Real Classic - January 2019 - Preview

 MOTO GUZZI LARIO  MATCHLESS G3  VICAR ON A BSA C11!

ISSUE 177  JANUARY 2019  £3.60

Running, Riding & Rebuilding RealClassic Motorcycles

TIGER INTO KAWASAKI WILL GO

SPECIAL TRIUMPH A NEW MODEL FOR THE NEW YEAR

WHAT LIES WITHIN

26

TRIUMPH SPECIAL 750 ................................ 6

BSA C11 .......................................................58

When a skilled bike builder creates a new machine from an old air-cooled Triumph engine and a recent Kawasaki chassis (and a whole lot else), can it conquer the curse of the special? Can the result really be better than the sum of its parts? Odgie rides it, and reveals all…

The quest for cheap classic wheels continues. This time, Father Alan Davies tries Chinese, Russian, Japanese and German motorcycles before finding the ideal budget bike, one built in Britain back in the day…

MOTO GUZZI V65 LARIO.............................26

When a project is done and dusted, you normally know exactly what not to do next time around. But it’s rare that you get the opportunity to build a second special along the same lines. Henry Gregson catches up with a talented chap who’s done just that, and built a bike which could better its predecessor…

Small-block Moto Guzzi V-twins are acknowledged to be all-round excellent – apart from the rare ones with four-valve cylinder heads. These, say the armchair experts, are something close to devilspawn. Dave Simmons isn’t daunted by such scare stories, and lives with a Lario 650…

MATCHLESS G3 LC ......................................36

RC regular Stuart Urquhart is entirely familiar with AMC’s roadgoing singles. He’s always liked the look of the firm’s tough trials bikes – and riding a competition 350 more than lived up to expectations…

TRIUMPH STREET TWIN ..............................48

Two near-identical twins top Triumph’s 2019 retro range. Alan Cathcart gets to grips with them both and reports back…

REALCLASSIC 177; PUBLISHED IN JANUARY 2019

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

Two Triumphs. And aren’t they about as different as you can get! Great start to the new year

NORTON CAFÉ ............................................64

WE’VE GOT MAIL! .................................... 14

Many, many subjects. Many, many opinions. All welcome here EVENTS .................................................... 76

January again! A new year again! Time to get those resolutions revved up!

READERS’ FREE ADS ................................ 78

Small but perfectly formed. Something for everyone? Any money left? Anyone?

NORTON COMMANDO Mk3 REBUILD ........84

Martin Peacock had a vision, a conversion on the road to Bude. He understood that he wanted a Commando, and this is how he made it. Part 3: Going like clockwork

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

Let there be light, light weight that is! This is becoming a theme for PUB, whether in her classic bikes or anything new (with that desirable button). The latter were on show at Motorcycle Live, but left her with too many options

SPROCKET SCIENCE ....................................92

Finding a specific sprocket for an unusual old bike can be a tricky business. If you have an old one to use as a template then it’s possible to make your own, as John Lay explains…

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

When life in The Shed becomes too tame and too frustrating for words, it’s time to go seek out RealExcitement. Frank’s been out on the edge again…

ROYAL ENFIELD INTERCEPTOR ..................96

When they were new, Royal Enfield proudly announced that there weren’t enough Interceptors to go round: not everyone can have one. So for the lucky few who own one today, getting it running right is doubly important. Paul Henshaw fettles a Mk1A and takes it for a ride…

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P114

TODAY & SAVE

WHO’S DONE WHAT REALCLASSIC greets 2019 with Rowena Hoseason and Frank Westworth of The Cosmic Bike Co Ltd trembling in anticipation at what another new year might deliver. This month’s magazine was designed by Mike Baumber (before he left the building), Libby Fincham and Kelvin Clements; thanks for all your efforts on RC this year, folks!

You’ll find more old bike features, book reviews and event info 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 WHISPERER by Karin Fossum (quirky Nordic noir); RED SNOW by Will Dean (ripping Scandi crime in frozen Sweden); SCRUBLANDS by Chris Hammer (superb hardboiled crime from Australia); and the last three books in The Expanse series, as well as sundry novellas in the same worlds.

