Innehållsförteckning för October 2025 från Real Classic

Nostalgia is a remarkable thing. It makes (most of ) us happy, provides opportunities for endless rewriting of actual events and has somehow and mysteriously generated a vast worldwide industry catering for all those who gaze wistfully into a rearview mirror, reflecting on those great departed days. That seems to be just about everyone, to be honest, and even those among my friends who claim to be one hundred percent immune to the lure of nostalgia… are just as inclined to gaze comfortably back into warm memoryland as I am myself. Every month, while we prepare the magazine, I inevitably find myself trawling through the filing cabinets filled with nostalgic delights, mainly looking for material with which we can decorate these pages. And of course a rich source of illustrative…

At the beginning of the 1920s, most motorcycles used sidevalve engines. The sidevalve design was understood, trusted, easy to work on and cheap to manufacture. This was about to change as metal technology had improved, and most manufacturers released an overhead valve engine into their ranges by the end of the decade. AJS dominated the TT in the 350cc class with their Big Port winning in 1920-1922. They then had the audacity to use the same 350cc engine in 1921 to win the 500cc class. BSA wanted to get in on the ohv action and made a batch of special ohv 500 racers for the 1921 TT, hoping for glory, but they’d not taken the time to settle the design. This cost them dearly, with all six entries failing to…

Should you be in the apparently fortunate position of having a functional memory, you may pause here for a moment to remember that I acquired a seriously horrible 1982 Triumph TR65 more than just a few months ago. The idea? To make an old friend better after decades of neglect. Here comes a little reassurance: work on this has been progressing in the background, albeit slowly and in an undignified manner involving more the estimation of expense rather than the expense itself. A subtle distinction maybe, but the Thudderbird – as the machine was known in its earlier years of abuse and neglect – should be worth it. It certainly rode fairly well when I was actually able to ride it… prior to the process of pulling it to pieces.…

I have a confession to make. I really don’t like the current incarnation of BSA’s Gold Star very much. Which is a shame, because I’m exactly the person who should consider buying one. I’ve owned several iterations of the 650 singlecylinder engine in the past – in its BMW F650 format – and a 45bhp roadster suits my rural rides to a tee. But then, I didn’t much like the Hinckley’s first attempt at a Bonneville, either, nor was I driven wild with desire by Enfield’s first stab at a 350. Perhaps I’m simply not an early adopter? Or perhaps the first model out of the gate isn’t necessarily representative of what the company can do in the fullness of time. Either way, I figured it’s only fair to give…

Readers with an infinitely better memory than I have will no doubt recall an article that appeared in 2018. Don’t you? Of course you do! It was about the BSA A65 Lightning that I bought new in 1965, and described the various happenings with me and the bike. How I as a 22 year-old used it for my everyday transport. I’d already met a young girl from a motorcycling family whose brother rode a Golden Flash with a Swallow sidecar and who was a member of the Warrington Branch of the BSAOC. So of course I joined. We did a BSAOC International Rally in Vienna in 1966. I married a year later on April 1st (April fool? No, not me!). We had our first child in 1970, so I fitted…

Expat American Robert Lusk passed away on June 9th at his home in Southern England. He was 85 years of age, and had been resident in the UK since 1968. Bob Lusk was a born-again biker with a fascinating background who was raised in rural New England, where while growing up he acquired the skills of many handicrafts, including leatherwork. But he enjoyed a motorcycling epiphany at the age of 15. ‘I’d help out in a local gas station after school,’ he recounted. ‘Each day a bloke who commuted to work on his Triumph Bonneville would park it outside the forecourt. One day, I went over and sat on it, looked down and saw the kickstarter, then put my foot on it, and it started – on its centrestand, thankfully!…

PART THE LAST As explained last month, my CL350’s exhaust heat shields were a little worse for wear. They’d been knocked about a bit and had acquired a few dents and scratches. Easy, I thought. These bikes are really popular and were common. I could surely buy a used pair in good condition, or I could knock out the dents and get them rechromed. Well, those available from breakers or the usual auction website were not much better than mine, and those that looked better were in the USA and would cost a lot to deliver. What about chroming then? Research indicated this would be expensive and the deepness of the rusty scratches would probably mean that when dents were knocked out and the surface polished, the finished job could…

I have said this before, but I will repeat it. I am a big fan of Velocette’s single cylinder motorcycles. The company Veloce (later Velocette) was founded by Johannes Gütgemann who came to England from Germany in 1876. He married and settled in Birmingham and, for a while, he was known by the more English sounding name of John Taylor before changing it again to Goodman. With a partner he set up a business manufacturing cycles, later branching out into the manufacture of motorcycle frames. Their first complete machine was named the Veloce. Goodman even tried his hand at car manufacture, but of course it was motorcycles where Veloce’s future lay. The firm remained a traditional, familyowned business right up until Velocette ceased manufacture in early 1971. Over those decades…

PART THE LAST Why is it that when you fix things, more things happen? Other things, things that weren’t happening before, but are happening now? First off, the clutch started slipping. Why? Clearly I’d bought a bike with its clutch plates on their very last legs, and a bit of Odgie’s right hand on the throttle had finished them off completely. No great shakes, parts for little old Jap bikes are refreshingly inexpensive, twenty quid or so on eBay saw a set winging their way to my front door. It was the work of mere moments to lay the bike on its side, take the kickstarter off, undo all the little screws, whip the cover off, change the plates, and put it all back together again. What could be simpler?…