Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

It really struck me as I walked around the recent Motorcycle LIVE show that the classic scene is ‘cool as’. You’d see lots of classics, or a manufacturer celebrating ‘X’ years of a model or launching a modern version of some much-loved machine. Retros were the centre of attention everywhere. And it can even be down to the paint you put on these bikes. Take Yamaha’s wonderful XSR900 GP. Last year we sent Niall Mackenzie to go ride it and it was resplendent in a colour he knew well: Legend Red – basically a Marlboro Yamaha copy. Beautiful! Then, for 2026 Yamaha has released the Legend Yellow: basically a Kenny Roberts Yamaha speedblock copy. At the show all the middle-aged blokes were flocking around it and sitting on it. The…

FURYGAN ARAVIS PRIMALOFT 37.5 GLOVES I like to know the meaning of words and ‘Aravis’ is often associated with the character in C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia and the mountain range of the same name in the Savoie region of the French Alps. So there you go… No doubt most, if not all of us, are aware of the Primaloft family of insulation products, being regarded widely as the best performing on the market, boasting comfort and protection across varying climatic conditions. Top of the shop is PrimaLoft Gold, a version associated with the most extreme weather conditions. And that is exactly what you are treated to in the Aravis gloves. The high-performance membrane includes advanced thermal regulation with 37.5 technology. 37.5 Technology is (apparently) the global leader in…

The Cotswolds-based CTL café, with its unique bike collection, has been open for a year and is more popular than ever. Whether you just want a quick cuppa or spend more time dining and browsing through its special selection of rare classic road and race bikes, CTL near Cirencester is well worth a look. Starting with the bike collection, there’s plenty to savour with a real mix of machinery, all owned by bike fan and local businessman Les Saunders. Checking out the 70-odd bikes on display takes time, but where else would you see two CBX1000s, a Suzuki RE5, Yamaha GTS1000, and a Bimota SB6R parked within feet of each other under the same roof? Add to that a kitted RC45 race bike, Paul Brown’s title-winning British Supersport CBR600 Honda,…

We want to see YOUR pride and joy in our pages, so you can share what you ride and what you restore/build with fellow readers. Email your hi-res shots to bsimmonds@mortons.co.uk or mail in some photos at the address at the front of the mag. Let us know what you’ve done, how you’ve done it and send before and after shots if you can. Do get in touch – because the best of the month gets a free T-shirt! CLIVE PARKE’S COLLECTION Here are my current pair of steeds: a 2024 Triumph 400X and 1988 Yamaha FJ1200. The 400X I bought new in May 2024 after seeing it at Triumph’s HQ visitor tour on a static display in August 2023 and for me it’s a great ‘little’ bike. I got…

There really isn’t a reason for the concept that is street scramblers. They have no practical application and are often compromises that don’t do anything better than the bikes they are based upon. Street scramblers were a marketing affectation of the 1960s and made quite simply to do one thing – maximise the sales of a motorcycle design. Street scramblers have little off-road potential. They really weren’t designed for the dirt. The very notion of the genre can be traced back to the various desert sleds of the early 60s where big, British twins made infeasible progress across the likes of the Baja peninsula. Norton Rangers, BSA Hornets, Triumph TRs et al took hard men across even harder landscapes. Those without the requisite skills would have blasted around the streets…

We’ve all seen the advert: ‘FizziFanni 340 split-stroke twinzle, good torque conversion, indirect compulisation, been standing for a while, may require light recommissioning, offers invited, no tyre kickers.’ Okay, so does it need a rebuild or just a good scrub with a Brillo pad? Obviously no two cases are alike, but we’ve all seen adverts like this! Let’s have a go at the best way to deal with this. I mean… what is a ‘light recommission’? Let’s get started then. Seat, tank and battery off, stow the seat, put the Accumate/OptiMate (other smart battery management systems are available) on the battery and have a good butchers at the inside of the septic (sorry), I mean have a look inside the tank. Ethanol may have caused grief here, so clean it…

