Innehållsförteckning för December 2022 från Classic Bike Guide

Welcome AS WE SQUELCH OUR WAY THROUGH the fallen apples, may this mild autumn be to your favour, your shelves be filled with 40w oil, and woollen socks adorning your undies drawer. As many of you have experienced, a restoration/rebuild/major work never has a ‘finish date’. In my slapdash experience, it merely gets to a state where you can use it, and with time, use it for longer, more confidently that all is well and parts are tightened. However, my timing is impeccably poor. The BMW project’s ‘finish date’ has coincided with summer’s ‘finish date’, meaning all that work is getting filthy, being pressure-washed by lorries and the once boasted ‘Halogen headlight first’ merely a glimmer in the laser-equipped modern car lights. ‘Burn out mine eyes you fiend – do…

LAVERDA 750SF In my opinion, the closest match to the riding feel of a Ducati 860GTS – albeit with a slight ‘parts bin’ look and a more vibey engine. Still a lovely ride’ though, plus less rare and much cheaper to buy! BMW R90S If it’s a long-distance mile muncher you’re after, then look no further. Build quality and reliability were market-leading for its time and many are still used regularly. The trade-off is a more ‘functional’ character and unusual handling traits that take time to get on with... and some never do. MOTO GUZZI 850 T3 Mixes raw Italian character with (slightly) better reliability and ease of maintenance. The Tonti frame is renowned for excellent handling. Not as beautiful or as refined as the 860GTS, they don’t call Guzzis…

DAVE FANCIED OWNING A B31 because his father had one that never ‘missed a beat’. He was very keen to find a reliable British single on which he could enjoy attending classic events and indulge in the occasional Highland tour: “I wanted a classic that was mechanically simple, had a bulletproof engine, good handling, and decent brakes. The B31 was an easy choice.” “In about the spring of 2016,” he continued, “I began searching the internet for a half decent example when I came across an original B31 on eBay listed at £1500. But it needed everything done – and I do mean everything! When bids began to climb beyond £3000, I decided it was not for me. Several months later I came across a standard B33 listed on a…

NOVEMBER 1971 SAW BOTH THE BIKE PRESS and the bike-buying public raised to fever pitch by the unveiling of a new superbike. Allegedly more potent than Honda’s CB750 of 1969, it had the potential to eclipse the world’s first, series produced, across the frame four. With liquid cooling and four cylinders, Yamaha’s GL750 also outclassed Suzuki’s recently launched GT750 triple. And, as if that wasn’t enough, the all-new bike from those upstarts at Iwata even had fuel injection. And a white seat. Coming from a firm that was a scant 15 years old, the GL was an amazing achievement and further underlined the fact Yamaha wasn’t prepared to play second fiddle to any of its arrivals irrespective of who they were. The late 1960s had seen Yamaha striving to progress…

I WAS WONDERING; DON’T WE ALL HAVE A little streak of hooliganery lurking within us? A little demon tweaking us into a minor dose of irresponsibility from time to time? Being sensible is obviously perfectly sensible, but how many of us need to be sensible all the time? Don’t know about you, but one reason I ride bikes as often and as far as possible is because it always adds some excitement in an increasingly regulated world. Note that I did not suggest it was a sensible world… Back in 1971, a 650 BSA was a perfectly sensible buy – let’s move rapidly past the not-very-sensible riding fast motorcycles thing, can we? The most sensible was, of course, the Thunderbolt, a single-carb twin, while Brits feeling a little more adventurous…

With almost mythical rhetoric, Velocette bikes are seen as ‘that little bit special’. What is it that the manufacturer from Hall Green, Birmingham, does or gives differently to BSA, Triumph, or Norton? To find out, have a read of this test report from Motor Cycling in 1954 regarding the latest MAC model, the overhead valve 349cc. I had to smile at the test rider’s first point regarding the new seat, going from saddle and single rear seat to bench, giving “a rider of average stature – the tester tops 5ft 8in” flat feet on the ground. When did any modern manufacturer care about anyone below 5ft 10in? Take note, bike designers. The knowledge of what is beneath you as a rider is important mainly because as you are starting the…

How one Suzuki Katana raised over £11,000 for the MS Society UK When Florence Martin was diagnosed with Multiple sclerosis (MS), her husband John decided to raise cash for the MS Society UK. And, as the founder of the Air-Cooled Suzuki (ACS) group, he decided to ask his fellow Suzuki fans to chip in, too. With their help, he would build an immaculate Katana four from scratch and planned to auction it to raise funds for the charity. Support for the build came from Suzuki fans around the world and included the involvement of several Katana specialists. The plan came together during the Covid-19 lockdowns and the completed Katana was ridden on ITV4’s The Motorbike Show with Henry Cole and Allen Millyard. John saw the build of the stunning Katana…

