Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2018 i Classic Bike Guide

GERMAN COMPANY POWERDYNAMO GMBH, which designed and marketed bolt-on dynamo and ignition systems for classic motorcycles, has closed its doors after 27 years of service to the classic bike community. Powerdynamo say the closure of the Berlin sales operation has been triggered by the health of its CEO but it does not mean an end to the supply of the ignition systems it developed. VAPE s.r.o. in Kromeriz, Czech Republic, the supplier of most of the company’s parts, will take over marketing Powerdynamo’s full range of products. For this VAPE has opened a new e-shop at vape.eu. VAPE produces electrical parts including ignition components, magdynos, generators and alternators for British, Japanese, Italian and German motorcycles, as well as machines from the former Eastern Bloc. Powerdynamo will continue to fulfil its…

The early CB450s are supposedly the bikes to have and folk will tell you that the earliest four-speeders are the purest of the bunch. That may very well be the case but they aren’t necessarily the easiest to own and ride; the four-speed gearbox can, under the wrong circumstances, be a little tedious with something of a chasm twixt third and top (fourth). That said, if it’s the style you like then the later ones won’t necessarily float your boat. Arguably, the K1, with five ratios yet retaining the older look, give the best of both worlds. The early CB450s didn’t sell well in the US due to the staid looks, so for the 1969 K2 Honda drastically revised the cosmetics and, for the 1970 K3, it fitted a front…

IT’S A MOTORCYCLE that will easily clock up more than 100,000 miles, burn up the motorways, autoroutes and autobahns at impressive speeds, carrying two with ease, along with luggage. And you can find one for less than the price of a Chinese 125. Whether thought of as an Eighties technological marvel, the ultimate cheap tourer or superlative winter hack, the mystery about the BMW K75 is why everyone doesn’t have one in the shed. The K75 was in production from 1985 to 1995 and at the time of its introduction, the K75 was BMW’s least expensive motorcycle. Developed alongside the K100 fours, the three-cylinder K75 was delayed by a year, as BMW wanted to cement the concept of its K-series in the minds of the bike-buying public. They needed to,…

ENGINE: Four-stroke horizontal DOHC wet sump 740cc three-cylinder in-line engine, liquid-cooled BORE X STROKE: 67 x 70mm (2.63 x 2.75in) POWER: 75hp (55KW) at 8500rpm COMPRESSION RATIO: 11:1 FUEL INJECTION: Bosch LE-Jetronic TRANSMISSION: Five-speed gearbox, dry single plate clutch, shaft drive ELECTRICS: Electronic ignition, 12v 460W alternator FRAME: Tubular space frame, engine serving as load bearing component SUSPENSION: Front telescopic fork; rear BMW Monolever swinging arm TYRES: Front 100/90 x 18; rear 120/90 x 18 56 H BRAKES: Front dual disc brake Brembo two-piston caliper; rear single disc brake both 11.22in diameter LENGTH: 87in (2220mm) WIDTH: 35ins (900mm) WHEELBASE: 60in (1516mm) FUEL TANK CAPACITY: 4.6 gallons (21 litres) UNLADEN WEIGHT WITH FULL TANK: 500lb (227kg) GROUND CLEARANCE: 6.88in (175mm) SEAT HEIGHT: (Unladen) 32in (810mm) or 30in (760mm) (29.90in) for low…

Garry Watkins’ trials Cub is an example of what you can do with a Baby Bonnie to turn it into a capable off-roader. The 1964 Tiger Cub has been fitted with front forks from a Yamaha traily, and a Mikuni carb sourced from Meriden Off Road. It has Power Pack electronic ignition and the electrics have been converted to 12v. “I kept the 6v horn, because it’s louder when you put 12v through it,” says Garry. There are custom headlight brackets found on a US eBay search, coupled to a custom mini Bates headlight, more usually seen on choppers. There’s an alloy petrol tank and underneath it is a 900cc oil tank from Sammy Miller, which also acts as that all-important frame brace. Garry feels it could do with being…

IT WASN’T A storybook ending, but stories we collected in spades. I began the Motorcycle Cannonball Endurance Run rosy with hope and fingers-crossed tension, feeling our two machines, a 1925 Brough Superior SS80 and replica 1925 Brough Superior SS100, would yield mixed results: the SS80 would soldier ever onwards, while the replica, as it hadn’t done many miles, would need continual development as we racked up our daily mileage. I was both very wrong and very right in my assessments. I’m as guilty of magical thinking as the next fool, expecting our 2018 all-Brough Superior ride to be half breezy waving to the rest of the field as we whooshed past, and half nightly toil to keep it all running sweetly. We did whoosh, and we did toil, and we…

