Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2024 i Real Classic

Do you ever suffer from an inexplicable lack of enthusiasm? I think I always have, but walked into an unexpected wall of it the other day. I'd posted a photo of our ancient AJS – a 1953 Model 20 – on Facebook and a remarkable number of folk from all over the world expressed their surprise that despite owning it since 1979 I have no interest in actually riding it. A couple of pals – including one or two who remember me using the bike in the early 1980s (!) wondered why I didn't just fix it up and use it. There is no simple answer, and despite quite a lot of thought – by my feeble standards – I'm still not certain. It would cost quite a bit to…

Loved the Kawasaki ZZR piece in RC241. I know it's not everyone's idea ofaclassic but they are quiteabit of kit. I remember havinga go on an 1100 when I was about 19. My regular ride was a Z200 so perhaps unsurprisingly it was quite an experience. What struck me as remarkable was how, unlike some peaky Japanese twostroke which gives you a good dig in the ribs, the ZZR1100 was more like a hydraulic ram: relentless and unending. Power, power and more power. Torquey, real power. The fastest bike I've ever ridden. The fastest I've ever been. Remarkable as it was it didn't make me hanker for one and I've never ridden one since. The memory however, is indelible! Fred Harrington, member It was good to see the ZZR get…

I recently received my latest copy of RC and was glad to see my membership number printed on the postal address sheet. Being a member who has subscribed to RC since the beginning of publication I was very proud of my number and always quoted it in any correspondence with RC. Congratulations on having achieved twenty years of publication, and may it continue for many more years. RC has always been my favourite bike mag and I have found that it has the perfect balance of articles that suit my taste. I particularly like articles about riders’ experiences with their bikes and the history of them. I also like the balance of classic and modern as I am interested in both. Best wishes for the future. Chris Rayment, member number…

Great to see such a good article on the Enfield Himmy in RC241. I got one earlier this year and love it. It does everything I want. I would have got one sooner but was misled by road tests in other mags. ‘It's a slug' and‘ maybe over 60mpg if you really try.’ Mine can sit at a steady 80 on the motorway if it needs to and, as mentioned in the article, 90mpg is not far-fetched. Sorry to see the Fact Pack figures perpetuating the 70mph and 60mpg average myths. To get an average of 60 they must have had somebody syphoning it off in the car park. It's good on the local roads, even the bumpy Somerset levels, and even better now it has a Hagon shock. Is…

RC is a great magazine, full of interesting articles with a nice touch of my-kind-of-humour. So thank you for all that you and Rowena do. Just one thing though (and you knew something was coming); in addition to the magazine we get two sheets of A4 each printed on one side only. You know the two pieces to which I refer – one is Rowena's charming monthly ramble and the other has my address on it for the convenience of the Royal Mail. Would it be possible to combine these two sheets onto one page in order to save one tree per month? But to be fair, I guess you have thought about this and found that it's beyond man's wit to do it. However, I thought I would mention…

This month's column is inevitably going to be heavy on Vincent-HRDs in view of it being 100 years since the founding of the original HRD marque, and also because a pair of Vincents were highlights of the Classic Bike Show Bonhams auction (there being no SS110 Brough Superiors to compete). Even in the workshop a Vincent Firefly has sneaked in for attention ahead of the Flea! Surprisingly enough PUB was asked to take her HRD to be shown on the VOC stand at Stafford, replying ‘Have you seen my HRD?’ However, the answer was yes, but they knew how far travelled it is (over 20 countries), and it is one of the few survivors of Howard Davies’ original Wolverhampton built bikes before Phil Vincent took over. As the stand would…

You know how it is when you get a new bike and after you've made the incredible – and unexpected – discovery that it actually works? That's right. I decided at once that I should banish the RE Woodsman to the deepest recesses of The Shed prior to selling it and instead use the oddly purple Bonneville as day-to-day transport. What's the worst that could happen? Do not answer that. What actually happened was a deluge. Hopefully while you're reading this we're suffering from hosepipe bans and the like, but back in March things were decidedly subaquatic. So the Bullet – which is weatherproof – carried on plodding through the muddy floods while the almost immaculate (only when viewed with eyes closed and in the dark) Bonnie returned to the…

Rowena asked about what we name our bikes. Monk is my Honda Monkey 125, the best bike I've ever owned. His name comes from two sources; ventriloquist Nina Conti's hilarious companion Monk is very cheeky and amusing. Also, in the ‘Just William’ books, William once borrowed his little sister's soft toy monkey called Monk for one of his schemes. Both suit Monk's character which makes me smile every time I go for a ride. Now I'm in my seventies, ‘Monk’ is all the bike I need. Any chance Frank might write an updated edition of his British Classic Bike Guide? His forthright opinions make it a very enjoyable read, one of my favourite books! I recently became a subscriber and am enjoying RC very much. Robert Gunn, member May I…

