Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 60 Autumn 2021 i Classic Dirt Bike

“This will make a decent feature for the tech section in the next issue but first I must make sure I know what information I need to find out.” One of the big topics in mainstream press at the moment is E10 petrol and how it will reduce the impact on the environment. This is okay as far as it goes and I don’t doubt the idea behind this move to such fuels is well intentioned. From what I can gather as these theories are put forward is a wholesale switch to more ethanol in fuel will save the planet and be better for everyone. Sorry, not convinced. I’m not a scientist in any way, shape or form and it would be silly of me to pretend I was but…

The road to Drumlanrig 2022 continues at a pace. The dates for the diary are June 18-19, 2022 when Galloway MC hosts The Classic Grand National Scramble of Scotland. It won’t just be excellent MX action on a great track in front of Drumlanrig Castle either as this festival will include an oval grass track, a trials competition and road runs too to provide enough motorcycling action for everyone interested in all sorts of motorcycles. The road runs around the stunning countryside in which Drumlanrig Castle is sited and will highlight and showcase the Galloway area; if you’ve not been to this part of Scotland it is well worth the trip. Saturday evening grass tracks used to be a part of any scrambles gathering and Galloway tentatively tried to put…

The name Michael John Andrews has been inextricably linked to the off-road motorcycling world ever since he was innocently watching a section at a trial which seemed to defeat the entry. The observer, a friend of his father, said: “Go on Mick, let’s see what you can do.”What he could do was clean the section and Mick Andrews was set on the path to a life of motorcycling which would see him travel the world over and carve his name on trophies including the SSDT, innumerable national trials and ISDT gold medals. After his initial ‘section’ success a trials bike was acquired and the lad started doing well; just how well was demonstrated one evening when he came home from work to find a works-prepared AJS trials bike in the…

Badge engineering is a marketing tool that we equate with modern retailers where a manufacturer makes identical products sold under different brand names – but it’s far from new. In fact in the Sixties the British motorcycle industry was the master of the concept with AMC as an example badging a range of models as AJS, Matchless and Norton to capitalise on brand loyalty. Roll on to the Eighties, when Britain was reduced to having virtually a sole manufacturer, and the Armstrong corporation decided to enter the motorcycle market. Although a successful automotive component manufacturer, Armstrong was new to the motorcycle market. In the early Eighties it diversified into the electronic microchip market and the motorcycle industry, a strange combination at the time. In 1981 Armstrong acquired the Cotton and…

Devenport DMCC and West of England MC hosted the Rockshocks series with a Saturday and Sunday trial on June 19-20. With an entry limit of 120 per event and given the closeness of both events, priority for entry was given to those who’d entered both trials. Saturday’s Devenport trial was blessed with great weather and the entry had an excellent day. For the West of England trial it shows just how much any organisers are at the mercy of the weather – marked out with the expectation of heavy rain, it actually stayed dry! Still, all riders reported a great two days and the series headed north to Yeadon and Guisley’s trial on July 25, then to Cumberland County’s event in August. RND 2 RESULTS Class winners only AC Mono…

There were four Championship races, two mixed for Pre60, Pre65 and Pre68 and two for Pre74. In the first mixed class Pre68 rider Mitch Harris made the hole shot chased by Chris Collins and Nick Archer. Harris rode superbly to a good rhythm, not making any mistakes for a clear win. Collins was a good second in the race and in Pre68. Lewis Bell pushed through to third and was top Pre65, ahead of Best. Peter Hollinshead took his 650cc BSA twin to eighth in the race and the first Pre60. In the second race Ricky Pedder made the start from Harris, Bell and Best. Pedder held the lead throughout to be top Pre65 with Best getting closer and closer in second as top Pre68. Hollinshead got past Joe Chell…

An odd idea had been forming in Sixties MX, an idea so radical it rocked an industry on its heels. This idea would change the face of MX and unfortunately it wasn’t the home industry which would capitalise on it. Big bikes were still winning championships; of this there was no doubt but those winning on such massive machines were sure the day of these machines was over. It didn’t help the cause of the massive scrambler to find the industry supporting it was balanced on a knife-edge and would soon topple, forcing mergers, acquisitions, consolidation and just plain old ‘would the last person out please switch off the light’ as the once-dominant British companies seemed to collapse at the click of a thumb and finger. BSA had realised, or…

