Classic Bike Guide August 2014

BSa empire V-Twin Federal Commando Val Page-insPired M46 Canadian-built norton

espresso

£4.10

n o r V i n C a F e r a C e r || V i n C e n t b l a C k s h a d o w || b s a e M P i r e t w i n || F e d e r a l n o r t o n

italian FirM does british CaFe raCers – with style

plus:

stile italiano’s Metisse triuMPh & Featherbed harley sPeCials

Ace cAfe TriTon DAy || coupes MoTo legenDe || BriDgesTone HisTory

No.280August 2014

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DouBle

LiVE2 RIDE || Editorial

|| who’s who || eDitoR || Gary Pinchin gpinchin@mortons.co.uk puBliSHeR || Dan Savage dsavage@mortons.co.uk DeSiGneR || James Duke RepRoGRapHicS || Simon Duncan GRoup pRoDuction eDitoR || Tim Hartley DiviSional aDveRtiSinG manaGeR || David England 01507 529438 dengland@mortons.co.uk aDveRtiSinG || Leon Currie, Jane Farquharson 01507 524004 lcurrie@mortons.co.uk jfarquharson@mortons.co.uk aRcHive enQuiRieS || Jane Skayman 01507 529423 jskayman@mortons.co.uk SuBScRiption manaGeR || Paul Deacon ciRculation manaGeR || Steven O’Hara maRKetinG manaGeR || Charlotte Park pRoDuction manaGeR || Craig Lamb puBliSHinG DiRectoR || Dan Savage commeRcial DiRectoR || Nigel Hole aSSociate DiRectoR || Malc Wheeler

GARY pinchin the international issue SometimeS you can lay the best plans but something comes along and makes you rip the plan up and start afresh. This month’s magazine went that way when first Stile Italiano sent us some pictures of its beautiful cafe racers. And then Borile weighed in with its GM-based retro street scrambler.

And, adding to an already international mix, a new Canadian-based shop called Federal Moto launched its delightful, stripped down Norton Commando street tracker.

And those feature bikes sat perfectly with those we already had lined up – including the unique EMU BSA Empire Twin from New Zealand courtesy of Alan Cathcart, the quirky Cento 50 Capriolo (surely the world’s smallest, complex boxer twin?) from Phillip Tooth and the tasty home-built Triumph from South Africa, plus the Coupes Moto Legende and Wheels & Waves event coverage from France to complete a truly international issue.

Not forgetting British-built bikes, we visited John Newson to get the back story to his wonderful collection of old Brit bikes – and found a really cool Harley, Matchless, Norton special and another wonderful Vincent, and then prised the retro XRTT 1200 Harley cafe racer story from our friends at Shaw Speed & Custom. And we spent a wonderful day ogling bikes at the Ace for Triton/Cafe Racer Day. Old and new. Far and wide. The beautiful all-inclusive world of classic motorcycling wrapped up a 132-page issue of CBG.

illustration by martin squires

More froM CBG...

contRiButoRS in tHiS iSSue Sarah Bradley, Alan Cathcart, George Cohen, Steve Cooper, Joe Dick, Gary Margerum, Phil Mather, Mykel Nicolaou, Paul d’Orleans, Martin Squires, Phillip Tooth, Frank Westworth.

eDitoRial aDDReSS Mortons Media Group, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6JR WeBSite www.classicbikeguide.com GeneRal QueRieS anD BacK iSSueS 01507 529529 24hr answerphone Email: help@classicmagazines.co.uk Web: www.classicmagazines.co.uk SuBScRiption Full subscription rates (but see page 22 for offer): (12 months 12 issues, inc post and packing) – UK £49.20. Export rates are also available – see page 24 for more details. UK subscriptions are zero-rated for the purposes of Value Added Tax. DiStRiBution COMAG, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE. Telephone 01895 433600. uSa SuBScRiptionS CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE (USPS:002-674) is published monthly by Mortons Media Group Ltd, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ UK. USA subscriptions are $54 per year from Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N #441, Bancroft WI 54921.