One of us is plainly obsessed: NEMESIS GAMES, BABYLON’S ASHES, PERSEPOLIS RISING, all by James SA Corey and all good old science fiction – with actual science!

MEANWHILE AT THE MOVIES we think that FORSAKEN is probably the best western ever, not least because it stars both Donald and Kiefer, but APPALOOSA comes a close second (partly because it stars Viggo and Ed). If you like true space adventure then give SALYUT-7 a whirl; way better than First Man. And the end of GRIMM is nigh! What next? Preacher, maybe?

FROM THE FRONT It feels a little as though I’m repeating myself, here – repeating what I jabbered away about the surprise, delight and considerable entertainment which arrived by simply riding an old bike – a particular type of old bike; in this case a 500 Triumph. You may recall that I passed some rather amusing miles aboard both our own seriously scruffy T100C and a rather more shiny Daytona last month. And they were both great, with their common features shining through, as you’d expect, despite the considerable differences in their cosmetic condition.

What I failed to consider at the time was this… one of the onerous tasks of a magazine editor is deciding which bikes make the grade to make the page. We – editors – have a tendency to favour the unusual, the odd, the exotic, the headline bikes, if you like.

Something to shout about. The reason for this is obvious – we want you, gentle reader, to choose to read our magazine, not one of the alternatives. It’s less important with a magazine like RC, because we rarely find ourselves competing for newsagent shelf space – which is a very good thing indeed. And in any case, we feature real stories about real classics (there’s a good name for a magazine there, I’m sure!) often written by the bike’s owner, which is always a good thing. However, we’re as interested in the odd and the exotic, too…

What the two Triumphs reminded me is how all-encompassing the old bike world has become. When it started out in 1977 (I think), the emphasis was on glamour, on heritage, on history. Pedigree and provenance may have been around then too. I was largely uninterested in such machines, and indeed this is still the case, but watched with some amusement and pleasure as the scene expanded to include not just Gold Stars and Rocket Gold Stars but also Rockets and B33s.

BSA’s glorious 250 Gold Star took a long time attaining classic status, but there’s still hope…

What is slightly surprising – at least to me – is that although I’ve been (usually) fortunate enough to ride lots of aspirational big name machines down the years, the bikes

I’ve actually enjoyed the most have been of the more pedestrian persuasion, non-CSR Matchless twins, for example. Norton’s ohv bangers arouse my delight in a way that no cammy job ever has, while Triumph’s Tigers are always welcome in The Shed, but anything with ‘R’ as an engine suffix is likely to be only a fleeting visitor.

So imagine my amusement when I trolled off to borrow something really exotic so I could write about it. Well… to be exact there were two exotics available on the same day, one with four cylinders and an overhead cam, the other with an ohv flat twin engine and a pressed steel frame. Both bikes have flat steel frames, in fact, now that I think about it. So you can work out what they are…

However, the bike aboard which I actually rumbled away into the wintry sunshine (OK, it rained rather a lot) was something much more mundane, much less interesting … except to me. What was it? It was a BSA, a once cheap’n’cheerful plodder and now really rather rare. I loved it. You can read about it next month…

Ride safely, and we hope everyone has a great new year Frank Westworth Frank@realclassic.net

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

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BUILT FROM BITS When a skilled bike builder creates a new machine from an old air-cooled Triumph engine and a recent Kawasaki chassis (and a whole lot else), can it conquer the curse of the special?

Can the result really be better than the sum of its parts? Odgie rides it, and reveals all‌ Photos by Odgie Himself and GordonG

6 I JANUARY 2019

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KAWASAKI-TRIUMPH SPECIAL The secret of a really good special is that it doesn’t look like a special. At first

L

et’s start by being provocative.

You need a certain degree of selfbelief to build ‘specials’. I can say that since specials are all I ever build; I can’t recall ever restoring a standard bike in over 50 years. To embark on building a special, you need to be convinced that you’re creating something better than all the factory experts, or something that’s never been done before… or if it has been done then you’re going to do it better anyway. After all, factory engineers and stylists are constrained by legal niceties and general user-friendliness, while an individual builder has a much freer rein.

So if you’re building a bike styled along custom or flat-track or off-road lines, lots of the switchgear and reflectors and general clutter can be jettisoned with gay abandon.

