Innehållsförteckning för June 2023 från The Classic MotorCycle

To say Bernal Osborne’s proposed trip to Scandinavia on his Excelsior two-stroke in the summer of 1936 was met with scepticism by his colleagues at the RAC (Royal Automobile Club), would seem something of an understatement. Apparently, his plans ‘…brought forth such derision that colleagues, knowing little of the subject, openly laid bets as to the improbability of my returning alive.’ Which sounds a little overdramatic, given that even 90-odd years ago, bloodthirsty Vikings were a thing of the distant past… In fact, it was the civilised occupation of business meetings which meant Osborne was heading north in Europe, as he had calls to make in both Norway’s Oslo and Sweden’s Stockholm. Osborne, the man who was to be Motor Cycling’s Midlands editor in the 1950s, was born in 1910.…

It’s hard to believe that Richard Rosenthal has owned this Sunbeam since 2012, as ever since he acquired it, he’s been offering me a go on it. Finally, in 2022, we were able to make that scenario a reality. I well remember Richard acquiring the 1927 TT Model 90 as, pretty much then as now, such a model was top of my wish/desirability list; well, it occupied top spot with a flat-tank Model 18 Norton. Richard, who’s heard my tale before, always reminds me that, really, the Sunbeam found him, as what he really wanted was a flat-tank Model 18… He explains: “In 2011, our family friend ‘Hoppy’ [Philip Hopkins] got in touch, asking me to value his TT90 as he wanted to sell and give the money to his…

My first BSA B33 led to a love of 500cc singles. In my opinion, a B33 stripped of its heavy valanced mudguards is a beautiful motorcycle, as handsome as its illustrious – and much more expensive – stablemate, the Gold Star. This was the motivation for undertaking my B33 project. To start at the beginning. In the late 1970s I had given up motorcycles for a year to concentrate on my third and final year of my studies at Cardiff University, as a degree was not guaranteed… Just after my finals, a friend showed me a BSA B33 he owned, which was in his back garden shed. It was all there, minus the nowadays-treasured original mudguards. It had not been run for years and had a short off-road seat base.…

THE SPECIALIST John Halfpenny was first involved in trials when living in Yorkshire, home of some of the sport’s toughest events, but a Montesa Cota 247 proved to be a very popular and competitive mount. When John migrated to East Anglia, he also took along his enthusiasm for trials riding and Montesa and became the Vintage MCC’s marque specialist. So grateful thanks to John for his help with this guide. ■ Vintage Motor Cycle Club: 01283 540557; www.vmcc.net MODEL HISTORY Established in 1944, Spanish manufacturer Montesa’s early road race success could not protect it from the general woes of the Spanish economy, which came to a head in 1958. There was a dramatic restructuring of the company and by 1962 Montesa arrived at a basic, 175cc single-cylinder two-stroke design, enlarged…

In the years immediately after the First World War, especially, record breaking was a big deal, with manufacturers and riders battling it out to demonstrate the value of their machines, which of course was expected to have a direct positive impact on sales. What is surprising as we look back now, is that it wasn’t always necessarily the biggest motorcycle manufacturers which went after records, but those seeking to make a name for themselves. Witness the effort of J S ‘Jack’ Holroyd, pictured here setting off after a temporary halt for fuel and oil during his epic 600-mile record run on the 2¾hp (350cc) Blackburne, at – as was usual for such attempts – the Brooklands circuit, in Weybridge, Surrey. On the right is Mr A V ‘Ebbie’ Ebblewhite, the…

It seemed that the event, held over May 5-9, 1965, was deemed as crucial to the ongoing success of the two-wheeled world, especially as Motor Cycle (which had by now dropped ‘The’ from its title) magazine was seemingly struggling a little, the two-pronged assault coming from Johnny-come-latelies Motor Cycle News and Motorcycle Mechanics. Both these titles had a younger, more modern and fresh approach to the subject, while chaps at Motor Cycle were, frankly, still acting like it was the mid-1950s, not acknowledging that the times, they were a’ changing… Blackpool’s Winter Gardens had been chosen as the venue for this fresh, northern expansion. Opened in 1878, the aim of the original building had been to provide somewhere for holidaymakers to go during ‘inclement weather,’ basically. Located around 250 metres…

We were finishing up the riding shots for the photo session on the 1959 Meteor Minor 500 twin, and everything was going well. The rain had held off while I wheeled back and forward through the corners for the camera, and the Royal Enfield had proved a very nice ride, handling excellently and with an engine that pulled well, accelerating fast, and smoothly unless you held on too long in one of the (fairly tall) intermediate gears. With its faded polychromatic Burgundy finish, siamesed exhaust and bolt-on chrome tank panels, it was easy on the eye, too. This was the De Luxe version, with a dualseat and seven-inch brakes all round, and though the front stopper was rubbish, the back one made up for it and could even be locked.…

