Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2025 i Classic Bike Guide

GREETINGS! MAY YOUR OIL BE THE correct weight for these wonderful temperatures and the nuts and rivets be to the satisfaction of those counters we all love to hear. It is written in statute that we never have enough time. Beauty you can buy, feign intelligence you can, and wealth can be fabricated, yet time drips away, regardless of our best efforts. But who says you can’t make the most of it? For several years, Maria had this great idea to make the most of living in Norfolk and on the longest day, see the sunrise in the east and the sunset in the west. This year’s summer solstice was a Saturday, so no excuses! Up at 2.45am to head out by 3.15am on our way to Ness Point, Lowestoft,…

Brendon McKay: 1926 Norton Model 18 Brendon McKay, 34, is a flat tank Norton owner from Albany, Western Australia, and a heavy diesel mechanic by trade. He brought wife Nicola and three-year-old daughter Lexie with him for a good part of the way, Lexie’s winning smile making her a hit with all and sundry. “In 2017 I bought a very rusty 1913 Triumph project I spent 18 months recommissioning,” said Brendon. “I didn’t restore it cosmetically, because you could still see the original Triumph markings on the fuel tank, things like that. Since then, the bike would have done 1550 miles competing in veteran rallies and the Roaring Twenties events. Then I met Peter Lawson, from near Perth, and told him I wouldn’t mind a ride on a Norton like…

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE WAS LUCKY enough to be invited to the Royal Enfield Slide School with Dirt Craft’s Gary Birtwistle – so Matt sent me! Gary is a multiple UK and European flat track champion, and I’ve been lucky enough to have attended one of his previous schools. This time we were off to the Iwade speedway track in Sittingbourne, riding the modified Royal Enfield Guerilla. We arrived on an absolute scorcher of a morning and were met by the other wannabe flat trackers to start a day of ‘just turn left’. I’ve done a couple of flat track schools before so had a fairly good idea of what to expect. Our bikes were based on the new Royal Enfield Guerilla but with a few subtle changes for the task ahead,…

“HAVE YOU BEEN DOING anything in the garage?” said Matt the ed, and of course I have, but mostly small jobs. For example, in my unpowered lock-up I have long wanted a means to clean off grubby motorcycle parts, and so I created a cordless parts washer from mostly scrap. I took an oil drain tray, a spare 12v battery I had lying around and a 12v oil drain pump I purchased a decade ago to do an oil change on a Ford Transit. This device requires you to shove one pipe down a dipstick hole and the other into a suitable receptacle. I stuck one pipe into a gallon of paraffin – I use paraffin for parts washing because I have never found anything better or cheaper. I connected…

WITH SEEMINGLY ENDLESS REPETITION and a certain dull monotony, every time I declare a project bike finished and consider the time, effort and expense involved, I also declare to anyone nearby – usually just a semi-comatose cat – that there will be no more. No more projects. In future, I shall spend all my free waking hours just riding bikes. I’ve ruined enough formerly pristine machines with my costly incompetence for a lifetime: now I’ll just ride them. A nice thing about living near Bude is that I can always get Ace Motorcycles to fix my failures. Well… almost always. As you’ve already deduced, this is another resolution doomed to failure. The inevitable truth is that I always enjoy fixing a bike or modifying it a bit to suit my…

WHY NOT ORGANISE A BIKE show? I mean, how hard can it be? Especially when you have founded a bike night that attracts an eclectic mix of impressive classic and unusual motorcycles. Maybe for an appropriate charity? Many gatherings and bike shows have fallen by the wayside, not least because local authorities have constantly heaped more and more regulations, fees and controls on a diminishing number of willing organisers to the point that simply borrowing a marquee and putting it up in a field has become a massively onerous task involving months of paperwork. There are ways to get round this, like making it a one-day affair, avoiding the issue of overnight stays. Don’t bother with traders, and it will help when you have a venue with a big car…

WHEN YOU THINK MV AGUSTA, CERTAINLY the classic era motorcycles, the bikes that spring to mind are the imposing America 750, the world-beating 500 GP racers or possibly the 1970s fully faired twin 350 models. But MV Agusta made smaller bikes too, turning out sporty 125s for the discerning road rider for many years – and some world-beating 125cc racers, too. By the late 1960s it was cashing in on the success of Italian legend Giacomo Agostini in Grand Prix by building out-and-out small sportsbikes. In 1969, a new 125cc machine, the 125 GTLS, was launched by MV at the Milan show. This had an OHV, 123cc, air-cooled engine. MV claimed a top speed of 120kph (75mph) from 9bhp for this no-frills lightweight pocket rocket, which was no slouch for…