If you’re building a café racer or performance bike, you can shoe-horn a more powerful engine into a lighter frame and add (or not) appropriate braking and suspension improvements. Of course, the eventual outcome isn’t always guaranteed to be a roaring success. Highly qualified factory staff generally tend to know what they’re doing, whereas a special builder may well be

inspired by a vision that possibly somewhat outstrips his or her knowledge, skills and talents.

This gets even trickier if you’re not building to a particular style, but simply trying to marry various parts together to create something better than the sum of those parts. Rather than side-stepping the factory remit, you are setting yourself up in direct competition. It can all so easily go terribly wrong...

Enter a man stout of heart and spirit, one Gordon Geskell, who will be too modest to tell you himself, but is actually a very talented engineer and bike builder. Mostly his exploits revolve around various eras of Triumph, from sprung-hub upwards; not necessarily exactly stock or original but not necessarily overly radical either. This time, however, Gordon was inspired by his mate Joe Moore’s Kawasaki / Triumph special. Gordon’s own thinking is that there’s not a long wrong with a good Triumph engine that a decent set of cycle parts won’t fix, so he embarked upon his own variant.

Gordon picked up the complete Kawasaki ER-5 frame from a breakers in Scotland who specialise in the model. They typically use just

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the twin engines and end up with surplus frames piled up in mounds. Just £25 saw the frame (complete with V5C) ensconced in Gordon’s workshop. Gordon’s not just a northerner, he’s a Lancastrian from Wigan so (obviously) he doesn’t part with his money lightly.

‘I like working with this stuff,’ he says. ‘That tank cost me 30 quid, and it’s perfect. Trying buying a tank for any of those Triumphs over there,’ he indicates a row of several, ‘and it will cost you a lot more than 30 quid – and it won’t still be shiny inside either.’ Fair point. ‘And those fancy-looking forks are Derbi GPR125 – just £100 including yokes. I recoated the legs in black as I didn’t like the original silver finish. I used Aprilia wheels and brakes as well, so all I needed for the front end was a new steering stem. My mate Kevin Wiley made me one, he’s a great engineer. I used a combination of Kawasaki, Aprilia and Triumph head bearings to fit it all together.

‘The wheels were chemically dipped and then vapour blasted back to bare alloy. Then acid etch treated, primed, coated in gloss black powdercoat then the trick bit – chrome powdercoat is dusted on so the black still

JANUARY 2019 I 7

The engine started life as a TR7RV, but appears remarkably at home in a Japanese bicycle

Triumph’s venerable 750 twin is compact enough to fit into a frame intended for a 500

shows through. The wheels are then finally clear coated and appear to flash both black and chrome as they rotate. All perfectly done

by Paul of Demon Wheels.

‘At the back end I got hold of a 400 Honda CB-1 swinging arm. I shortened it 65mm to get the wheelbase sensible, and narrowed it by 15mm so it fitted in the frame. I had to re-machine the bearing recesses and sort out bearings and machine spacers, etc, to get the swinging arm and rear wheel all lined up. Everything on the swinging arm had to be moved forward by 65mm, including the shock mounts and the cross brace, which were carefully removed with a slitting disc in

8 I JANUARY 2019

the angle grinder and then taken over to Cliff Kay’s to be TIG welded back into place. I can gas weld aluminium but I don’t have a TIG welder. It all came together fairly easily.’

Gordon had a lot of his own ideas he wanted to bring to the special party. In particular, he’s not impressed with the modern trend for seats and sub-frames that shoot skywards at the back, leaving a huge gap above the rear wheel. With that in mind, he cut off the entire original sub-frame, leaving just the engine cradle, and started again from scratch. You wouldn’t know to look at it; such is the quality of the workmanship that the whole frame still looks factory standard.

Admiration o’erfloweth. Check out those exhaust clamps. Neat engine and exhaust mounts, too

‘The rear shocks are cheapo Chinese ones,’ Gordon continues. ‘I got them to use as a base line to start with, so I could work out where I wanted to be with the suspension. The spring rate wasn’t bad actually. I don’t like things too hard, at my age I like my bikes to be comfy. But the damping was rubbish, they didn’t give at all. I drilled out the body and drained out what looked like treacle. Then I welded on some threaded plugs and refilled them with very light oil (might even have been diesel, I can’t quite remember now). That allowed them to be little more compliant on the bumps. Now I’ve got them sorted, a new set of Hagon shocks to this spec will be fitted over the winter.’

