Classic Bike Guide - January 2016 - Preview

BONNIE THEN BONNIE NOW SWEET TWIN

STREET TWIN

CAFÉ FLYER

TOTALLY SPECIALTRIBSA

STRIPPED BACK GUZZI BOBBER IN BEIGE

||

NORTON 650SS || DUCATI 175 || MATCHLESS G3 || HONDA SILVERWING

||

No.297 January 2016

£4.20

PRINTED IN THE UK

2 JANUARY 2015 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || CONTENTS

072

006 010

EVENT REPORT Kickback. Still life in London

NEWS New guest at Newark; well damped steering, things like that

012

EVENT REPORT

020

SUBSCRIBE!

022

ROYAL ENFIELD CONSTELLATION

046

LETTERS

048

PAUL D’ORLÉANS

Some great stuff here. We always need more letters

Searching for certainty in a sea of suspicion

Show. No mud…

Save money, get the magazine early. Great

No great shakes as a superbike, competent practical classic

036 040

Svelte single, striking colours, too

MATCHLESS G3 Rigid, girders, big bang single.

Black

BMW K1200 NORTON 650SS One of the more unusual interpretations of Norton’s twin

050

MARK WILLIAMS

052

PAUL MILES

Dirty images are fuelling classic biking’s latest trend

Cabin fever, or How To Handle Life In Winter

TRIBSA! Some of the very best specials are not Tritons shock

MOTO GUZZI FALCONE Take a gentle tourist and transform into a tearaway

TRIUMPH STREET TWIN The Bonneville reborn. Again.

And again again shortly…

082

TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE T120R

091

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

106

DUCATI SILVERSTONE

Truly remarkable four-pot flier

064 072

Southern Classic Off-Road

Enfield’s 700 makes an oddly

028 032

056

Original and still the best. Discuss?

Spot the revised prices. It’s not always easy

HONDA SILVERWING Faintly unusual tourist revived.

That’s the GL650, then

117

READER ADS

128

LOUISE LIMB’S INK WHEELS

Lots. Lots. Lots. We think.

Not seen them yet…

Cunning mix of Marianne and a Gold Star

130

FRANK WESTWORTH At the back of the pack, as usual

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || JANUARY 2016 3

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || EDITORIAL

||

WHO’S WHO ||

EDITOR || Frank Westworth editor@classicbikeguide.com PUBLISHER || Tim Hartley thartley@mortons.co.uk SENIOR DESIGNER || Kelvin Clements DESIGNER || Michael Baumber PICTURE DESK || Paul Fincham, Jonathan Schofield EDITORIAL ASSISTANT || Jayne Clements PRODUCTION EDITORS || Sarah Palmer, Sarah Wilkinson

FRANK WESTWORTH

BUYING SEASON IT’S A LITTLE like déjà vu. Which is possibly one of the more entertaining features of the passing years. Comforting in a way, as it reveals that although there most certainly are new things under the sun – any sun! – most ideas which are presented as being new in fact are not.

What’s he talking about, the guy with the grey beard who edits this fine magazine? Custom bikes. And I’m talking about them because, once again, there’s a lot of it about. A spate of year-end events brought home just how many there are, and how considerable is the variety of them. Just like you, I see the bikes in magazines of sundry sorts, and just like you – I imagine – I see them out there on the road, although less so in rural Cornwall than in urban city centres. They’re not entirely absent from the excellent roads of the West Country – stumbled across a truly remarkable CX500 Honda bob while heading for coffee in Bude only the other day – but two trips to the big bright city brought home how many individualised motorcycles are on the streets of our capital city.

There’s nothing new about modified motorcycles. The first thing the first rider of the first bike did after seeing how fast it would go would have been to make it a little more to his taste. Or hers. What hadn’t dawned on me until just now was how many of the utterly remarkable modded machines had already completed a full life. How many of them were out of fashion, unpopular models … and therefore very cheap to buy, leaving plenty of scope for gradual expenditure of time, effort and money before they begin their new riding lives.

