Innehållsförteckning för January 2023 från Real Classic

Time was, Gentle Reader, that I would pride myself and bore my friends with my noted status as a year-round rider. Heroic, me, as I'm (almost) certain you'll agree. You might also prefer the adjective ‘foolish’, but that's less flattering. In any case, it's easy to be a year-round rider when you lack alternative wheels - when the Better Third is using the car, for example. I would shake, rattle and roll my way off a couple of dozen miles to meet increasingly amused pals for lunches. Something the shaking (mine, not the bike's) would be over by the time the hot food arrived … but not always. Lots of coffee, washed down with that impossibly inevitable wave of elation - the rattling may have been my teeth clattering together,…

JAMES CAPTAIN RealClassic ‘Big Jim’ is a 1951 James Captain de Luxe. It is powered by the top Villiers engine of the day, the 197cc Model 6E driving a 3-speed gearbox. It was James’ top of the range bike that year and was the first James to sport rear suspension. It has an odd and rather basic 6V rectified lighting system. Electronics were in their infancy and weren’t up to keeping the battery charged on long night runs, hence the peculiar light switch with its Off–P-H-Direct markings. Off, P(ark) and H(ead) are fairly self-explanatory but Direct requires explanation. Direct bypasses the whole charging system so the lights are run directly (get it?) from the lighting coils, thus avoiding running down the battery. Only those of us with a history of riding…

Royal Enfield built a few V-twin machines before and between the two world wars, the last of them being the mighty KX of 1140cc. Last year I found myself undertaking a full engine rebuild among other work on a 1930 Model K 1000. This seemed a little daunting, especially as I had to rebuild the roller big ends myself, honing the outer races to size. I even needed to narrow two inner big end outer races so they would suit the pair of narrower races in the big end of the forked conrod, as well as fitting a new crankpin and one new mainshaft. It was a real learning curve, and probably one of the most in-depth and challenging engine rebuilds I have done. Just replacing the main bearings meant…

➤ WE WANT MORE STORIES about real life classic bikes. We like profiles of a single model or a comparison of two machines. Most magazine features are between 1000 and 2500 words. If your story is much longer then it's probably not for us. Shorter stories appear in the letters section. ➤ TO SEE WHAT WE MEAN look at the James Captain, Enfield twin and Honda Transalp stories in this issue. ➤ DON'T WORRY about your writing, grammar or punctuation; well make sure that your article reads the right way. Just concentrate on telling a good story and we'll do the rest. ➤ INCLUDE AS MUCH INFO as possible. Tell the RC readers exactly what model your classic bike is, when it was built and its history since then. What…

RealClassic NSU 250 REBUILD PART THREE Exactly two months to the day after I’d bought the bike, the brand new V5C landed on my doormat. I informed my insurance company and ordered a numberplate from Chestnut Registrations. One week later the new numberplate arrived and was duly fitted. Time for a road test! This ride was very local, just round the houses. I didn’t want to be too far away just in case I had to push it home, and the ride didn’t go as well as I might’ve wished. The charge light came on and became brighter the faster the engine ran. Happily that turned out to be a simple fix. One of the spade connectors had pulled off the relay, so I stopped and pushed it back on and…

RealClassic NORTON COMMANDO 961 Britain's most historic sporting brand, Norton Motorcycles, is in the process of being reinvented by the management team recruited by its owners TVS, the Indian manufacturer which acquired the bankrupt company in April 2020 from the ashes of former CEO Stuart Garner's 12-year ownership of Norton. The £16m price which TVS paid the liquidator included the manufacturing package - such as it was - for the marque's iconic Commando model. In its 961cc guise this formed the basis of Norton production throughout the Garner years, from its March 2010 debut onwards. Production was however sporadic over the next decade owing to a lack of capital, and it's believed that only around 2500 Commandos, including the short-run Domiracer, Dominator and California versions, were built during Garner's tenure of…

Generally speaking, I am a fan of unrestored bikes. Just thought I’d get that out of the way first. My absolute favourite machines are those which have somehow survived since they were manufactured almost untouched by anyone – apart from being ridden and maintained of course, I’m not daft enough to expect a bike to need no attention at all. That said, down the years I’ve stumbled across some real rarities, bikes which for one reason or another have covered almost no miles and have been mainly parked up. Very occasionally, I’ve stumbled across bikes from bygone years which have never even been registered and which have almost no miles at all on the clock. These included a Benelli 250/4, followed almost at once by a Triumph TR65. Both were…