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KAWASAKI-TRIUMPH SPECIAL

BUILDING THE SPECIAL

1. Take a frame. Fit an engine to it.

Sounds simple, no?

2. Build up the rest of the machine, check that everything fits

3. Make up some rear engine plates, and convert a side panel from something else

4. Headsteadies are always a good idea with a Triumph twin

6. Handsome swinging arm, and a neat location for the rear brake

7. The special takes shape. Engine in, front end looking good

8. Detail. The answer always lies in the detail

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5. A little extra bracing rarely goes amiss

JANUARY 2019 I 9

What it claims to be … it is

Front forks are from something else: from a Derbi GPR125 in fact

The bike boasts a right-foot shift, and a perfectly executed rear brake on this side

When it came to trial fitting the engine, Gordon was indebted to advice from his friend Joe Moore, who’d already experimented with a similar project. ‘He was really helpful, not only in what things to do but in what things not to do. Whatever you do, don’t weld your rear engine plates in, he told me. It’s fine while you’re just using empty crankcases to line everything up, but then once you build the engine, it won’t go back in with the head and barrels on. He also gave me very good advice on head steady design. I’ve not fitted one yet, the bike’s quite newly finished and still evolving, but I welded the brackets in place ready before I got it all powder-coated.

‘I didn’t like the huge big casting on the frame below the headstock though, or the really crude way Kawasaki joined up the removable downtubes. So I cut the whole

lot off and made my own downtubes and cradle. It’s all welded in, so looks a lot neater, but I can still get the motor in and out without dismantling it at all. I made the bolted-in rear engine plates, jigsawed from 10mm Dural plate – well, it’s better than watched Coronation Street – so if I ever do get a gearbox problem say, I can get into it without having to strip and then remove the bloody engine...’

Ah, the engine. Gordon knows a thing or two about Triumph engines, having starting building and racing them over 50 years ago.

‘I began with a pair of crankcases. Well, not a pair actually, the right one came from one of my old racers, it snapped a brand-new Renolds primary chain in the Isle of Man. I showed it to the Renolds rep who was there.

“Has it done much damage?” he said.

“Well, it’s broken the crankcase, bent the

10 I JANUARY 2019

crank, wrecked the clutch, destroyed the alternator, so not much damage really...”

‘He missed the irony and said “We’ve had a bit of a problem with these chains we’re getting from France. Next.” And that was that.

But that’s racing, no warranties.

‘The other half I must have bought somewhere. Sometimes when you use different halves you need to re-face the tops to get a flat face where the barrel sits, but these were very good anyway. Most of the bits to build the engine I had in stock from all my spares. I wanted a parallel port head, so I could run a single carb, but I only had a splayed one. It turned out Kevin had a parallel one but wanted a splayed one, so we just swapped. He removed the steel inlet stubs and machined up some threaded alloy top-hat inserts. Then I was able to drill and tap them to fit a single carb manifold. I’ve

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KAWASAKI-TRIUMPH SPECIAL

widths, so I just used the right sized one to make up the seat base and hump from fibreglass, and I made the footrest plates and pedals and linkages, and just whatever else was needed really. Oh, I used a damaged Royal Enfield kickstart, I bent and reshaped it a lot. The boss is splined, not cotter pinned.

So I cut the Triumph shaft in half, bored a hole down it, did the same to an Enfield one, used a cut-off drill shank as a spigot, pressed the two halves together, veed it out all the way round then welded it up.’

And with that, Gordon fired up the bike, first kick, from cold, and said ‘Turn left at the end of the road if you want a shorter ride, or turn right if you want to head out into the country and some twisty bends. Take as long as you like, off you go.’

Simple as that.

Let me tell you straight away, people,

this bike is superb. It instantly feels ‘right’ beneath you. Light clutch (Gordon has his own mod using a specially faced ‘half plate’), easy going controls, neutral handling. Truly, it’s a revelation. I expected and got perfect carburetion. Anyone who’s raced Triumphs for as long as Gordon did should know a thing or two. But I was amazed by the flexibility.