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ISSN No 0959-7123 aDveRt DeaDline || Wednesday, August 6 next iSSue || Wednesday, August 27 © Mortons Motorcycle Media, a division of Mortons Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

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LIVE2 RIDE || CONTENTS

FEATURES 042

LIVE2RIDE

STILE ITALIANO

Italian flair. British classics

052

CAPRIOLO BOXER

Rare Italian 150cc ohv twin

008 TRITON DAY

028 RETRO HARLEY

The Ace Cafe celebrates a breed apart

Modern twist on Rayborn’s XRTT

018 WHEELS & WAVES

032 WHAT’S ON GUIDE

Biarritz and the hill climb hipsters

All that’s good to go to in August

058

FEDERAL COMMANDO

OPINION

064

BSA EMPIRE TWIN

072

OXNEY MOTORCYCLES

020 COUPES MOTO LEGENDE

They do things different at Dijon

022 SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 024 RETRO SCRAMBLER Borile gets dirty with Ricki 500

036 PAUL D’ORLEANS

Canadians do Norton street tracker

Building the V-twin that never was

038 SARAH BRADLEY 040 GEORGE COHEN 128 FRANK WESTWORTH

RIDE2LIVE

100 SOUTH AFRICAN TRIUMPH

116 CLUB GUIDE

Shed-built 1959 Thunderbird cafe racer

London Douglas Motorcycle Club

106 MARQUE HISTORY

120 BUYER’S GUIDE

Bridgestone two-strokes

British 250cc singles and twins, part 2

112 HOW TO GUIDE Cleaning carburettors

Gypsy John’s classic collection

#

280

AUGUST 2014

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || AUGUST 2014 3

LIVE2 RIDE || whEEls & wavEs

The race to Punks Peak The Americans have the Race to the Clouds on Pikes Peak mountain. The French have a much more laid-back hill climb in the Pyrenees – for classic bikes!

Words and photos by Gary MarGeruM

Wheels and Waves has rapidly earned itself a reputation as one of the biker events of the year, by simply blending customised vintage and classic motorcycles, vintage surfing, art and music.

Its reputation is such that it’s fast become the most anticipated event in the motorcycle calendar – bringing together top builders and manufacturers’ marques including volume manufacturer BMW, as well as the more exclusive Brough!

Wheels and Waves is held in the beautiful town of Biarritz, in south-west France and is organised by a Toulouse-based group, The Southsiders MC, a crew of six, like-minded motorcycle enthusiasts who enjoy

18 AUGUST 2014 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

EvEnt JUN 12-15

2014

customised vintage and classic machines.

The Southsiders brought together many hundreds of people with a common passion for the classic custom motorcycles gathering, held on the sunny Basque coast – a beautiful location with perfect Atlantic vistas.

The Lighthouse on the rocky outcrop at Biarritz was the base of the four-day event. A good size parking area held a vast array of different customer classic motorcycles while their riders mingled around the many stalls where you could purchase T-shirts, clothing, surfboards and chat with custom painters, builders, mechanics, or even grab a croissant and coffee from one of the cafes.

There were two major rideouts throughout the four-day

event, one being a day-long 250km run, and a smaller one for the not so adventurous. There was also a motorcycle exhibition peppered with artists, photographers and people in the vintage surfing industry, including ‘Revolver’ a company based in Cornwall. Wheels and Waves truly is an international gathering – and so brilliantly organised by The Southsiders.

A vintage surfing competition was held on the beautiful sandy beaches of the Atlantic coast on Thursday, while evening entertainment included a variety of different bands based at the Lighthouse in Biarritz.

The highlight of the event though, was the sprint race held in the Pyrenees at the aptly named ‘Punks Peak’, a 30-mile ride from Biarritz centre along the N10.

The ride itself was spectacular with the road hugging the coastline through the villages of Bidart, Guéthary, and Saint-Jean-de-Luz before hitting the twisting little back roads to the start of the magnificent climb up to Punks Peak, where invited ‘racers’ chose to pitch their nerve against each other – in one-on-one drag-style races.

It must be the most beautiful drag strip in the world, and while the riders were attacking the course full-on, the whole event was good-humoured and fun!

Wheels and Waves concluded on Sunday morning with a breakfast meet, where people chatted over the wild events of the weekend and said their goodbyes – until next year!

Anything goes at Wheels and Waves: Brough Superiors, to 1970s Japanese bobbers, to modern Bonnies – and pretty much everything else on two wheels in between. It’s all inclusive, laid-back and serious fun

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || AUGUST 2014 19

LIVE2 RIDE || XRTT

28 August 2014 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

Tribute to Calvin Lee Rayborn Shaw Speed & Custom’s latest build is based on a 2010 XR1200 – but its roots are in the 1970s and the factory Harley road race team

S

♠

haw Speed & Custom is always striving to push the custom boundaries, taking things to a new level, and opening up the minds of people and the definition of customising – especially within Harley-Davidson culture.

