Real Classic December 2017

ARIEL FOUR REBUILD

ISSUE 164 DECEMBER 2017 £3.60

VELO SINGLES

MASH DIRTSTAR

TRIUMPH PROTOTYPE!

Running, Riding & Rebuilding RealClassic Motorcycles

WHAT LIES WITHIN

6

REALCLASSIC 164; PUBLISHED IN DECEMBER 2017

TriBSA! ..........................................................6

VELOCETTE BUYER’S EYE ...........................56

Back in the 1970s, some owners of BSA singles might’ve gone the Gold Star route to extract more oomph from their original engine. Others opted for a twin-cylinder solution. Stuart Urquhart rides a stealthy street-sleeper, a TriBSA so subtle you might just miss what makes it so special…

Thinking of buying an MOV, MAC, MSS, Viper or Venom? Veloce built pushrod singles for nearly four decades so you’ve an extensive array to evaluate. Rowena Hoseason kicks some virtual tyres on your behalf…

BSA CONSULTANT.......................................68

WE’VE GOT MAIL! ........................................18

MASH DIRTSTAR .........................................28

In the mid-1960s, trouble was brewing for BSA. History has since labelled the company’s management consultants as part of the problem. After uncovering his father’s reports, Martin Gelder suggests that ignoring their recommendations may have been a mistake…

Lots and lots of letters. Lots of folk with lots to say

Ever more retro roadsters are hitting the street, and ever more RC readers ask for details. Frank Westworth donned his stout boots and set out for a Mash bash…

NORTON INTERNATIONAL .........................36

Bikes packed with character tend to attract owners of a similar ilk. Odgie finds a prewar Norton with more history then you can shake an overhead camshaft at....

TRIUMPH 2-STROKE PROTOTYPE ..............44

Everyone knows about the Ariel 2-stroke twins, but how’s about the Triumph nearlyrival? Alan Cathcart borrowed the only example…

RC REGULARS THE CONTENTS PAGE ....................................3

Welcome aboard to Alan Cathcart, joining the best classic writing team on the planet!

EVENTS ........................................................76

Wrap up warm, now. Make sure you wear your winter gloves and stout boots READERS’FREE ADS ....................................78

It’s the quiet season for bike sales, we think. Or is everyone saving their treasures for the new year’s riding?

ARIEL SQUARE BUILD .................................84

Ariel’s Square Four attracts many admirers, but the average Britbike fan might feel a touch intimidated by its appearance of intricacy. Roger Slater reveals that fettling the famous engine isn’t actually as tricky as it might seem…

PUB TALK ...................................................102

Although PUB has been busy during the last month, a bug has kept her away from shows such as the autumn Classic Mechanics at Stafford, but she did find some odd motorcycles at the Model Engineering Show

THE OILY WAY .............................................92

It’s bad enough when the oil in your bike engine slithers back into the sump. Neil Cairns suffered similar problems – with aero engines! But why does it happen on old Britbikes and what can be done to alleviate the symptoms?

TALES FROM THE SHED .............................108

Showtime! Frank’s been avoiding actual work, it seems…

BSA TRACKER PROJECT ..............................98

Odgie’s project to turn a slightly tubby A65 into a svelte dirt scrambler continues.

This month, wheels sprout spokes and mudguards get bashed…

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P114

TODAY & SAVE

WHO’S DONE WHAT REALCLASSIC decked the halls with boughs of holly thanks to the efforts of Rowena Hoseason and Frank Westworth of The Cosmic Bike Co Ltd, and Libby Finchham, Mike Baumber, Kelvin Clements and rest of the Mortons production team at Horncastle COVER PHOTO this month courtesy of Odgie Himself. Has anyone noticed how when we put a cammy Norton on the cover, we almost always show the ‘wrong’ side of it?

