Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 61 Winter 2021 i Classic Dirt Bike

I have to thank John Dickinson for inspiration for these words as he talked about stories from years ago which jogged a memory or two for me. The weekend ahead of me as I write, will feature my own club’s trial on a course I’ve ridden since I started riding aged 14 in the early Seventies. As part of the beginnings of schoolboy or perhaps school-person motor sport I was naturally restricted to events held on private land in common with a few other younger riders in the North East Centre. Without a driving licence in order to get to an event a trailer was needed and it would be hitched to the family car. The concept of riding your motorcycle to an event was old hat by the Seventies…

While the MCC’s Edinburgh Trial doesn’t actually take place in the city these days, but rather explores the Derbyshire countryside and the Peak District with 185 miles of mixed road surfaces, it still provides a testing time. The MCC – Motor Cycling Club – are the oldest organisation actually running trials and their events follow the term ‘trial’ in its most original form. It took place in October at their new start venue, the Lichfield Rugby Club, when competitors headed out into the dark for the trial which included two additional sections on previous years and an extra special test before dawn and breakfast. Daylight beckoned the competitors towards Macclesfield forest and the bleak moorland with its famous stony outcrops in the far west of the National Park, before a…

Herefordshire-based auctioneers HJ Pugh have a full-page advert in this issue for their sale on November 19-20, 2022 at Hazle Meadows Auction Centre in Ledbury. Glancing at it we spotted this Montesa 172 trials bike already consigned. Fully restored with new engine parts including a piston, rings, main bearings, seals, gearbox bearings, kickstart shaft, spring, seal it looked a tidy bike to us. Further investigation revealed both wheels have new rims, spokes and tyres while the handlebars, levers and control cables are also new. Finishing off the bike are new front fork springs, rear dampers, rear sprocket, chain and seat. It has its original owner’s instruction and maintenance manual, is road registered and has a V5. Even more investigation revealed the sale includes lots of other dirt bike stuff too…

There were three nominal variants of HS beginning with the HS in 1954 which with minor modifications became the HS MkI by 1956 while an enduro version with lights and a magdyno was dubbed the HS MkIII and was intended mainly for the US market. Eagle-eyed readers will spot there’s no MkII version listed and the reason for this was unclear until a chat with Don Morley who found, during research for his book Classic British Scramblers, the MkII was to have Earles forks but Ariel couldn’t reach agreement with Ernie Earles to allow their use. After 1956 Ariel catalogued the HS virtually unchanged to the end of the company’s involvement with four-stroke machines in 1959.…

In the olden days of 1981 there was no such thing as social media with instant uploading of images, short films and event results to the worldwide web using mobile phones. Perhaps a competitor or competitor’s friend might find a public phonebox and, using a fistful of small change, phone home and say how good, bad or indifferent the event was and add something about the rider’s performance. Word of mouth might spread the news to a few in the circle of friends back home but until the weekly motorcycle press hit the newsstands this was the limit. It seems inconceivable to young people today how the world operated without virtually instant communication from almost all of the world but it did. For us enthusiasts, eager to catch the latest…

I doubt anyone reading this isn’t familiar with drum brakes and I bet a significant number of people are also familiar with the spongy feeling of a brake shoe as the lining begins to detach from the shoe. A few of you may be equally familiar with linings that move round in the hub and jam. If you’re lucky then this may just mean forward progress will stop, if you’re unlucky it can fetch you off, if you’re very unlucky it can break the hub or brake plate, if you’re very, very unlucky it can do all three and perhaps you should consider tiddlywinks as a hobby… but wear safety glasses. A lot of years ago I had a brake plate shatter when a lining detached while on the road…

Just too late for our last issue was Bultaco Club UK’s mighty Bulto extravaganza near Basingstoke beginning on July 31, 2021. For all things Bultaco the club has grown from strength to strength – pandemic notwithstanding – and for the celebration weekend there was a trials course, a flat track oval and an enduro test. Given the strange times we’re all experiencing the club was pleased to attract 40 Bultos of all shapes and sizes and 100 people to experience the best of Barcelona’s bikes. With a superb barbecue and a proper pub on site, attendees were well fed and watered and even the rain held off until the last bikes were leaving. Roll on 2022. CONTACT BULTACO CLUB UK If you’re passionate about Bultacos then you need to check…