Again; that’s hardly a new thing. When I was a youth, almost everyone around me wanted a chopped Harley, as seen in the movie Easy Rider. Money was tight, Harleys were very rare and expensive, so they ‘chopped’ everything from Bantams to Bonnevilles into machines which were frequently utterly awful but presumably made their owners happy somehow.

And there were some beauties – of course there were. Then as now, many folk are gifted and skilful. So history is simply repeating itself with the current generation of hipster bobs, bags and brats. Also café racers, judging by the show bikes.

Presumably what happens next is that a whole new generation of classic enthusiast comes along and attempts valiantly to return those CB550s, XS400s and early Hinckley Bonnies to their original stock condition. And that, gentle reader, is a truly scary idea!

That’s it. See you out there.

Frank Westworth editor@classicbikeguide.com

DIVISIONAL ADVERTISING MANAGER || David England 01507 529438 dengland@mortons.co.uk ADVERTISING || Sue Needham, Leon Currie 01507 524004 sneedham@mortons.co.uk lcurrie@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 PUBLISHING DIRECTOR || Dan Savage COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR || Nigel Hole ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR || Malc Wheeler CONTRIBUTORS IN THIS ISSUE Alan Cathcart, Robert Davies, Simon Everett, Rowena Hoseason, Louise Limb, Phil Mather, Frank Melling, Paul Miles, Paul d’Orléans, Stuart Urquhart, Mark Williams, Nolan Woodbury

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 20 for offer): (12 months 12 issues, inc post and packing) – UK £50.40. Export rates are also available – see page 20 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.

Periodical Postage is paid at Bancroft, WI and additional entries.

Postmaster: Send address changes to CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE, c/o Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N #441, Bancroft WI 54921. 715-572-4595 chris@classicbikebooks.com PRINTED BY || William Gibbons & Sons, Wolverhampton.

ISSN No 0959-7123 ADVERT DEADLINE || January 8, 2016 NEXT ISSUE || January 27, 2016

MORE FROM CBG...

© 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.

You can now read Classic Bike Guide on the move – on the web, iPad or Android: http://bit.ly/classicbikeguide

Classic Bikers Club offers a unique resource drawn from our massive archive going back to the turn of the 20th century. www.classicbikersclub.com

4 JANUARY 2016 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

FIND THE CBG TEAM at Facebook/ClassicBikeGuide for news, competitions and our oddly unpredictable Classic of the Day

Independent publisher since 1885 Member of the Professional Publishers’ Association

Just Ask your newsagent to reserve your copy each month

RIDINGLIFE NEWS || EVENTS || LETTERS || INTERVIEWS

Custom classics PHOTOS BY ROWENA HOSEASON

CONFRONTED BY A HALL crammed full of automotive ingenuity, you might wonder what could possibly unite the 100-plus bikes that formed the central display at Kickback Chelsea in December.

Some were undeniably wonderful; some inescapably weird. Old skool chops stood alongside current factory cruisers, shipped straight from the showroom.

Home-built café racers, built on a tight budget and unashamedly displaying their rough edges and spraycan cosmetics, nudged up to professionally-crafted

creations where not a cable-tie could be seen. Old Japs, old Brits and old Beemers stood alongside modern interpretations of traditional themes and tributes, some of which gloriously combine the past and the present and couldn’t care less about muddled metaphors or the coherence of their vernacular.

So what unites all of these machines and their idiosyncratic builders? Dedication, inspiration, perspiration: engineering excellence, and the desire to do something that little bit… special.

TRIBSA STREET-TRACKER ‘IF YOU WANT to build something,’ said the sign next to this handsome beast, ‘just do it. Don’t be afraid to ask for help as you’ll make lots of new friends.’ This particular project shows how a home mechanic can brilliantly blend the best of old and new, using some offthe-shelf components together with shed-crafted parts.