Heaps more RealClassic reading pops up throughout the month at www.Real-Classic.co.uk TRADE ADVERTISERS for the magazine or website should call Helen Martin on 01507 529574, email hrmartin@mortons.co.uk EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES should be sent to Frank@RealClassic.net or to PO Box 66, Bude EX23 9ZX. Please include an SAE if you want something returned or a personal reply SUBSCRIPTION INFO is on pg114. Call 01507 529529 to subscribe or renew or buy back issues SUBS QUERIES, late deliveries, or changes of address should be directed to 01507 529529, or email subscriptions@realclassic.net ALL MATERIAL in RealClassic is copyright its authors, so please contact us before reproducing anything. RealClassic is printed by William Gibbons & Sons of Wolverhampton. Our ISSN is 1742-2345.

THIS MONTH we’ve been reading THE UNWRITTEN (an oddly unengaging graphic novel about a Harry Potteresque lad of magic); THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE (what an odd ending!); SUPERNATURAL SHERLOCKS (goldenage detective tales of things wot go bump in the night); TOOL OF WAR (not entirely subtle sci-fi romp from Paulo Bacigalupi); REVENGER

by Alastair Reynolds (another young-adult SF tale of high-space piracy – one of us is getting younger).

MEANWHILE AT THE MOVIES had to go see BLADE RUNNER again. Wows. Again. MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS featured a damn fine moustache. THOR: RAGNAROK was a total romp.

And RELLIK turned out to be one of the year’s best TV crime series, far better than that strange Swedish BLACK LAKE mistake…

RealClassic is published monthly by MMG Ltd, PO Box 99, Horncastle, LN9 6LZ, UK. USA SUBSCRIPTIONS are $58 per year from Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N #441, Bancroft WI. 54921. Postmaster: Send USA address changes to RealClassic, Motorsport Publications LLC, 715-572-4595 chris@ classicbikebooks.com

FROM THE FRONT

I

was chatting with a fellow magazine man at the recent NaMoMuse Open Day – always a pleasure, too. Chatting, I mean. Although the day was a good one too. Anyway, We brother editors were talking about you – about The Reader, the person who actually makes magazines like this possible and who keeps me, and indeed my valued colleague, in faintly gainful employment. My conversational colleague was bemoaning the lack of letters he receives.

I was sympathetic … and only sniggered a little, mostly in private. Which is allowed, I think, even in these slightly strange days.

RC has always rejoiced in more mail than we can possibly publish – and this is A Very Good Thing Indeed. If guys like me don’t listen to guys like you, then how on earth are we ever going to produce a decent magazine? My editorial pal was joking that the only letters he receives are critical. We smiled together, and he wondered whether RC receives critical mail.

Of course it does. And so long as it’s not too personally offensive or plainly inaccurate we try to publish them. There are a couple of constructively critical letters in most issues.

And this is the right thing to do, because most opinions expressed by every contributor – including me – are exactly that: opinion.

Facts are something else. We get facts wrong – of course we do – and if you check out this month’s letters pages there should be one from a reader explaining that Triumph, unlike AMC, used twin cranks with mountings for an alternator even when the engine actually used a dynamo. That was a new one! I’ve rebuild several pre-unit Triumph twins down the years and never seen it, so thank-you for the education. It’s faintly remarkable that even after almost a half-century spent messing around with old British bikes I can still learn lots. Long may it continue.

Opinions, though. They’re always entertaining in the responses they produce. In the last issue I remarked – possibly more than once – that I’m no great fan of Norton’s famous featherbed frame. That’s simply a true thing: a

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fan I am not. I could go further than that – as I am a fellow who often puts money where the mouth is and I buy the bikes I like. I could reveal that The Shed contains only one featherbed Norton – a truly marvellous Model 50 350 single which has appeared in these pages more than once. Although there are several other Norton propped up around the place, none of them is a featherbed. Why? Because I don’t enjoy riding them much. That’s simply a statement – I’m not saying that everyone on the planet is wrong and that the featherbed isn’t a remarkable frame. It was, and it still is.

But I prefer Commandos. In fact … I prefer the non-featherbed swinging arm frame as used on more pedestrian twins and singles.