Continuing on with electrics installation, the area underneath the left-hand side-panel has several devices such as the voltage controller we saw last time. You will remember that there are three wires leading to it: black, green and white, and here they are ready to connect (Photo 1). But there are two sets of wires! It did take a little while for it to sink in that the set on the right here is actually black, green and grey, but under the artificial light it is hard to tell the colours. The right-hand set goes to the indicator flasher unit (Photo 2) which does look a bit battered but I think it will still work. It is not hard fitting a modern electronic replacement, which usually needs only two connections. Anyway,…

Dunno ’bout you but I’m big on manners, they’re important and tell you a lot about people and, best of all, they’re free! On our way back from hospital recently I paused briefly at a roundabout to allow a non-signalling car to pass in front of me; about three seconds delay but nobody got flustered and all was fine, except it wasn’t. As I glanced in the rear-view mirror, I could see a full-dress (I hate that term) Harley-Davidson with equally ‘fully-dressed’ rider scowling at me from about four feet away. Okay, no problem. I set off as per usual on to a totally deserted dual-carriageway sticking to the speed limit in the nearside lane. Now, what happened next epitomises the antagonism towards many bikers held by a significant proportion…

We’ve seen many motorcycle race legends over the decades: Geoff Duke, John Surtees, Giacomo Agostini, Mike Hailwood, Kenny Roberts, Wayne Rainey, Valentino Rossi, Marc Marquez – but for most of us, Frederick Burdette Spencer was the most naturally gifted of all. ‘Fast Freddie’ from the Louisiana Bible Belt was from a family of racers. At just 10 years of age he was a state title holder in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi and his home state. He turned pro at 16 with a decade of race experience already in the bag and was signed up by the Honda factory aged just 18. Ever the faithful Honda man early in his career, he suffered the ignominy of having to race the oval-pistoned NR500 and even flat-tracked a bike derived from the CX500,…

It was another cracking show at Motorcycle LIVE this year and once more, classics and retros were much in evidence. MCL25 (as they call it) welcomed the highest visitor numbers in the post-Covid era, with more than 97,000 people attending the packed NEC halls. Doubtless the fact that there’s no more London ExCel Show in the new year meant that bikers took their earliest opportunity to see new metal in the UK. Interactive activities were big again this year, with rolling roads, a MotoTrainer ‘Superbike Sim’, the all-electric E-Ride Zone and the Learn to Ride Zone drawing in the crowds. The ‘Festival Zone’ featured the adrenaline-fuelled Moto Action Show and in-depth chats with famous racers on the Black Horse Stage. You could see the antics of the FMX crew or…

The recent Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum 2025 Santa’s Toy Run was blessed by perfect weather. The museum has proudly hosted this much-loved event for more than a decade, and each year the support grows, both in numbers and in the distance people travel to take part. This year a number of biking groups were welcomed, including Blandford Bikers, the New Forest Scooter Club, Hamble & Southampton Scooter Riders, Bikers for Action South, DocBike, Grumpy Granddad’s Scooter Club, along with many independent riders. Every participant arrived with gifts for children in need, resulting in an exceptional number of donated presents. The museum grounds shone with colour as riders arrived dressed for the season, their bikes laden with gifts and goodwill. All donated gifts will be collected by the Cash for Kids…

The CL500 might be Honda’s biggest street scrambler model today but The Big Aitch has been here, even if unwittingly, before. That the firm had street scrambler versions of its then biggest twin is hardly a secret. The CL450K1 was launched in 1968 and it followed pretty much the same lines as the earlier CL77 and subsequent K series CL350. Really little more than a CB450 with high pipes and all the relevant street scrambler paraphernalia, it remained on the sales books through to the 1974 model year. However, buyers were falling out of love with the genre and the big heavy twin – therefore some stayed unsold well into the latter part of the 1970s. The CL450, just like any other street scrambler, was a simple and effective way…

“Whatever I get, it won’t be one of those naffing f-ugly BMW GS things,” I told my GS-owning mate Oli. “I mean, what’s that stupid beak thing on the front all about, anyway?” I didn’t miss my calling as a diplomat. But we had sunk a few jars and it was his fault for suggesting I buy a motorcycle I’d be happy to take my wife on, so we could join him and his missus on a touring holiday. Much as I love my 1977 XS650, it’s too underpowered, too small and too old to trust on a trip to northern Spain. (Although I am planning on sorting the underpowered part of this description – more on that another time.) The trouble is I’m fussy and I have deeply entrenched,…

