Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 42 Spring 2017 i Classic Dirt Bike

Looking at Will Bennett’s bike again, after its Stafford-winning appearance, it was clear this was still a superb machine. A photoshoot planned for December is fraught with difficulty, the weather being the major problem as it could be so bright as to make photography difficult, so cold as to make standing around uncomfortable or, as in this case, so wet and miserable we nearly had to call the whole thing off. It didn’t help that the weather forecast was telling us it was clear and bright in Kent. “I could ring the school to see if we can do the shoot in our workshops,” said tech teacher Will. With the school officially on Christmas break, or the pupils at least, this seemed a great idea, so with the bike safely…

To perform well on the world stage was always the aim of the UK’s motorcycle industry throughout its existence and the International Six Days Trial was tailor made for this purpose. When it was launched in 1913 the idea behind the event was to showcase what ordinary, or lightly modified machines could do and as such our home industry embraced it. Gradually though, the focus of the two-wheeled world changed and motorcycles became leisure vehicles rather than transport, but the UK industry soldiered on with lightly modified road bikes for the national teams. Or at least they did until the mid-Sixties when things had to change. In effect the home industry was BSA Triumph and it was their supported riders who made up the teams. Good though these riders were,…

As is the way, a search in the archive here at CDB for information for a different feature turned up a test of the first Kawasaki MXer in the UK when MotorCycle journalist Mike Bashford got his hands on one in November 1967. This feature was backed up by information supplied by Richard Metcalfe at Kawasaki UK who sourced some detailed background information initially used in Kawasaki’s Rider Club magazine to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the KX range. It would be no great revelation to say the first generation of off-road Kawasakis were less MX and more road machine customised for the dirt scene. To begin their road into MX, the company settled on developing their 125cc B8 roadster complete with tank emblems bearing the legend ‘Kawasaki Aircraft.’ In…

There will be plenty of trials riders who remember the good old days when a trial consisted of a decent length lap with sections connected by rough going and a bit of roadwork too. It was the way of the world – bikes were road legal, queuing was a rarity at sections and the day ended with the feeling of having had a good ride. Lots of things conspired to change trials to shorter, more technical courses – bikes being less road-based, affluence meant a bike could be a pastime not a means of transport, the first oil crisis which forced petrol up from 35p a gallon to 51p a gallon in a fortnight – but riders still hankered for a longer day out. Enter the Northern British Bike Series…

The International Classic Motocross circus visited Ballyblack in Newtownards in September, for the 2016 Classic Motocross des Nations International event, promoted by the Northern Ireland Classic Scrambles Club (www.niclassicscramblesclub.com). The venue and track at landowner Leslie Wright’s farm was classic motocross utopia and much lauded by the competing riders representing 12 national teams, from as far away as Vancouver in Canada and across Europe. The sun shone on the event providing ideal conditions for the competitors and the huge crowds of spectators enthusiastically cheering on, waving programmes and blowing air horns to create a fantastic atmosphere and spur on the Northern Ireland teams. Highlights of the event, giving the crowd what they had come to see, included a victory and second place in both Over 70 years Class Races, for…

Ever regretted selling something? I bet you have. In Roger Simkin’s case it was a neat Triumph engine Cotton, reputed to be an ex-Arthur Lampkin machine. Roger was approached by someone who called his bluff when he put a gulp-inducing price tag on his Cotton. “I didn’t really want to sell it and thought that would put him off, but the bloke came up with the cash and that was that.” Luckily, Roger had been discussing a BSA Victor with ace Beezer guy Mick Bennett and with his shed soon to be a bike down, the deal for Mick to build the bike went ahead. It took a bit longer than originally expected, but eventually the bike came along. “To be honest,” the Staffordshire painter and decorator told me, “I…