Talking about it afterwards, we were both genuinely surprised by how broad the power is. You can drop down to hardly any revs in the higher gears and the bike still pulls. Then you can short-shift and ride the torque, or hang on and use the upper rev range. Either way the bike just surges forward. The tone from the home-made silencers is superb too, deeper and not as harsh as a normal Triumph and almost more BSA-like.

The front end looks to be carrying a fair amount of rake, and the yokes have very little

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JANUARY 2019 I 11

used a single Mk1 Concentric, it’s used but a fairly decent one. The motor’s only on stock T140 cams and compression, and I’ve only lightly ported the head, but it seems to go well enough.

‘Most of the rest I just made up from bits and pieces. I filed out the triangular holes in the Aprilia top yoke to take Hinckley Triumph handlebar clamps. It’s an old Suzuki chainguard, and I made the battery box and oil tank using ex-Royal Enfield toolbox lids that Alastair Hillaby gave me. He also gave me a bunch of old T140 pipes that had worn chrome, so I cut and shut them to make the exhausts. The megas came from Feked, unassembled. I cut the long reverse cones in half, turned the ends inwards, fitted some wrapped perforated tube first, then welded all the bits together.

‘I have a variety of seat moulds in different

Rear end bounce is controlled by a pair of less than expensive shocks, while comfort is provided by a special seat, of course

Simple … and effective

lead, so I was expecting fairly slow steering.

But on the move the bike is surprisingly neutral. Slower turns or higher speed cornering, the bike tracks really well, needing very little rider input. As you might imagine, when you really want to press on, the best way is to get all your braking and downshifts done first, then lay the bike down and power through the bends. You’re rewarded with lovely stable cornering – and of course that throaty roar from the exhaust.

Despite the economy origins of the forks and modified shocks, the suspension was actually very good at both ends, compliant enough to be comfy in combination with the excellent riding position, but firm enough that mid-corner rough surfaces didn’t induce any wayward misbehaviour. Braking was very good at the front. There’s not much weight for that large single disc and Brembo four-piston caliper to haul to a very rapid loss of speed when required. The rear brake, however, was frankly Not Very Good. Gordon agrees entirely.

The linkage and rate seem fine, it’s most likely

12 I JANUARY 2019

just a new set of pads needed. Apart from that, there’s very little to fault at all about the bike.

To say I was impressed is an understatement. That’s not to say I doubted Gordon’s talents, but he would be the first to admit that when you embark on these projects you never quite know how they will end up. Often there’s a rawness to a special build, sometimes indeed that’s the intention, to inject a little edginess into an otherwise bland, standard machine. Equally, the reward of having built your own motorcycle can overshadow any resultant shortcomings, but Gordon’s ER/Triumph really doesn’t have any.

The bike’s appearance is very ‘factory’.

The lines and angles and shapes of the form; its purposeful look which reflects its functionality; the colour scheme – all these aspects belie the vast disparity of source material, the previous uses and eras of the various components. To make a bike that’s built from bits and pieces look so cohesive is one thing; to make it ride like that is quite another. Gordon’s special is as refined to ride

as it looks, the elegant, almost monochrome carbon-fibre and stove-enamelled finish accentuating the alloy-highlighted but otherwise all black motor.

This thought came to me while I was blasting about through the countryside, stayed with me while I was trundling around the lanes, and still occupies my head now. If I’d not known anything about the origins of the bike, if I’d just bought it, even if I’d just bought it brand new and paid a considerable sum for it, I’d think it was great. I’d think the factory really knew what they were doing. I’d think the designers had worked well on the presentation, and the engineers had worked well on the performance and rideability. I’d think here was a bike I could really live with.

Of course, you can’t a buy a bike like this today. You need fuel injection and watercooling and a host of modern technology to comply with current regulations. But if I had just bought this bike brand new, I would think I’d just spent my money really wisely.

I really can’t say any fairer than that.

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JANUARY 2019 I 13

RC readers write, rant and rattle on...

