Innehållsförteckning för December 2018 från Classic Bike Guide

KAWASAKI HAS RELAUNCHED the W800 parallel twin with two new models, the W800 Street and W800 CAFE. The new Euro4 compliant twins are ‘90 per cent’ new with a whole host of styling, technical and practical changes, many of which are, at first, hard to detect. Sharing a new chassis, each machine has powerful new ABS brakes, including a rear disc for the first time. Lighting is taken care of with LED bulbs. The W800 Street is a wide-barred naked roadster, while the W800 CAFE has a cockpit fairing, cafe racer seat and other cafe racer heritage fittings. Extras include factory carriers and crash bars. Both the stripped-for-action 773cc bevel driven camshaft W800 Street and the W800 CAFE can trace their roots back over half a century to the original…

THE IMPORTER OF Mash and SWM motorcycles, HQB, has announced that they have ceased trading. In a strongly worded Facebook post, bosses at the Hampshire company put the blame for their closure largely on the impact that delays in the Brexit negotiations were having on the business, saying a reduction in the buying power of the pound for their Italian and French brands had reduced profit margins significantly, while, at the same time, fewer people were making purchases of new motorcycles owing to financial uncertainty brought on by the long-running negotiations. The death of one of the company’s co-directors and shareholders earlier this year and bad debts in excess of £50k have also been a factor. HQB have been working with both manufacturers to find alternative importers for the UK.…

MANUFACTURED: 1937-1955 ENGINE: Air-cooled sv single BORE / STROKE: 82 x 94mm CAPACITY: 496cc COMPRESSION: 5:1 POWER: 13bhp @ 4200rpm LUBRICATION: Dry sump IGNITION: Magneto/Dynamo CARBURETTOR: Single Amal TRANSMISSION: Chain GEARBOX: Four-speed right foot change FRAME: single downtube cradle FRONT SUSPENSION: Girder/ Telescopic forks REAR SUSPENSION: rigid FRONT BRAKE: 8in drum REAR BRAKE: 7in drum TYRES: 3.25 x 18 front 3.50 x 18 rear DRY WEIGHT: 369lbs LENGTH: 85ins GROUND CLEARANCE: 5.75ins SADDLE HEIGHT: 29ins TOP SPEED: 64mph…

One issue an XS500 owner today would face, is getting hold of parts. With a relatively short production run, supplies of new old stock bits are thin on the ground. You cannot, for example, get hold of oil filters. Yamaha dropped them from their product line years ago and replaced them with a modified fitting kit to allow the use of a filter from an FZ600. Good luck finding one of those kits today. Fortunately, Yambits can supply a lot of the service parts that are needed for day-to-day usage. Karl Bramley from Yambits said: “We keep quite a range of XS500 parts. XS500s suffer from having a lot of parts discontinued by Yamaha so we’ve had a lot of items remanufactured in the UK, using OE samples as a…

I IGNORED THE skittering plastic cup I’d kicked sideways, and mounted the arty oaken crate to be seen above the throng. From that vantage, the joint swarmed with builders, fans, media, and manufacturers of electric motorcycles, who’d made a Tuesday night buzz on Melrose. The first book about e-bikes was out (‘The Current’, Gestalten), it was mine, it was pretty, and five manufacturers brought bikes to the party: Cake, Energica, Ubco, Vintage Electric. Smartest was tiny startup Zooz, party crashers ruling the sidewalk with a nickel-plated e-BMX bike, giving rides to high-heeled ladies and gents lofting the wheel, even accidentally. The bikes inside were high-design harbingers of things to come, while the bike outside pointed the mighty finger of God toward the future of fun, and here’s a hint: batteries…

Goose on the loose THIS GOOSE TENT, by Wingman of The Road, caught my eye at the recent Trip Out festival. It’s a heavily-made single person tent that comes with its own mattress and sleeping bag. Being a tunnel-design, it has a fly screen on all four sides and a sturdy 420 gram ripstop canvas outer, with a flap that you can pull down, or use as a shelter when tied to your bike. It also has the benefit of keeping your seat dry when you do this. The Goose comes with a cover that can double up as a groundsheet and then wraps up the tent in one piece. It’s all extremely well made in thick, waterproof canvas and the designers are bikers, so know what works and what…

