Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2024 i The Classic MotorCycle

Those riding most of the motorcycles featured in the pages of this magazine inevitably defer to the age and rarity of the machine, and leave full-out performance to estimates or makers’ claims. So it is interesting to see venerable bikes being – in modern parlance – ‘given the berries’. Such an occasion was the ‘Flying Quarter’ at Manston Airport. As an airport, Manston closed a decade ago. Originally built as a wartime facility, it had one of the country’s longest runways. This was necessary for emergency use by aeronautical casualties returning over the nearby English Channel. While there have been projections for the site’s future, for the time being, much of the facility remains in usable condition. A local group negotiated permission to use the venue for a speed trial…

“First-hand impressions of a country which is seldom visited,” so read the subheading to the same title we’ve used for our piece. It’s hard to believe now, that in 1949, Spain was a mystical land that not many had ever been to – within a generation, not much more, it was the most favoured holiday location, particularly for British holidaymakers in search of sun, sand and s…, er, sangria. The accompanying picture was taken at Santander and accompanied by the caption, ‘A friendly policeman escorted us to the bank.’ The ‘friendly policeman’ being a passable Paul Newman lookalike, in fact. ‘Us,’ being writer V H Twyford, and his fellow traveller (pillion?) who is only identified as ‘Joe.’ Though the writing is Twyford’s, there is no actual mention as to which…

Well, Peter Hall has done it again. Regular readers may recall retired mechanic Peter’s painstakingly mechanically restored and beautifully finished takes on other BSAs, including his 1940 M20 (TCM, October 2020). But his preference runs to the 1971/72 range of Small Heath models, disastrous for the foundering company but charismatic with it. There was his excellent oil-in-frame B25T (TCM, April 2020) and most recently, his stunning 1971 A65L Lightning 650 (TCM, April 2023). Now he’s capped that with a 1971/72 A75R Rocket 3 Mk.II; it had been built in September 1971 so technically was a 1972 model year machine, though not with the 1972 finish, which had included a different shade of red, and reversion to a black frame. This bike had been reimported from the USA, the model’s main…

In the old days (pre-Covid) when I lived in Lincolnshire, the journey to Founders’ Day, at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire, was worth doing by motorcycle, as it was quite a nice ride, or could be. Often, there’d be a few others going too, thus making it a social event. Now, from where I’m based in Suffolk, it’s case of getting on the A14 and just staying on it, the whole way. It’s no fun at all on a motorbike. As ‘Founders’ is always on a Sunday – this time, July 21, 2024 – it means the roads are quiet too, so I don’t go by motorcycle anymore, which has various benefits, including I can easily bring home any of my purchases… There’s something enjoyable about the 6am get-up on a…

The Ariel Motor Company, Birmingham displayed its Minerva-engined Motor Bicycle at London’s National Cycle Show in November 1901. Ariel was one of the pioneer brand names in two-wheeled history, dating to 1847, and after other applications was duly adopted – and importantly trademarked – by Birmingham cycle makers Charles Henry and Louis Barrow in November 1893, to be carried by their new safety bicycle launched that same month at the National Cycle Show in London’s Crystal Palace. Their firm was soon acquired by the Dunlop Tyre company, whose pneumatic tyres were by then almost universally fitted to two-wheelers. Dunlop had a spinoff company named Cycle Components Ltd/CCL, which occupied a massive 10-acre site in Selly Oak, a southwest suburb of Birmingham, where a host of workshops produced every kind of…

Southport has been much in the UK news of late, owing to a terrible atrocity, claiming the lives of three young children and injuring many more. This is a much more positive focus on the North West coastal town, with the picture capturing a wonderful scene at the start of the speed trials in 1921. Published in The Motor Cycle, on May 26, 1921, the caption was headed ‘A lively scene on the sands’ and reads ‘Single and twin sidecars and a three-wheeler at the start of the unlimited passenger class. From left to right: H Reed (8hp Dot sidecar), D Barron (7-9hp Indian sidecar), H L Hughes (8hp Morgan) and A Cowley (3½hp Norton sidecar).’ The short report which accompanies it does hint at the frustrations of the reporter.…

In a feature titled ‘I join the police’, published on April 13, 1967, Motor Cycle’s Midlands editor Bob Currie reported on a new departure, the formation of a West Midlands Police Motorcycle Display Team. The West Midlands Constabulary had just been formed and the idea was to bring divisions together under the new umbrella, encouraging them to integrate, while also, as a new, big force, encouraging some good PR. Bob joined the team for a number of drills, as well as interviewing those who were part of the team, and speaking to senior officers encouraging it. The ‘top brass’ were keen, with West Midlands Chief Constable Norman Goodchild an ardent supporter, while Chief Superintendent Douglas Peterson, in charge of West Midlands mobiles, explained: “The principal aim of the display is…