Inverness and DMC are hosting their popular Highland Classic Two-Day Trial on the Alvie estate near Aviemore in Scotland on June 10/11, 2017. In common with recent trials, 2017 has its own theme and it is to be the Honda Edition, with guest star Rob Shepherd who was a leading part of Honda’s trials team in the 1970s and 1980s. Rob was British Champion in 1977 on one of the superb factory four-stroke Hondas. This event is always oversubscribed and we know the entries open before this issue goes to press, so it’s likely the list will be full as you’re reading this news piece. But on the off-chance the reserve list isn’t 43 pages long – have a look at the IDMCC website www.idmcc.co.uk…

We’ve not had an original and unrestored bike in CDB for a few issues and we’d thought the supply had dried up, then, on a chance call to Charles Preston at Husqvarna Vintage, up pops this 400 Cross from 1970. Just to remind you, the theme at Stafford in October for the Carole Nash Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show was the all-time classic motorcycle movie On Any Sunday. Husqvarnas featured quite a lot in the film and star Steve McQueen was filmed riding a 400 Cross. Charles had a 1970 machine we could borrow and it turned out to be completely original and unrestored. By a quirk of fate, Will Bennett decided at the last minute to bring along his fully restored 1970 400 Cross and the opportunity to have them…

“ ...due to damp storage most of the MotorCycling stuff was turned to mulch. Luckily we have the back issues and a repro department which can work wonders…’’ This is a little bit of personal indulgence on my part here... and I suppose I ought to apologise for that.... but it’s probably obvious to regular readers that the archive here at CDB is an extensive place, and not a little dangerous. ‘Dangerous’ because of the content and the subtle way time vanishes – you see, I’m a sucker for the line drawings produced by the likes of Lawrie Watts in The MotorCycle and MotorCycling in the days before computers when technical artists had to sit down at a drawing board and produce images from sketches they’d made and notes they’d…

To be honest I thought I’d be riding this IT465 by now but hey ho, that’s the way things go sometimes and unlike our last few project bikes where spares have been plentiful, the IT range has gaps in it. Okay, people are working to fill these gaps but it can still be a long process to source bits but there were enough bits to make a rolling chassis for the International Dirt Bike Show stand. The IT promoted quite a bit of interest on our stand and a few people did say they’d got bits and pieces left over from their own rebuilds, including a lad who reckoned to have a replacement lower front curve for the exhaust pipe. If you’re reading this… still interested in the pipe… One…

Will it? Won’t it? They were the questions on classic scrambles fans’ lips when news broke traditional home of the British Bike Bonanza was being sold. In the end Adrian Moss found a suitable location not too far away from the original course and for the 2016 event Hailey Farm at Sapperton near Cirencester became the event’s new home. Though the venue changed there was still a trial on Saturday for which CDB has to thank Ken Wallington for the loan of an immaculate BSA B40 which puts the editor’s version to shame. The going was traditionally Cotswold though – thankfully reasonably dry so not too slippery. Given that Adrian Moss is unashamedly a fan of the bigger and pre-unit bikes in our scene it is perhaps no great revelation…

Launched a few years ago as a series aimed to give riders of twinshock and early air-cooled monos a place to ride on sections suited for their machines, the National Twinshock Trials Championship has attracted hundreds of riders keen to embrace its superb events. The series has rounds up and down the country and organisers have a strict policy of never having more than two events at one place in a row. This means the series is always fresh and keeps clubs on their toes. With four classes – each with an expert and clubman route – there is scope for almost anyone to ride what they’ve got tucked in the shed. The website www.twinshockchampionship.org.uk has the regulations for each class set out and having a read of them shows…

With the entries for both the full Scottish Six Days Trial and the Pre-65 two-day version now closed, the trip to the Highlands is uppermost in many trials riders’ minds. Having a glance through Nick Nicholls’ SSDT archive brought to light this great shot of Peter Salt in the 1975 SSDT. Nick caught him in brilliant sunshine tackling Bradileig on day three. Peter was part of the Kawasaki team that year along with Don Smith and the popular filler rider AN Other. In fact there were two other riders on Kawasakis that year, K Kitchener and PM Evans – does anyone know if either of the two were drafted into the Japanese manufacturer’s team? Like the majority of the trial entries Peter is resplendent in a TT Leathers’ Ruffryda Vystram…