Its website now hosts more than 90 projects that the company has built for customers across the globe. Since branding its custom side of the business in late-2009, the official Harley-Davidson Dealership has seen almost daily growth, working with some high-end brands, bringing in new people who would not have considered the HarleyDavidson brand as a first.

Steve Willis, the team principal of Shaw Speed & Custom and dealer principal of Shaw Harley-Davidson, looks at the business and talks about its latest build, this glorious XR12000 cafe racer...

“It’s exciting to have been with the Speed Shop since the first thoughts of improving the custom experience in 2009.

We set our sights at looking after people and helping them get the most out of their bikes. If they wanted a new colour, handlebar change, or makeover it’s not a problem for us, and we love these projects.

“The larger, more detailed projects came onboard after winning the world championships in Sturgis in 2010.

People were emailing in to see what was possible for (us to do for) them. It’s great to get to know our customers and deliver their own perfect bike, but the skill is to interpret the customer’s wants and thoughts into the motorcycle that delivers, or hopefully exceeds, their expectations.

“The latest project to come out of our East Sussex-based workshop is the aptly named XR1200TT. The project in itself was quite complex and quite a gutsy one to say the least.” The Speed Shop’s service manager Simon Pocock recently delivered the XL1200 Cross – and continued his recent form with the management of this one-off.

Cal Rayborn influences can be seen immediately with the XR1200TT, this latest Shaw Speed & Custom offering being an interpretation of his original XR750 TT from the early 1970s.

Simon’s passion for racing, and its history, was unbolted when he met up with a client who wanted something completely different, based on the XR1200 HarleyDavidson.

Shaw Speed had explored different looks already with this model; the motocross-influenced Rockstar, a Supermoto-inspired XR, cafe racer-stylised bikes and some street racers, but this was the moment when something original was about to be born.

Simon managed to locate the fairing from the States – the fairing which was used was one for one of the S&S

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || August 2014 29

EMU BSA

sports model, the middle one an early-70s disc-braked roadburner, the third the kind of bike that BSA might have made to go Superbike racing with, had it stuck around that long. Except it didn’t. What might have been, if only…

glASS hAlF FUll

Doug Fraser is a friendly person whose enthusiasm is infectious – he’s a person for who the glass is perpetually half full, whose passion and energy for every task deliver an enviable sense of positivity. He’s a toolmaker by trade who today is an electrical engineer focusing on heavy duty industrial electric motors, and the design and manufacture of related switchgear.

It means his large but crowded suburban factory, on the road to Phillip Island, is packed with an array of lathes, grinders, milling machines and related equipment, all of which can also be used to make a motorcycle from the ground up.

But it’s fair to say that 60-something Melbourne-born Fraser is somewhat smitten by vehicles Made in England.

Parked outside are his company wheels, a 1970s Hillman Hunter workhorse that’s done more than 900,000km and is

ABOVE

From the left side you could be fooled into thinking this is 100% an original, period motorcycle

on its third body. Garaged inside the workshop is his daily driver, a V12 Jaguar E-Type Coupé of the same vintage, that’s done ‘only’ one-fifth of that mileage. Tucked in behind that is the Norton rotary racer that Doug built himself 15 years ago to compete against Ducatis and Aprilias in BEARS racing, the anything-but-J-bikes category which he ended up dominating in Australia and NZ on a bike whose engine started out life in the UK in a 120,000mile West Midlands police bike.

Doug imported the rotary, concocted a five-speed gearbox from mainly Triumph parts to attach to it, built an ignition system, and then designed a frame for it. He then took the resultant self-built special to the starting line in more than 40 races, winning most of them against far more thoroughbred opposition, aided by his own considerable riding skills.

