Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2024 i Classic Bike Guide

THIS SPRING’S STAFFORD SHOW WAS a remarkable thing in many respects. After last October’s massively successful event – owing not least to the presence of the irrepressible ‘love him or hate him, you can’t ignore him’ Henry Cole and chums, it was going to be touch and go whether the spring show would keep up. Its guest, Guy Martin, was another coup, and promised much. Of the two shows, the October bash usually has the bigger buzz, partly due to the high 1970s and 1980s content; we fans of the earlier stuff can be a bit more restrained. After a winter that felt like an eternity of high winds and lashing rain, the Saturday of the show dawned bright and clear, and the atmosphere was remarkable, like everyone had woken…

“ARE YOU GOING TO RIDE IT, THEN?” GRINNED Mark when I put away my camera. He had promised me a go, some months ago. “Well, if you’re sure,” I responded. I really wanted to take it to the road, yet I had become acutely aware of the presence the Harley-Davidson XR1000 had, and I had dropped some unsubtle hints about my bad back and that I wasn’t really used to big motorcycles, just in case he had changed his mind and we both had a get-out. This was a genuine rarity, after all. There’s only a few in the world, and a mere handful in the UK. It is also stunning, a head-turner of a machine. Even people who have a hatred of Harleys will recognise how impressive it is,…

AN OLD FRIEND VISITED THIS MONTH. Steve was a drinking and riding buddy back in the late 1980s, and we would hack around on bikes, mine being selection of knackered old nails and Steve’s an immaculate Kawasaki Z750LTD factory custom. In the early 1990s, he finally had enough of the rain and the bloody awful job opportunities so stuck his Kawasaki in a mate’s garage and bought a ticket to California for an adventure. There he promptly met a girl, brought her home to the UK, married her, sold the Kawasaki, went back to California and went native, doing what any self-respecting person would do in those circumstances. This was to buy a Harley-Davidson and start a business doing roofing, which was apparently something Americans wouldn’t do. His Harley was…

IN THE NOT-TOO-DISTANT PAST, I CAN REMEMBER bumping into Scott Linford at the 2012 SCMC April Spring Gathering. He turned up on a recently-restored 1995 Honda SS50. As we stood admiring his lovely blue SS50, Scott confessed he was a Sports Moped fanatic. Given I was chatting with a 19-year-old, I remember being very impressed with the detail and quality finish of Scott’s impressive SS50 restoration. Fast-forward to May 2023, when a now 30-year-old Scott appeared at the popular Rynd Classic Car and Motorcycle Gathering in Fife – but this time on a rather dashing metallic green SS50 – and once again I was drooling. I was just congratulating him on his Honda’s blue to green colour change when Scott revealed that he’d recently restored not one, but two SS50s…

THE KICKBACK CUSTOM SHOW IS AN independent, grassroots bike show highlighting everything from home-built customs and classic restorations and café racers, through streetfighters and flat trackers, to nitrous-powered lunacy – with exquisitely restored machines rebuilt far beyond the original factory output on the classic side. Started 14 years ago in Bournemouth as a hobby, the show has grown steadily over the intervening years. It now covers two halls of the Three Counties Showground, in Worcestershire, with a projected 6000 folk attending over the two days. As well as the static bikes, you could have a go on one of the Harley-Davidson range or watch the two stunt teams displaying. Inside the doors, a 1956 BSA Gold Star US dirt tracker greeted you, followed by a stunning Vincent, surrounded by a…

IN OCTOBER 1968, HONDA CHANGED THE face of motorcycling forever by unveiling its four-cylinder CB750 at the Tokyo Show – the first such volume production streetbike to be produced anywhere in the world. But the arrival four years later of the bigger, faster 904cc Kawasaki Z1 four meant Honda dealers around the globe now had to work harder to shift the huge number they’d become accustomed to selling (once CB750 deliveries got properly under way). And nobody tried harder than France’s largest Honda dealer, Paris-based Japauto. Already by September 1969, Japauto had taken a CB750 to victory in its very first race, the Bol d’Or 24-Hour, just weeks after receiving the first of thousands of similar bikes it would sell from its dealership, which had opened the previous year in…