Sourcing used parts comes with a certain level of responsibility; it’s your job and no one else’s to ascertain and ensure they are fit for purpose. What’s more there are specific areas where only a fool would reuse second-hand parts. Top of the list is anything to do with brakes; never trust a used master cylinder or caliper unless you’ve had it apart. Drum brakes are even more of a concern as the adhesive used to fix the lining to the shoe can degrade over time unseen. The first you’ll know of it is when the lining delaminates and locks the brakes on. Hubs need to be checked to ensure corrosion hasn’t distorted the iron brake band surface and wheels should be carefully examined for run-out, distortion, damage, ovality etc.…

Despite being more complex than the far more conventional horizontally split stroker twins the CS3C motor has gone together well. Without question they are more challenging to build – in essence you can’t dip in and out of building one of these motors, it’s an all or nothing kind of job. By contrast with a horizontally split motor you can meander along fitting the crank one day and then sort out the transmission the next, tinker about and then add the other half of the crankcase almost at will. So, if vertically split twins are such a royal pain, then why did Yamaha persevere with them for so long? Yamaha based their first twin on the German Adler MB250, which ran a vertically split crankcase and the logic for the…

THE VINTAGE MOTOR Cycle Club has formed a Regulatory Advisory Group, which will work with and through other organisations to tackle regulatory threats to vintage and classic motorcycling. The group will report directly to the club’s directors. At present, it has four members: Roger Bibbings, David Giles, Dennis Beale and Bernard Kuropka, with VMCC Journal editor Peter Henshaw acting as the information provider and keeper of key documents. As work progresses, more volunteers with appropriate knowledge, skills and experience will be drawn in. Actions so far have included: a VMCC submission to the Department for Transport on ethanol in fuel; assessing how VMCC members might be affected by Transport for London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone; actively engaging with the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC); and informal dialogue started…

Speak to those in the know – clubs, owners, specialists. Is this the bike for you? Get some quotes – how much are parts? How easy are they to work on? How much will it cost to insure? If you can’t do all the jobs yourself, will your local dealer be prepared to work on it? Should you be tempted, here are a few tips to stop you getting carried away… See if you can have a go on one. This may be tricky, but if you have the correct insurance a kind owner or dealer may let you try one out. If you’re unsure of any of the above, email us at editor@classicbikeguide.com and if we can’t help you, we’ll try to find someone who can. THIS MONTH: BSA…

THERE’S A GREAT line from a Rolling Stones song that runs – “but he can’t be a man cos he doesn’t smoke the same cigarettes as me!” It’s said to be Mick and Keith railing against American advertising and the cult of machismo. Since those heady days of the 1960s, marketing and PR outfits have variously set out to shape our mindsets and psyche. Be it beverages, perfume/ aftershave, vehicles or health foods, we’re supposed to aspire to a certain image, lifestyle and regime. And, if you believe the spin spouted by some, the same also applies to the world of classic motorcycling. Examples include: If you weren’t at the Paul Ricard circuit back in the day you’ve somehow missed out on a life affirming event; or, anyone who hasn’t…

Knowing what you want is key to finding it; sounds obvious but it’s oh so easy to come home from a jumble with that wheel hub you badly needed, only to find it’s no damn good! Parts books are invaluable when it comes to looking for stuff. Yamaha, kind folk that they are, even put a model code on some of their parts, so if you were after an AS3 front hub your parts book would have confirmed it’d carry a 307 model ID cast into it. Unfortunately not all manufacturers are as helpful, but basic commonsense allied to a parts book will sort out the wheat from the chaff. Don’t rely on memory alone; does that hub run five or six ridges? A parts diagram will confirm this. One…

When Ivan Wicksteed and Marius Winslow were packed off to Bedales, a private boarding school near Petersfield, their parents had no idea that they would become great friends and go on to build the supercharged Triumph that would break the Brooklands 500cc lap record. But this was a school that nurtured individuality and initiative, and as far as these boys were concerned, that meant riding and tuning motorcycles. Back in 1932 Ivan borrowed a 250cc BSA and won a bronze medal in the Schoolboys’ Trial. A year later he was riding a 500 Norton, which propelled him to a silver medal, and then in 1934 the friends bought a 350cc Cotton-Blackburne. Marius wielded the spanners and the bike was prepared for their first race at Brooklands on July 28. With…