The thumping heart of the bike is a combination of a 1968 TR6 and 1970 Bonnie, with a machined crank and polished conrods, running 12:1 Wiseco pistons and using E3134 cams and TT followers in the gas-flowed and ported head. The motor sits in a BSA oil-bearing frame given a dazzling chromefinish powder-coat, and then the old has been expertly blended with the new – a CBR400 swinging arm, RGV rear wheel and Sachs monoshock at the back, Ducati 916 forks and Brembo brakes up front. The seat and tank unit came from Redmax; powdercoating is by Aerocoat, and it’s been skilfully united through hours of welding, machining and tuning; bracket-making, spindle turning and polishing.

6 JANUARY 2016 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

EVENT SHOW

REPORT

SOUTHERN SHOW

BEVEL HEAVEN

KAFE K

Muddy stuff and

Ducati’s super

BM’s beautiful

street scramblers

Silverstone

brick

P12

P28

P36

PURDY BULLITT DON’T LET THE moniker mislead you: this ‘Bullitt’ isn’t anything to do with Royal Enfield, Indian or otherwise. In fact it’s a hand-built in Britain bike, a Triumph-inspired limited edition, with an allaluminium 500cc engine that’s based around the mid-1950s T100 lump – it even drives through a separate four-speed gearbox. Yet despite using a parallel twin engine based on those of the postwar period, the Bullitt is more of a vintafake than a classic pastiche. Hence the rigid rear end, girderstyle forks, Brown and Barlow throttle and twistgrip, swept-back bars and 1930s styling.

The Purdy’s creators, James Bristow and Philip Burgess, reckon that some 1200 hours go into building each bike, and the majority of the components (apart from the leather seat and toolbox) have been developed and manufactured in-house.

Only five of each model will be built – they weren’t kidding about these being strictly limited editions…

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || JANUARY 2016 7

RIDINGLIFE || KICKBACK CHELSEA

TRICKSY TRIUMPH THE HINCKLEY BONNIE makes a great basis for a street scrambler or modern café racer, and there were stacks of personal interpretations along this theme to choose between at Kickback. This one was our favourite, brought all the way south from Sheffield by Shaun Walker and the Down & Out team.

Check out the kinky curves of the high pipe, the brilliantly witty bash-plate which fits a pair of pistons inside the Triumph logo and, yep, that really is the shortest front mudguard you have ever set eyes upon.

GUNSHIP TOP MARKS TO the guys at Norton for really entering into the ‘streetfighter’ spirit of things with their carbon-clad Dominator SS

HONDA CB550 THIS HOME-BUILT CAFÉ racer started life as a box of bits bought from eBay for £200 and some wild ideas inspired by Cognito Moto in the USA. The 1977 CB550 motor was rebuilt pretty much as standard with honed bores, new rings, valve seats re-cut and mild gas-flowing to the head. The more radical activity was concentrated on the chassis. A new front end came from a GSX-R750, where introducing a Cognito hub meant the Gixer brakes could be united with a spoked wheel to retain some serious stopping power while achieving that ‘classic’ appearance.

Alterations at the back end have been just as extreme. Although the twin-shock rear suspension has been retained, everything superfluous has been swept away leaving only empty air (and a neatly positioned Honda logo) behind. Clever use of 21st century electrical technology means that slimline saddle somehow hides the rec/reg, battery, solenoid, fuse box and relays.

Best of all? That registration number is for real…

8 JANUARY 2016 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

BMW R75 BEFORE SIDE ROCK CYCLES got their mitts on this R75 it was just another airhead from the late 1970s.

It went through their professional ‘minimalist’ process and emerged on the other side as ‘Carbonesque’, a tribute to the JPS rotary racers of the 1980s and 90s. It’s been given a full carbon finish to the bodywork, engine cover and wheel rims, but the beauty on this bike is way more than skin deep. Scratch the surface and you’ll find later Nicasil-coated barrels with new rings, a later (lighter) clutch

and flywheel, more powerful starter motor and modern electronic ignition.

