Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i The Classic MotorCycle

News & Events Big news for the October 14/15 Stafford show is that star guests will be Henry Cole, host of ITV4’s popular The Motorbike Show, and his co-stars Allen Millyard and Guy ‘Skid’ Willison. The television trio has brought motorcycling to the masses, the TV show now having run to an impressive 11 series and counting. And while Cole acknowledges he isn’t to everyone’s taste – “I don’t care what people say, I just do my thing and put bikes on the television – that’s good, right?” – Henry is undoubtedly a popular figure. And a genuine enthusiast, too, who has owned and ridden all manner of motorcycles, as well as being a manufacturer himself, too. He’s even set records at Bonneville on a Brough Superior and also did…

News & Events Motorcycles representing bygone eras of biking history were showcased at Yorkshire Classic Motorcycle Club’s Classic Bike show. Now in its 17th year, the event, at New Quarry House pub, Cross Roads, Haworth in West Yorkshire, attracted a record number of visitors who had the opportunity to reminisce while giving club members the chance to show off their impressive machines. Hosted by what is understood to be one of the largest Pre-65 bikes only trials clubs in the country, around 80 bikes were displayed. Presenting the trophies for the best motorcycle in each section, judged by exhibitors, was the club’s president, Neil Anderton. Best in Show was Raymond King’s stunning 1955 German NSU 250cc, hand-painted in its original colours. Neil Anderton said: “The ages of bikes ranged from…

News & Events The Ixion is back! The event was formerly the Ixion Run, centred on St Barnabas’ Church at Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex. ‘Ixion’ was the nom de plume under which Canon Basil H Davies contributed to The Motor Cycle for many years. At the same time, he was employed in the church. During the years 1926 until 1940 he was minister at St Barnabas. Local enthusiast Dave Masters had researched and written a book about his fellow townsman and, through the Sunbeam MCC, established the run to celebrate Ixion’s memory. After 2019 further events were abandoned when problems surfaced, with the lid apparently finally secured by Covid. In 2023, it was decided to try again, this year on May 14. The present minister at St Barnabas, Rev Martin…

Top Mountain | Motorcycle Museum In 2016, twin brothers Attila and Alban Scheiber, then 49-years-old, opened Europe’s highest motor museum at an altitude of 2160m/7021ft above sea level, at the entrance to the Timmelsjoch High Alpine Road (aka Passo del Rombo), a private toll road linking Austria and Italy. For a one-way toll in 2023 of €18 for a car or €16 for a motorcycle, visitors can enjoy a more scenic if slower (because narrower) way of travelling between Austria’s Tirol and Italy’s Aldo Adige provinces than the better-known Brenner Pass 25km/15m to the east. It’s more popular with bike riders because large trucks are banned from the road – in the busiest year pre-Covid in 2017, exactly 190,259 vehicles passed over the Timmelsjoch Pass, and 75,550 of them were…

Fred Larsen | Archive American reader Terry Ressler – from Salt Lake Tahoe, CA – sent these accompanying pictures through, in a big, white hardback envelope, with an accompanying note: “Love the mag! Enclosed find some photos from the late Fred Larsen. Fred was Sam Pierce’s right-hand man in the racing and building of fast Nortons and BSAs. Sam also tried to launch a new Indian in 1968. All photos and literature courtesy of Dennis Larsen, Fred’s son.” As you’ll agree, there are some quite wonderful pictures. And some research into Sam Pierce reveals an intriguing story too, tied in, a little, with the Floyd Clymer article we published in our May 2023 issue, as Sam Pierce also dreamed of resurrecting Indian. Pierce’s name will be well known by those…

Panther | Model 120 I’m at the top of New Zealand’s South Island in Takaka, having ridden up through the drizzly Lewis Pass yesterday on my new Royal Enfield Classic 350. The little bike, incidentally, performed admirably on the 500km trip, and my ageing posterior was no sorer than it would have been on any other bike. I’m here to talk to my mate Des Molloy about his 27 horsepower, 1965, 645cc Panther Model 120. We sit under cover from the rain beside Des’s Man Cave, which is an absolute treasure trove of old motorcycles and related goodies. He swears he can put his hand on anything, but I have my doubts as the place is (how can I put it kindly) ‘marvellously chaotic.’ It would be fair to say…

