Innehållsförteckning för September - October 2020 från Classic Racer

//DATE: JULY 10, 1955 //LOCATION: MOUNT FUJI Yamaha engineers had just six weeks to get their new production machine – the YA-1 – ready for The Third Mount Fuji Ascent Race in 1955, and during their preparation the Yamaha Motor Company came into being on July 1, making 2020 their 65th anniversary. TheYA-1’s nickname ‘The Red Dragonfly’ came from the bike’s colour scheme. While its contemporaries were often sober and black, this stylish machine with the swooping teardrop tank was finished in a stunning ‘chestnut red’ and highlighted with cream detailing. Produced in late 1954 for sale from February 1955, the bike was based on the DKW RT 125 from Germany. Despite being expensive at the time (it cost 138,000 Yen) its early success (11,000 were sold between 1955 and…

Across 1:The petrol company, the bird, and the bike underneath Britain’s legendary number 7. (6,5,6) 7: There were no premier class titles for anyone from here between 1982 and 1999. (6) 9 & 29 Across: Recent innovation to ensure Grands Prix continue whatever the weather. (4,2,4) 11: First name of the 2004 125cc world champ who has since got a bit more famous. (6) 12: Chassis-making brothers who ran GP teams with bothYamaha and WCM engines. (6) 13: Classic battery-free ignition system. (7) 14: Mr Bell, postwar Norton-mountedTT winner from Belfast. (5) 15: Crash helmet, don’t flip it! (3) 18: Mike Trimby-founded organisation formed in 1986 to represent the interests of those participating in the world championships. (4) 20: A bike’s main aerodynamic device, but no dustbins please. (7) 21:…

Norman White was a development rider for Norton and has a keen view on just what Dave Croxford brought to the party. He says: “Before we became John Player I was a development rider at Norton, so I was involved in the actual development of the Commando. I was glad I was as well, as that gave me an insight into the very depths of the bike and the reasons behind everything on it. “Now with Dave, normally he’d just turn up at the track. Now and again he’d come down to Andover and poke around a bit, but he had no input into the design or the development of the bikes. He just jumped on and rode and that was the difference between Peter Williams and Dave. “We had…

Like most good ideas, my Yamaha FZ750 Superstocker started with the aid of a few alcoholic drinks. I was having a ‘gentlemen’s luncheon’ with a few chaps (well, cads and bounders like me, actually) that form the Friday the 13th Club. For the last 30 years this group, formed mainly of motorcycle road and race journalists and the odd ex-racer like myself, Niall Mackenzie and Keith Huewen have met and got relatively sozzled over a nice lunch. It was while chatting to a fellow called Bertie Simmonds – editor of Classic Motorcycle Mechanics and caretaker editor of this issue of CR – that a plan began to form. I wanted to build a copy or facsimile, if you like, of one of my old race bikes, but which one? I…

Merkel RC30  ‘IF YOU WANT BLOOD, YOU’VE GOT IT’ so said the logo on the back of ‘Flyin’ Fred Merkel’s crash helmet. This summed up the Californian’s intent by the time he got to compete in the nascent World Superbike championship in 1988… Merkel was just what the fledgling series needed: brash and full of bravado. He’d been the undisputed king of AMA Superbike racing in the mid-1980s, taking three back-to-back titles from 1984-Oscar Rumi owned team and it would only be after winning that first title that any sizeable back-up came from Honda. At the start, the Rumi RC30 wasn’t particularly quick: the V4 would be hard-pressed to keep up with the Italian bikes in the shape of Ducati’s V-twin 851/888 and Bimota’s FZ750-powered YB4EI-R. And also it wasn’t…

Way back on March 23 of this year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the nationwide lockdown in a bid to stop the coronavirus outbreak. As we all know, it immediately had a dramatic effect on all aspects of our lives, including all forms of sporting activity, which obviously included our beloved motorsport. This pretty much stopped dead in the tracks all the preparation and planning for road racing and a full and fun season ahead. Prior to the lockdown, the Classic Racing Motorcycle Club had a full calendar planned of seven rounds, which of course was quickly scrapped. For many classic motorcycle racers, the thought of any racing taking place during 2020 was a nonstarter, and for most the race bike stayed at the back of the garage or workshop.…

THE V8 DESIGN WAS LOGICALLY ARRIVED AT BY ENGINEER GIULIO CARCANO AS A MEASURE TO LEAPFROG THE FOUR-CYLINDER MV AND GILERA COMPETITION WITHOUT INCURRING THE WIDTH OF A STRAIGHT-SIX. THE CRANKSHAFT IS ONLY 13.5 INCHES LONG! ENGINE SPECIFICATION EVOLVED CONSIDERABLY OVER THE THREE YEARS THE BIKE WAS DEVELOPED. BY 1957 A MULTI-PIECE CRANKSHAFT HAD REPLACED THE EARLIER ONE-PIECE UNIT. THE CON-RODS WERE LENGTHENED AND NEW CAMSHAFT PROFILES USED. DESPITE ONLY WINNING THREE RACES IN THREE YEARS AND SUFFERING FROM MANY MECHANICAL RETIREMENTS, NOT TO MENTION RIDERS THAT WEREN’T KEEN TO BRAVE ITS HANDLING WOES, THE V8 DEFINITELY TOPS THE LIST OF LEGENDARY GRAND PRIX EXOTICA AND HAS ITS OWN UNIQUE BEAUTY.…

