) next along. Spa-Francorchamps first saw racing in 1922. The course, using mainly public roads, was an astonishing 9.3 miles long. The track today uses much of the original, but is solely for racing and has been shortened to 4.3 miles. Nestling in the Ardennes, the Spa Classic…

The Bootleg Beetles. Experience Hendrix. The Counterfeit Stones. When you can’t see your favourite group play live, there’s always a tribute band that can conjure up a taste of the old magic. And if you can’t ride Hailwood’s Honda RC166 or Cal Rayborn’s Harley XRTT you could always build a replica. Penthouse logos on a massive gas tank, Antar stickers on the front mudguard, and oval race plates carrying number 101. Remind you of anything? How about 1984 and the Paris-Dakar... the GS ridden by Gaston Rahier... and that famous victory? Will Corry pats the suede and leather-covered seat and admits: “Yes, it’s a tribute bike.” It would take a master forger to make a faithful replica of Rahier’s GS. It was one of three built by ISDT legend, Herbert…

Despite being owned by an Indian company, Royal Enfield retains strong ties with its British past, and in 2015 the foundations were laid for its new UK Technology Centre (UKTC) in Leicestershire. Now fully operational, the ultra-modern facility sits within Bruntingthorpe Proving Grounds, the largest privately owned vehicle test track in the UK, making vehicle development, engineering and testing much easier. And if the landscape looks familiar, that’s because the location has often been used for the hit TV show Top Gear. In keeping with its ambition to expand and lead the global mid-sized motorcycle segment (250-750cc), Royal Enfield has been investing extensively towards increasing capacities, infrastructure and product, as well as people capabilities. The new technology centre in the UK was set up with a view to bring a…