MAKE AND MODEL: Royal Enfield Interceptor (GT in brackets) PRICE: tba ENGINE: 648cc, 4v, 270° air-cooled parallel twin POWER: 46bhp @ 7100rpm TORQUE: 39lb/ft@4000rpm FRAME: steel tube double cradle WHEELBASE: 1400mm BRAKES: 320mm disc, two-pot caliper, ABS TRANSMISSION: Six gears, chain SUSPENSION: 41mm forks, non-adjustable, 110mm travel; twin shock rear, adjustable preload only, 85mm travel WHEELS/TYRES: 100/90-18 & 130/70-18 Pirelli Phantom Sportscomp SEAT HEIGHT: 804mm FUEL CAPACITY: 13.7 litres MPG: n/a WEIGHT: 202kg (dry)/227kg (wet, est) CONTACT: www.royalenfield.com…

Get a bike that’s easy to ride, fun, practical and has a hint of Italian lineage and it appears you’re on to a winning formula. There’s no denying how well the Scrambler range has been received since it was released in 2014. As good for new riders looking for a cool ride as it is for seasoned bikers needing a bit of fun, over the past three years more than 55,000 examples of the many variations of Scrambler have flown from Bologna around the world. The Scrambler range covers just about everything you could ever want; and that’s exactly why it was the 10th best-selling bike over 500cc in 2015. At the end of the day, if it’s not broken don’t fix it. Well that’s what Ducati think, as the…

Speak to those in the know – clubs, owners, specialists. Is this the bike for you? Get some quotes – how much are parts? How easy are they to work on? How much will it cost to insure? If you can’t do all the jobs yourself, will your local dealer be prepared to work on it? See if you can have a go on one. This may be tricky, but if you have comprehensive insurance a kind owner or dealer may let you try one out. If you’re unsure of any of the above, email us at editor@classicbikeguide.com and if we can’t help you, we’ll try to find someone who can. Our aim is to bring you as much detail as we can on a specific model so you can…

First of all it’s an old bike so don’t expect it to be automatically nigh on perfect as nothing lasts forever. Silencers can rot out and replacements won’t be cheap. The electrics on the earliest examples are now more than 50 years old so a simple but thorough overhaul of terminals and connections will pay dividends in terms of continuity, which equals reliability. On imports, factor in a complete change of rubber (tyres and tubes) as you really do not want to be taking any chances on the low mileage OEM fitments some imports rock up with. The seat foam on many of the early examples is made from natural rubber and it simply degrades with age and a numb bum many simply be down to the need for fresh…

JAMES WARD PICKED up a K75 earlier this year. His verdict? “It’s a motorcycle for car owners. The whole riding experience is very car-like with the cockpit fairing and the big clocks and everything has been put together with a Teutonic logic. Getting used to the indicators takes a little doing, as BMW put a switch on each end of the handlebars. Mine has really loud horns fitted for Euro touring and I surprised a little old lady crossing the road by hitting the horn button instead of the indicators. “Aerodynamics are good enough for 100mph continental cruising, but you do get a good buffeting from the upright bars at speed – some lower bars are on the shopping list. It came with all the kit – panniers, top box…

EDWARD TURNER WAS a master of marketing as much as he was a genius of a designer and when he decided he was going to blow the BSA Bantam and Villiers-engined two-stroke offerings into the weeds, the result was the Tiger Cub. Stylish enough to mix it with its bigger brothers and sisters at the café and the chip shop, this little 70mph 200cc single would also manage to do more than 90mpg if ridden carefully – an important consideration when petrol was four shillings a gallon and you were lucky if you were paid more than £4 a week. Even before the advent of the 250cc learner law, the option of a stylish 200 single on the never-never rather than a rotting ex-WD single was an attractive one. When…

ENGINE: 199cc OHV single BORE/STROKE: 63x64mm COMPRESSION RATIO: 9:1 CARBURETTOR: Amal Monobloc with gauze element air filter ELECTRICS: Lucas RM 18 alternator with coil-ignition auto advance and emergency start circuit. Lucas 8 amp-hour battery TRANSMISSION: four-speed unit gearbox multiplate wet clutch, duplex primary chain FUEL CAPACITY: 3 gallons TYRES: 3.00x19 front 3.00x18 rear BRAKES: 5½in (140mm) drum front and rear SUSPENSION: Telescopic front forks with hydraulic damping, pivoted rear fork with Girling shock absorbers WHEELBASE: 50in (1270mm) GROUND CLEARANCE: 8¼in (210mm) SEAT HEIGHT: 30in (762mm) WEIGHT: 240lb (109kg) PRICE: £188 8/- TOP SPEED: 77mph…