In the same way, I’m no fan of the 650SS – I told the truth about that last issue. I prefer the single-carb Mercury. And … I prefer the 1964on AJS and Matchless 650 twins, to be honest.

Note that I did not say that the other bikes are bad bikes or that I am in some bizarre way saying I’m smart. Not at all. I just like what I like.

Other views are available and are equally valid.

Long may it continue!

Ride safely Frank Westworth Frank@realclassic.net

THE NEXT ISSUE

RC165 WILL BE PUBLISHED ON JANUARY 1st, AND SHOULD REACH UK SUBSCRIBERS BY JANUARY 5th

6 I DECEMBER 2017

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TRIUMPH/BSA SPECIAL Back in the 1970s, some owners of BSA singles might’ve gone the Gold Star route to extract more oomph from their original engine. Others opted for a twin-cylinder solution.

Stuart Urquhart rides a stealthy street-sleeper, a TriBSA so subtle you might just miss what makes it so special…

Photos by Stuart Urquhart

W

hen this TriBSA turned up at a local Scottish Classic Motorcycle Club event, many onlookers – both members and Joe Public alike – failed to spot the T120 engine that lurked within, and barely gave the ‘BSA’ a second glance. From the hot seat, however, it’s obvious that this is no ordinary B33. Open up the twin-cylinder 650 engine in third and you are immediately hit with a tsunami of impressive power. No vibrations appeared from the engine at any speed or in any gear. Whoever rebuilt this T120 engine knew their Triumphs.

There is no doubt that this TriBSA is a well set-up and balanced machine. At its ideal cruising speeds of between 50-60mph, the engine is ultra-smooth and the handling is confident and reassuring. It certainly has more poke than my 1955 A10 of old, as I discovered when the TriBSA stretched its legs on a 70mph gallop along one deserted straight. The engine responded with steady and rapid acceleration and had plenty more twist still available on the throttle. Only a flicker of vibration was evident through the footrests at around 50mph in third, and the faster I went, the smoother this Bonneville engine became.

Yet such is the TriBSA’s subtle form that I also missed it on the first pass, only to spot its significance on my screen when I was keying through the pictures taken at the meet. I did not make the same mistake a second time. After flashing my RC credentials under the nose of proud owner David, I was given an enthusiastic thumbs-up and bagged his TriBSA for a feature.

Interviewing Dave took place at his shorefront home where we discussed the bike in great detail, and became distracted by wild dolphins leaping and back-slapping in the sandy cove located at the bottom of his garden. It was a thrilling sight, let me tell

DECEMBER 2017 I 7

Really well sorted, TriBSA, this. The alloy engine plates are the well-named Converta, and line the alien engine up well in its new home

you. And if, like me, you have ever attempted to photograph wild dolphins then you might appreciate why I failed to record them for this feature. Shutter-lag is my feeble excuse.

Fortunately for me, Dave’s equally rare TriBSA fully appreciated the limitations of the modern digital camera (or I should say its operator), and kindly remained stationary while I clicked away.

Dave’s stunning TriBSA lives alongside a more standard T120 Bonneville and a 750 Triton which is currently being restored; Dave, it would appear, is blessed with three hands. In the not too distant past Dave

The rear brake is operated by a cable on the righthand side of the machine, so there’s a crossover linkage from the left-side pedal. Again, the spindle fits neatly into the cut-away engine plate

8 I DECEMBER 2017

was also a precision toolmaker, although he did confide in me that he’s now enjoying a new vocation as a dolphin spotter.

He’s kindly agreed to future features about both of his these rebuilds – which affords me another opportunity to get my head around the complexities of digital shutterlag – and to hopefully capture his elusive dolphins on my next RC mission…

Like most of us, Dave has been into motorcycles since he outgrew knee-socks and shorts. Kicking tin cans around one of Fife’s most famous motorcycle dealers – Willie Pittblado’s of Dunfermline – indoctrinated the teenage Dave into the British bike scene. The rows of Bonnies, Commandos, Velos and other British twins and singles that formed an orderly line outside Willie’s shop were manna from heaven to Dave.