CBG Workshop I GREW UP AT A TIME WHEN WE ALL RODE sportsbikes. And through these eyes, the CBR600 was the best-looking sportsbike, helped by the magazines saying it was also reliable, comfortable and useable. Many, many were sold, Honda revised them every few years, and because there were so many, breakers (remember them?), parts were plentiful. My first was an FJ model from 1989 in white with red stripes – the ‘Jellymould’ model. Bought from my friend Rich, it became my instructor bike for years. I still have it. Rich bought the later model, and I was so jealous, yet I accidentally crashed it riding in the snow when he kindly lent it to me… So, when someone at a previous job said they were going to scrap the…

GOVERNMENT SEEKS VIEWS ON CLASSIC REGISTRATION CHANGES The Department for Transport (DfT) and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) have launched a call for evidence around the existing policies and registration processes for historic, classic and rebuilt vehicles. The stated aim is to seek expertise and knowledge about whether these policies need updating to reflect evolving technologies that support the restoration and rebuilding of these vehicles. The DfT and DVLA say they are keen to tap into a range of experience, views and research to help identify areas of potential change, while ensuring that road safety and accurate vehicle records on the national register remain a key priority. The call asks for evidence on a number of topics, including historic/classic vehicles registration, rebuilt and restored vehicles, kit-built vehicles, vehicles…

‘THERE ARE PLACES I REMEMBER, ALL MY LIFE, though some have changed…’ John Lennon was plainly familiar with the A488, running south-west of Shrewsbury. It’s a place I’ll never forget, either; nor indeed, one particular ride along it, firstly north as half of my then regular 100-mile commute to Manchester, and then again south, on the way home. A fine road, and a fine route for someone who was working on a magazine devoted to brand-new machines, because it offered all manner of challenging sections, which helped sort out the usually well-developed machinery on offer in the mid-1990s. Two machines stand out in this: BMW’s early oil-head R1100R, a true bruiser of a bike; and the subject of this month’s somewhat epic ride down memory lane, the Moto Guzzi Centauro,…

THAT RUSTY RIM ON THE FRONT OF YOUR bike is really irritating; the rest of the bike looks so good. It’s only £50 to replace with a chrome item, and for £90 you could have an aluminium one. That would show up Fred and his fancy paint job. But a shiny rim would show up those spokes, so spokes and nipples would add a further £70 or so. Hmm, starting to add up. But it would be nice. Hang on, that tyre may as well be replaced if the wheel is coming out. How much?? Bloody hell, they’ve gone up. Yes, new rim tape and obviously a tube – cheap or expensive? £8 or £15 seems slightly academic now, so let’s go posh. I’m sure I could rebuild it myself…

IT IS ALMOST 50 YEARS SINCE THE WRAPS WERE pulled off one of the best-loved Japanese motorcycles ever made. The story of the Honda CB400F is one of the clearest examples of the differences in motorcycling taste in the USA and Europe. For Americans, the 400 four was a baffling motorcycle that was too small, too impractical, and too buzzy. For Europeans, it was a game changer; a fast, lightweight, sweet-handling, pocket superbike that was perfect for our environment. The CB400F was born in 1975 as an upgraded version of the CB350F0, a US and European mainland-only four-cylinder. The CB350 was a pocket-sized version of the CB500F, with all the chrome and flash and four-into-four exhaust of the bigger bike, though using a miniaturised version of the engine. The 350…

APOLOGIES IF I’VE MENTIONED THIS already and too often, but a somewhat characterful Triumph Bonneville recently came into the shed I like to call The Shed. It’s a little treasure, as all Triumphs may well be, and fiddling and fettling with it have provided what feels like centuries of entertainment. Not that I couldn’t actually ride this one, but I decided to take advantage of an enforced break in my riding life to fix a few minor flaws. Of course, I know that all Triumphs are perpetually perfect, so let us blame some creatively inventive challenges introduced by an enthusiastic previous owner, who may have been magically prescient and knew that I’d have a few weeks of enforced life as a pedestrian. I know very little about 1972 Triumph twins.…