Innehållsförteckning för September 2017 från Classic Bike Guide

THIS GLASS PLATE image really takes you back to the golden era of British motorcycling. The marques are varied, the stands stylish and the photograph shows how bikes gelled with bicycles, more than cars, as our world does today. The image concentrates on Triumph, which had a separate stand for the Tigress scooter in the foreground and was possibly taken on the press day, due to the quiet crowds. In other images the show is absolutely packed, with Motorcycling Weekly publishing a ‘guide to survive the Earls Court show’ in its preview. In the year that both John Surtees and Geoff Duke announced their retirements from motorcycle racing, Ariel released the Leader range, complete with cut-out model on the stand and BSA showed the new B40 350 Star. “Brisk, handy…

THE ANNUAL GOODWOOD Festival of Speed is simply motorsport nirvana. Now in its 24th year, it just gets bigger and better. It’s so big that the car industry now has the festival instead of a national motor show as it’s annual show-off. Predominantly a car event based loosely around a hillclimb – itself the main drive to Goodwood house for the majority of the year – it may not be ultra-competitive competition, but being able to see cars and bikes in action heading to the top of the 1.06-mile-long course brings so much more spectacle to the many exotic machines that are normally buried in static collections. The festival celebrates all things motorsport, with four, three and two wheels participating. The weight of an invite from Goodwood owner, petrolhead Lord…

HISTORY LESSON – THE DIFFICULT SECOND ALBUM Strangely, when John Bloor breathed life back into the Triumph brand in 1990, the infamous Bonneville was not in the line-up. Bloor wanted to distinguish the new Hinckley-based company, with its state of the art factory away from the old Meriden-based reputation. Most people still remembered the troubled times of the Seventies and Eighties and he felt it right to shy away from anything that reminded people of the ‘bad old days’. But with a modular range of large capacity bikes selling well, proving to be a realistic alternative to the Japanese and European makes and with any questions of reliability and union troubles firmly quashed, in 1995 the 900cc triple found its way into the Thunderbird Sport. Like the rest of the…

Tucked away just south of the Suffolk/Norfolk border, is a collection of anonymous farm buildings. These are surrounded by rolling wheat fields, currently being harvested and baled, thanks to the spate of hot weather we’re enjoying. With single-track lanes meandering through the landscape, it’s the sort of image you have when you’re envisaging a perfect Sunday bimble on your bike. It’s in this rural idyll we find Old Empire Motorcycles, a small, but growing company, creating unique bikebuilds for customers. It’s the sort of workshop you would perceive under an East London railway arch, not this countryside mirage, hidden even from my sat nav. “I blame Easy Rider,” smiles Alec Sharp, who started OEM in 2011. “I was discouraged to ride bikes until I was 18, though growing up here…

BULLIT IS A Chinese-built bike brand that has introduced three retro 125 models and one 250 bike into Europe. Based on a copy of old Suzuki engines (the GN), they lend themselves extremely well to the classic look. Here we have a look at the two most popular bikes, the scrambler-styled Hero and the café racer-styled Spirit. Having a choice of both café racer and scrambler versions of the Bullit 125, Paul rode the taller, off-road style Hero first: It was a wet summer’s day, not the best way to start our courtship, but despite the damp surroundings, it certainly put a smile on my face. I’m a big fan of the scrambler style – at over six-foot and larger than average human being, this 125cc with 11.5bhp didn’t make…

AS YOU MAY have read last month, Frank Westworth has now stepped away from creating Classic Bike Guide. Rumours that decades of perfecting the skill of kicking over his trusty steeds taking its toll, are greatly exaggerated. But fear not, our Frank will still be contributing to CBG every month with his always entertaining column, so we can all keep tabs on what he’s up to out there. And together with his better half, Rowena, Frank will still be editing Real Classic magazine. This month in CBG there’s a great mix of machines. I enjoyed reading the fascinating story behind Vincent’s Grey Flash racer, the bike that would inevitably be the swansong of the esteemed manufacturer. Up against some fearsome opposition from the likes of Norton and always under the…

EVENT SHOW REPORT AFTER THE EXCITEMENT of summer is done and dusted, there are still several excellent events to add to your calendar. One is the Copdock Motorcycle Show, now resident at Ipswich’s Trinity Park which this year is on Sunday, October 1. The first Copdock show was held over 25 years ago when a group of friends decided to exhibit their bikes at Copdock village hall. This group became the Copdock Classic Motorcycle Club, an organisation of just 16 committee members whose sole purpose is to organise the annual show and various fun runs. Over more than quarter of a century the show has grown like Topsy, outgrowing the village hall which couldn’t quite accommodate the more than 10,000 visitors who now attend. The club is a totally nonprofit-…

DAYTONA LADY STAR BOOTS HOW MUCH? For a pair of boots? Daytona boots are expensive, there’s no denying, but these Lady Star GTX could actually end up saving you money. Handmade from oiled leather and with a genuine Gore-Tex waterproof and breathable lining backing up the water-resistant properties of the leather, they can be worn all year round. They obviously come in female-friendly sizes, but they hide a great secret that could be invaluable – inside the soles are built up by 8mm at the toes and 25mm more sure-foot still looking like of getting your and having mo around cannot p y m at the heel, giving shorter ladies a ted feel when handling a bike, while e normal bike boots. The confidence feet firmly on the floor when…