“The man behind the simple Stornello OHV single was Giulio Cesare Carcano, who also designed the fabulous 500cc V-eight racer.” Since its inaugural event in 2000, the small town of Calne in West Wiltshire has become a ‘Mecca’ for motorcycle enthusiasts on the last Saturday in July, when thousands of two- and three-wheelers fill the narrow streets. And it was here, sandwiched between a pair of huge V-twins, I spied this month’s test machine, a rare, ex-forestry police 160cc Moto Guzzi Stornello. Manufactured in the iconic factory on the shores of Lake Lecco, the Stornello (‘starling’ in Italian) was initially of 125cc, growing, in 1960, to 160cc, continuing at that capacity until 1975. The model was available in touring, sporting, scrambling and Regolarita (ISDT) trim, but our subject machine is…

My dad told me a story years ago about how, in the early days of his local section of the VMCC, so we’re talking early-to-mid 1960s, his local clubmates and he were asked to clear an old bicycle shop, in which, among other things, there were two motorcycles – one, a 1929/30-ish BSA Sloper, the other, a few years younger Stevens. Now, in those days, the VMCC was an exclusively pre-1931 club, though still no one really wanted the Sloper, so a raffle was held at club night – the ticket had to be drawn more than once, before someone would claim their prize. And the Stevens? A rare, mid-to-late 1930s quality built ohv single? He can’t even really remember what happened to that. And that – not being able…

Two-wheeled auction a success for H&H Over £1,000,000 worth of classic motorcycles and vintage scooters successfully found new homes after being sold at H&H Classics’ first two-wheeled auction of 2023, on March 29, at the National Motorcycle Museum. Among the near 200 bikes and scooters up for sale, the headline-grabbing 1936 Indian Four was the most expensive motorcycle, selling for £65,550; while the most expensive scooter, an extremely original 1971 Lambretta DL200 Electronic sold for £21,275. A 1991 Norton F1 fetched £36,800 and a rare 1955 Vincent Black Shadow Series D restoration project £33,350 – £18,350 over the lower estimate, after an online bidding war between two enthusiasts in Australia and the United Kingdom. The oldest motorcycle on offer, the dismantled 1912 Rex with JAP V-twin engine, went on to…

The 250cc parallel-twin two-stroke engine and its derivatives, both air-cooled and liquid-cooled, has arguably delivered thrilling performance to more motorcyclists at an affordable cost than any other two-wheeled 20th century engine format. But contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t dreamed up in the Hamamatsu factories of Japanese manufacturers Yamaha and Suzuki, even if they were the ones who ultimately exploited it the most. Down the years between them they’ve produced over one million such devices, which their Honda rival’s patriarch Soichiro Honda always disdained as so-called ‘stink wheels,’ crude and dirty devices which had no place in his company’s line-up – conveniently overlooking the first-ever Honda Dream motorcycle he built in 1949 was a two-stroke… Instead, credit for initially developing this engine layout belongs to West German manufacturer Adler, 11,000…

Classic lifeClassic components | Pistons, part two Shape: The majority of aluminium-silicon alloy pistons we fit to our motorcycles are tapered with the smallest diameter at the top land (first) between crown and compression (top) ring. Additionally, they are mildly oval ground to the extent of 0.006-0.010 inches (less for tiny pistons), giving larger clearances to sides of piston (in line with gudgeon pin) and least clearance at 90 degrees of gudgeon pin. The tapered shape allows for variable expansion along the piston’s length. It gets hottest on its crown and top land, which expand most, then progressively less so through the lower lands, the upper skirt and its coolest point at the lower skirt. Pistons have two thrust faces –‘major’ and ‘minor’– with the major taking the most force…

Timed ignition and high-speed engines Wealthy steam enthusiasts were often attracted to steam models, ranging from elaborate trains to standalone, small stationary engines. Some ran them as after dinner entertainment for their guests to marvel at. Unfortunately, the quality of many was appalling, with operators running serious scalding risks and worse, each time the engine was in steam. Strolling down the Passage de Léon, Paris, the Marquis Jules-Albert de Dion spotted a well-made model steam locomotive in the window of a small shop, where engineer brothers-in-law Georges Bouton and Charles Trépardoux worked hard to make a modest living building ‘scientific toys,’ many of which involved steam. At the time, Trépardoux was the more imaginative of the pair, often designing on paper full-size personal steam cars, wagons and more, projects their…