Riding the Irving Vincent, I’ve diced several times with Doug aboard the Norton Rotary, and he is fast – especially for a boffin who builds his own bikes, and who takes pride in the fact that he started racing in the late 1960s, so can claim to have raced in six decades! Yet Doug is also a big fan of the BSA Gold Star single, and has several of them

EMU BSA EMPIRE TWIN M46

ENgINE: Air-cooled pushrod ohv 50º V-twin four-stroke DIMENSIoNS: 87 x 94mm CAPACITy: 1118cc oUTPUT: 45bhp at 4000 rpm (at rear wheel) MAxIMUM ToRqUE: 70lb-ft/95Nm at 3200rpm CoMPRESSIoN RATIo: 9:1 CARBURATIoN: 2x 30mm Amal Mk.1 Concentric IgNITIoN: 12v battery and coil gEARBox: Four-speed BSA Gold Star close-ratio ClUTCh: Multi-plate oil-bath ChASSIS: Modified BSA M20 single-loop tubular steel frame with bifurcated engine cradle FRoNT SUSPENSIoN: BSA M20 girder fork REAR SUSPENSIoN: None WhEElBASE: 56in/1420mm WEIghT: 185kg dry FRoNT BRAkES: 8in/203mm Triumph/BSA double-sided single leading-shoe drum REAR BRAkE: 7in/178mm BSA single leading-shoe drum FRoNT WhEEl/TyRE: 3.50 x 19 Dunlop Gold Seal K70 on wire-wheeled steel rim REAR WhEEl/TyRE: 4.00 x 18 Dunlop Gold Seal K70 on wire-wheeled steel rim gENERAToR: 120W Lucas alternator ToP SPEED: 80mph/130kph yEAR oF CoNSTRUCTIoN: 2008 oWNER: Doug Fraser, Emu Engineering, Carrum Down, Victoria, Australia

66 August 2014 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

including the 500 Goldie he and his wife Jenny spent six weeks touring Britain and the Isle of Man in 2008 on, two-up with luggage. That’s dedication to the cause.

There’s a plethora of other British bikes of all types and every era spread around the extensive Emu Engineering workshop – so what’s the fascination with the products of the Mother Country?

“I was brought up in the era when the British motorcycle industry was well and truly flourishing,” says Fraser. “I like the way that their bikes were built, because as a toolmaker I can relate to the machinery that was used to make them. And I think they’re pretty fine products, to the point that I’m a passionate believer in them.

“People look at the Hillman and turn their noses up at it, but the fact is, apart from the big mileage the engine has done with me it is completely reliably. It’s got a GT motor, and I’ve fitted a Toyota five-speed gearbox to it, so it goes really well. It’s running on autogas (LPG – AC), too, so it’s very economical, and a bloody good car. The bikes are the same – I especially like the style of prewar British motorcycles.”

It’s a liking he’s tried hard to pass on to his three teenage daughters who are all active riders, building a pair of 75cc Trojan-engined minibikes for the two eldest, Jessie and Georgia, to learn to ride on when very young, although the youngest, Clancy, instead got given her own BSA Bantam at a tender age. That’s called getting them started right!

BSA V-twin fixAtion

ABOVE

The maestro at work; Doug Fraser focusing on the day job!

BELOW

From the riding position the controls and the instruments are true period pieces

♠

However, it’s a fair jump from tuning up a 1970s saloon, to constructing a trio of completely self-created V-twin motorcycles – a what-if challenge to himself that’s ended up close to becoming a fixation.

“I’ve got a Hesketh,” says Doug, “and they’re basically two singles put together on a common crankcase, and

that’s the way I like V-twins to be built. I’ve always had a soft spot for BSA V-twins. They built them from roughly 1920 until 1938, and they were nice looking bikes, but something you couldn’t afford to thrash – a good sidecar hack, but never performance based. They were an older design, so not a very strong engine – even in 1938, they still had exposed exhaust valves.

“I couldn’t for the life of me understand why they didn’t build a modern V-twin, based on two of their singles of the 1937-39 period – so I decided to take the most modern bike that BSA had in its prewar catalogue, which was the Empire Star single, and put two of those together, hence the name I gave it, the Empire Twin. I made my own patterns for the crankcases, got them cast and then built the engine. All of this took about 700 hours to accomplish, plus another 700 for the chassis and to complete everything – in between earning a living!”

Doug’s initial aim was to produce a motorcycle that in his opinion, BSA should have built in 1939, a gutsy large capacity ohv V-twin which might have been a counter to Edward Turner’s brilliant Triumph Speed Twin, whose acclaimed debut in 1937 ensured that the British motorcycle industry would largely turn its back on V-twin development, in order to concentrate in future on parallel-twins.