Mortons Archive is quite extensive and without it CDB would be much harder to put together. In the main it is well organised and easily accessible but just occasionally with the number of images in there – more than four million at the last inventory – a slide drops to the bottom of the box and is found by accident when looking for something else. Which is what happened with this picture. It also means any relevant information is elsewhere in the archive so two courses of action are open: the first is inspect the picture and deduce what one can from it using the little grey cells like Hercule Poirot would. This method shows it is clearly an official Yamaha MX launch and is most likely of the 1981…

CDB was invited along to the opening day of Glendale Classic Dirt Bikes’ new premises in Glendale Business Park, Haugh Head near Wooler in Northumberland on October 30, 2021. Launched by Gav Douglas, who is known for the excellent North East Vinduro Club events in the area, the business takes his motorcycle rebuilds, race prepping and restorations to a new level. Grabbing Gav and his wife Gill for a few moments as they hosted the day they told me the business will take on dirt bike restorations and help riders sort their machines by handling tasks they maybe don’t have time to do or the knowledge and equipment to carry out. Said Gav: “We’re looking at doing race prep and set-up with things like suspension rebuilds as an example, as…

“You are joking?” I gasped. “No, seriously, it’s only done 12 miles under power in its life.” I must have still looked incredulous as Al Winter qualified his statement by saying the original owner in Spain bought it and rode it for a few hours then laid it up for a bit – which turned out to be nearly 40 years. The next question had to be: “How did it arrive in your workshop Al?” Well, Al has a bit of an OSSA habit. In the mid-70s he rode North East centre trials on a MAR – Mick Andrews Replica – then he headed over to the dark side of motor sport with four-wheeled vehicles before being pulled back to trials riding in the Nineties with another MAR. Quickly deciding…

Why do some motorcycles survive when others are run into the ground and scrapped? What changes in the owner’s life mean that after a brief period of use a bike is laid up, forgotten, until years later a sheet is removed or a cupboard opened and the machine is revealed to the daylight again and becomes ‘the barn find’ so beloved of auction houses? In this issue there are three distinctly different machines from different eras which have somehow survived the excesses of competition use to be pretty much original and unrestored. In past issues we’ve explored the variety of reasons why motorcycles can survive unmolested and they include the life changes made by work; remember the Francis-Barnett purchased a few months old in the early Sixties and its owner,…

As competitors in the Rockshocks-backed classic trials series headed to Newcastleton for the fifth round – the Diane Shield Memorial Trophy trial – hosted by Cumberland County MCC in August, the club organised an Experts Only trial the day before. Though organised by an English club the courses are in Scotland so Cumberland County had to meet two governing body regulations in order to ensure a successful event. As it was August, in the north, the weather played a part in the weekend. Saturday for the experts was okay until the end of the day when riders were packing up and the rain started. Sunday, rain was off and on all day though riders seemed to revel in the conditions and both events were well received.…

This magazine has been a bit of a ‘barn find’ issue, inasmuch as we’ve featured three bikes which for whatever reason were used briefly then forgotten, which allowed them to survive unmolested. For a dirt bike this is something of a miracle as even one having a little use is modified by its owner to meet changing sporting needs. The final survivor in this issue is a grass track racer – not a sport normally featured in CDB, though if the interest is there… A Hagon JAP grass track machine of the Sixties and Seventies was a desirable bit of kit for the budding grass track racer. It filled a need which factories were unable or unwilling to fill themselves and it took Alf Hagon’s vision if you were to…