THE BIG SELLERS IN MOTORCYCLE showrooms during the late 1990s were not fairing-clad race replica sports bikes. Adventure steeds, or even retro twins, had yet to become mainstream. The bikes we saw the most of were mid to large capacity inline-fours. Bikes like the Suzuki Bandit, the Yamaha Fazer and Honda Hornet, and a few Kawasaki Zeds. The theory was to make a bike that people could actually use on modern roads. And the recipe was simple: take a sportsbike engine from previous years, retune for less top end but more midrange power, lower the gearing, pop into a cheap-to-make steel frame with budget suspension, and keep prices low for maximum bang for your buck. They sold by the bucket. Over time, as they weren’t anything special, they faded away…

TO BECOME MORE IN TOUCH WITH this new world of old bikes, when I became editor more than eight years ago I bought this 1954 BSA B31. There’s no better way than to immerse yourself into something head-first. A local bike from the famous Hornigolds bike shop in Dereham, Norfolk, the Beeza wasn’t standard. Nor were the engine numbers matching to the frame –oh no! – it’s a B31, not a Brough. I didn’t care because it had everything I wanted – a single-cylinder engine, manual ignition, magneto, non-swinging arm suspension, a saddle and 19in wheels. And to me, it looked a million dollars. Today, eight years and one month after buying the BSA, I’ve delivered the B31 to John. The BSA has been my companion during this old bike…

THE STORY THAT WAS TO BECOME THE Laverda Jota, that mighty Italian triple, began 50 years ago this summer – a bike many still revere as the fastest and finest superbike of the 1970s. It was very much a two-wheeled hero back then. Conceived by Slater Brothers, the Breganze firm’s UK importer, the exotic 981cc triple was good for 140mph – giving it a strong claim to be the world’s fastest superbike – and won three UK national production championships at the hands of ace rider Pete ‘PK’ Davies. As a motorbike-mad Hertfordshire schoolkid in the mid-1970s, the rocket ship from northern Italy seemed to me as out of reach as an Apollo spacecraft. But by a series of coincidences, I’d eventually ride a succession of Jotas and get to…

BIKE ENTHUSIASTS’ CLUBS WERE SO important. Joining gave you an excuse to get out and ride, to socialize, blather on about old bikes, and we learned by listening. We borrowed tools, worked out who to trust, and how to detect bull. Lifelong friends were made. And they still are. Don’t believe the doom-mongers – clubs are still thriving, if they realise they’ve just got to move with the times. BRIMBO is a shining example of once being for British bikes, now catering for bikes – and riders – of all ages. You want a left-foot gearchange, need an electric start, or ride a modern bike? Great, and welcome! It’s this adaptability that has given BRIMBO its 50th anniversary this year. Its annual show at Lopham Village Hall was a great…

THIS ENTIRE SERIES OF STORIES IS BASED AROUND THE happily large numbers of genuinely fine motorcycles I’ve been lucky enough to ride over the last quarter-century or so. Almost every time I’ve been offered a Triumph, my acceptance has been tinged with caution. There’s a reason for this. It is rarely a fun thing to call up Proud Owner and ask them to bring a trailer. However, this example was surprisingly good. Really. No, no – it was! Honest… Oh my, a T150! In my slightly unusual motorcycle world, the sight of a Trident awaiting the placement of my posterior upon its padded perch is almost always a welcome sight. More than that, the sound of a Trident idling on three cylinders is even more welcome, if a little less…

MOST JAPANESE MOTORCYCLES feature a cush drive somewhere in their transmission. It’s to prevent the sudden snatch the stresses of acceleration or deceleration could have on the drivetrain, breaking parts in the process. You can often expect to find them in the rear hub, but there’s regularly one within the clutch basket as well. I suspect similar applies to other machinery from elsewhere, but personally I’ve never strayed too far from the pathway of Oriental light. Clutch-based shock absorbers are usually either rubber cushions or springs. These momentarily compress when drive is interrupted and re-engaged via a gear change, a momentary loss of traction or, in extremis, mad stuff such as wheelies, jumps and so on. Like all the best ideas, Japanese clutch shock absorbers are intrinsically simple yet amazingly…

MY REASONING IS SIMPLE. I really should buy a VFR800 instead. That would give me a sporty bike, capable enough to ride to the odd track day, have fun, then come back – and which is also comfy for my old knees. But I don’t have one; nor do I have any money anymore. But I do have a Honda CBR600F, a bike that has all the plus points of the VFR (except for that wonderful mechanical roar), so with a little work, I could win here. Except the little work is never enough… and it needs a lot of work. This bike should be finished by now, doing what Hondas from the 1980s and 1990s do – sitting quietly until you ask them to go, in which time they…