Brakes and forks have been rebuilt and enhanced with Goodridge hoses and thicker fork oil.

There’s billet alloy everywhere – from the clip-on bars to the headlamp brackets – while all the fasteners and the exhaust headers are stainless steel, the latter satin-finished and paired with shorty black peashooters.

Altogether it’s an extremely composed package, and it’s up for grabs if you’ve £9250 to spend.

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || JANUARY 2016 9

RIDINGLIFE || NEWS

Whit’s winter classic

Dreams come true IF YOUR DREAMS are tangerine then the National Motorcycle Museum’s winter raffle could fulfil a fabulous fantasy. The first prize is this handsome 1959 T120 Bonneville, in that shortlived but stunning ice-blue and orange livery. The bike has been restored in the

Museum’s workshop, and could be yours for the price of a £2 ticket. Second prize is a Triumph Tiger Cub, with a luxury break for two people as third prize. The draw will take place on April 24 at the Stafford Show.

Tickets from 01675 444123 or thenmm.co.uk

10 JANUARY 2016 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

JAMIE WHITHAM IS the extraspecial guest confirmed for the Carole Nash CBG Winter Classic at Newark, January 9-10.

Race-ace turned television commentator Whitham will be the star guest at the New Year classic motorcycle event at Newark Showground. One of the most popular British riders ever, Whitham will be on stage several times throughout the weekend being interviewed about his life and career by fellow former competitor Steve Plater. Whitham steps in to replace Peter Hickman who’s required by his new GB Moto Kawasaki team for testing.

‘JW’ has a few classic race bikes of his own, so we look forward to what he’ll bring to the show. The indoor event also features hundreds of

trade stands and autojumble plots packing in to the halls of the venue giving visitors the chance to pick up parts, spares, tools, accessories, clothing, memorabilia and more.

Club stands and private entrants will display pristine restored and maintained classic machines of various makes models and eras.

The Winter Classic also incorporates two dedicated scooter halls which will mix displays, trade and jumble with interactive attractions such as the skills area and an engine rebuild competition.

The Winter Classic opens 9am to 5pm at Newark Showground, NG24 2NY. Advance tickets £8 from classicbikeshows.com / 01507 529529

Personal service

THE WORLDWIDE WEB is a wonderful thing, but in these days of click-n-deliver, there are still moments when you need to call on the expertise of an actual human.

“If a customer wants to know if my steering damper will work with a sidecar, I’m the one guy with all the answers,” says Michael Selman at BellaCorse.

You’re not just buying an aftermarket improvement for your modern Bonnie, Harley or Ducati Scrambler – you’re tapping in to a lifetime of engineering experience of developing performance parts.

BellaCorse has hundreds of products for upgrading performance and enhancing style and comfort, including the steering damper kit you see here. Developed for the 2001 to 2015 Triumph Bonneville range, it’s designed to bolt on in minutes with simple hand tools and helps to reduce high speed front wheel wobble. A sevenposition adjustment knob on the hydraulic damper provides a wide range of operation. At the minimal setting it feels as if the kit wasn’t there, while at the maximum setting it’s suitable for drag racing or land-speed sprints. Competition proven, the hydraulic damper is rebuildable and the kit includes a billet 41mm fork clamp and a frame clamp specific to each particular machine.

The steering damper kit costs £185 from BellaCorse.com

New Norton spares

THE 2016 NORVIL catalogue is available now and lists more than 6000 components for classic Norton Commandos, Dominators, singles and lightweights. Many of these are new items, recently added to the Norvil range. (If you’re in the trade and would like to stock Norvil spares then there’s also a dealer-only list with an additional 2000 extra items.)

