Indholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2022 i Motorcycle Classics

Hello, and welcome to the July/August issue. I hope that summer is treating you well and that a motorcycle trip is in your near future. This issue we have two travel stories aboard classic iron, one a trip completed in a day, and one that took just a little bit longer. I get pitched a lot of zany ideas, and to be honest, more often than not, I encourage people to do the thing. Writer John L. Stein called me one day a couple of months ago and mentioned he’d dug out a 1964 Yamaha YDS2 and was in the process of getting it roadworthy. John has written a lot of highly entertaining stories for us over the years, including Surf Riders (September/October 2021), in which he and some friends…

Contender: 1992 Honda XR650L The 1992 XR650L combined what was essentially the chassis and running gear of the earlier XR600 with the electric start 650cc powertrain from the competent but unloved NX650 Dominator, with the suspension uprated to cope with the extra 40 pounds. Honda’s goal was to produce a dual-sport that performed off-road at least as well as the kickstart-only XR600, so development of the 650 was dirt biased. The counterbalanced NX engine was adopted “as was” except for a camshaft change for more torque. Wrote Rider magazine in a three-bike shoot-out with the DR650S and Kawasaki KLX650, “The XR650L is easily the dirtiest of our three dual-sport test bikes. Wet weight is a full 41 pounds less than the Suzuki.” The XL also had the most suspension travel…

The twenty first century is the age of specialization. It’s not enough to be a computer engineer, you have to specialize in a particular branch of computer engineering. Doctors have certificates in one subspecialty of gastroenterology, not just gastroenterology in general. When it comes to motorcycles, there are luxury touring motorcycles, light touring motorcycles, cruisers, cross country off-road motorcycles, trail motorcycles, trials motorcycles and motocrossers, to name just a few. The Transalp, unlike most motorcycles made these days, is a generalist. It does almost anything. Owner Allen Siekman has a collection, mostly of vintage Japanese motorcycles. They all get ridden, but this Transalp is the one he grabs when he needs to get someplace. “The Transalp does everything so well,” he says. It has also aged well — the original…

Racing improves the breed, goes the old saying. And though well overused, it certainly applied to a small motorcycle manufacturer from Breganze in the foothills of the Italian alps. It was Massimo Laverda’s visit to the U.S. in 1964 that determined a change of direction for the eponymous company. Until then, Laverda had produced mostly commuter bikes of 100cc or less. Massimo’s father, Francesco, started offering motorcycles alongside the company’s line of agricultural machinery in 1949. But the arrival of the Fiat 500 in 1957 provided a cheap fourwheeled alternative. Commuter motorcycle sales tanked. Massimo understood that, to survive, Laverda needed to embrace the U.S. market. And that meant bigger-engine bikes to meet those customers’ demands. Laverda’s first U.S. offering was a 650 SOHC twin, the engine of which borrowed…

If you feel like we’re overdoing the brake work here, you might be right. Brakes are boring, but efficient stopping is probably more important than fast acceleration, especially on a vintage motorcycle. Early versions of disc brakes on British bikes suffer from bad hydraulic ratios, among other problems like chrome plating and solid rotors. Bad hydraulic ratios lead to the common complaint that the brake feel is bad, requiring too much effort to get good stopping power. An easy and available fix is to drop the master cylinder size from 5/8-inch diameter to 1/2-inch diameter. Sleeving is also an option, but a built to purpose 1/2-inch cylinder is far better. This How-To will cover converting a common threaded British master cylinder to the smaller diameter version. As always, it’s good…

They called him Rocket Man, and for good reason — he rode a rocket-powered drag bike through the measured quarter-mile with the relaxed calm of someone making a simple cross-town milk run. His real name was John Dixon, and he was the first person to squeeze out a sub-7-second elapsed time in the quarter-mile aboard a motorcycle. He also was the first motorcycle rider to unofficially post a 200 mph sprint through the traps. Dixon set his 6-second ET mark (6.996 seconds) in 1981 as part of a staged segment for the television show That’s Incredible, a popular weekly series at the time. Although Rocket Man secured official sanctioning from the national DRAG-BIKE organization for his run at Cumberland International Raceway in North Carolina, his blistering time wasn’t considered a…

Long-term Norton I purchased my Fireflake Blue 1971 Commando Roadster new through a “fly & drive” program from Taylor-Matterson Ltd, London. I rode to the factory at Andover for a tour and to replace the clutch cable which broke shortly after heading off from the dealership. They graciously SOLD me a new cable after the tour. After riding around England and Scotland, the Commando was air freighted to Boston for the grand sum of $125. At the Boston airport, customs people told me to remove the tires so they could check for drugs. I refused and said that if they wanted to remove the tires, to go right ahead, and then put them back on again themselves. After checking with their supervisor, they finally let the bike in. The Norton…

Covid-19 sadly killed off Indian’s plans for the 2020 centenary of its iconic Scout model’s birth to be celebrated with a series of global parties, with the result that the anniversary passed almost unnoticed. Still, the ongoing showroom success of the Scout and Scout 60, the Minnesota firm’s best-selling current models, will have helped make up for that as far as the marque’s current owner, Polaris, is concerned. A conservative but astutely managed Midwestern company, Polaris’ management today could hardly be more different than the bunch of spivs who ended up running the Indian Motocycle (sic) Company into the ground during the Teens and Twenties of the last century. For after gradually reducing his slice of Indian equity as new investors were brought in to underwrite the company’s growth, co-founder…