2019’S CLASSIC DIRT Bike Show will celebrate the off-road machines of 50 years ago and so the organisers are on the hunt for classic trials, scramblers and other off-roaders from 1969. Sponsored by Hagon Shocks, the event will be held on February 16/17, 2019, with the clock being turned back to 1969. Show consultant Alan Wright can be contacted with offers of 1969 machinery on 01789 751422 – they do not need to be concours, just solid examples of that year’s offerings. Two iconic all-time off-road champs have been confirmed as guests of honour at the show, to be held at Telford International Centre. Multiple world, indoor and British trials champion Dougie Lampkin will be appearing on stage with commentator Jack Burnicle, who will probe into the highs and lows…

THE ROYAL ENFIELD 650 twins will arrive in UK dealerships in January for potential purchasers to inspect and order. Priced on the road at between £5,500 for the base level Interceptor INT 650 and £6,200 for the top of the range Continental GT 650, dealers are taking bookings and inquiries now. Europe is the first region where customers can place confirmed orders, to be followed by India. The twins will come with a three-year warranty and roadside assistance service. The most expensive Interceptor will be a chrome tanked offering at £5,990, while the basic GT café racer will cost £5700. Royal Enfield has also produced over 40 accessories that will have a two-year warranty. Siddhartha Lal, CEO of Royal Enfield said: “The Twin motorcycles are authentic in inspiration and modern…

A sporting four-stroke middleweight from the 1970s that can be used for commuting, touring and weekend blasts GOOD POINTS? Rapid and buzzy performance, predictable handling, good comfort and excellent ancillaries. It’s stylish too, avoiding the worst excesses of Seventies’ style WEAK SPOTS? Early models had a reputation for fragility in the engine department, though this was sorted out by the time UK market models appeared. Some parts will be impossible to find new, and hard to find second-hand.…

When considering the purchase of an S8, the usual checks you carry out apply, plus a few extras. As the S8 has a coil ignition and given the importance of the soundness of the charging circuit to keep the machine running, check the battery is charging. The easiest way to do this is to use a multimeter, put one probe on each terminal, set it to volts and check the voltage with the engine running. A 6v set up will produce more than 6v with a running engine, and this should increase if the engine is revved. To check the drive shaft, put the bike on a stand and rotate the wheel. Excessive play means an expensive repair or replacement job could be on the cards. Grab hold of the…

LAST MONTH I wrote about the issues facing new riders when attempting to pass their tests and mused over how much simpler life was back in the day. I took my test in 1975, a time when a ‘learner’ could ride a near-100mph 250cc bike and never actually need to pass the driving test at all if they didn’t want to. I knew several older riders still on ‘L’ plates after a decade or more of riding. But a full licence was essential for any teenager back then for two reasons. Firstly, it meant you could take your girlfriend – actual or theoretical – out on the pillion and secondly, you were then licensed to ride larger capacity bikes. In the Seventies this meant ANY bike – there were no…

Buying a box of used parts comes with the obvious proviso that some of what’s there won’t be of use to you and if you don’t know where a part comes from there will be someone else who will. Facebook has some remarkably knowledgeable pages running, supported by people who are only too keen to help. Post an image of that fork leg and you’ll get numerous responses – most of which will be helpful. Positively identify the parts you can and offer them up for sale online, via make-specific clubs or, if you’re part of the VJMC or VMCC, advertise them in their publications. That random chainguard that’s of no use on your Suzuki may get a Honda owner out of a deep, deep, hole. The omnipotent eBay can…

MALLORY PARK, TRANSATLANTIC Trophy races, sometime in the late 1970s: “What tyres are you using, Barry?” “Round and black. Not as good as Kenny’s.” Kenny’s voice then sang out over the PA system: “It’s good to be on Goodyear…” I’d been entirely unaware that Goodyear made bike tyres until that very point. A sheltered upbringing, plainly. And from this plainly memorable experience I learned… what? Nothing, apart from that thing about Goodyear and bike tyres, which is not entirely earth-shattering stuff. But all the way home – I was riding a 250 MZ, trying hard and failing dismally to keep up with my brother’s GS750 Suzuki – I wondered about tyres. One of many great things about riding an MZ is that there is plenty of time to think about…