You can stay up to date with the firm’s new products, special offers and events by subscribing to the new Norvil newsletter via norvilnews@norvilmotorcycle.co.uk, or request a catalogue on 01543 278008 / norvilmotorcycle.co.uk

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || JANUARY 2016 11

RIDINGLIFE || SOUTHERN SHOW

Southern classic off-road show PHOTOS BY ROWENA HOSEASON, FRANK WESTWORTH

THE CROWDS CRAMMED in to Kempton Park just before Christmas for the now regular Southern Classic Off-Road Show. If the event name makes it sounds as if it’s going to be nothing but dirtbikes then maybe it’s a little bit misleading, because the show hall was stuffed with around 250 motorcycles of all types. Yes, there were plenty of mud-pluggers on display but, as you can tell from the photos, this event features all kinds of classic competition machines – road-racers and record-breakers among them – alongside a superb selection of new-wave custom classics, café racers, flat-trackers and street specials.

Judges Steve Linsdell and Dave Degens had the daunting task of selecting the prize-winners. BRT

12 JANUARY 2016 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

EVENT

SHOW REPORT

Racing took the trophy for the Best Club Stand while (we think) a Manx Norton grabbed the Best In Show award. Anyone who was standing outside at 1pm got the ‘slightly deafened for a fortnight’ prize when several of the big beasts were hauled out and fired up. You couldn’t shout loud enough to order a toastie while these genuine record-breakers bellowed away, and filled the air with blue smoke and the smell of Castrol R… THE NEXT EGP event at Kempton Park is a motorcycle jumble on Saturday, January 23. The Southern Classic Motorcycle Show and Jumble is on Saturday, May 21.

See egp-enterprises.co.uk

BU

Y

A joy of all events like this is the wide range of bikes offered for sale, both in the special Bring’n’Sell section and everywhere in the vast autojumble.

All sorts, something for everyone, add your own favourite cliché and look at these

IT N O W

Above: This project should suit anyone with a taste for the unusual, decent engineering skills and heavyweight persistence on the parts-hunting highway. It’s a Francis-Barnett Cruiser, a genuinely interesting machine from engineering and technical perspectives, and was offered for £650.

Above: Not a project, this appeared to us to be a bike ready for the track. It’s a TriBSA – a Triumph engine in a BSA frame, not dissimilar in principle to the monster elsewhere in this issue. The same idea, but rather differently executed, as is the way with specials. The frame is a Bowden lightweight item, carries its own oil, and uses an Ariel swinging arm, complete with nylon bushes. The engine’s been taken out to 750, fitted with a centre-plug, gas-flowed head and uses a Commando gearbox to deliver its power. On offer for £6250.

Above & Right: Meanwhile, out in the jumble lurked a couple of unassuming but very original mud-masters from the Matchless comp shop. Two. These are both examples of the Matchless G80CS, the unrestored model (can you tell them apart OK?) carried a 1957 engine number, and what remained with the bike would appear to be decently close to that year, while the shiny black bike is a 1961, and again looks neatly done, complete with the unusual left-side oil tank beloved of CS pilots everywhere, mounted in the comp rear subframe of course. The shiny black bike was asking around £9000, while the unrestored project was a whole lot less.

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || JANUARY 2016 13

RIDINGLIFE || SOUTHERN SHOW VISCOUNT EGP ORGANISER ERIC is always visible at Kempton Park, but there’s another side to his motorcycling life.

In recent years he’s been a regular competitor on the Bonneville salt flats, pushing British bikes to their very limits (although we suspect that Eric’s always got a wee bit left in hand!). In 2014 Eric campaigned his specially-modified ‘Viscount’, a 1951 Vincent engine in a Manx featherbed rolling chassis. It’s a truly historic motorcycle, one with plenty of racing provenance including an outing on the Isle of Man in 1956. His Viscount is number one of only 10 such specials ever made. This bike had been bought by Somerton Engineering, who built a limited number of fully equipped road-going replicas, renaming them the Viscount. It’s basically a 1000cc Vincent Black Shadow engine fitted into a Manx Norton frame – or at least, that’s what it started out as.