As we took the pics of Gerry Minshall’s superb AJS just before the start of the Baa Classic Two Day Trial in North West Durham it was clear the stunning machine was creating a lot of interest from everyone at the event. Rightly so, as it is a superb bit of kit and Gerry has an engineering background so it was well put together as well as looking good. One of the comments made by someone seeing the make on the tank was along the lines of: “Oooh, an AJS, we don’t see many of them in pre65 up here,” which made me think a bit as I was lining up the bike against the misty background. Another comment gave me the inspiration for the title as the speaker laughingly…

For such a small island it seems incredible the Jersey Classic and Modern Trials Club can fit a two-day trial on it but they can, have and will do in 2022. After an enforced layoff while the world dealt with a pandemic motorcycle sport is back on track and the Jersey International Classic and Modern Two Day Trial will take place on March 19-20, 2022. It follows an inclusive format which sees all classes of trials bike eligible and sections laid out to suit both the variety of bikes and variety of riders as the entry makes their way round the island. From moorland to mud, rocks to sand, with streams and banks as well, there is enough trials terrain to test every rider. As usual there will be a…

The 2022 Andy Tiernan calendar is here. It unfolds, so that the magnificient machines illustrated each fill an entire A4 sheet. The lower part has individual days outlined, providing enough room to note down award ceremonies, hospital appointments, court appearances and other important engagements. The theme for this year’s calendar is Triumph through the Decades. The six motorcycles are all magnificently drawn in pencil and painted in water colour by Mike Harbar – www. classiclinesartist.com – as usual Andy’s calendar proceeds will be going to the East Anglian Air Ambulance. Individual copies of the calendar can be obtained from: Andy Tiernan Classics Calendars, The Old Railway Station, Station Road, Framlingham, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP13 9EE, United Kingdom. The cost of the calendar includes postage and for the UK they’re £12 each, EU…

As the world struggles back to normality and businesses play catch up with work put on hold during the pandemic our IT465 is still waiting in the queue to be worked on. We’ve not been idle with it, you understand, just things such as welding are best done by people who understand the process, have the proper equipment and the knowledge to use it. In the world of attaching two bits of metal together my background in joinery is of limited help unless a jig needs to be made. The reason for the IT being at the welder’s place is to cure a fault on the side stand bracket which has meant the new side stand points out at a jaunty angle rather than nestling up against the lower run…

Scheduled for 2020 but delayed due to the pandemic the opening of the new wing to the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum Trust at Bashley Cross Roads, New Milton happened in brilliant sunshine on July 22, 2021 when guests also enjoyed the ‘Six Days Legends.’ Once the Duke of Richmond – himself a keen motorcyclist and host of the Goodwood Revival – had cut the tape and officially opened the extended building, guests were treated to the firing-up of legendary motorcycles from motorcycling’s past including the two most recent additions to the museum. The first of the new machines, a Royal Enfield from the days when the ISDT was for catalogued machines, was ridden in 1956’s event in Garmisch-Partenkirchen by Sammy, who managed to keep it going until almost the end…

Let’s be very clear here at the outset of this short feature, there is no such thing as a passenger on an off-road sidecar outfit… or anything much like a chair for that matter. If the team doesn’t work together then things go wrong and trust me, you don’t want things to go wrong. Though the art of sidecar scrambling has been around since the first motorcyclists thought “let’s race in the dirt…” followed by “let’s hang a sidecar on…” until Wasp came along with a purpose-built chassis the bikes were solos with a sidecar bolted on. It wasn’t unknown for people to race in both solo and sidecar classes on the same day by unbolting the chair… surely my dad can’t have been the only one who did that?…

Write to us at: ClassicDIRTbike, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ. CDBeditor@mortons.co.uk Bultaco duo *** When we chatted at the CCM event in the summer I mentioned a couple of Bultacos I purchased last year and enclose a few pics of them. The first is a 1975 M151 which had little use by its previous owner. It came new from Eddie Crooks Motorcycles in Barrow. The Homerlite tank/seat unit was supplied via Malcolm Davis… to Jim Sandiford… to Eddie Crooks. The other one is a little older, a 1966 M10 with matching numbers. It was first registered to a David Peet and I have the old log book. I am at present tidying it up a little. Michael Woodend Email ISDT Bullet It has been suggested that I get…