IS THERE A right or wrong way to enjoy old motorcycles? I only ask in passing as some folk seem to believe that they and they alone hold the key to our frankly odd-ball hobby. Those that supposedly know are generally well hidden from view via the various firewalls, forums and nom de plumes (or is that nom de guerres?) that make up the devil’s ear trumpet; aka the internet. From the safety and sanctity of their office/sofa/desk they spout trite soundbites such as ‘ridden not hidden’ or ‘fair weather riders’ and then go on to explain how and why the rest of us are doing stuff wrong, using the incorrect parts, utilising inappropriate resources etc, etc. When you listen to such keyboard warriors you wonder where they get their…

Rocket 3 build This stunning Rocket 3 racer is for the road! How to rebtuild a two-stroke – pt2 Steve starts getting cranky Workshop quickie: Making a modified exhaust 1: This old Suzuki GS500 needed a new exhaust, but they are tricky to find. So we decided to use the old one and to modify it 2: Using the bends of the old exhaust, we measured where the exhaust needed to go to miss the frame, which bends were needed and at which angles 3: After measuring more than twice, we only had to cut once. Using a hacksaw is hard work, but the cuts are more accurate than with an angle grinder. Make a shallow v-cut – the wider the cut the less curved the exhaust will be 4:…

Most two-stroke multi-cylinder engines run synthetic rubber-based garter seals between cylinders, but not Yamaha. From circa 1959-60 on the Iwata factory walked away from flexible moulded seals and, as only Yamaha can, went their own sweet way. Instead of relying on intimate steel-to-rubber sealing, Yamaha opted for a device called a labyrinth seal. This mechanism is a precision made alloy cylinder precisely held in the centre of the crank and its cases. Inside the labyrinth seal is a series of peaks and troughs; the latter of which hold and retain two-stroke oil. At rest and upon start-up there’s sufficient oil twixt the centre main shaft and the seal to prevent incoming compressed fuel/air charge leaking to the neighbouring pot. As the engine warms up and the revs increase you’d expect…

There’s a frame from Bruce Brown’s film On Any Sunday that shows a huge BSA banner across an American racetrack. A few moments later, Brown zooms in on Dave Aldana, donning his BSA leathers and a thousand-mile stare. He fastens his Tweety Pie-stickered Bell helmet as he mentally prepares for a race which will determine whether he becomes the 1970 American champion. The sun-drenched, award-winning 1971 film about American motorcycling is crucial context to this issue’s Bike of the Month – the 1969 National Motorcycle Museum’s A65 dirt slider. This machine, which stands proudly in Hall Five of the NMM, is believed to have been raced by Dave Aldana himself. Aldana joined BSA’s West Coast team in 1970 to finish third in the multi-discipline Grand National series in 1971 and…

IF YOU LIKE to plan ahead your movements for the next year, we can recommend a copy of the Andy Tiernan Classics Calendar. The six motorcycles in this year’s calendar are all beautifully drawn by Mike Harbar in pencil and painted in watercolour. For the 2019 calendar, there are half-a-dozen of Britain’s finest twins, from a 1951 Douglas 350 flat twin to a 1975 Norton Commando. The calendar unfolds, so the fantastic artworks each fill an entire A4 sheet. Meanwhile, the lower part has two months to a page, with individual days outlined, providing enough room to note down shows, hospital appointments, high days and holidays and other important engagements. Proceeds will go to the East Anglian Air Ambulance, which last year benefited to the tune of £1,437.97 from calendar…

IF YOU ARE looking to re-tyre your bike, a set of rubber from Continental comes with something extra this autumn. Riders who buy a pair of Continental motorcycle tyres can get their hands on a free 35-litre Ortlieb Dry Bag, or a Nelson-Rigg adventure tank bag. The free Continental branded bags are available on pairs of ContiRoadAttack 3 ContiTrailAttack 2 or TKC 70 – Dual Sport Adventure tyres. To get your hands on one of these free bags, while stocks last, all you need to do is visit your local motorcycle tyre dealer and make sure they order your tyres direct from the official UK trade importer, Cambrian Tyres. Let them know which bag you’d like, and it will arrive at your chosen dealer at the same time as your…

MAKE AND MODEL: 2019 Ducati Scrambler Icon PRICE: From £8150 ENGINE: 803cc L-Twin, Desmodromic distribution, 2 valves per cylinder, air cooled POWER: 73bhp @ 8250rpm TORQUE: 49ft-lb @ 5750rpm FRAME: Tubular steel Trellis frame WHEELBASE: 1445mm FRONT BRAKE: 245mm disc, 1-piston floating caliper with Bosch Cornering ABS as standard equipment REAR BRAKE: 330mm disc, radial 4-piston caliper with Bosch Cornering ABS as standard equipment TRANSMISSION: 6 speed, chain drive FRONT SUSPENSION: Upside down Kayaba 41mm forks REAR SUSPENSION: Kayaba rear shock, preload adjustable. SEAT HEIGHT: 798mm FUEL CAPACITY: 13.5 litres AVERAGE CONSUMPTION: 55mpg WET WEIGHT: 189kg CONTACT: www.ducati.co.uk…

