Innehållsförteckning för December 2024 från Classic Bike Guide

Welcome GREETINGS, ALL. MAY YOUR PROJECTS be plentiful and your circuits be clean and free to illuminate them bulbs. And so it came to pass that the air would be cold and the nights they would draw in just after lunchtime pudding. But no one said we can’t ride! With a nod towards preservation rather than tradition or fashion, modern bike jackets and trousers and multiple thin layers keep out any chill, so we can experience a dry autumn or winter’s day and all they offer. Still beautiful, yet different views appear through newly stripped trees, and though the fallen leaves may bring slippery carpets hiding all manner of dodginess, they also bring colours only known to those who venture out at this time. Or you could take the car……

New RETRO THIS IS OUR REVIEW OF THE NEW Royal Enfield Classic 650. It’s a great bike, but they let us have a go for the day around the North Pennines – which, to me, was a revelation. If you can find some time, get yourself on your bike and head to the North Pennines. It’s a largely forgotten part of our country, hidden in plain sight between the picturesque Lake District on the west and the industrial east around Newcastle upon Tyne. Above is the wonder of Scotland, while below there’s the all-too-familiar roads around the Yorkshire Dales. But that unknown middle offers unspoiled roads of all different types, little traffic, and jaw-dropping sights, big enough to feel removed from everyday life, without ever feeling lost. The Pennines has…

FROM THE 1950S UNTIL WELL INTO THE following decade, Japanese roadster motorcycles looked like British motorcycles, or more commonly, German motorcycles. The most common design look was to use a curvy petrol tank with knee pads and chrome panels screwed onto it or, for a sportier model, a boxy tank also with chrome panels. Instruments went into a headlight nacelle and there were large mudguards. A lot of bikes looked like Horex, NSU or BMW models. Then, from 1968, styles changed. The chrome panels were dropped, the rubber kneepads had their last days, and tanks became sleeker, covered with multicoloured paint jobs. Instruments were now two individual units, usually in black or chrome cups. Ignition keys were moved from the frame below the steering head to between the clocks. Headlights…

IN 1981, WHEN OUR POLITICAL MASTERS DECIDED that 100mph 250s with L-plates on were a bad idea and condemned learners to 12hp 125s, the big four Japanese manufacturers were caught a little on the hop. There were a few older 125s with a little poke that you could still ride – the 16bhp CB125T from Honda or Yamahas RD125 twin, but if you bought new, your options were a bit grey porridge – Honda 125 singles, the new GS125 Suzuki, and Yamaha’s SR125. Learner riders leaned towards trail bikes, where top speed wasn’t quite as important. However, the idea of the performance 125, something considered risible in the UK until the law changed, was a firm part of the Japanese manufacturer’s international market. All they had to do was restrict…

From our archive Donington Park is a survivor. The hall itself was built in about 1790 and has gone through a succession of owners, some who have squandered their fortunes on gambling, died early, or ‘been addicted to fox hunting.’ Come the ‘first worldwide disagreement,’ the hall was turned into a prisoner of war camp, which lost the only German to escape out of Britain. By now owned by a different family, the Gillies Shields, in 1931 Fred Craner was given permission to start racing in the park. This was through woods and around the park roads, including shutting the gates (hence Redgate corner?). Our photograph stems from 1933 and the Easter meeting. It shows the infamous Starkeys bridge, which was never actually a bridge, but a folly. It still…

THE MRC IS A CLUB FOR RIDERS. What your Morini looks like isn’t important; there are no rivet counters or marque experts ready to critique your machine for having the wrong headlamp brackets or pinstripes a few millimetres too wide. You don’t even need to have a Morini. Club chairman Tom Farrow said: “Morini people enjoy their ride for what it is, rather than just restoring and showing their bikes. You’ll never hear a critical word about your Morini. “Morini ownership is about going for a ‘blat’ and getting home with a big grin on your face.” With 550 members, the club roll is at an all-time high and has experienced year-on-year growth. “It’s just a nice club to be in,” Tom continued. “Morinis attract a wider demographic. The bikes…