The theme for this year’s Motorcycle Day, on July 7, was ‘Norton.’ A bigger canvas it is hard to imagine as the manufacturer is surely the most storied name in British road racing. The marque really cemented its place in history between the wars, parallel with much of Brooklands’ own heyday. The Isle of Man TT races provided many an annual frenzy of advertising, recording the successes of the Birmingham factory’s output and its star riders. This did much to form the Norton legend. Behind those successes was the continuous development carried out at Brooklands for much of the rest of the year. Initially the work was the responsibility of Dan O’Donovan. He was followed by Nigel Spring, both heading talented teams. The constant feed of information back to the…

If you were asked to name the machine most likely to ignite a passion for classic British motorcycles, you’d probably go with an iconic winner like the Manx Norton or Gold Star, or something rare and exotic like a Black Shadow or SS100. You probably wouldn’t put the Velocette LE at the top of the list, but it was the humble Noddy Bike that would spark Chris Sawyer’s continuing appetite for all things classic and British. It was in 1978 that Chris first found himself the owner of the LE you see here, though admittedly the coming together was more of necessity than a burning desire to own one, as Chris explained: “When I left college, I wanted a motorbike. I bought a Honda 50 off a guy on my…

Now, those of you who are regular readers will have grasped that I can basically resist nothing when it comes to motorcycles, always able to justify another purchase in an often elaborate manner. So when details of Bonhams’ first online-only auction were released, and it duly took place, I made a concerted effort to stay away. But for the latest one, which ran from June 14-24 2024, I wasn’t so ‘successful’ and was easily seduced by being able to bid for things I didn’t even know I wanted, while sat at my computer, working. What could possibly go wrong? My brother Simon is often my accomplice in such enterprises and we can normally convince the other that ‘it’s a good idea,’ basically a situation that’s gone on from our childhood…

Fabulous Merkel confirmed for Stafford This incredible time-warp 1913 Flying Merkel 996cc Twin Seventy-one 471 was acquired by Vic Norman in 1998 from Bud Ekins. Vic’s work routinely took him to California for the air show season, and his friend Alain De Cadenet and he would often ride over to Ekins’ place. A consummate off-road racer, bike restorer, motorcycle dealer, occasional stunt rider, and all-American hero, Bud was a close friend of actor Steve McQueen and performed the famous motorcycle jump in The Great Escape. In his autobiography, Norman Conquest, Vic recalls: “I fell in love with his (Ekins’) 1913 Flying Merkel, still in its 100-year-old original paint. It was only after my many visits over a three-year period, that he finally agreed to sell me the Merkel. Plus, I…

There are a few motorcycle makes which, to me, have always held a special interest – and the ‘Davies’ HRD is one of those. The scarcity of the actual machines and their success in such a short period – if ever a star shined bright and burned out fast, then this company was it – means that there’s something romantic about the company and its founder, star rider, director and the man who gave the concern his initials; Howard Raymond Davies, ‘HRD,’ born June 27, 1895. That so few HRD motorcycles were built and survivor numbers are minimal means the chance to ride one is few and far between. In fact, the opportunity to even see one is a fairly rare thing; I can remember most times I’ve spotted a…

Both when the original races were staged in the early 1950s and the commemorative event was inaugurated in 2006, the closed street circuit in central Bressuire, in Western France, played host only to four-wheeled machines. Then, in 2018, the organisers took the tentative step of including a plateau d’honneur for motorcycles and sidecar combinations. That year saw only 21 such machines participating, none of which came from outside France. But they proved so popular that, six years and four events later, motorcycles and sidecar combinations have become a Bressuire programme fixture – such that in 2024, this was the largest, by number, of all the Bressuire classes and amounted to nearly a third of total entrants. In addition to proving a hit with les motards français, Bressuire has become increasingly…

In an ideal world, a bike could be pulled apart and bits laid out while work went ahead, but few of us can realise this idyll, and work on motorcycles in my workshop has to dovetail in with other things. This means a bike has to be mobile as the hydraulic work bench is used for other projects and regular servicing. So far in July and August, it has supported not only Project Triumph but my lad’s Fantic trials bike, my own Can-Am enduro, a Yamaha IT465, which is an on-going project/money pit, and a lawnmower which picked up a stone during grass cutting. All of this means bikes go on and bikes come off this most useful of workshop accessories, so it’s best if said bikes are actually mobile.…