Soon after, Dave began his motorcycling career by flinging his young torso through Tayside’s green fields on Bantams, C15s, or whatever two wheels he could clamp his knees to. He soon passed his test and progressed to a Yamaha XJ650. By his early twenties Dave was back swinging his leg over British iron and bought a Triumph Silver Jubilee Bonneville followed by a 750 Triton, Norton 750 Commando Roadster, T120 Bonneville, a TriBSA 650 and a second 750 Triton (pause for breath). He also enjoyed

attending club racing throughout the 1970s and 80s at Knockhill and Beveridge Park.

Uncommonly, Dave has managed to hang onto some of his early bikes – both Tritons, the 750 Commando and a T120 Bonneville.

By anyone’s reckoning he’s a bona fide, RealClassic nut. I’ll drink to that!

‘I was always interested in British bikes and club racing was part of our gang’s weekend activities’, remembers Dave. ‘There were times when we didn’t have a motorcycle between us, but we always met up at Beveridge Park to enjoy weekend road racing. Tritons and TriBSAs were everywhere and common as

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TRIUMPH/BSA SPECIAL

muck. I was desperate to own a Triton and, in the late 70s when ex-racer Ally Fyffe hung up his leathers, I approached his son and managed to buy Ally’s Triton. I still have it today, but the Triton’s T140 engine came with a thrown rod and requires a complete rebuild.

One day I intend to restore it and put it back on the road where it belongs.

‘Since the early racing days I had been on the lookout for a good TriBSA, however none turned up that were as nice as either of my Tritons. Then several years ago I began the search for a BSA B33, as I’d always nursed a fancy of owning one. An old friend heard

Top: Almost every viewer misses the fact that this is no ordinary BSA. Strange, really…

Above: The Triumph twin’s fires are ignited by a coil system, and those coils are tucked neatly away inside the toolbox – with useful labelling, too

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DECEMBER 2017 I 9

about my search and contacted me to offer his TriBSA – which turned out to be a B33 frame with a T120 Bonneville engine, explaining that he needed ready cash to fund another project.

‘I went to view the TriBSA and was astonished that the engine had been totally and extensively rebuilt, but had never been used on the road. Nothing had been left to chance during the engine’s rebuild – new pistons, rings, shells, main bearings and a complete top end overhaul that included new valves, guides, springs and seats – even the oil pump had been renewed. The bike also came with a brand new set of Amal 30 carburettors. The rolling chassis had a nice

patina and the paintwork looked tidy too.

‘It was too good an opportunity to miss and we shook on the spot, and at long last I had my TriBSA. After the deal, I was thrilled to discover the bike was registered on my birthday – the 3rd of July 1959 – so it was meant to be!’

Dave also has the original green log book which records five previous owners, Dave being number six. When it was a B33 single the bike was located in Swinging Sixties Newcastle with owner number one. Once it had been transformed into a TriBSA, the bike appears to have spent most of its life in Glasgow, passing through three owners hands during the 1970s. On one occasion

it was the property of west end motorcycle dealers JR Alexander of Great Western Road.

Dave has tried to contact the fifth owner in an attempt to find out more about the TriBSA’s timeline in Glasgow, but so far his messages remain unanswered.

I asked Dave about the TriBSA’s condition when it first arrived.

‘When I got the bike home it ran well and much as one would expect with a rebuilt engine. Needless to say I took great care with the engine’s running-in before I had the nerve to fully test its performance. My first job was to fit a sidestand, as I cannot abide having to haul a heavy old Brit onto its centrestand –

Deep breathing is supplied by a pair of Amal 930 carbs, mounted on finned, balanced inlet stubs and inhaling through handsome bellmouths

Triumph’s characteristic primary side styling blends well with the BSA, and there is plenty of room around the engine. Neat cutaway of the rear engine plate for the BSA brake pedal

10 I DECEMBER 2017

Triumph’s late, T140-type rocker boxes: none of the unscrewing rocker covers here!