After Eric acquired the Viscount it became obvious that the Vin twin could do much more than just potter along on public roads at club run speeds. Even so, for a Bonneville record attempt, it needed some substantial modification. The first task was to reduce the motorcycle’s mass, so the Manx twin leading shoe stopper was removed for the record attempt. A Vincent front hub, less its brake, and a hand-operated rear brake were laced into custom-made alloy Hagon rims. For stability, a longer swinging arm was made

by Dave Degens of Dresda Autos. Chief mechanic for the Viscount project, Mick Cook, made various special parts, including the rearset footrest mounts.

The Vin twin engine was stripped for a complete rebuild and the crank was dynamically balanced.

The team benefited from the guidance of Vincent racer John Renwick, who procured many special parts, including a pair of high-compression 12:1 pistons (up from 9:1), spiky cams and a special clutch, along with brand new Gardner carbs with matchbox floats and adapted manifolds. The Viscount uses a BT-H four-plug system for its ignition; primary drive is by belt, and the bike features one-off exhausts. Hagon provided the suspension as well as the wheel rims. The fuel and oil tanks are aluminium, again, to save weight.

At Bonneville salt flats, the Viscount behaved impeccably and Eric took the AMA land speed record for its class – seizing top-dog status from a Harley-Davidson and pushing the record from 123mph to over 131mph. No wonder the Viscount had pride of place at the show.

SUZUKI KATANA THE 750 KATANA with its pop-up headlight didn’t last long in Suzuki’s product range, just two years from 1984. Only 100 pop-up Kats were originally imported to the UK so the ones you find for sale are typically more recent arrivals from Japan. Innovative for its time, the oil-cooled Suzuki engine extracted 84bhp at 9500rpm from its 747cc. It was an all-new package for the GSX-E series, using a forged single-piece crank down below and Suzi’s muchvaunted TSCC up top in the 16-valve head. The twinswirl combustion chamber was intended to encourage a more dynamic air/fuel burn and so sharpen throttle response. There’s a single plug per cylinder, centrally positioned, with small and light valves set at shallow angles, with fuel fed via four 32mm Mikuni carbs.

The flat-top pistons run at what Suzuki considered to be a low compression ratio of 9.6:1, which in standard trim gave the pop-up Kat at top speed of 135mph and a standing quarter mile time of 11.9 seconds at 113mph. Not too shabby for a 750… but the home-market machines were restricted to just 70bhp, which rather poops the party.

14 JANUARY 2016 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

TRIUMPH TRIPLE AS ITS SIGN-WRITING proudly proclaims, this ultra-trick three-cylinder Triumph, which graced the TR3OC club stand, was (re)built in Brentford by P&M Motorcycles. It’s certainly significantly different to the day when it left Meriden. Based around the Richard Peckett racing frame, the Trident was built as a fast roadster rather than a short-circuit track-star, hence all the mod cons.

The engine has been taken out to 850, with the crankcases modified for a Madigan electric starter and neutral switch. The gas-flowed cylinder head now sports central plugs, with the triple intakes bored to suit 31mm Keihin carbs. The oil cooler has gone, but inside the engine there now nestles a high-volume oil pump with lightened gears. The standard five-speed gearbox was retained, but primary drive is via a P&M belt.

A set of Ceriani forks run through RPS yokes, while at the back there’s a QD rear wheel with a transmission shock absorber in the hub, fitted perfectly into a box-section swinging arm with a set of Falcon shocks. That eye-catching ceramic exhaust system is another P&M component – shame we couldn’t hear it. There’s a sneaky sight glass in the alloy oil tank, as well as oil and ambient temperature gauges. A Pazon Sure-Fire ignition system with miniature, high-energy coils works with a wireless remote control for fuss-free (and deeply cool) instant starting. And that’s important, because this bike has obviously been built to be ridden. Apparently, it’s hit 80bhp at the back wheel on the dyno; a 40% power bump over the original 750.

