BUY
SELL
RIDE
REST TORE AUGUST 2018
RICKMAN INTERCEPTOR ROCKER // PANTHER 120 BIG SINGLE SURPRISE // CBX 1000 THE BIG ONE // SWM SIX DAYS FUN!
Contents
004 From the archive
We’ve searched for some of George Brough’s exploits including ‘Old Nick’ and ‘Moby Dick’
010 BSA Royal Star
A great example that sometimes, just sometimes slightly less is more
020
CBX – the 084 Honda restoration
New Classics – 056 Brough Superior SS100
Classics – 090 New SWM Six days 450
The real café racer almost never happened. With Interceptor power, it’s a hard bike to beat
It’s new in all but name. Does this new incarnation of the most famous of motorcycles live up to everyone’s expectations? (Give you a clue – it’s great)
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024 News
Norton release more information about their 650cc Scrambler, Triumph are recruiting apprentices and more goings on in our world
028 What’s on
Pack your hamper, clean your goggles and get out there! Let us know of any we’ve missed
032
Buying Guide – 050 Rickman Metisse
Buying Guide – Matchless G9
Forever in the shadows of Triumph and BSA, but the G9 and AJS Model 20 are good bikes
Buying Guide – 042 Panther 120
Phelon and Moore’s last hurrah – the Panther 120 is more than just a sidecar tug
064
Letters
Let us know your thoughts – anything you’d like to say? Go on!
We look at the Honda CBX1000 on its 40th anniversary, with an in-depth restoration of this huge machine
With looks faithful to the original, a fun 450cc engine and it doesn’t cost the earth; the SWM six days is a pleasure
094 Products
A helmet that’s super quiet, some good, affordable gloves and a brake light for your helmet!
066 Archive poster
096 Honda PC50 – restoration
068 Steve Cooper 070 Paul Miles 072 Paul D’Orléans
103 What we’ve been up to
074 Wheels and Waves
110 Next month
A cracking portrait of the Royal Tank Corps team from the 1938 ISDT
Steve has a little disagreement…
Poor Paul – he’s done his back in
Paul looks back at the history of American motorcycles with parallels of today
Bikes, racing and surf, in the South of France. Some great bikes and characters
078 Bakker CBX
One of Honda’s greatest engines framed by one of the greatest frame builders
Two gentlemen revive one of Honda’s charming mopeds on a tight budget
Matt’s been admiring Honda’s little touches, while Steve gets hurt and Oli replaces his tank
In the workshop – 105 Adjust your primary chain Oli adjusts his Triumph T140 primary chain
We have some great bikes for you next month, including a Triumph Bobber, Suzuki’s RE5, the Shetland classic show and how to recommission a bike that’s been resting
112 Reader ads 130 Last Word
The sun is out so treat yourself!
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Frank meets a friend in the sun for a perfect day’s riding
CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE ||AUGUST 2018 3
From our archive
4 AUGUST 2018 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE
GEORGE BROUGH, SS100 GRAND TOURER ‘Designer, manufacturer, rider of the Brough Superior’ is how George Brough described himself. But the founder of Brough Superior was more, much more than that. He was a superb salesman, often remembering owners by name. He was a shrewd businessman, realising that the best way to make the motorcycle of his vision was to buy parts in and essentially assemble these fine parts. He knew more about marketing before the term was even used; making sure that Broughs were always at the forefront of speed trials and racing; gaining headlines and column inches. He made sure there was an innovative model on the stand for the British motorcycle show, including some interesting and rarely-seen engine configurations. George Brough knew how to make Brough Superior stand out and become the bike to have. Below, from left: Broughs could also be practical, as this beautiful Parwood sidecar shows. Moby Dick – Bought by an owner who wanted the ‘fastest bike on the road’. The name came from the stage when most parts were polished or chromed and in the sun it looked like ‘a big white monster’. ‘Leaping Lena’ Supercharged Brough Superior, built in 1932 by Phil Irving, Alan Bruce, and Arthur Simcock for world speed records. George Brough and Ike Webb with Old Bill, formally known as ‘Spit and Polish’. George and others used it for various hill climbs and sprints.