Charlie from Oxford Classic Honda says: “The only serious issues I’ve really seen with CB450s relate to the top end. The numerous guide wheels and chain guides can fail with age and any particles of rubber or metal in the oil should be regarded as a warning that all is not well. “If the cam chain breaks (and they can) then there’s a lot of potential damage on hand ready to occur. It’s an early 1960s design and very obviously a generation before the later air-cooled fours, so it’s advisable to treat the motor as such. “It’s a good motor but more complicated than many twins and requires a little more fettling and owner input. “Properly sorted and/or serviced, there’s no reason not to work one as hard as Honda…

CRISPIN JAMES OF BMW specialists Motorworks was asked for the lowdown on keeping a K75 on the road. “The K75 is a big hunk of longevity and robustness. It’s said that the only reason they stopped making them is that they couldn’t sell parts for them. When we had an over the counter collection point we’d get a few customers who came in for service kits, but they would never need to buy anything else. “The K75 had a less buzzy engine and used the output shafts from the K100. BMW built the K100 first and introduced the K75 in 1985 after they’d sorted out the teething problems from the four-cylinder bike. In the mid-1980s BMW were still using the really good quality alloys they used on the R series…

IF YOU WANT to know anything at all about Terriers and Cubs, Mike Estall is the expert of choice. Mike wrote the excellent Triumph Tiger Cub Bible, which will tell you all you need to know. “When the T15 Terrier came out it was clamoured for by the public and announced before it was properly developed. They used the minimum amount of metal to do the maximum amount of duty and there were a lot of weaknesses. Triumph used the public as their development engineers,” says Mike. “The Terrier came from ‘back of an envelope’ sketches by Edward Turner to production in two months and may have been inspired by a trip he made to the French Terrot factory. It had tremendous performance and economy and would do 60mph and…

RECENTLY, I MANNED the stall at a local event and had a great time chatting about motorcycles with the punters. I’m not entirely convinced it was even a bike show, but a good time seemed to be had by all, especially me. Nattering with a couple of young lads (‘does that old heap even use petrol, grandad?’ etc) who told me just how darned difficult and yes, expensive it is to even obtain a riding licence these days, made me realise just how free and easy it was in the Seventies when I started riding. Turning 16 in the glam rock era was a great time to be alive. Almost all of my mates went out and got their fathers to sign the HP guarantor forms for a sports moped…

CZ secrets I much enjoyed your in-depth review of the CZ 175 Sport – a solid and reliable little bike. In the article and in the European Bike Guide you say you only need to use the clutch lever to pull away, in fact with a bit of practice you could let the gear lever back slowly to its central position with your foot against the pressure of its springs and pull away too. This could come in handy if you ever broke a clutch lever. The “Posilube” was a great convenience and much better than putting in a filler cap measure of oil, pouring the petrol in on top and then giving the bike a good shake, as recommended in the owner’s manual for my BSA D14/4. As a…

ENGINE: Four stroke pushrod single BORE AND STROKE: 53x56 – 123.5cc COMPRESSION RATIO: 9.8:1 CYLINDER HEAD/BARREL: light alloy VALVES: overhead valve, inclined at 33 degrees IGNITION: Dansi electronic ignition, flywheel magneto CARBURETTOR: Dell’Orto VHB 22 LUBRICATION: wet sump, 2L oil CLUTCH: wet multiplate GEARBOX: unit construction, 5-speed TRANSMISSON: primary - gears, final drive – chain FRAME: closed duplex tubular cradle SUSPENSION: Ceriani, front – telescopic forks, rear – swinging arm, hydraulic dampers WHEELS: light alloy rims, wire spokes TYRES: front and rear 2.75x18” BRAKES: front 230mm disc (optional twin disc), rear 136mm drum CONSUMPTION: 2.7 litres per 100km FUEL TANK CAPACITY:19 litres…

“ My good friend John rode it, loved it and bought it from me. I have no idea now exactly how or why that happened. Some memories are simply too painful, plainly. John still has it. Will he sell it back to me? No. That is what friends are for. ” WE WERE TALKING, like you do, about bikes and the lies were flowing fast, as they do, especially in good company and with suitable lubrication. Like the bikes we ride, riders respond well to correct lubrication, I find. The subject meandered around to fantasies. Dream machines. Everyone has them. Of course they do. Or so maintained the consensus. Except… I do not. I do not have dream bikes. Not anymore. Sympathies were proffered, beer and tears may have flowed.…