THE SPECIALIST In nearly four decades, enthusiastic Hitchcocks Motorcycles has become a byword for all things Royal Enfield, both the original concern and its later incarnations. For this guide, we look at what became one of the seminal models of the Redditch era and we thank company principal Allan Hitchcock for his assistance. ■ Hitchcocks’ Motorcycles: 01564 783192; www.hitchcocksmotorcycles.co.uk MODEL HISTORY Royal Enfield’s Crusader broke cover in 1956 and the 1960 mandate of a 250cc learner limit was a useful sales fillip. Within a couple of years, potential quarter-litre bike-buyers were becoming spoilt for choice. Royal Enfield broadened its range with variations in styling and the first of its ‘Continental’ models appeared in late 1962. The Crusader engine had raised compression and larger inlet port and carburettor and the…

Published in the July 5, 1917, edition of The Motor Cycle, the feature with which the reproduced picture appeared shared the title with that which we use, though it was accredited to ‘One of them’ rather than a specific name; in fact, none of our trio of lady riders are named anywhere in the piece. It was only in 1915 that the first woman police officer was given the powers of arrest, with the Met having already employed females as ‘matrons’ in the 1880s, ladies who were charged with guarding women and children. From 1910, attention was being drawn to the fact that there were no lady officers, a situation that was revised upon the outbreak of war. The Women’s Police Volunteers was founded in 1914 and then became known…

Bonhams has announced it is to sell the well known collection of motorcycles from Tony East, at an all ‘no reserve’ sale at the Autumn Stafford Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show on October 14/15. Highlights include a bevy of beautiful Triumphs, some glorious Ariels, BSAs and BMWs, a plethora of Greeves, various Nortons, all among many others. It’s not just the East machines, though, with plenty more offered as well. Recent consignments include two from the different ends of our spectrum of interest, in the form of a 1975 Ducati 750SS and a 1907 3½hp Quadrant. The Ducati is a rare, early square case example, finished in traditional silver and blue. It used the basic layout as the previous year’s iconic ‘roundcase’ 750SS and has the same right side gearchange. Estimate…

Classic archive The caption for this original image, published in The Motor Cycle of February 17, 1938, reads: “This picture of a motorcycle-mounted trooper of the Egyptian desert patrol shows how two wheels have replaced four (camel’s) legs to a large extent. Note the large air-cleaner mounted alongside the rear wheel of the side-valve Norton.” The Norton is a 16H, the model which was also supplied to the British Army in large numbers, particularly during the Second World War – and, interestingly, it was the version as shown here which was used by the British forces, preferring it to the updated version with enclosed valve gear which came along in 1938 for civilian usage. The 16H (H for ‘home’ as in home market) was one of Norton’s longest running models,…

Event report | Founders’ Day There’s just something about Founders’ Day that makes it special. It’s impossible to pinpoint, but it’s perhaps to do with tradition and nostalgia. For various reasons, some of the ‘big events’ of the year are perhaps not what they once were – with Banbury’s numbers having declined, the Pioneer Run no longer finishing on Madeira Drive – but Founders’ Day is still what it was, viz a big get-together in the grounds of a posh old house, with a parade ring, varied club stands and, of course, the sprawling autojumble. Probably more than that, though, it’s a social do. It’s impossible to walk more than a few yards without stopping to say ‘how do’ with a familiar face, then having a 10-minute chat, while seeing…

Attila Scheiber, 55, was the tour guide for my visit to the magnificent Top Mountain Motorcycle Museum, which he and his twin brother Alban have jointly created – twice over! Sitting down with him in the restaurant for a half-time cup of coffee gave me the chance to ask him how the whole concept came about – and where do he and Alban go from here? Here’s what he had to say: “We opened the museum in April 2016, but the idea for it came up five years before that, so around 2010-2011. Alban and me had a passion for motorcycles ever since we were six years old, when our father bought us two small 50cc Gileras. But in just one summer we destroyed them trying to climb the hills…

BSA | D7 Bantam Royal Red! Gold-lined tank panels! This latest acquisition by fowl fancier Alex Taylor certainly looked the business. We’d tested Alex’s trusty Bantam 125cc D1 and 150cc D3, and narrowly missed trying his 1958 D5, the first, rare, one-year only 175cc variant, when Alex hadn’t got along with it and sold it on. So this D7 was the model’s next evolutionary step, still three-speed, but the 1959-on 175 featured a new swinging-arm frame, hydraulically damped front forks, 18 inch wheels, a dualseat as standard, better brakes, raised handlebars, and a complete restyling, said to have been overseen by Triumph’s Edward Turner, by then head of the BSA Group’s Automotive Division. Talking chicken Alex sourced this 1965 D7 Super from a dealer in Lincolnshire. The engine is from…