After months of uncertainty in the world in general rather than just the off-road world in particular, the big news for CDBers and classic dirt bike fans is the Classic Dirt Bike Show will return to the Telford International Centre on February 12-13, 2022. Hagon Shocks is once again pleased to be involved and like the rest of us, the Hagon team are looking forward to an excellent show. Though details are at the moment basic – little more than the date, February 12-13, 2022 and the ticket prices will be £16 on the gate, £14 advance and anyone 15 years old or under can get in free – there are plans to make the show a post-pandemic spectacular. What will be there is the best in dirt bikes from…

It is with great personal sadness that I have to report the death of Derek Rickman, who passed away on Saturday, July 3, 2021 aged 88. Derek – with brother Don – became a legend in his own lifetime. They were known right across the world as the Rickman brothers, manufacturers of the all-conquering Rickman Metisse motorcycle made initially for off-road, then road-racing, cafe racers, touring and the military. Derek was the driving force in the very successful business the brothers set up in the early Sixties to make motorcycles their way after their ideas about improving existing models, particularly for off-road, were rejected by the whole British motorcycle industry – then the biggest in the world. Derek’s father, Ernie Rickman, was a professional speedway rider at Southampton, but he…

When it comes to working on Can-Ams there is no better person than qualified suspension technician Jon Slenzak. An American who now resides in the UK, Jon is well known in the suspension world. On completing my bike, Jon told me his story: “I started within Can-Am at the beginning in 1973 and lasted three seasons to 1976. I worked for Malones in New York, who was the distributor of Can-Ams on the East Coast of the States. I later transferred direct to Can-Am to lead the building of their race bikes. My main role was to build the race bikes for Buck Murphy, Tim Harte and Mike Runyard, the main American enduro riders at the time. They never seemed to stay healthy, so it was an up and down…

Just as much major British industry spluttered to a halt in the early Seventies, a fledgling British industry was emerging – though at the time those involved didn’t see it in this way. How many automotive businesses have been formed because the person in it wanted something which couldn’t be had so decided to make their own version? Such was the way for Alan Clews, a talented scrambles rider in the Sixties. He wanted what was the ultimate British machine of the era, a works BSA. The factory wouldn’t release one so Alan set to and made his own version and CCM was born. It seems incredible these events were 50 years ago, yet they are; CCM is still around and the fabulous four-strokes are rightly regarded as classics…fast classics…classics…

A feature at Bultaco Revival Nostalgia trials has always been an appropriate guest connected to Bultaco in some way. For 2020 said guest was to have been John Lampkin, who began his riding career on Bultaco models. So, 2021, John was still keen to come along and on a gloriously warm day there were to be two laps of a course laid out on Holme Farm, near Middleton. To keep things simple there was only one route in each section and unlike previous years when observers used punches to clip the rider’s score card – a system which requires closer contact than social distancing requirements allow – the traditional observers’ cards were in place. Though the results have been out for a while, our box reminds you of the class…

If one listens to or reads news reports by the mainstream press when they go on about how alternative power is the way forward then you could be forgiven for believing the whole idea of electric-powered vehicles was discovered last week... by a 12-year-old, who’d put their phone down long enough to prevent their thumbs growing longer. In common with lots of ideas the concept of powering a vehicle, let’s say ‘motorcycle’ as this is a motorcycle magazine, has been around a long time. We could say any motorcycle with a spark plug is powered by electricity anyway but we’ll gloss over this fact and concentrate on the BSA C15 trials bike in the pic with this feature. It was taken at a motorcycle show in the Sixties – not…

In the day Galloway Motorcycle Club was not known as a trials club, despite having members who rode in the SSDT and other big feet-up events. However, there is in the relaunched club a thriving trials group who held their inaugural Three Glens Trial two-day trial in July which was based in the picturesque village of Moniaive in Dumfries and Galloway with facilities such as petrol, shop, hotel and a restaurant on hand. The club has access to thousands of acres offering good scope for a long lap with a variety of sections. Go to www.gallowaymcc.com to keep on top of things.…