JOHN SURTEES STARTED his bike racing career as his father’s passenger in a Vincent sidecar. He was so young in his first race that the pair were disqualified. In 1950, Jack Surtees saw an exdevelopment Grey Flash languishing in the factory and as John was to start as an apprentice at Vincent HRD and bought the 16-year-old the 500cc single to start racing. His best outing on the Vincent was in 1951 at a sodden Thruxton, where he showed vicious determination to keep with eventual winner, Geoff Duke on his Norton. Duke won, but Surtees had shone through the spray. He went on to be world champion four times on a bike and, uniquely, Formula One world champion – a feat never yet seen again. The photograph shows John on…

IN 2016, PAUL Benton threwme the opportunity to work along with him in restoring a 1975 Kawasaki Z1B to concours condition. Essentially it was a scruffy, but decent enough bike. However, to take it to concours condition would require pretty much everything except the frame, handlebars and engine going in the bin. So this project was to be a full nut and bolt build, with a sale at the end of it to make a reasonable profit. Paul already had several enquiries and interest in the finished product, but ultimately it would end up on eBay for the best price. So at that stage he wasn’t even sure that it would have petrol in it – that would depend on whether the purchaser wished to take the bike on the…

NEWS || EVENTS || LETTERS A BRAND-NEW FLAT TANK? ITALIAN BIKE FIRM, The Black Douglas Motorcycle Company, has released details of a remarkable new bike range, the Sterling. Made in both 125cc and 250cc variants, the Sterling is hand made, with a rigid steel cradle frame, two gallon (nine litre) aluminium flat tank and girder forks. This curiosity has details everywhere, from carefully routed electrics through the handlebars, to the use of Ergal alloy in the front suspension. Remarkably it’s Euro 4 compliant, with ABS on the 250cc version and combined braking on the 125cc. It can carry a pillion and weight is claimed at “just under 100kg”, so although lacking in horsepower, the lack of weight gives it a decent pace, especially compared to the prewar bikes it imitates.…

GET IN TOUCH We love to see what you’re riding, how you’re fixing or improving it and where you’ve been. We also like hearing what you do and don’t like in CBG. Send us an email, write us a letter or release a pigeon to – editor@classicbikeguide.com, or use the postal address on page 006. For pigeons, look for Lincoln cathedral and head for the sea. CAUTION WHEN MEETING HEROES THERE WAS MUCH of interest in August’s issue of the 'GUIDE'. I was particularly interested in Paul Miles’ encounter with that well known prewar V-Twin. I too was lucky (unlucky?) to sample the delights of one of these machines. Let’s call it a Brough Superior (sic). Barely a couple of minutes into the ride and I needed to go round…

VELOCETTE 500CC SINGLES are the epitome of the classic British single. They blend just the right ingredients of performance, traditional looks and generally fine engineering to suit most palettes. Top of the tree, the high-performance Thruxton model, is currently riding the must-have collector wave with prices not quite stratospheric, but getting a little silly. Next rung down, the 500 Venom and Venom Clubman are probably the better everyday bikes, a good combination of period ride and sporty hooligan, a little like Raffles, the Gentleman Thief. The Venom’s older sister, the 499cc MSS, provides a different experience. Just as classically good looking, but with a smaller carburettor, smaller valves and lower compression than the Venom, the MSS is softer, easier and for some, more satisfying to ride. The later versions of…

THERE IS A SAYING among Vincent aficionados: “They only made 31 Grey Flashes. And just over 50 of them survive.” It’s pretty unlikely, nonetheless, that you’ll ever manage to ride off on a Grey Flash of your own, even a fake one made out of a Comet, but a Vincent single is certainly a more affordable target than one of the revered twins. You might think, looking at a postwar Meteor or Comet, that the bike is a Rapide or Shadow V-twin with the rear cylinder lopped off, but the origins of the engine are in fact the complete opposite. Vincent HRD designed their first single cylinder engine in 1934, after a disastrous TT. The JAP engine they had been using proved so hopelessly unreliable, that designer Phil Irving had…

BACK IN JULY we tried the conventional SWM Gran Turismo, the naked roadster of the new range based around the 445cc engine and this month we try the trailstyle 440 Silver Vase. SWM was founded in Italy building off-roaders and currently has a substantial range of trials bikes, enduro mounts, other competition spec off-road bikes and adventure steeds to whet the appetite of those who like their fun dirty. They are adept at producing blindingly good mud and gravel munchers. However, the SWM Silver Vase isn’t one of them. That’s not to say it’s a bad motorcycle, but it’s by no means an offroad competition bike. It’s more akin to the US-marketed Honda CL twins range of the Seventies, sold as lifestyle bikes rather than serious off-roaders. They, like the…