I BLAME RICHARD NEGUS, ONE-TIME SERIOUSLY HEAD honcho at Norton Motorcycles and vast expert on its rotaries, who wondered why I didn’t build myself my Ideal (rotary) motorcycle. In fact, he could build my dream Norton rotary for me. And that is the story you’re about to read. Blame? Yes, I need to blame someone for my self-indulgence in telling you all about my own bike. I write about other folks’ bikes all the time, of course, and I write about the horrors in The Shed, but I rarely write a full feature about my own bikes. Rotaries were – and indeed still are – an acquired taste. This is just as well, because if everyone wanted one they would cost a fortune. Triumph X-75 Hurricanes are also an acquired…

REQUIRING NO INTRODUCTION TO classic enthusiasts, this AJS single is a great-looking motorcycle – one of the best and deserving of ‘a class of its own,’ some might say, especially if you were me. Sadly, I’ve owned three on separate occasions down the years. I say sadly because, from Rigid to Jampot, I fell headlong for every model, and yet I sold each one on. Predictably, I was seduced on each occasion by another must-have classic. What follows is a love story with a happy ending (aren’t they all?) because as luck would have it, I was afforded the opportunity of winning back my dearly-departed old flame. Apologies should this story sound more like a Mills & Boon romance than a CBG feature, but as I’ve openly confessed, I’m hopelessly…

THE DAY WAS SUNNY, AND THOUGH we have five Hondas, I took a BMW. Fireblade-riding Maria enjoyed mocking that, but it’s a long way on an MSX125 (Grom), the CL350 was new to us and unproven, while both CBRs are in bits. I’m sticking with that excuse… Between ours and Leiston in Suffolk are some great roads and various routes. The sun was high and warm, so what’s not to like? And Maria was getting used to her 1997 Fireblade, so I had to keep up! As we rolled into the industrial estate (next to the Leiston restored railway which used to transport Garrett traction engines, also made in Leiston – useless fact – Matt), bikes were everywhere, and music made it feel good even before we’d got off – a…

HE WAS THE PERSON WHO, IN creating iconic products like the Bimota SB2, Ducati 916 and MV Agusta F4, established the benchmarks by which the later designs of others were to be measured. He created models, the performance of which fully lived up to the expectations aroused by their looks. Massimo Tamburini was, literally, an absolute genius, and I’m proud to say he was also my friend. I first met Massimo in June 1981 during my debut visit to the Bimota factory in Rimini as part of a tour of a dozen Italian factories and race teams, my first gig as a freelance journalist. He was born 50km inland from the Adriatic coast resort in November 1943 and was passionate about motorcycles from an early age – the need for…

FOLLOWING SHAUN’S THOUGHTS IN THE JULY 2024 CBG letters page, I bought my 650 BSA Lightning at the start of the long, hot summer of 1976, eight years and 30,000 miles from the production line in totally original trim and with an un-rebuilt engine. Just as it left the factory. I blew a piston to bits at the end of that long, hot summer drag racing a 750 Suzuki from the lights in Wandsworth High Street on a cold engine, and so began my involvement with the nuts and bolts side of British motorcycles. Forty-eight years of continuous ownership later, the bike is still in fairly regular use, although as it’s been through several speedos over the years and I have no idea of the true mileage, but it’s just…

CBG Workshop BSA AND TRIUMPH BOTH USED THE now infamous ‘Comical’ twin-leading shoe hub. The nickname came from the stopping performance easily becoming nominal and getting its riders into trouble. There is much advice on how to better them, mostly rubbish from keyboard warriors. You can’t make an old drum brake as well as modern brakes. Making sure all is in good working order and adjusted correctly is the best you can do and should have you braking a lot better. HOW DOES IT WORK? The conical shape has little to do with performance, and more with the shape saved weight. Both wheel bearings are held by the alloy conical hub, and the cast-iron liner is fitted in too, while the brake plate just deals with the brake shoes, adjusters…

ACCIDENTALLY ENDING UP WITH TWO machines which are nearly the same – and which were (and indeed still are) criticised by some for being too similar for the tastes of marque enthusiasts – is proving to be something of an eye-opener. It began like this… Back in January I bought a Triumph Bonneville, a 1972 model T120V, as a project. I’ve never been a great fan of oily-framed Triumphs, to be grumpily honest, but it looked like a decent machine and the price was right and its owner assured me that it ‘should’ run, so the deal was done. The owner was completely correct, it ran fine. And still does. Not much of a project, then, and it was actually a project I wanted – a toy, if you like…