Innehållsförteckning för November 2017 från Real Classic

Members’ Enclosure was interesting and very relevant (tome) this month. Since I took early retirement some years ago, my motorcycling has taken two dimensions. One was to sell my Commando, which I’d had for 20 happy years and used to travel all over Europe and the UK, and to buy a modern replacement – a 955i Hinckley Triumph Tiger. The other was to embark on a programme of buying and rebuilding a series of those bikes which I’d never had but always quite fancied. The first dimension progressed, via a V-Strom 650, Honda SLR 650 and Honda 400 Super Four to a 1982 Moto Guzzi V50. A model which, oddly enough, I’d owned and enjoyed in the 1980s. Although 35 years old and classed by many as a ‘classic’, this…

I wanted to thank Frank for a very fair review of the Morini 350 in RC161. As a long-time owner of British bikes, mainly from the 1960s and 70s, I am a recent convert to the charms of Morini ownership. I always hankered for one back in the day. Frank compliments Morini on the quality and competence of their stands. The centrestand is indeed excellent, however it is my sad duty to inform you that Morini also caught the flip-up sidestand disease from Moto Guzzi and Ducati in the early 80s, along with the ‘squareitis’ that afflicts the styling of many bikes of that era, including Rowena’s own 350 Guzzi. Both afflictions affect my Morini 350 K2 model from 1985, originally an import from Spain. I have been carrying out…

My lady friend of many years resides in Blackpool and I in Durham. Consequently I spend about 40% of my time on the west coast. A few years ago the VMCC formed a Blackpool branch and recently I got chatting with a few members at a bike show. I decided, after suitable consultation with my lady, to possibly go on occasional rides with them. Having ridden all of the roads around Durham, North Yorkshire and Northumberland these last 50 years, I really fancied enjoying the novelty of riding in a new and unknown area. This led to a useful dodge (some might call a bodge, even) which was needed to get my 1957 Royal Enfield Bullet useable. I’ve been motorcycling since I was 17, so for more than half a…

PRIDE & JOY There has been a lot written about BMW airheads in the last few years. In the spirit of ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’, here are a few thoughts from my own perspective. I bought my own airhead 23 years ago after giving up the fight to find decent parts for a high mileage Honda Black Bomber which I had used and abused for 13 years. While I had second thoughts about buying such an obvious ‘auld lads’bike, the catalogues of easily available parts from the likes of James Sherlock, Motorworks and Moto-Bins, the bike’s reputation for longevity and, of course, the relatively cheap purchase price made it too good to resist. It’s a 1974 R75/6. A number of updates were introduced that year, the most…

The Sunbeam story and pictures in RC161 were interesting. The writer suggested that BSA based the Sunbeam on a BMW R75. I personally have my doubts about this, as the R75 had a rigid back end incorporating all that wonderful Zündapp transmission. It may be that the earliest BSA / Sunbeams were also rigid framed. My contention is that BSA got hold of a BMW pre-war model, the one with plunger rear suspension and BMW telescopic forks. Many of that model were made as solos and sidecar haulers (with no sidecar drive) for the German army. Studying the frame and suspension of the pre-war BMW will show you the post-war BSA / Sunbeams. The frame was a copy of the pre-war BMW, and the plungers from that pre-war model provided…

As I age, my taste in bikes has changed. Gone are the days of race-reps and the like; I have fond memories of a Honda NC45 and an MV 750-4 but my preference these days is for something simpler, lighter and manageable. It needs to be manageable not just on the move but in the garage and on the drive. Back problems and ailing knees prescribe a different style of machine. When I was a lad and had a BMW R60/7 with an S-type cockpit fairing, I recall a memorable trip. I encountered a 750 Triumph which swept round the borders roads twixt England and Wales in a very sprightly manner and seemed at ease, whereas the Beemer needed coaxing a little more. I’d seen reports of the Thunderbird 650…

Time marches on. You get older, your knees creak. As winter approaches you look for some sort of affordable, practical, interesting bike, one which would benefit from your years of spannering experience. Ideally, a bike with electric start and old enough to satisfy the VMCC 25 year rule. I have always rated the new generation of super-scooters. They’ve plenty of power, are swift, automatic, economical and provide oodles of room to carry almost anything you would want while out on the road. I’ve owned both Honda and Yamaha versions. Both were very capable…BUT (there is always a but) their suspension, although sophisticated, just cannot cope with bad road surfaces. I do most of my general riding in the Yorkshire dales and the Pennines, and explore all manner of little roads…