Cumbria Twinshock have had to change the date of the Hawkstone Park Festival of Legends, which includes round six of the Toughsheet National Twinshock Championships, from September 2/3 to the weekend before, August 27/28. The club unreservedly apologise for any inconvenience caused to riders who may have holidays booked, but it is out of their hands as the Salop Club requested the change, due to a World Championship shoot on adjacent land too close to the circuit. It is also acknowledged that this would now clash with the Ken Hall and a Scottish Twinshock round, but there just isn’t another date available in the calendar. On the plus side, it is the bank holiday weekend, and camping will be available from the Saturday, with racing on the Sunday and Monday.…

Surely everyone must know the story of how the upstart lightweight bikes came along in the Sixties and knocked the big bangers off their seemingly unassailable perches? Yes? No? Well, it wasn’t quite like that as the smaller bikes had been there and thereabouts for a few years, and in the end it was the foreigners who did it for all the British machines and relegated them to the sheds and outhouses before the pre-65 movement took hold. Nor indeed were the riders of the bigger bikes blind to the need to carve an ounce or two off their machines, and Gordon Jackson’s legendary 187 BLF SSDT winning 350 AJS was reckoned to be, at 225lb, lighter than a C15 BSA. When someone builds a bike to use in pre-65…

It is a fascinating world in which factory team bikes live, and there are three separate elements to that world. Naturally there’s the race day, then there’s the paddock fettling sessions where minor and occasionally not so minor faults are repaired and things get checked over between races, and then there’s the factory race shop where the machine is built in the first place. The hallowed ground with locked doors and blanked out windows being accessible only to a favoured few –at least that’s what we like to believe. Once their race life is over, these bikes generally head back to the factory, rarely to be seen again unless, as in this SR400’s case, it comes to an enthusiast who appreciates it for what it is. Given the level of…

The region of Beaune and Nuits-Saint Georges is famous all over the world (well almost) for the exceptional quality of its wines. The vines are planted on the slopes exposed to the sun and you can reach them by stony trails, whereas at the top of the hills you go through sheltered shady paths in the woody undergrowth. The Burgundy Classic team, who are all mad about classic motorbikes, had the idea of letting other classic motorbike enthusiasts get a taste for their region. The aim of the weekend is to allow not only French enthusiasts but also Italian and British to get together. Unfortunately, our transalpine friends were not able to come for the 2016 edition... but they’ll make up for it in the 2017 one. The course, which…

The Toughsheet National Twinshock MX Championships celebrated its 25th anniversary in style... which isn’t bad for a few phone calls back in 1992 between Alan Hardy, Ken Shuttleworth and Bill Brown. The 2016 season had six rounds, starting over Easter at the all-weather Polesworth circuit in Staffordshire. The second round, which incorporated the Matt Murphy Memorial Meeting, was at the tough but popular Hawkstone Park venue, near Shrewsbury. From there the action moved to Gale Common, Garstang, and Warmingham Lane with the Pontrilas, Herefordshire meet dropped to one day thanks to the weather… Moire than 250 riders signed up for the series, with some new faces mixing it with all the regulars. In the Bill Brown-sponsored Wulfsport Experts, Lee Holland on his all new YVMX Honda built by Andy Cleaver,…

“I dreamed of racing the likes of Jeff Smith and Arthur Lampkin, Dave Bickers and Alan Clough for many years after that day; something I never did get to do.” Ian Berry A question I’m often asked is “How did you get started writing about motocross?” to which I respond by telling them that my father is responsible for that. Back in the late 1990s dad sent me a couple of Duke videos for my birthday that depicted the sport in the Fifties and Sixties. Watching the videos, memories of spectating at meetings throughout the Sixties and Seventies came flooding back, so I searched in the motorcycle magazines of the day – this was before the days of the internet – for books I could read to further my…