MACKENZIE ON… Growing up and breaking the law! My dad Neil was an engineer and born in Inverness. He went off on a boat to India, was a tea planter and married out there and had three kids. The marriage broke down but he had a major result when we came back home as he was in his late 50s when he met my mum Amelia who was in her 30s – it was a massive talking point in the village, apparently! I was conceived when he was aged 60! Dad had bikes when he was younger and he loved cars, he wasn’t hard on me but disciplined, so I knew where the limit was. Sadly my dad had a heart condition and he passed away when I was 13.…

The BHR committee held an extraordinary committee meeting on Sunday, June 28, to discuss and finalise plans for the remainder of the 2020 race season while under existing Covid-19 lockdown rules. A long debate ensued, which covered both the positives and negatives of running a race meeting amid the difficulties and strict rules laid down by the Government and the governing body – the ACU. There was concern whether the proposed relaxation of these rules would continue and the implications of a second wave of infection was also discussed. BHR Club chairman Ian Botham said: “It therefore gives the committee no pleasure but to announce that BHR has decided to cancel the remaining meetings for the season.The safety of all our riders, officials, marshals and helpers remains of paramount importance…

A new lap record of 146.52mph for a lap of the mountain course has been set by DaveyTodd. Of course this isn’t a real-life lap record, it’s more than likely that these kind of speeds will never be reached. Instead, Todd was playing the latest video/console game to try and recreate the thrills and spills of real road-racing: TT Isle of Man – Ride on the Edge 2 and he was competing in the virtual TT powered by Motul. He put the frustrations of missing out on riding the all-new Honda Racing CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP down Bray Hill this year behind him, to storm to the top of the leaderboard with the fastest outright time in the second of the four race days In real life he is the second…

The FJ1100 on release in 1984 was a groundbreaking machine – one of the first true ‘hypersports’ motorcycles and one that remained popular for over a decade. When it hit the dealerships it was an instant hit despite strong competition from the likes of Kawasaki’s GPZ900R. Where all manufacturers offered naked bikes, full sportsbikes or touring bikes, Yamaha managed to build a bike that had all of the benefits of the above in one awesome package. The FJ was seriously powerful at 125hp, capable of over 140mph, with a 10 second quarter-mile time, grunty and reliable with a simple air-cooled 16-valve inline four. With a wide seat, tall screen, high bars and rubber-capped foot-pegs the FJ was extremely comfortable. It had massive potential for luggage thanks to a generous pillion…

“I remember at Andover one time, we were out celebrating with Frank Perris. Later, I must have wedged my clenched fist inside my other arm, then slept on it in the car – killing a nerve!” – Dave Croxford recalls surely the most bizarre injury in the history of motorcycle racing, with his better half Pauline. “Let me see, we were in the Aston, weren’t we Pauline? I had to lift my arm up to put it on to the steering wheel and the next day we had to drive to Clermont-Ferrand, in France, to go racing. “So we got there, I put my hand on the handlebar for the race and… it promptly fell off. I said to the team: ‘Well it’s a bit awkward with one arm!’ “So,…

Aberdare Park, South Wales, June 28, 1986: Neil Tuxworth is battling with a young Carl Fogarty on the last lap of the 250cc race when disaster strikes. He loses control of his bike and smashes into a tree – it’s a bad one. Doctors and immediate family fear for his life, such are his injuries. He would eventually recover but it would take a full three years. “I broke my pelvis in seven places and my left leg was wrapped around my neck as the hip had popped out, and it was shattered,” Tuxworth explains. “I also shattered my right femur, cut my stomach open, damaged my bladder, severed my urethra – I was very lucky to live. “I was down to just four pints of blood at one stage.…

What you see here is one very special bevel.You see, the builder, Tony Hannagan, is a legend down under in the secretive world of those that worship at the altar of the bevel-driven Dukes. Tony owns BevelTech, Australia’s go-to bevel place, where over the decades, many amazing race engines have been built, original bikes restored, customs created and dreams made into reality. Great things can’t go on forever, though, and a few years back at the young age of 60, Tony decided to build his last customer creation and concentrate on engines while enjoying his own many bikes… It just happened that at around this time, the owner of this incredible machine, Daniel Poole, was edging closer to biting the bullet and buying his dream bike, a bevel-drive Ducati. Daniel…