The line of BSA V-twins had begun with the side valve 770cc Model E of 1919, a robust long-wheelbase design, which like the firm’s later 986cc model, was intended for sidecar work. In the 1930s, lighter and more spritely ohv 498 and 748cc V-twin models appeared, containing some features making them more suitable for solo use, although most were sold for military and police work. But the arrival in 1936 of former Ariel and Triumph designer Val Page – later to create the acclaimed Empire Star and Gold Star sporting singles – brought various subtle changes to the

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || August 2014 67

ABOVE

If this Triumph could write a book it would be a fabulous autobiographical road trip.

Originally a TR6, it has been a cop bike, a chopper, a sidecar rig and is now a ride anywhere and everywhere kind of bike

Lifetime Bonnie

As he wheels the blue Triumph out of the garage, John regales us with the first of many stories: “I passed my test in February 1978 and bought this Triumph for 348 quid.

My nan lent me the money because my dad didn’t have any. It’s an ex-cop bike from Maidstone, a TR6P. I bought it off a guy called Rupert Cobb, who’s dead now. It makes me the third owner.

“I’d started out on a Honda CD175 with ape-hangers, Maltese-cross mirrors and megaphones. Then I got this Triumph.

“First trip out of Kent was the Stonehenge Free Festival – before it all got cleaned up and was shipped to Glastonbury.

‘I passed my test in February 1978 and bought this Triumph for 348 quid. My nan lent me the money because my dad didn’t have any’ 74 August 2014 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

“The bike went from a mild custom to a chop in the 1980s. I toured all the British Isles on it, 3000 miles in three months with a girl on the back. There was always a bird with me! We had a backpack and a tent with broomsticks for poles.

“In 1984 the motor blew up in Amsterdam in the middle of a Chopper Club run. I got towed all the way home by a VW trike. The engine was too far gone to rebuild so I stuck a TR7V motor in it.

“That was when it was a chopper but then I bolted on a single adult Watsonian sidecar, lowered the gearing, fitted an electric starter and went off touring Europe on it.”

‘Touring Europe’ included a trip down to Portugal and across the Pyrenees. “The bird I had with me that time nearly froze to death in the sidecar,” he laughs. “Got six years out of the bike with the sidecar on it but by then the TR7 motor was worn out, smoking and rattling, but still pulling like a train – though the rest of it was in a bad state.

“I took the engine out and sold it for a grand at Stafford!

At the time I had a four-speed 650cc T120 Bonnie motor knocking around in the garage so I rebuilt that and stuck

that in instead. Did the twin disc conversion myself and it’s as you see it now – back to a more standard machine. I still use it regularly.

“The original single-carb 650 engine, TR6P99675, is over there.” John points to the tidy cut-away engine that sits on a plinth in the corner of the garage. “Did that myself. Rebuilt it using entirely scrap parts but it took weeks of cutting and filing. It took seven hours to cut a window out of the carb manifold – and the entire project was spread over a four year period!”

ThaTcher’s granT

ABOVE

John has chopped and changed this bike so much but the current set-up included double discs – perfect for modern traffic – and a Bonnie-spec motor

♠

But what’s the fascination of riding an ageing Triumph when all around us are machines with much more heritage, way more kudos than an ageing, battle-scarred Bonnie that used to be a single-carb cop bike?

“Ever since I was a kid I wanted a Triumph. There was no history in our family of bikes. My dad’s only experience was going to Utrecht on the back of a bike in the 1950s and he hated it. I’ve got three brothers and a sister and she’s the only one interested in bikes.

“Yet, from the age of 10 I wanted a Triumph. Why? I’ve no idea, maybe it was Steve McQueen or Elvis, or another Sixties icon? Maybe it was Marlon Brando and his T-bird in the Wild One? I just know I used to dream about bikes like that. And, if I could only keep one of my collection, it would be the Triumph.

“I’m into the early 1970s era. All my mates had Bonnies or TR6s. There were about 20 of us. We went to the chop thing and used to have spares to fix each other’s bikes. I still see a few of my old mates. We keep in touch and some of us met up at the (Ace Cafe-organised) Margate Meltdown this year.”

John, now 55 years old, left school to earn money picking hops or fruit, and working in factories. But soon realised he had a knack for wheeling and dealing in bikes.

“A fellow called ‘One Eyed Dave’ from Tonbridge had a T140 chop which he had blown up and left in an alley. He said I could have it for £500. I rebuilt it and painted it by hand and swapped that for a Laverda Jota 180 that I used for blatting around the marshes on.”

But out of that first bike trade grew an idea to run his own business. It started with what John refers to as a

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || August 2014 75