Classic Bike Guide - May 2020

Ferrari Motorcycle Club Enzo and his band of bike racers Moto Guzzi Café Racer

A perfect blend of style and charisma

Triumph

3TA BMW R69s

PRINTED IN THE UK

MAY 2020 M 0

No. 348 May 2020 £4.50

BUY  SELL  RIDE  RESTORE B

■ The only Triumph you need In the workshop

Replacing your mains bearings

Tony Rutter

‘He could win on anything’

Contents

#041

006 From the archive

Mr John Surtees shows you around Oulton Park

041 Douglas Dragonfly

Fancy something a little different?

How about a boxer-engined Douglas

083 Reader adverts

You can still buy things, so get tempted

010 Ferrari motorcycle club 049 BMW R69s

097 Next month

020 Subscribe

098 Frank Westworth

Enzo and his boys raced bikes before cars – and they loved Rudge!

Stuck indoors? Have Classic Bike Guide delivered to your door!

022 News

What’s going on, or not, in the old bike world

026 Products

We look at some of the latest ‘must haves’

030

Letters

Write to us, entertain us all and win a prize!

032 Triumph 3ta BUYING GUIDE

Also known as the Twenty One, Triumph’s unit 350 is a fantastic bike and good value

4

MAY 2020 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

The bike that saved BMW – Martin Squires’ gorgeous illustrations show the R69s

054 Tony Rutter

The man that could win on anything – Tony Rutter. We look at his life

060 Moto Guzzi Café Racer James Cracknell started with an alloy tank and ended up with a gorgeous café racer

068 Project Norton

We start to put the new mains bearings in

070 We’re still here!

CBG talks to the old bike world about how they are still open for business

074 Strip your forks pt1

Rebuilding your forks is satisfying, needs few special tools and your bike will feel a lot better

We look at BMW R100RS, Moto Guzzi Le Mans, Yamaha DT250, a trio of Norton ES2 and much more Frank’s locked up. Or is that in?

#010

#032

#054 #068

#049

#060 #070

#074

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CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || MAY 2020

5

The motorcycle Ferrari club

BY GREG PULLEN IMAGES FROM A HERL INC.

Did Enzo Ferrari start in motorsport racing motorcycles?

With Rudg ge? Greg g Pullen uses his detective skills to head back 90 years in the search of facts for this oft-asked question

10

MAY 2020 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

Enzo Ferrari with Euginio Castellotti, Monza 1956

Enzo and

Juan Manue

l Fangio at

the Mille M

iglia, 1956

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || MAY 2020

11

Buying guide

Triumph

3TA

WORDS BY OLI HULME PHOTOGRAPHY BY GARY CHAPMAN

WHAT IS IT?

Triumph’s first and smallest unit twin

GOOD POINTS?

The looks, the ride and the engine

BAD POINTS?

Some of the original Lucas parts were of variable quality and the early handling was a little unpredictable

COST?

Restoration project: Basketcase: £1500 plus) Good runner: £25004000 Concours/museum quality: £5000

Café

C Correcto James Cracknell turned his skills in restoring classic cars to this wonderful Moto Guzzi. Adam Bolton has a go and reports back, lucky man!

PHOTOGRAPHY: SARA ZINELLI WORDS: ADAM BOLTON

‘M

any riders, as in the past, have taken a standard motorcycle, maybe new, maybe old, and invested time, money and their ingenuity to produce a personal statement. A machine that – whatever its individual idiosyncrasies – immediately creates an impression of speed and purposefulness.’

Mike Clay’s words in his 1988 book ‘Café Racers’ explain eloquently and concisely the reason why beautiful motorcycles like the glimmering Guzzi in front of me exist at all. Café racers because these bikes were – and are – used for short, sharp speed trips from one legendary coffee bar to another. Places like The Ace Cafe, now of course once again a mecca for the rockers of today, The Busy Bee, Johnsons and the Dugout, all became watering holes and meeting places for the ton-up boys of the day.

Stripped down Triumphs, BSAs and Nortons with clip-on ’bars and racing tanks were tools of choice for those who wanted to experience speed and make a personal statement at the same time. Individuals like Paul Dunstall and Dave Degens were the driving force of café racerdom in the 1960s, and rightly so, as café racers represent the individual, not the corporate monster.

However, some factories felt compelled to produce their own café racers, and certain Ducati and Guzzi models in particular, such as the Ducati 750 Sport and the Guzzi V7 Sport arguably redefined nre. the gen

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Forty-eight Autumn 2018

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No. 330 October 2018 £4.30 UK Off-sale date 31/10/2018

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Running, Riding & Rebuilding Running, Rebuilding Real RealClassi RealC Classic C lassi Motorcycles

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