You are now no doubt so wowed by Editor Westworth's wild escapades with Norton's 350 twin that you're inspired to rush off and buy something similar straight away. Here's a selection of what's waiting for you on the market this summer… This older restoration, dating originally from 1964, appeared in a classified ad on eBay at £3595. The seller said it was ‘from a small collection and has not been started or ridden for over five so will need to be recommissioned.’ Before being laid up, the 350 ‘ran very well’, but ‘the carb will need cleaning.’ Brakes and lights seem to work, the tyres have plenty of tread and it comes with ‘lots of bills, service manual and parts manual.’ There are 39,000 miles showing on the odo. That…

Some RC readers might remember my article in RC232 which gave a very brief account of my 60-plus years of riding, restoring and just messing about with old motorcycles. I have now finished a book, ‘60-Odd Years Of Bodging‘, which gives the story in detail, including a complete account of the restoration of a 1935 Calthorpe found in pieces in a shed. It's an A5 sized book, 224 pages with 130-plus full colour photographs. The price is £10 plus £3 UK delivery. All profits go to the Blood Bikers – I was one myself 60 years ago. For more information or to order, email alanfreke@yahoo.com Alan Freke, member And I can recommend this, Alan. A good read indeed! Frank W…

After reading many motorcycle magazines, it strikes me that speed seems the main selling point on the magazine. In the 1960s we had a large range of 250cc machines on the market. I chose the Jubilee, aquite slow machine which would do 70mph on a good day. I ran it from Folkestone to Plymouth at least once a month whenI was in the Royal Navy, a distance of about 290 miles, going home on Friday and returning on Sunday nights. Never hada failure, it always started first or second kick. Could we have a review on the under-350 machines of the 1960s, both 2-stroke and 4-stroke? I am sure they would be appreciated your readers. Christopher Ashdown Not sure your comments entirely apply to RC, Christopher: speed is rarely that…

RC239 had the most interesting article about the Triumph at Salt Lake. I rode down to Bonneville in 2009 to meet up with Fritz Egli with his sidecar outfit. He set a world record of 206.126mph. He said that the bike started skidding and spinning at speeds over 200mph. The following year he went back with an improved engine which produced a genuine 400 horsepower but it rained. The combination of wet salt and wind made it extremely dangerous. Thereafter, Fritz couldn't get sponsorship for another attempt. But in 2009, watching him snake off the line as he searched for grip was quite a sight! Roger Slater, member 400bhp, Roger! Terrifying indeed. Frank W…

In Ollie's Odd Jobs in RC240 he says that in 1953 Dr Ehrlich ‘went to work for Austin Cars where he designed a lightweight two-stroke engine for the Mini which wasn't adopted… but would have been a rocket ship and much better than Austin's A-series. In the book Post War Baby Austins by Barney Sharratt, the story is that the two-stroke engine of Dr Ehlrich was in fact designed for an economy version of the Austin A30, to be called the Austin A20 and not the Mini. The Austin Mini did not arrive until 1959, six years later. The A20 was a smaller and lighter version of the tiny A30 that used the BMC 803cc four-cylinder A-series engine. Ehlrich was tasked with designing a two-cylinder two-stroke split-single for the A20.…

➤ WE WANT MORE STORIES about real life classic bikes. We like profiles of a singl model or a comparison of two machines. Most magazine features are between 1000 and 2500 words. If your story is much longer then it's probably not for us. Shorte stories appear in the letters section. ➤ TO SEE WHAT WE MEAN look at the Triumph Trident, Harley Sportster and Suzuki stories in this issue. ➤ DON'T WORRY about your writing, grammar or punctuation; we'll make sure that your article reads the right way. Just concentrate on telling a good story and we'll do the rest. ➤ INCLUDE AS MUCH INFO as possible Tell the RC readers exactly what model you classic bike is, when it was built and its history since then. What condition…

The art of building a fine special takes many forms. There are ones with a thousand fine details, the ones with fabulous artistic flair and the ones that look like they've been lashed together with baler twine, cable ties and bits of bent wire that have unaccountably covered tens of thousands of miles. And there are the specials that don't look like specials. The Sunbeam club seems to be full of people who like to shoehorn other engines into S7 and S8 frames. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the original twin, it just seems that the format seems to attract engineers who want to make them better. There are Reliant-engined Sunbeams, and Daewoo Matiz-engined Sunbeams and Sunbeams with BSA A10 engines turned sideways, and Cossack, Ural and Dneprengined Sunbeams.…

In these days of price-crash-catastrophe and plummeting markets, you might think that now is the ideal moment to finally buy the classic bike of your dreams. If there's any possible upside to a cost of living crisis it must surely be the opportunity to indulge your passion for previously priceless old bikes and – finally! Hurrahs! – bag a bargain. Splash a lot less cash on the vintage motorcycle you've always wanted. Or so I imagined. Then came the doleful drizzle from the opposite side of the desk (Odd. I thought he was proofing pages, not surfing eBay). ‘Where have all the nice old bikes gone?’ he sighed, denied the thrill of the hunt. Silly me, I'd assumed there were scads of old clunkers up for grabs but my Bigger…