Yamaha’s first-ever liter-class sport bike, the 1983 XJ900 Seca, was an anomaly for its time. On one hand the burgundy red bike, with its sleek handlebar fairing, reflected styling trends to come. But many sport bike aficionados contend that the 900 Seca was a motorcycle arriving too late to the party and, coupled with its sketchy performance, never was a contender in the burgeoning heavyweight sport bike market of the mid-1980s. For starters, the 900 Seca was underpowered for its class. Its inline 4-cylinder engine actually began life in 1980 as a 650 for a smaller model, later evolving to its 853cc displacement in 1983. As it happened, the 853cc engine, although adequate for general road duty, was underpowered compared to its competition. Moreover, by industry standards the Seca’s suspension…

Honda ignition problems Q: I read the Q&A on the MC website about Honda CX500 ignition problems. I am rebuilding a 1980 Honda CX500C, with the 3-piece stator you discuss. My problem is the bike starts beautifully when cold, and runs well even when fully warmed up to running temperature, but if you switch the engine off it refuses to start again until cooled down. Checking for a spark when cold, it shows big fat sparks, but when hot, nothing or just the very faintest visible spark. Do you think this could be the low-speed stator winding or the CDI unit? Any advice for testing both would be greatly appreciated, as well as advice for replacing the units with modern replacements. (They don’t seem to be available any more, except…

Motorcycles that straddle the line between street and dirt riding have been variously described as dual purpose, dual sport, adventure, and more recently street scrambler. Back in the day, most evolved from dirt bikes, though now they’re more likely to be purpose designed. Inevitably, there’s been fragmentation within the niche: is your ride a two-wheeled SUV, desert sled or rally raider? 80/20 on/off road or 50/50 or ? But one unifying feature of dual sports is that they’ve mostly gotten bigger, heavier, faster and more powerful. They’ve adopted multiple cylinders, sophisticated suites of electronics, shaft drives and superbike performance. Two examples: the 2022 BMW R1250GS Adventure tops 590 pounds at the curb, while the new Ducati Multistrada V4S claims 170 horsepower! Was there a middle ground? Did motorcycles exist that…

Somewhere above Ojai, California, soon after the route changed from state highway to country lane to ranch road, the vibration in the 1964 Yamaha YDS2 began. Halfway between a frame judder and a handlebar shake, it grew stronger with time and speed, suggesting that whatever mysterious problem had emerged was worsening … and fast. I didn’t know what was wrong, and since the bike had been parked for 25 years, anything was possible. Now miles from town and with no cell service, after getting myself into this mess, I did know I’d have to get myself out. Blame it on The Ace Cafe. Like Marcus Dairy in Connecticut or the Rock Store in Malibu, in the Swinging Sixties in England, The Ace Cafe was the place for sporting motorcyclists. Located…

Most vintage motorcycle enthusiasts wouldn’t dream of riding a mid-1960s Honda Dream some 2,933 miles across the United States on the rough and tough TransAmerica Trail. But a group of intrepid riders from Mississippi did just that, and it was an adventure that won’t ever be forgotten. Before we get to the characters inhabiting this story, let’s learn a little about the TransAmerica Trail, or TAT. According to transamtrail.com, Sam Correro also had a dream. “In 1984, Sam followed his passion for adventure and set out with a goal to chart an epic off-pavement cross-country trail,” the site explains. Sam researched maps and rode the miles, eventually creating what would become the TransAmerica Trail. This is essentially a route that “… uses public roads and back country roads, both non-pavement…

7/2 Head to the Barber Motorsports Park outside Birmingham, Alabama, for the fourth edition of the Concours de Competition, with famed AMA and World Superbike Champion Scott Russell serving as Grand Marshal. WERA will conduct the event on the track and in the paddock, while the Barber Museum will provide judging for motorcycles entered. If you would like to enter the event watch wera.com or the Concours de Competition Facebook page for the procedure to apply to participate, or contact Brian Slark at bslark@barbermuseum.org 7/15 Visit the Vintage Motorbike Show, July 15-24, 2022, during the 40th annual Pittsburg Vintage Grand Prix. All classic, vintage, antique and historic racing motorbikes are invited to participate in the nation’s largest vintage street race 10-day event. A $5 minimum donation is asked of event spectators aged…

MOTORCYCLE CLASSICS SHORT SLEEVE T-SHIRT This Motorcycle Classics T-shirt will quickly become an old favorite! Made of super-soft material, this shirt is perfect for wearing on your rides or when you’re working on your bike. Emblazoned with an outline of a Norton Commando and our slogan, “Ride‘Em, Don’t Hide‘Em,” this shirt announces to everyone your love of motorcycles and Motorcycle Classics! S-3XL #10693-98 $15-$17 Members: $12.75-$14.45 THE COMPLETE BOOK OF DUCATI MOTORCYCLES: EVERY MODEL SINCE 1946 From sporting single-cylinder bikes of the 1950s to high-performance sport bikes of today, this updated edition of The Complete Book of Ducati Motorcycles showcases Ducati’s entire output. This 2nd edition details the Bologna-based company’s amazing chronology from the 1950s to today. Presented chronologically and in encyclopedic form with gorgeous photography and insights from Ducati…