mortonsarchive.com
CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE ||AUGUST 2018 5
Welcome
Quite how, exactly, do you do that? THOUGH SCHOOL, ACADEMIA and conventional studying weren’t my forte, I was lucky-enough to grow up in the countryside where the emphasis seems to be on fix ing, well, all kinds of stuff. M y parents saw I was interested in this, so when their old car failed the M oT badly, they gave it to me, aged 1 1 . T he proviso was that they would insure me when I was 1 7 ; and so began the long road of realising something was broken, how it was broken, how to fix it and then, once the first, second and often third attempt had failed, how to fix it successfully. Hours of my life were spent in the shed. T here was no J edi master to help me, j ust a smattering of old tools, added to every birthday and C hristmas. T erry, who ran an old L and R over garage in a barn behind, was also really patient by putting up with a kid hanging around asking q uestions – all the time… Gradually I learned about torq ue settings, how an engine worked, how to weld and, q uite q uickly, how to modify. T his was before the internet brought us all instant answers remember. I t helped that there was an old-school scrapyard down our lane, which I would walk around, looking at what might make my car better, faster or look cooler. I t was a long road, but gradually my confidence and level of capability raised to ‘acceptable’ standards. By the time I was 1 6 bikes had entered the workshop. T hese 5 0 cc M T s, Z R s T S and C Gs were smaller, easier to fix and –
6 AUGUST 2018 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE
best of all – I could get on the road now! T wo-strokes were new to me but seemed so simple, at least to fix . N one were ever advertised, you heard so-and-so’s brother was selling something; a deal was struck and you had a new bike, usually knackered. W orn out big-bore kits, massively overgeared, knackered chains, bald tyres – we didn’t care; it was transport. A nd we could fix it. N ormally. M ove the clock to today and it’s j ust as easy for someone of any age to find a proj ect and learn how it works. But society has made that lengthy time of discovery almost unacceptable – it seems everyone wants to know it all, now. A nd more trades are not hands-on, leaving a lot of riders unsure of how difficult, or not, a j ob is. O ne maj or engineering company who specialise in crank rebuilds and engine builds said they had more and more people ringing them up to service their classic bike. But everyone knows how to do that, right? N o, and why should they if their trade isn’t mechanics? I t’s no one’s fault, j ust changing times. A nd with bikes increasing in value, who can blame anyone hesitating to take their bike apart if not confident? T hank heavens they aren’t as clueless as we were when playing with our 5 0 s – but the bodges above are j ust a collection I ’ve seen in the last week, including the worst chain I ’ve seen, a sprocket that looks like a throwing star and a battery that the owner couldn’t get off, so bungeed a car battery
on the rack and wired that to the battery… But I can’t talk; I remember the time I forgot to fill the gearbox oil up and went bum-surfing past my watching brother. I ’m sure he was laughing. W hat’s the answer? Some may think it’s piffl e paffl e but riding a bike you’ve worked on is so satisfying. A nd if you’re as tight as me, you get an ex tra kick not paying someone. A club in Scotland has workshop evenings which are a great success. A fter all, old bikes are much easier to work on than modern bikes and you can see how they work. C ould your local club do something like that? O r a group of friends? I ’m sure many do. I t’s a brave man who puts their hand up and says ‘I don’t know how to do that’ but there is normally someone who is happy to help. Here at Classic Bike Guide we are going to try to bring more guides on restorations and the common j obs that need doing. W e would really like to hear from you about what sort of j obs you’d like to see. A nd that old car I was given at 1 1 ? I still have it and it’s still not finished. I keep buying damn bikes… Be good
Matt Hull editor@classicbikeguide.com
Last few of the
Searching for an affordable classic? We meet one man who thinks he’s found the answer – BSA’s 500 Royal Star WORDS & PHOTOS BY PHIL MATHER
10 AUGUST 2018 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE
CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE ||AUGUST 2018 11
I
f we all had access to a time machine it might be a good move to scoot back to the late 1 9 6 0 s and buy a twin-cylinder 5 0 0 . N ot to bring back to the here and now, that probably wouldn’t be allowed, but simply to love and to leave to ensure that there would be a lot more 5 0 0 twins for everybody to enj oy 5 0 years down the line – ready for when the pool of ex otic bikes slipped forever beyond the reach of M r E veryman and riders finally came to their senses and admitted that 6 5 0 parallel twins are truly hard work to live with. I t’s an interesting thought and certainly one shared by J im Hastilow who does his classic biking on a budget, but still wants to ride something with a bit of style and performance that doesn’t relegate him to vintage vehicle parades and tootling around country lanes on sunny, Sunday afternoons. “ T imes have really changed. I once bought a BSA B3 1 for £ 1 5 0 . I had a modern bike for daily transport so I guess the BSA was a hobby, pure and simple. I brought it home in two tea chests and took three years to piece it back together, not