Summat to say? Send your comments, hints, tips, tales of woe and derring-don’t to: RCHQ@RealClassic.net

TIGER RIDES

I agree entirely with Frank’s views on Triumph 500s. Poor little ‘Muddy’ had to spend over 14 months in the shed after I had some surgery.

Fresh oil and fuel and she started (literally) first kick, couldn’t wait to go. I didn’t even charge the flat battery as with the Boyer setup she doesn’t really need one. Happy days.

Keep up the sterling work, team!

Garron Clark-Darby, member 11,711 I’ve just enjoyed reading the real road test of the Tiger 500 Daytona. Many testers only use half the rev range available, shying away

from the throttle when they meet the usual obstacle of vibration around mid-range revs.

These are only half road tests and completely miss the point of the Daytona and the most exciting half of the ride. The late unit 500s are indeed ‘bombproof’ and must be one of the rare British bikes which can be thrashed without breaking. I used to sing a well-known Doors song inside my full-face crash helmet, when pushing through the bumpy patch at around 4500rpm – ‘break on through to the other side’ – where the engine really came alive and often drank the

float chamber faster than gravity could refill it. It’s no surprise that our cousins across the Atlantic have fully explored the limits of this fine design. I was told on an American chat group many years ago that you need to rev a Tiger beyond 9000rpm in order to get ahead of the competition!

Robert Murdoch, member Hurrah an issue with a road review from Frank, it seems ages since he reviewed anything; more please!

John Harmes

MORE TYRE TIPS I was interested in the letter about tyre age and performance in RC176, which made some very good points. However, it misrepresented how a tyre grips the road and how the coefficient of friction works. The coefficient of friction is independent of surface area and speed of contact, so it’s incorrect to bring tread patterns into the argument.

14 I JANUARY 2019

Tyres grip the road by ‘moulding’ to the surface. They grip better on a rough surface and less so on a smooth surface. This means that tread does actually reduce grip, but only in perfect conditions, dry and smooth. It becomes of great benefit in its ability to move water out of the way. So hard old tyres are bad because they are unable to mould to the

surface. Bald tyres are bad in all except perfect dry conditions. Jerry, who wrote the letter, is right about fitting new tyres but it’s not a perfect world – good advice though.

Now what about mixing fork oil: do equal quantities of 10W and 20W make 15W or is the 20W still 20W? Discuss!

RichardW

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LETTERS

RC READERS RECOMMEND… A big thank you to Dartford Rebore and Engine Centre. My CSR picked up slightly, very soon after a rebore by them. My fault, I had to go faster than I should have for a very short while. I took the motor to them to have a look at it. They honed out the slight score, cleaned

I had been running my Norton on premium brand, premium grade fuel with no problem for a couple of years. This summer, I missed my planned fuel stop on the way to Malvern and had to fill up with some sort of weasel pee going by the name of ‘Pace’.

The bike ran fine, but a week or so later after returning home I noticed petrol dripping from the tank seams.

This was as unexpected as it was unwelcome as it lifted the paint along the seams. I drained the tank and filled it with water to try to see exactly where it was leaking. It didn’t leak, nothing, not even a faint suspicion of damp. I can only think that the brand X fuel was loaded with ethanol and had attacked whatever sealant Norton had used in the tank seams. Once the fuel was out, the sealant somehow recovered enough to hold water.

I contacted RC advertiser Ian of Tank Care Products and took my tank to him in the wilds of Norfolk. He doesn’t just supply sealing and cleaning products, he is also set up to do a thorough job of cleaning a tank and then sealing it. I was

the offending piston of score marks, trued both barrels, stayed open later for me to pick them up, and didn’t charge a thing. Nice people to talk with, too.

Alan Brady, member

not confident of doing this myself and left the tank with him. He finished the job well within his estimated time and the tank remains leak-free over three months later.

Definitely a Service Star.

Martin Peacock, member 453

FRENCH FUEL Stu Thompson asks for other members’ experience of fuel in France. I’ve lived here for eight years and not noticed any difference. I fill up at exclusively at supermarkets because they’re anything up to 10 cents a litre cheaper than the alternatives. I run all my bikes on 95 ROM, which is E5 just like in the UK. Occasionally my Enfield EFI gets E10 if it’s available. The pumps are clearly marked E10, it’s cheaper, Enfield say it’s fine, and I’ve had no issues using it.

E85 is becoming more widely available now, but I don’t own anything modern enough to use it. I do use a fuel stabiliser in the bikes that get laid up over winter (and in the mower) but only to stop the fuel going off while they’re parked. This is only a precaution, it’s not necessary while they’re being used regularly.

The 2CV on the other hand demands 98 to keep it from pinking, but that’s because it’s hilly round these parts, so I’m running the ignition a little advanced to eke out that last 0.0005bhp.

Andy Havill, member Most of the issues over here seem to occur with bikes in occasional use, or when they’re laid up for a while. Modern fuels tend to break down the perishable components of aging fuel systems; pipes, seals, corks – and especially old tank liners! It shouldn’t be a problem if your bike’s been fitted with ethanol-resistant items. Using a fuel stabiliser like Star Tron also prevents the accumulation of water in the petrol tank, which corrodes the exposed metals. Rowena

BACK OR FORTH? I found Ian Massey’s article about his AJS 500 single in RC176 both interesting and amusing. I am not an AMC man but my collection did include an AJS 650 CSR for several years. It was a nice bike apart from its tendency to regularly blow the head gaskets between the pots.

Regarding the differences between AJS and Matchless; my motorcycling career started in 1948 and I always thought that an AMC single with its magneto in front of the pot was an AJS and a mag behind the pot was a Matchless.

Is this yet another example of the ignorance generated by reading The Blue Un and The Green Un for all those years?

Malcolm Smith, member Pre-war Matchless singles mounted their magnetos behind the cylinder, keeping them very hot and no doubt causing much hilarity among WW2 DRs when points needed cleaning or adjusting in the middle of the night and the muddle of battle.

They continued the practice until 1952, when Matchless copied AJS and sited the magneto in front of the engine. Frank W

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JANUARY 2019 I 15

ELECTRIC ACTION Others may have already done so, but I’ll weigh in with Indian’s electric start model in 1914, however I’m not sure that it entered full production. It certainly seems to have been built and tested, but battery technology may not to have been up to the job, aggravated, one supposes, by the grim American roads of the period giving everything a good shaking.

Surely that was the first attempt; General Motors are acknowledged among motoring historians to have been the first with electric starting on a production car, the 1912 Cadillac. This system was designed by one Charles Kettering who founded the Delco company, still extant and a division of GM to this day so far as I know.

Nigel Stennett-Cox, member 1182 We’re going to give the (entirely imaginary) award to Nigel on this one because Indian did indeed build around 200 electric start motorcycles in 1914. The world’s first electric-start four-wheeler was a Cadillac, and its starter/generator was manufactured next door to the Indian factory.

So it seemed logical to Oliver Hendee to fit a selfstarter to the Indian two-wheelers – although in practice they suffered horribly from the bike’s vibration and battery technology was barely up to the demands of reliable electric starting. Most of them were recalled to be fitted with kick starts and magnetos and to have the weighty starter motors removed. The one seen here was built at the Indian plant in Canada, and auctioned by Bonhams a couple of years ago. Rowena

I believe the first electric starter fitted on a bike was the 1936 DKW SB500; see RC154 for the history of MZ feature for further details.

Unless anyone knows different?

Nigel Shuttleworth, member

EMERGING OLD ’UNS

STEAMPUNK PERFECTION! Inspired by the cover of RC176, I’ve retrieved my dad’s welding goggles from the shed and his old top hat from the loft. Unfortunately he never owned an ancient Beezer. Best cover ever!

Simon Piant, member

16 I JANUARY 2019

I have just received RC176 with the ‘barn find’ article, and thought I’d share something similar – although in this case it this was actually a garage find.

The owner is now in his early 80s and decided he was not going to complete his restorations, so he wished to pass his machines onto someone who would.

I heard about them through a friend and went to have a look. A 1920s Raleigh had been there since 1985, and the late 1940s BSA B31 he had owned since new.

Both had not moved for years. The B31 sold the day before I visited, and the Raleigh has now gone to a good home with a fellow VMCC member. It just goes to show they are still out there but not quite in the numbers we remember.

Andy Bean, member 12473

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