TRIUMPH TIGER OVERHAUL RealClassic PART THE LAST A problem with the clutch adjustment surfaced after reassembling the clutch. Fitting a new cable failed to produce a well-adjusted clutch. Closer inspection showed the threaded boss in the new pressure plate I had fitted previously was binding. This meant the adjuster felt as though it was up against the clutch pushrod, even though there was still a gap. The result was too much lever movement before the clutch plates released. Running a tap through the boss soon allowed proper adjustment and restored the full working range of the lever. You have to wonder why the fabricator didn’t do that? Although I left the gearbox itself alone, I replaced the outer cover’s seals and bushes, pinion and kickstart quadrant. The original tended to jam,…

FRANK WESTWORTH RealClassic Somewhere in every gothic graveyard there should be a tomb labelled: ‘Best Laid Plans’. Probably next to another with a neat stone sign saying ‘Good Intentions’. We all know about that road to hell, and what it’s paved with, but I suspect that those good intentions simply passed over out of boredom, rather than by demonic persuasion. Although I’m not too sure… I had partially filled the CSR’s oil tank with nice new SAE30 – the quantity limited not by prudence, because I was quietly confident that all would be OK – but by the sad fact that I had run out of oil. I am always somehow surprised by this, and occasionally wonder where it all goes. Then I look around me at The Shed’s 1000 square…

In June 2022 Christian Gladwell, 48, was appointed Chief Commercial Officer of Norton Motorcycles, charged with 'building upon the brand's heritage, delivering unique and inspiring customer experiences, and leading the Norton brand into the future'. The chance to quiz him about his plans for Norton's future path revealed some startling choices for the historic brand's direction. AC: Christian, what's your exact role today at Norton Motorcycles? CG: I'm Chief Commercial Officer, which means I look after all the customer facing operations, so sales, after sales, servicing, warranty - the community aspect of Norton. But I'm also custodian of the brand, which means I have quite a large remit in design as it affects the customer experience, which sees me cross over a lot with the internal motorcycle design team. AC:…

Is a 1987 Transalp 600 a RealClassic? It's certainly RealClassy! This old Honda has become one of my favourite bikes out of the 45 I've owned so far, and it's not hard to understand why. Ten years ago I retired early and moved to France, which meant lots more time to ride and generally mess about with motorbikes. This is obviously a very good thing. Except that for half the year the lanes of rural France are covered in mud; the whole of Normandy, it seems, is just one big farmyard. Not so good if you have a shiny Harley and an aversion to cleaning bikes. So eight years ago I picked up a cheap Honda Transalp dating from 1987, which was intended to be my wheels for the following…

Some fun was had with the plunger rear suspension. It was a horror of internal corrosion when stripped. That was sorted with two bronze bushes and a new steel centre rod per side. Look carefully and you will see an added grease nipple atop the centre rod. This does nothing except provide means to add a little grease where corrosion reigned supreme before. When the plungers rise they just splat the added grease around the internals. As you can see I made up a highly technical compressor to aid fitting the plunger units. Fitting them was a complete anticlimax. Effortless.…

Members of the Royal Enfield Owners' Club celebrate some of the marque's heritage at Forge Mill Museum in Redditch. Forge Mill is the only surviving complete needle factory and is very significant for Royal Enfield, which evolved from one such factory nearby. In its heyday, 90% of needles used around the world came from Redditch! The REOC promotes 'riding, maintaining, and renovating Royal Enfield motorcycles from every era,' as well as 'sharing their history and heritage.' You don't need to own an Enfield to join; all you need is an interest in a Royal Enfield of any age. See royalenfield.org.uk…

PART TWO Last month we made a bit of a start on the frame, but it ain't no good without summat to make it go, and I chose BSA's mighty B50 motor. I'll expand a little on why.The A65 is great, and at 270lb it's as light as an A65 can be. But not as light as a race bike can be. And it's a twin; twins don't find grip as well as singles. Singles find more grip due to the spacing in the power pulses - it's the opposite of cadence braking, and the reason the four-cylinder GP bikes went to 'big bang' motors and the reason for 180° or 270° cranks on twins. Enter the Can-Am. The Can-Am is super light, under 200lb ready to race. And it's…