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DECEMBER 2017 I 11

although I would admit that the centrestand fitted to this bike is not too difficult to use.

‘On close inspection I did notice that both the TriBSA’s wheels and exhausts were ‘tacky’, so I had no choice but to replace them. The wheels were rebuilt by Velo enthusiast Barry Brown from Windygates, using stainless spokes and rims. Barry does a fantastic job and is a well-respected wheel builder within Fife’s classic motorcycling community.

‘New exhausts were supplied by Unity Equipe. I also fitted a set of Hagon shocks, which instantly improved the ride, although the front forks appear to be under-damped and may require some fettling. I suspect the fluids need topping-up, but as there appear to be no leaks from the fork seals or drain plugs, perhaps both forks are bone dry!’ Dave laughed. ‘Both tyres were fairly new and have lasted well, considering that I use the bike frequently for exploring and on regular Sunday runs.

‘However, it wasn’t long before I began to experience problems when the clutch became prone to slipping on uphill gradients.

So I stripped the primary drive and renewed all the clutch plates and springs, and fitted a new set of rollers. Now the clutch behaves like a Triumph clutch should. In future I may convert it to a belt drive as supplied by transmission experts Haywards of Flintshire.’

According to Dave, the original petrol tank came with several small dings. But Dave says he likes his TriBSA’s used look, and he’s especially fond of the petrol tank’s original blue metallic paintwork… to the extent that he bought some BSA transfers and sent the original, black sidepanels away to be sprayed and lacquered to match the metallic blue of the petrol tank.

The previous owner has cleverly mounted

Above: One truly handsome SRM rocker oil feed, and if you peer a little, you might be able to see a Forth Bridge headsteady. No wonder the engine runs smooth Right: Triumph’s twin engines drive their tachos from the exhaust cam via a right-angle gearbox. This is that thing

12 I DECEMBER 2017

the coils inside the toolbox, which serves to keep the electrics dry – a nice touch, says Dave. The TriBSA only had a Smiths speedometer fitted when it came to Dave, but after a long search he managed to find a matching tachometer and set about making a ¼” Dural polished alloy mount for both clocks in a similar style to the Converta engine plates.

The front gearbox plates were fabricated by the previous owner and look fine.

Most of the cycle parts on the TriBSA are original, including the restored BSA dualseat and the tinware, although Dave has fitted new stainless steel mudguards front and back, and a very trick SRM rocker box wishbone-styled oil feed. Another sensible mod was fitting a Boyer electronic ignition system which resides behind the attractive finned cover on the e engine’s engine s timing case.

The rear full width hub and seven-inch cable-operated drum brake is correct for the 1959 B33 frame. However the BSA 2ls eight-inch front brake is an upgrade – which, according to enthusiasts, is an excellent brake when set up correctly. Dave is delighted with his TriBSA’s performance and believes that the engine might be a touch too powerful for the suspension and brakes – now I was really itching for a road test!

According to Dave the engine produces bucket-loads of torque and is quick off the blocks. But apparently, it is also a pussycat to use around town and busy traffic. A fan of the new twin Amals and their extended manifolds, Dave claims they deliver the ideal fuel and air mixture, to the extent that there is no backfiring or burbling through the open megaphone exhausts. I was warned however, that the gearbox demands a positive and firm foot change, or it may find cause to throw up the occasional false neutral.

I was further surprised to learn that the brakes failed to impress Dave; although he did explain that the front twin-leader was ‘pretty impressive’ in the dry, but less so in the wet. The rear drum brake’s performance was a cause for concern, wet or dry. My experience has generally been that BSA brakes are usually competent performers, so again I had reason to look forward to a road test.

For me there is no argument that Dave’s machine is an extremely attractive TriBSA. Admittedly, in this subtle form, its BSA genes are dominant. However the muscular T120 Bonneville 650 motor that resides between the polished Converta engine plates does sit rather well in its B33 chassis. Unlike the A10’s carcass, this not too dissimilar cradle

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