12 AUGUST 2018 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE
really knowing what it was until the O wners’ C lub confirmed it was a very early postwar model that left the factory in 1 9 4 6 . A chap from Holland contacted me – he had factory records that showed the bike had been dispatched to BSA dealers M illards in Guernsey, who, I believe, are still going. How it wound up back in the U K is anybody’s guess but it was great fun to ride – a real survivor.” “ N owadays, finding bikes for restoration is difficult because there is so much interest, both from dealers who sell ‘barn finds’ for thousands of pounds, to a worldwide market on the internet, and from people who can afford to throw money at a nut and bolt restoration irrespective of the condition of the bike they have. C ost has outstripped actual value; unfortunately that’s the way it is, but it has narrowed the field a great deal.” T wo years ago, J im was running a T riumph Daytona, a peppy twin carb machine with high compression pistons and a growing reluctance to start. He had, he freely admits, become disenchanted with the brand and swung his allegiance
to the stacked rifl es of A rmoury R oad, Birmingham. O r at least he began to seriously consider a BSA as a viable replacement for the Daytona. “ BSA twins from the late Six ties are ex tremely solid-looking, and the motors of the 5 0 0 s are, if anything, over-engineered. O verall, there’s less fuss about a BSA .” A ll true, but not q uite the tone of the company’s advertising which was focussed on the high performing 6 5 0 T hunderbolts and L ightnings. T hen again, perhaps it was the tone of the advertising that had a lot to answer for – the A 5 0 R oyal Star was billed as ‘smooth, q uiet, dependable – your best choice may be a R oyal Star’. A ll a bit low-key at a time when the motorcycle world was teetering on the brink of the Superbike era… N ot surprisingly, the 5 0 0 twins didn’t sell in great numbers and by 1 9 6 8 there was only one model left in the BSA catalogue. So how did J im go about finding his R oyal Star? T o start with, he set himself a budget, £ 2 ,0 0 0 , to cover the initial purchase. He knew he was unlikely to find anything remotely spectacular at such
a modest price, possibly half the going rate for a bike on the road, but it put his q uest into perspective. J im was well aware that any bike in that price category would req uire work. A nother proj ect in fact; although hopefully not one that came in tea chests this time. A nd although he felt confident to tackle the bulk of any restoration himself, there would inevitably be a long list of parts that needed replacing, as with any bike that was going to be roadworthy, let alone a reliable runner – a hidden ex pense that is so easy to overlook at the initial purchase stage. A utoj umbles regularly turn up bikes of the less sought-after category and it was at the V M C C Shepton M allet j umble that J im found his BSA . He describes it as “ essentially a collection of parts in a frame and everything very rusty” , although by autoj umble standards it wasn’t that shabby. L ooking at a photograph of the machine in ‘as found’ condition, it looks pretty complete and all the parts – petrol tank, seat, side panels, mudguards and wheels – look to be the right ones. How often have you seen a bike that has been thrown
Jim found the Royal Star at the Shepton Mallett autojumble. It was almost complete – better than his B31 that had come in tea chests...
together with all manner of bits and pieces being passed-off as original! T rue, the A 5 0 had spent a fair bit of time in the damp and there were obvious things missing like the primary chaincase cover and the clutch cable, but the engine kicked over and the wheels turned, so it was well worth considering. A possible bonus was that the engine was supposed to have been rebuilt by the last owner, which may or may not have been true of course. A nd if it was true, how good a j ob had he made of it? A better bonus was that after J im had decided to buy the bike, another guy who had shown an interest in it turned out to be a bit of a BSA fanatic and offered him a primary cover and a good condition, original headlamp shell to get the restoration under way. Back home, J im cleared a space in his workshop and began the careful process of dismantling the bike, photographing
every stage of the procedure with his trusty phone. I t came apart ex tremely easily, leading him to believe that it had been stripped for a rebuild in the dim and distant past ( it was last registered in 1 9 8 2 ) and then loosely reassembled to sell at the autoj umble. T hat would ex plain why the ex haust system was in such good condition, bright chrome on the outside and soot free on the inside – it had been bought brand-new all those years ago and never fitted. C orrosion was evident all over the chassis; it had wrecked the wheel rims and gnawed deep into the metal of the petrol tank. J im was doubtful that the tank could be salvaged and, even if it could, it would never match the q uality of the original so it had to be scrapped. Both glass fibre side panels were badly cracked around the mounting holes, the seat base was rusted and the cover torn. P arts were coming off and, wherever possible, earmarked for repair, but in the case of the tank and wheel rims, new or good condition secondhand replacements would have to be found. T he condition of the engine was still
CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE ||AUGUST 2018 13
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