There was a touch of sadness at the Sammy Miller Museum when it hosted the Rickman Enthusiasts Day on August 1 as Derek Rickman had passed away three weeks before. His brother Don was on hand to welcome the hundreds of Rickman enthusiasts and 200 Rickman motorcycles to the museum. As a fitting tribute Derek’s 1966 Farleigh Castle winning Rickman was fired up before a minute’s silence in remembrance. Once the remembrance service had concluded, 50 bikes were paraded in the museum complex grounds, to the delight of the hundreds of spectators, young and old alike. Don Rickman thanked everyone for making it a memorable day and requested that the Sammy Miller Museum Trust make this an annual event for the Rickman Enthusiasts. Additionally the Rickman family have put Derek…

Often a passion for something leads to a person earning their living through their passion. Such was the case with James Holland – the initial builder of this Matchless MXer – when he formed JHS Racing in the mid-90s. It is handy from a magazine point of view to be able to speak to the creator of what is being written about and James gave us lots of valuable information about the machine and how it came about. “In those days,” he begins, “the stocks of new ‘old’ parts were fast being used up and the reproduction scene hadn’t quite got into its stride so a lot of bits we had to make from scratch.”The machine was created for Vic Vaughan to contest the fledgling European series and this went…

Development is continuous in the motorcycle world. This week’s hot idea is next week’s has-been, especially in the world of suspension… In the biggest change to hit the rear end of motorcycles since someone decided filling a tube with oil and wrapping a spring around it would be a good way to smooth out the bumps as a dirt bike hopped across the terrain, the world was going monoshock or cantilever and woe betide any maker without such a system in the tech departments. Which was pretty bad news for OSSA’s TR80 Gripper models as they had just made their twinshock suspension work brilliantly. It was as good as it could be for the rear end without being mono… The bike looked great too but it was a twinshock and…

There is no shame in admitting a task is beyond you for whatever reason. These reasons are as varied as lacking in skill, lacking in equipment or lacking in time. For some reason a bunch of these reasons have all banded together and caused a halt in every project I have. This bottleneck has arrived because I neither have the equipment nor the skills needed to weld either steel or aluminium alloy. I could learn these skills but it would require an investment of time and funds which are just not available to me at the moment. It used to be possible for enthusiastic restorers to take an evening class in necessary skills and actually achieve a level of competency to advance a restoration. Additionally these evening classes, generally at…

1. Getting a grip How much abuse does a dirt bike clutch have to cope with? One moment the bike is trickling along then all of a sudden the throttle is whapped wide open and the poor clutch is expected to grip. Then, as the first turn approaches, the clutch is slipped instead of dropping a gear with the rider’s thoughts only on beating the guy next to him. If the clutch is thought of it is only in the ‘damn clutch is slipping, must get on to VintCo on Monday…!’ VintCo has a wide and expanding range of high-quality replacement clutch kits for Maico, Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and of course OSSA which include friction and plain plates with new springs. Contact VintCo now for your new clutch. What:…

Amid spikes and troughs of pandemic news, when official advice changed by the hour, there was much speculation of how or if motorcycle sport could happen in such an environment. Could organisers meet the requirements laid out for sporting gatherings as authorities tried to balance a return to normality with reducing Covid infections and having as many people jabbed as possible? The answer is yes: aided by organising bodies’ interpretation of said advice, motorcycle sport happened. Okay, a trial is probably the easiest of our disciplines to meet the criteria, followed perhaps by enduros – both sports generally don’t attract the sorts of crowds which would cause infection transmission scares – then MX, where part of the thing involves spectators. So, diligent organisers stepped up to the mark, precautions were…

The area around Edmundbyers in County Durham has seen many a North East Centre trial with one common theme… decent length courses. A chance to try out some new ground which butted up against older courses resulted in the inaugural Baa Classic a couple of years ago. The trial proved popular with lots of people wanting to travel north – or south for that matter – to experience how we do things in the North East. With a shorter, six-mile course on Saturday, July 10, starting at noon to break riders in for Sunday’s 11-mile two-lapper proved popular and at 10am on Sunday the entry set off on the moorland course to tackle rocky streams, stony banks, a little bit of mud and a touch of drizzle to enliven things.…