Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2017 i Real Classic

Sometimes it’s good to remember one of the lesser delights of motorbicycling the old bike way. As well as all that fabulous machinery (there’s a Nimbus in this issue, for heaven’s sake) and all those opportunities to ride a favourite machine to a favourite place to meet up with favourite people – or simply to enjoy the ride and the solitude – as well as all those, there is the gentle escapism of it all. The last twelvemonth has presented us with some truly strange, remarkable and even bizarre activities out there in the real world, and I for one find it refreshing and relaxing to simply switch ofi all the reality from time to time. While all around you are going a little bonkers – or at least while…

Winding his window down to speak to me, the van driver remarked ‘Your vintage scooter goes really well. What is it, a 125?’ I told him the capacity. He looked very confused before adding ‘It’s a bit rubbish for a 750 then mate’. In a nutshell, this brief exchange sums up the incredible contradiction that is the Nimbus motorcycle. Built by the celebrated Danish electrical motor and vacuum cleaner manufacturers ( among other things) Fisker and Nielson , the four cylinder machine first saw light of day in 1919. The earliest models had a large diameter ‘spine’ containing the fuel and are known today as the Stovepipe machines. Updated in 1934, the Nimbus Type C remained virtually unchanged until the company ceased motorcycle manufacture completely in 1959, having made about…

Risking charges of plagiarism, that ‘sheep’ statement is lifted directly from Cycle magazine’s SP1000 test from April 1979. The sheep? Moto Guzzi’s V1000 G5 tourer; a motorcycle so utterly overlooked it never gained enough popularity even to be considered an afterthought. Among a number of models using the small valve 949cc twin engine, the G5 carried over specifications introduced for 1975’s V1000 automatic. Except of course, the Convert’s juice drive tranny. Flat-top, 9.2 pistons (some sourced from Mondial) rode in 88mm steel liners and were fed by a pair of square-slide 30mm Dell’Orto VHBs. The ignition advance curve of the Convert was also standard fare, as was the camshaft profile and pressurised oil filter system. Intake and exhaust valves measure 41 and 36mm with the exhaust ports uprated with threaded…

Danish engineer Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen’s car company DKW went from strength to strength in the 1930s, eventually becoming the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world. That company moved to Ingoldstadt in West Germany after WW2, eventually becoming part of the Volkswagen empire which continues to thrive today. Behind the Iron Curtain things were not so jolly. Allied bombing had severely damaged three of the four Auto Union factories. The Soviet military administration completed the job by expropriating all useable machine tooling that was left, and took the blueprints and even the skilled engineers back to the Soviet Union as war reparations. On 1st July 1946 the communist government of the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) nationalised all privately owned companies and formed the Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau (Industrial Association for Vehicle Construction),…

There have been some very cold days this winter (and PUB feels the cold these days), so workshop activity has been fairly minimal. The new Mikuni needles for the GS500 arrived and were installed. So far all seems to be well, although the cold starting and initial slow running do seem to be slightly affected. PUB does not have any vacuum gauges for balancing purposes (not needed for her mostly single cylindered junk), so is currently leaving well alone. A little indoor task resulted from PUB’s brother asking whether she could thread some shortened spokes for him. Actually they were bicycle spokes (so very thin, around 14 swg (standard wire gauge). However, the process is exactly the same as for motorcycle spokes, provided that one has the appropriate ‘rolls’. Rolls,…

And so to the trial, less than an hour after the enduro ended, aboard my trusty 1932 OK-Supreme, with its reliable 250cc JAP motor. At number 8 I was one of the first away, clean through the first section and getting away with a neat two on the large rocks of the second, both in front of large crowds of spectators. There’s a bit of a show-off in all of us. Then up and out away, following the enduro track. And here’s where it went a little awry. The track through the woods might have been fine for enduro bikes with plenty of clearance, but on a trials bike the clarty mud just stuck to front tyres and clogged low mounted mudguards. The front wheel simply refused to turn, what…

There are many situations which can be resolved during a rebuild when the machine is static, but some things don’t become apparent until it’s running. After last month’s trial run several of these became apparent, starting with… where’s all that oil coming from? That’s the thing about clean, new oil – it’s not so easy to see. It mostly seemed to be coming from the oil return line where it joined its union. The line was crimped on the union but clearly not crimped hard enough: not too difficult to fix. Re-crimped and reconnected, the tank was re-filled and left overnight with a drip tray underneath. There was no oil in the tray on the following day. I know the old joke; ‘If a BSA doesn’t leak oil, there isn’t…

HAPPINESS IS A WARM HONDA Thanks for an excellent February issue. Can I add a few comments to John Shearer’s interesting CB250RS article? I was always surprised that a company that produced a gutless slug like the 250 Superdream could come up with such a lightweight charmer as the RS (282lb dry against 367lb) but then what do I know? They sold zillions of Superdreams… During the 1980s I was a partner in Good Vibrations, a small London motorcycle repair and hire company, serving the courier industry. As you’d guess, a great many RSs passed through our doors. Our riders were of course thrashing them hard at low road speeds so they had a much tougher life than most. Nonetheless they were pretty reliable, with the big proviso that you…

The RC calendar not only includes all sorts of interesting old bike events but it also tells you where to find the RealClassic Roadshow in the next few weeks. These are only the highlights of the classic motorcycling calendar – for up to date info check the events list at www.RealClassic.co.uk MARCH 3 RD ➤ There’s a CLASSIC BIKE MEET from 10am to 2pm today (and every Friday) at the Victoria Pub in Coalville, LE67 3FA. Tea, coffee, bacon butties, etc. vicbikerspub.co.uk MARCH 4 TH ➤ There’s an AUCTION of vintage and classic motorcycles, spare parts, and collectables together with vintage and classic cars and automobilia from 10am at Ledbury Salerooms, HR8 2AQ. hjpugh.com ➤ And there’s another AUCTION of vintage and classic motorcycles, cars and…