Event report | Brassuire GP Historique In June 2019 when, after featuring them as a plateau d’honneur the previous year, a permanent class for motorcycles was incorporated into the programme of the Bressuire GP Historique, the organisers of the event could not have envisaged that four years would pass before the streets around the centre of the town in Western France would, once again, echo to the low rumble of prewar motorcycle engines. But then, in June 2019 no one could have envisaged for just how long the dark cloud of Covid would linger over events such as this. In 2020 and 2021, due to the regulations then in place, the staging of the event was not possible. Come 2022, the organisers made the early and brave decision to cancel…

Rebuild | Triumph unit twin Classic life Part of the attraction, for me at least, when restoring and working on motorcycles, is the acquisition of new skills – or perhaps the attempted acquisition should be a better description. There are the obvious skills which come with owning an old motorcycle and accepting the need to do at least some work to keep them working correctly. There’s no need to go much further than adjusting the drive chain(s) or adjusting the valve clearances if the motorcycle is a four-stroke but it is owner-nature to maybe want to do more if only for the self-satisfaction of doing it. Naturally, a novice owner doesn’t or shouldn’t jump straight in and pull engines and gearboxes apart, but if you work carefully and follow the…

The Cheffins Vintage Sale on July 22 saw an eclectic range of motorcycles under the hammer. An appealing unrestored 1937 350cc Velocette KTS project sold for £4800, a glistening 1936 350cc International Norton was £15,000, a 1978 Moto Guzzi Le Mans Mk.1 sold for £8000 and a 1923 989cc BSA model F V-twin made £10,800, among others. The sale took place at the Cheffins saleground at Sutton, near Ely. Jeremy Curzon, consultant at Cheffins commented: “The auction saw a 70% sale rate, with the market very much focussed on project machines, Japanese two-strokes and flat tankers. All of these saw strong competition and healthy interest, with buyers joining the sale from throughout the UK and a handful from overseas. “The 1950s and 60s big capacity kick-start bikes however, were less…

Classic archive This image comes from the 30th Land’s End Trial, held in 1950 over the Easter weekend, as seems to be the norm, which was in April that year. The picture, and report, appeared in The Motor Cycle, April 13, 1950, the photograph was captioned: “Skidding wildly H R Jones’ 497cc Ariel sidecar outfit charges the first bend in Doverhay. Very few seconds later it capsized.” Starting in 1908, the Land’s End Trial was initially of 600 miles – from London, to Land’s End and then back to London. But as The Motor Cycle explained: “The postwar editions of this classic trial have of necessity been stamped with the hallmark if petrol shortage.” There the report went on: “Yet somehow, much of the traditional atmosphere remains, more than enough…

Triumph | Thunderbird It’s been said repeatedly that ‘it’s a small world’, and the sphere of motorcycling is, I would argue, even smaller. Why, you might ask? Well, sitting in the very pleasant Buckinghamshire rural retreat of Dave Weeden and asking about his motorcycling history while photographer Terry Joslin tried to capture just how special and sparkling Dave’s 1956 Triumph Thunderbird looked, it seemed we had possibly met at some stage in the past. An avid trials rider in his youth, Dave was a member of two of the trials clubs that I was, and rode regularly at the same events, albeit he is a few years younger than me. “I was not that good, but I just enjoyed it before I got my first road bike, a Kawasaki KH250…

German émigré Henry Miller, a tin-plate worker, founded H Miller & Co in 1869 to make oil carriage lamps. Business expanded and as cycling began to grow, Miller added cycle oil lamps to the range. Factory premises were expanded over the decades and Miller moved into cycle electrical lamps/dynamos. After the First World War, Miller began making automotive and commercial vehicle electrical equipment and, later, likewise for motorcycles. Such was its importance, the Miller works was taken over by the Government during both world wars and Miller developed its first flywheel magneto, in 1942, for the military Royal Enfield Flying Flea. A range of flywheel magnetos followed for lightweight motorcycles, cyclemotors and the LE Velocette. Common models from the Miller range: FL18, FL27 Developed for the Second World War, Royal…