The question of what makes the Moto Guzzi Spada 1000 a standout motorcycle is easily answered. You can spend hours or days in the saddle, and at any moment a quick downshift up the rise brings the engine to 5000rpm and readies the throttle, producing a satisfying burst as you carve fully packed towards the summit. The forgiving chassis, powerful brakes, low, narrow build and steel pipe durability are commonly accepted accolades, and that’s part of the point. The SP is excellent because it’s a quintessential Moto Guzzi. The Spada differs from the sporting Le Mans in its comprehensive fairing, and it was reconfigured for a more relaxed riding experience. But underneath that you’ll still fine a thoroughbred sports bike. A bit of background is needed here because the renovation…

It’s always entertaining to read the torrents of gloom that descend like avenging angels through the ethers and which soak into social media at this time of year. That’s it, people wail, the end of the riding season already. Time to wail, complain and to prep the bike for storage. Unless you’re one of those hardy souls who rides roughshod all through winter, or if, like me, you have winter wheels. If the former, then may I express my profound respect; if the latter, then autumn is the time for getting the wheels of winter up, running and legal. This year’s ‘classic’ miles have mostly – and indeed moistly – been covered on the old Norton 50, whose original finish is already so ravaged by time that it’s impervious to…

Like you, I’ve been enjoying the regular ‘Tales From The Shed’ updates over the last thirty years as Frank effortlessly fettles a BSA unit single. But, when the opportunity arises to try one that’s actually working, it seemed the right thing to do. We are aware from FW’s exploits that they neither start, nor stop, can be rusty and oily at the same time, quite a feat and if, by chance, it ever actually starts, bits will fall off. Then again, there’s always this one instead. Introduced as the 250cc BSA C15, way back in 1958, itself the child of Turner’s 150cc Triumph Terrier, the unit single was to become a mainstay of the Birmingham Small Arms company right up to their demise in 1972. During that long production run…

Sixty years ago as a thirteen year-old schoolboy I was given gratis my first motorcycle. It was a 1930s 225cc Royal Enfield hand-change two-stroke. This mechanical baptism led to a lifelong enduring interactive desire to fettle such machines as a KSS Velocette, Vincent Comet, BSA Golden Flash, and many other British bikes before the modern sophistication of motorcycles arrived. A workshop ethos developed from boyhood inevitably led to the accumulation of many tools. In my youth, torque wrenches were not readily affordable and I acquired a feeling for the tightness of nuts, bolts, fasteners so I could discriminate between finger-tight, tight, and – oh dear, stripped! Even in my dotage this mechanical nous has not deserted me. However, future biking generations are unlikely to experience those spannering joys of yesteryear…

Mention the word ‘Norton’ and almost everyone thinks ‘Ha! Commando!’ If they’re modernists they mean the current machine of that name, if they’re of amore traditionalist bent, they drift off into featherbed fantasies. Then confuse things by saying that in your view the best featherbed Norton twin is the 650, and watch them puzzle for a moment then lighten up with the memory of the 650SS. In fact… in my view the best 650 Nort on had but a single carb and wasn’t sporting at all, not really. But I digress into personal stuff here: the feature machine is that out andout sportster, the 650SS. Twin carbs and a tacho and everything. My memories of riding these machines are not entirely positive. Back in those rose-tinted Seventies, I shared a…

Cast your mind back, if you will, to those heady days of RC159 where we had a close look at Rob Hodder’s Norton Dominator, one of the two ‘must keep at all costs’ bikes in his collection. I did see the other keeper sitting quietly and unobtrusively at the side of his garage. It looked equally as interesting as the Norton, so it made sense to go back for another visit. As you may recall, Rob’s ethos is to make sure that his motorcycles are mechanically sound in wind and limb but he does as little as possible to disturb the history they wear to show that they have led a life of use. You know that his motorcycles are old because they look that way, the way nature and…

Working with classic bikes as I do offers an amazing perk of the job. I get to ride many of the machines I work on and get a good idea of how they go, handle and stop, as well as any little quirks they may have. It’s a great way to get to ride all sorts of machines that I would otherwise probably never get my hands on. This really is the absolute upside of what can sometimes be a dirty and fiddly but enjoyable job. I’ve been able to experience a huge number of machines of diverse ages, makes and models. I also get to blow the lid off the odd myth or two, once in a while. Take this 1972 Triumph T120R, an oil in frame model. These…

Regular readers will be aware of my philosophy when building bikes. I take great pleasure in finding old secondhand parts, bits of scrap, junk from charity shops and anything I come across really, and turning it all eventually into a well functioning motorcycle. As an old hippie I approve of recycling – save the planet, man – so giving things a new lease of life is right up my street. It also makes my motorcycles cheap to build, which is a Good Thing as I rarely have too much in the way of money. So I generally have a selection of oddball bits and pieces around me – when I do come across them I squirrel them away in the big Dressing Up Box, and whenever a new project starts…