It’s late 1976 and Suzuki rather proudly whips the covers off three all-new models and they’re four-strokes to boot; their last engine with poppet valves was the Colleda side-valve single range launched circa 1954. After the RE-5 debacle the firm need a viable model range and, thankfully, part of the firm’s R&D has been looking at alternative to two-strokes and rotaries. The trio comprises the GS400 twin along with GS550 and GS750 fours, and this month’s subject, the 750, get Suzuki exactly back to where they need to be. The press love the big bike, praising it for its handling and revelling in its performance. In essence, the GS750 with its DOHC motor does everything the former all-conquering Kawasaki Z1/Z900 has done but with less heft and more poise. Just…

I still recall when I first copped a feel of some really ‘Hot Grips…’ Now, now… stop giggling at the back. That wasn’t a euphemism or even prison slang. It’s me recalling when I first put a set of heated grips onto a motorcycle. It was the winter of 1995 and I was on two-wheels all the time as I didn’t yet own a car. I was also zipping up and down the M11 between Kettering and Kent as I was courting the future wife. It also happened to be the coldest winter since 1981, I’ve just found out thanks to Google. I still remember how cold it was… That winter, fitting a set of Oxford Products HotGrips kept me going: literally. While the rest of me wasn’t the warmest,…

This satin green and matte black Honda is one of the latest machines from the industrial colossus Honda to run their 471c parallel-twin motor. By modern standards it’s a simple, proven device that has featured in various CB500-type machines. The power unit has been around since 2013 in various formats when it was first utilised when the CB500F and CBR500R were released, and latterly the CB500X. Honda subsequently delivered the CMX500 Rebel – a cruiser-style machine – from which the CL iteration is developed. Taking the main chassis from the CMX, grafting on a new sub-frame, swingarm and intake system, The Big Aitch delivered the ‘all-new’ CL street scrambler for 2023. Perhaps, quite reasonably, you might ask, why add another bike to what looks to be an already rather full,…

12 issues for just * £34.99 Give a subscription to classic motorcycle mechanics EVERY ISSUE INCLUDES • Road-tests with beautiful pictures • Lavishly illustrated ‘how tos’ • Project bikes from the last six decades • Buyer’s guides and advice: don’t buy a lemon! • WIN! Bike kit, tools and more every month! Reasons to buy A magazine subscription is a great gift for someone special: 1 Personal and thoughtful - match their interest 2 Fuel their passion, help them stay inspired and informed 3 Provide enjoyment all year round, delivered monthly 4 Perfect for people who are difficult to buy for 5 Delivered directly to their door! 6 Saves you money on the shop price Buy for someone special, or treat yourself! save up to 46% EASY WAYS TO BUY YOUR GIFT SUBSCRIPTION go to classicmagazines.co.uk/xmasCMM…

Kev Raymond keeps his eye on the choppy waters of the classic world to see if any projects, donors and bargains are out there worthy of being dragged out of the surf for some mouth-to-mouth… 1994 Suzuki GSX1100F PowerScreen Asking: £800 Can’t remember the last time I saw one of these – most of them seemed to end up broken for their engines, which were basically a grunty take on the original GSX-R1100 slabside motor, so slot straight into Bandits and can easily be squeezed into older air-cooled Suzukis. So, it’s nice to see one in what looks like tidy original condition, although it’s not a paint scheme I recognise. Possibly that’s because it’s not a UK bike – it’s advertised as MY 2000, but that’s just when it was…

They say ‘bad news’ sells papers, and if CMM’s circulation stats rose when originally I was writing about this bike in 2019/20, it could well be because at every turn that’s exactly what this bike delivered… In early 2019 I bought a cheap 2004 R1 for just £2500 as a road/track hack. I was drawn to it because as well as being the cheapest one I’d ever seen, in my humble opinion this model is neck and neck the best-looking R1 with the original 1998 launch model. Sadly, what happened after I bought it can be described in just one word: Grief. A run through of the six previously published parts reads like a manifest of expensive issues: In part one the flywheel magnets detached, which on this generation of…