There were plenty of specials on display at the show, but this one stood out as a credit to its creators for so many reasons – not least because it hangs together so well, is beautifully proportioned and appears absolutely ready to ride. From the look of the well-scrubbed front Roadrider, it certainly goes around corners OK…

MATCHLESS TRACKER PART OF THE joy of sneaking into a show earlier – when there’s no one there – involves endless mostly unsuccessful attempts at working out exactly what’s what with some of the show bikes. Take this truly handsome Matchless, a cleverly constructed woodlands warrior built around a 1950 Matchless G3LC powerplant. Grand bikes, those, and as the engine number’s suffix is ‘C’ and not ‘CS’ the original machine was a rigid. So far, so…

So the rear subframe is a lightweight springer, bolted to the main cradle, which is a lot of years younger than the engine, and although the swinging arm is an AMC item, complete with clevis pick-up points for the original shocks … those are nothing like the originals. Bet they work an awful lot better.

Meanwhile, the gearbox is a Burman B52, which is slow and dependable, matching the engine perfectly, while the hubs are also AMC, if nothing like those fitted to that G3C back in 1950.

More special than any factory bike, this one deserved special recognition, we felt.

Prices range from as little as a grand to £3000 for a roadworthy example, but several of the Kat’s vital components can be hard to find or expensive to replace. The side panels frequently split, the OE exhausts which best suit the engine’s temperament are seldom seen, and the anti-dive needs to be in top trim to prevent it adversely affecting front brake performance. The Kempton Kat was offered for sale and looked superficially pretty, but would probably need a fair bit of attention from its new owner.

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || JANUARY 2016 15

RIDINGLIFE || SOUTHERN SHOW AJS 7R A RECURRING DELIGHT at any off-road show is the willingness of competition riders to ignore any form of bogus ‘originality’ in favour of making their bike go faster than others in its class. Observe if you will the glorious gold-finish AJS 7R engine. As you know, AJS used pushrod engines for their dirty weekend fun, and although a couple of riders built their own ohc monsters, they were never common.

This is more than a 7R. The engine started its long career as a 1949 long-stroke customer item, and has been enhanced by the fitting of a Jawa piston to take it out to a substantially increased 470cc from the original 348cc. The replacement piston shows commendable courage on the part of the engine builder as it has only a single compression ring rather than the more usual pair, and it has no oil ring at all. That’s confidence in your engineering ability, that is. The 7R engine has twin oil pumps (which explains the plumbing, in case you wondered) and on the track no one cares much if your exhaust is a little smoky.

The clutch is another Jawa item, in this case from a speedway machine, so it should handle the power fine. That power has been boosted a little more by the adoption of an extra spark plug, too, not exactly an easy mod on an OHC top end like this, but neatly accomplished, as you might be able to see. The other HT lead can be observed vanishing behind the camchain’s tower.

So the rest of the bike’s an AJS to suit the engine?

Nope. The frame’s a Burgess BSA replica, and is oil-bearing, while the fork legs are very long Norton Roadholders, hanging from splendid alloy yokes.

RACING DAYTONA A PROPER PUKKA RACEBIKE, this Triumph was recently rediscovered by Bill Crosby and brought back to life by Peter Bates for display at the London Motorcycle Museum. Back in the day (by which we mean 1968) the 500 was bought secondhand and prepped for 24-hour endurance proddie racing... which explains the unusual illumination arrangements.

‘Team Yobo’ took the 500 to first place in their class in 1970 at the Barcelona 24 hour race, thanks to the efforts of riders Peter Bates and Bob Biscardine and their spannermen, Don Jones and Bill Crosby – the latter who many Londoners will know from his years at Reg Allen Motorcycles.

If you want to see it in the metal, then the LMM is open Saturday, Sunday and Monday each week from 10am-4.30pm. See london-motorcycle-museum.org

16 JANUARY 2016 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE