The Classic Motorcycle October 2016 preview

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CLASSY C GILERA RIDDEN

End off the big single lline

MATCHLESS G885CS

Gold l BLEND

DBD34 –ULTIMATE CAFÉ RACER

Seeking solace in the su s RIDING CLASSICS IN IDYLLIC MALLORC CA

PLUS:

James Comet Earls Court 196 66 Ramsgate sprint Wiring looms Indian sin ngle

Editor’s welcome

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The last couple of months have really flown by, in a flurry of events, road-tests, race meetings and running repairs. There’s been some really great riding, some top company and a rich array of motorcycles.

Diversity has always appealed to me, pretty much in every walk of life, and particularly with regards to my motorcycling. I don’t mean to get bored with things (and it’s not really bored) but I do like to try as much as I can. To that end, I’ll always try and ride something different in an event and if offered a go on any motorcycle I’ll always try to take it up. To that end, I managed to ride three different bikes over three days of a VMCC event (the excellent Breckland Weekend, hosted by the King’s Lynn section of the VMCC over July 23/24 and into the week after) with the trio being a 1930s V-twin, a 1920s ohv single and a 1940s ‘cammy’ Velo, which, as far as I’m concerned, added to the all-round interest of the event. Then there was another day on a 1920s ohv machine (this time the oil-cooled Bradshaw-engined Montgomery) and another day on the KSS, as well as a bit of modern riding in between too, on a pair of impressive machines from Triumph’s current range (a T120 Bonneville and a Speed Triple R).

I rode the 1050cc Speed Triple down to dad’s (which is 80 miles), then borrowed his KSS to go out for the day with him, riding about 100 miles. Standing the two next to each other at day’s end set me thinking – the 1050cc triple is basically the 350cc KSS times three… But when the KSS was built, it was considered a ‘big bike’ so how has that changed? There’s a whole load of reasons and developments, though of course suspension and brakes are just as – if not more – important than actual engine performance.

It’s not just been riding at events though – there’s also been a fair (and varied) selection of machinery to ride for the magazine, which is all part of our quest to see us through winter. I’ve ticked a few more boxes against things I’d really wanted to ride, to discover for myself what they were like, so that’ll hopefully provide some interesting features too. Suffice to say, I really, really want a couple of machines, while I’ve scratched a couple more itches and managed to cross some more off the: “If I win the Lottery I’ll buy…” list.

Talking of Lottery wins, if your numbers come up before September 19, then make a beeline for Bonhams’ Robert White Collection. Mr White had the type of collection anyy of us wo ould d dre eam of (mo otorccycle es, plu us all sortts ma o

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Contributors

Richard Adams, Jonathan Hill, Mike Lewis, Jim Patten, Roy Poynting, Richard Rosenthal, Martin Squires, Mark Stone, Jerry Thurston, Phillip Tooth, Alan Turner, Phil Turner.

THE CLASSIC MOTOR CYCLE (USPS:710-470) is published monthly by Mortons Media Group Ltd, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ UK. USA subscriptions are $63 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 THE CLASSIC MOTOR CYCLE, c/o Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N #441, Bancroft WI 54921. 715-572-4595 chris@classicbikebooks.com

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CONTENTS ISSUE | OCTOBER 2016

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Archive photograph ..........................................6 News ...................................................................8 Letters ............................................................... 14 BSA Gold Star ...................................................18 James Comet De Luxe .....................................26 Subscribe and save ..........................................32 Touring in Mallorca ........................................34 Gilera Saturno .................................................40 Indian single ....................................................46 Glass plates – Ramsgate sprint, 1961 .............53 Matchless G85CS (spotlight) ..........................58 Lansdowne round-up .....................................62 Brooklands then and now ..............................64 Closer look – Earls Court show 1966 ..............66 Ben Matthews (Watsonian) interview ...........72 Men who mattered – John Draper ................. 74 Roy Poynting column .....................................76 Jerry Thurston column ....................................78 Social history of motorcycling .......................80 Martin Squires’ sketchbook ...........................84 You were asking ...............................................86 Restoration guide – Triumph Tiger singles ...90 Technical feature – wiring looms ..................92 Classic components – ammeters ...................98 Next month ....................................................112 Classic camera ............................................... 114

POST: The Classic MotorCycle, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ EMAIL: jrobinson@mortons.co.uk

THE CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE | OCTOBER 2016

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Comet-h the hour 26

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James | C Comet

This is actually from a year before the James model name ‘Comet’ was coined, but is in all essence the same model.

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Words: ROY POYNTING Photography: TERRY JOSLIN

’ve had great affection for James’ motorcycles since I took to the roads on an old Comet as a teenager, and while I’ve since had several other models made by the Greet, Birmingham, factory, I’ve always hankered after another example of its smallest product. Well, fate eventually played a hand when a 98cc Villiers-engined James turned up in the collection left by the late Martin Tiller, some of whose bikes have featured in these pages. Luckily I was able to purchase the machine via a mutual friend and ended up with the pretty little James featured here.

So, I’d got a Comet again. At least to all intents and purposes I had, but when I did a bit of research I was surprised to find that James didn’t use that moniker for its tiddler when it was introduced in 1949. The earliest models, like this, were tediously designated the ‘No 98 Series 1F Lightweight Motor Cycle’, so it’s no wonder James soon switched to a catchier title, even if it was singularly inappropriate for a cheap commuter with an

extremely modest top speed. As a matter of interest, the ubiquitous 197cc James, which everybody (including me) casually refers to as the Captain, was initially released as the ‘No 197 Series 6E Lightweight Motor Cycle’.

Returning to the featured bike, the No 98 in its title pretty obviously refers to the machine’s capacity, but the Series 1F might need explaining for those not familiar with Villiers’ lore. The Wolverhampton factory had made 98cc engines – variously called the Midget, Junior and Junior De Luxe – for autocycles since the early-1930s, but after the Second World War decided something more up-to-date was required, and launched the 1F and 2F. The engines were similar in appearance, but confusingly the 2F was the single-speeder intended for autocycles, while the 1F had two speeds selected by a handlebar control, and was intended for lightweight motorcycles like mine. James was just one of the adoptees, and similar little machines were made by several companies including Excelsior and Sun. The 2F continued virtually unchanged until

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Ramsgate amsgate | Sprint

Ramsgate records shaved George Brown and Reg Gilbert put up new times on the seafront.

T Pat Barrett, with Vic Willoughby well tucked away on the big Vincent’s sidecar platform, crosses the finishing line.

Photographs: MORTONS ARCHIVE

Charlie Rous, but after he was delayed, Colquhoun aking place at the end of September decided to campaign it himself – though he didn’t 1961, the Ramsgate sprint attracted have any riding kit with him. So he and ‘Doc’ most of the big names of British Willoughby shared clothing, with some quick sprinting, with George Brown top of changes needed to get in and out of the bill, who had his 1000cc Straight leathers post haste!

Vincent V-twin special and 250cc Ariel twoThe Motor Cycle journalist Vic stroke twin both at his disposal. from the Willoughby was there, acting as Others in attendance included Basil Keys, plate ballast on the sidecar platform of Pat with a 1000cc JAP powered V-twin and 350cc To view the rest of Barrett’s Vincent, while other familiar AJS, Neville Higgins and Pat Barrett (both the pictures in this names included Ossie Neal – with Vincent V-twin) and Bill Bragg, with his set and to order both his Scott outfit and a rigid650cc Triumph, Yellow Peril. prints please visit framed pushrod Velocette – and Denis Charlie Luck was there with his 715cc www.mortons Jenkinson, world champion sidecar single cylinder cammy Norton-based archive.com hi passenger to Eric Oliver in 1949 and machine – built in collaboration with also navigator to Stirling Moss in engine wizard Bill Stuart – while Dr Joe 1955’s record-breaking Mille Miglia Bayley’s famous Douglas sprinter (still used victory (they covered 992 miles in just in anger today) was being ridden by Dr over 10 hours at a 99mph average, on Roger Willoughby. open roads, largely thanks to Jenks’ Gordon Colquhoun’s Velocette Mk.VIII innovative pace notes). Unfortunately, KTT sprinter was down to be ridden by

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Words: GORDON RUSSELL/ RICHARD ADAMS Photographs: RUSS LEE

More of the story Last month, we featured the first three rounds of The Lansdowne Classic Series - here, we report on the next two meetings.

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OULTON PARK June 17/18

Oulton Park, with Bemsee, was a two-day (Friday/ Saturday) meeting, with free practice and qualifying on the Friday and two races on Saturday.

Dean Stimpson, on the Izzard Racing Manx, took pole position in qualifying, closely followed by Alex Sinclair and Chris Firmin.

In the evening there was a Lansdowne BBQ in the paddock, where riders and friends of the series gathered together for a pleasant chat.

Race one was eight laps of the 2.69-mile circuit, with close racing in all classes. In the Bonhams class it was between pole man Stimpson and the Ripley Land G50 of Sinclair, with Stimpson winning by 1.5 seconds. The WRR class was won by Tony Perkin, on his Manx, by five seconds from Andy Clews’ G50, who was one second ahead of Robin Stokes (Manx). Matt Hebb took the Avon 350cc honours from Ian Lucas and Roger Ashby. In the TCM class, Duncan Fitchett, riding Andy Savage’s long-stroke Manx, took the win from Sam Rhodes on Ian Austen’s Velocette.

The second race in the afternoon had much the same result in the Bonhams class except Sinclair finished only 0.2 sec behind Stimpson, and in the WRR Stokes got the better of Clews to get second.

In the Avon 350cc it was Hebb again from Ashby and Jeff Bing. The TCM was a repeat of the first race.

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2 1: Alex Sinclair (42, Ripley Land Matchless) tried in vain to hold off eventual winner Dean Stimpson (79, Izzard Racing Norton) at Oulton Park.

2: Duncan Fitchett (Andy Savage Norton) took the TCM honours at Oulton.

Interview | Ben Matthews

A brief chat with...

Ben Matthews

Sidecar experts Watsonian has been making sidecars since 1912, and continues to offer an extensive range.

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Photographs: GARY CHAPMAN AND MORTONS ARCHIVE.

he Watsonian Folding Sidecar Company was established at Balsall Heath, Birmingham, in 1912 by Thomas Frederick ‘Fred’ Watson, a joiner and builder with a sideline in inventions. Fred reckoned a folding sidecar was just the thing required to access the passages alongside terrace houses, including the one he lived in, so set to building such a device and founding a company.

Soon, more conventional sidecars joined the range, many with wicker bodies, while during the First World War the company built motorcycle ambulances.

There was a move to Hockley, Birmingham in 1922 and then to Greet, Birmingham, in 1931, following a fire at the Hockley premises.

Fred Watson, whose determination had seen

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Above: Ben Matthews poses on a BMW and Steib sidecar outfit, at Watsonian’s HQ.

Watsonian through some lean years in the 1930s, died in 1944, the firm being taken over by his son Ron. In 1956, Watsonian took over the rights to Swallow sidecars and also, the same year, introduced GRP (glass reinforced plastic) bodies. During the 1970s, a sideline in producing hardtops (in GRP) for Land Rover and sports cars provided a useful income stream, but the ending of that contract in 1981 forced the company to scale back.

In 1984, Watsonian moved to its current location in Blockley in the Cotswolds. In 1988 it merged with Squire sidecars, to become Watsonian Squire, and in 1999 took on the UK distribution right for Indianbuilt Royal Enfield. Though no longer the UK’s Royal Enfield distributor, the company remains a dealer.

Managing director Ben Matthews joined Watsonian in 1996 (as tea boy!). He is steeped in sidecar-lore though mainly these days his motorcycling is off-road.

A social history of motorcycling | Larger than Life (1967 to 1969)

ASocialHistoryofMotorcycling Larger than life

EPISODE

TEN

(1967 to 1969)

In this series of extracts from his forthcoming book, Mike Lewis looks at the growth and evolution of social motorcycling in Britain and the USA.

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Words: MIKE LEWIS Photographs: MORTONS ARCHIVE / GETTY IMAGES

ollowing an investigative feature in The Nation magazine, journalist Hunter S Thompson spent a further year researching his subjects first-hand in California. He recounted the sum of his experiences in a book entitled Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, published in New York and London during 1967. Although this hardcover 278-page volume purported to be an objective documentary, several critics felt that its thoughtful and highly personal tone connected with deeper themes, as though speaking for a generation still unsure of its place in the post-war Western world.

However, many readers in America simply latched on to it as part of the lucrative new wave of commercial exploitation that had been prompted by The Wild Angels, with more than 50 similar films set to be released during the next five years before the genre lost its popular appeal.

Although Roger Corman’s film had been denied BBFC certification for public showing in cinemas, a small number of British hack writers reprised its main themes in paperback novellas published by the New English Library (NEL) imprint, which was actually owned by a company in Los Angeles. NEL titles appealed mainly to a schoolboy readership, which feasted upon graphic portrayals of social deviance involving characters only a few years older than themselves, which served both as an examination of conflict with authority and as a rite of passage towards adulthood. In August, Motor Cycle magazine incorporated elements of its old rival Motor Cycling in converting to the latter’s newspaper format, with publication on Wednesdays to compete with Motor Cycle News. In November, The Wild One film finally received a BBFC ‘X’ certificate and was promptly screened by the 59 Club at its premises in Paddington.

On the last day of 1967, Robert Craig ‘Evel’ Knievel, aged 29, tried to jump his modified Triumph T120 Bonneville over the water fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. Although he crashed on landing, suffering multiple fractures and severe concussion, the 141-foot attempt gained him enough publicity to launch a career as the world’s best-known motorcycle stuntman. In the course of this, he would

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Evel Knievel was making a name for himself, with his daring, dangerous stunts.

Garish paint jobs and high-rise handlebars were on the increase.

attempt more than 75 similar jumps and set a new world distance record by clearing 19 cars on a HarleyDavidson XR750. Knievel would also sustain more than 433 bone fractures, a fact that merited a separate entry in the Guinness Book of Records.

British singer and actress Marianne Faithfull took the lead role in The Girl on a Motorcycle, directed by Jack Cardiff, and released in October 1968. The film’s main source of inspiration was German motorcycle journalist and racer Anke-Eve Goldmann, who, during the 1950s, had pioneered a one-piece leather riding suit for women. Faithfull wore a fleece-lined version made by fashion house Lanvin (although her double in riding scenes was Grand Prix racer Bill Ivy, wearing a blonde wig), and the film was the sixth

Technical feature | Electrical wiring loom checks

Check that loom Bird’s nest motorcycle wiring looms defy most of us. By tidying looms, following tracer wires and wiring diagrams, we can beat most problems our motorcycles throw at us including detecting wiring faults.

Words and photographs: RICHARD ROSENTHAL

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izz, phut…and… darkness. Many of us have suffered light failure at night – an experience worsened on cold evenings, by gale force winds and stair rod rain. Motorcycle wiring looms are by the nature of our vehicles exposed to the elements and every connection to the loom is a weak link. It is often rain which causes the fizz and phut as a segment of a damaged loom or an exposed connection earths out directly to the motorcycle frame, a contact aided by the rain we’re riding through. Generally we spot the problem and, as the gloomy tale unfolds, we make Heath Robinson bypass repairs and, with luck, are soon on our way.

More annoying is when motorcycle electrical systems fail without any visible warning defect. How to ‘troubleshoot’ such problems has been to the forefront of five correspondents' minds in the last few months, leading to this feature.

There are some among us who claim if the machine’s electrical system is in good order it won’t fail, while others throw the towel in at the first sign of a problem – after all, you can’t see electrical current, so how can you trace it? For the rest of us, armed with a simple, cheap kit, we can often track down the problem in double-quick time, without needing to call in the cavalry. And even before we open the tool bag, our motorcycle can actually give us a clue or two.

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A severe discharge indicated by the ammeter, or when the main fuse blows, indicates an earth leak. This could be via wiring loom damage or a failed component, which suddenly passes electrical current directly to earth. If the latter is suspected, either disconnect components singly from the electrical system or the whole lot, and reintroduce one at a time. As a warning, remember severe earth leaks create almost instant heat, which in extreme cases can start a fire or, at best, drain the battery quickly. Thus during checks only switch on the power supply for a minute as there are risks (and the risk is yours) to checking ammeter action until the cause is discovered.

While the above may help, often we are presented with system failure with no discernible earth leak. While the problem may be as simple as a blown bulb – which is easily checked by testing or replacing – what if the loom or a hidden connector has failed?

This topic has been under consideration for some months.

Thoughts included creating a couple of failures to track down as examples when, last week, the in-house, rattly Triumph Trident only fired on the middle and right-hand cylinders and no amount of plug swaps and HT lead fiddling persuaded the wretch to chime in on three pots. An import from Austria about 10 years ago, the fivespeed T150V is used during the late autumn to early spring period, not because we want to destroy it on salty roads in winter, but rather