CBG Workshop IT’S ALL A BIT OF A MESS, REALLY. MARIA and Butch stripped the early 6T Thunderbird engine of its head and barrels, finding valve guides that had seized onto the valve stems making them loose in the head, and partial the pistons and barrels. Good points were that the big and little ends felt nice and the oil drained showed no nasty metal shards in there. Triumph twins are arguably the most popular of British motors and so there’s no shortage of opinions when you have a problem – from experts or amateurs! In the end we decided to go with standard size (not oversize) valve guides, not cast iron ones like original, but of ‘Colsibro’, a copper/nickel/silicon alloy, from Norman Hyde. They are also longer to help…

CBG Workshop IF YOU TIGHTEN A BOLT TOO FAR OR TOO often, it will pull part of the thread out from what you are tightening it into. The thread comes out within the thread of the bolt, and you’re left with no way of tightening the bolt. A Helicoil insert is a way of replacing that thread – and it’s really quite easy. First, you need to identify the thread. Metric threads are measured by diameter of thread, i.e., M8, but there are some with fine and course thread pitch, for example M8 x 1.00, or M8 x 1.25. Get the right one by using a simple thread pitch guide. British bikes use any manner of imperial sizes, so use imperial guides to get the correct Helicoil, or you could,…

MY DAILY DOG WALKING ROUTE SKIMS RIGHT by Phillip Walker’s garage, but I had no idea that a biker, let alone an Italian motorcycle obsessed expert restorer had been busy inside. One day, while taking my dog on its usual route, my ears pricked up to the distant sound of a motorcycle being started, revved, and stopped again. It was a twin, but from that distance it could be any number of machines. It was only as I walked closer that I heard a sound which could only be attributed to something special coming alive. There’s a certain note to a 1970s Italian motorcycle that no modern motorcycle can replicate, and I couldn’t help but investigate further. Walking up a stranger’s driveway and sticking my head over the gateway unannounced…

THERE ARE MANY REASONS TO VISIT A BIG show like Stafford. You might be there to admire the work of some of the greatest restorers and special builders, to meet up with old friends and make new ones, or check out the many and varied owners’ clubs. You might be there to pick up spares and tools. At last month’s Stafford classic show, my own purchases included a set of picks and scrapers I could have bought for a fiver less at my local hardware store, and the wrong speedometer cable for a Kawasaki Z650 – who knew they had a different drive gearbox on the first models to all the other ones? For some, though, it’s a place to buy a bike. For the well-heeled, this means splashing out…

Aermacchi Aermacchi began life as an aircraft manufacturer at Varese in northern Italy before the start of the First World War and turned to motorcycle production after the Second World War, producing small capacity motorcycles for the Italian market. In 1960, Harley-Davidson bought half of Aermacchi’s motorcycle division as it searched for a source of small capacity bikes. Aermacchi remained largely independent until 1973, when H-D bought the rest of the company and produced a range of two-stroke singles. This was before selling out to Cagiva, which used the leftover H-D/ Aermacchi range to establish its foothold in the Italian market, with motorcycles continuing to be made at Varese. Chimera 172cc ohv single || 300lb || 60mph || 1956-1960 A delightful period piece, the Chimera saw Aermacchi adopt full enclosure…

CBG Workshop I AM REBUILDING THE ENGINE FROM MY 1947 Royal Enfield Model G. Despite running quite well and not giving away any hints that things could be amiss, a small issue led to having a closer look, and on inspection it was very worn. I’m thankful I pulled it apart when I did, before it suffered some catastrophic failure. They obviously built them well. But the rebuild is a slow and painful (for painful, expensive) process, and I have now got to the point where I want to fit the main bearing outer races in the crankcase halves. On this engine the crank drive shafts act as the inner race of the main bearings, with caged rollers sitting between the two races. Reading the workshop manual online on the…

Who do they think they are? Frank Westworth is the editor of RealClassic magazine, the latest in a long series of publications that began in 1982 when he was bullied into producing The Jampot, the previously excellent magazine of the AJS & Matchless OC. He was also founding editor of Classic Bike Guide and has returned as a columnist as a penance. Or something. He has a mysterious obsession with riding obscure and elderly motorcycles, which he does very slowly… HARD TO BELIEVE, BUT I APPEAR TO have successfully acquired a dent. This is no ordinary dent: this is a dent in a Norton fuel tank. And no ordinary Norton tank: it is connected to the motorcycle that we may call ‘An Insane Adventure’. Even the most sensible of souls…