Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 66 i Old Bike Australasia

From the time he learned to ride on a rigid frame 500cc Matchless, before he was old enough to gain a road licence, motorcycles have been Steve’s chief interest. From a BSA Bantam, a 250 Matchless and a 350 Triumph, he progressed to a series of Velocettes, culminating in a brand new Thruxton. But when the racing bug bit in 1971, the Thruxton had to go to fund his track tackle – a 750cc Norton Atlas engine in a 1954 Featherbed frame. He was very successful on the Norton, which gave way to a Mk4 Seeley Commando on which he scored numerous successes and established himself as one of Britain’s leading riders. “In those days we used to race up in the north of the country at Silloth, Croft, and…

“Half a point!” That’s all that separated Elvis Centofanti from the winner’s trophy at Motoclassica 2016 in the 90 Years of Ducati division. “Mind you,” says Elvis Centofanti, owner of the 750 Sport featured here, “when I saw the bike that ultimately won the prize (Paul Cowan’s 1968 350 Desmo), I knew I was in trouble. That bike is perfect.” Well, perfect it may be, but Elvis’ 750 can’t be far behind, at least to my eye. But let’s start at the beginning – the beginning |of the 750 Sport model, that is. The concept of doubling up a successful single cylinder engine to create a twin is nothing new, but Ducati’s fabled engineer Fabio Taglioni had his own ideas on how it should be done. However, despite his best…

The economic depression saw AJS in liquidation in 1931. The motorcycle component of the business was bought by the Collier Brothers, trading as Matchless Motor Cycles Limited. The AJS factory in Wolverhampton was closed and both brands were produced in the Plumstead Matchless factory in London. The company name changed to Associated Motor Cycles Limited (AMC) after the purchase of Sunbeam in 1937. AMC’s main production of motorcycles up to 1949 was based on single cylinder machines, but market acceptance of parallel twins forced AMC to follow suit. Why so special? Parallel twin engines have two pistons side by side. If they move vertically they are also called vertical twins. Compared to an equivalent sized single cylinder engine, the big thump power stroke is divided into two smaller thumps making…

I did the trip with my 1961 R 69 S. I purchased it for £1400 in the days before decimal currency came in and, in five years, I was beaten only once off the traffic lights by a Vincent Black Shadow. The BMW was a police demonstrator and far more powerful than my “new” 1966 BMW. On this trip, I travelled 9,500 miles (15,200 km) in five weeks and I know of only one other similar motorbike trip before my time. That one used a 1929 Indian with a sidecar and the roads were, then, in far worse condition than in 1963. I modified the exhausts, using cut-down Triumph pipes with eight internal half-inch copper pipes in each. They sounded like a very loud, musical trumpet. No pedestrians or kangaroos…

JIM BUTLER, nowadays a member of the Northern Rivers Classic Club who established a strong friendship with the club’s late patron Jack Ahearn, grew up near Coonabarabran, in the north west of NSW. This was the area identified by oil company BP/COR as a suitable site for a series of record attempts in 1957, by the company’s sponsored car and motorcycle racers, which included Jack Ahearn, who was briefly back in Australia after stints in Europe. You can read the full, quite incredible story of these record attempts, in issue 6 of OBA. The actual site was a dead-straight and very narrow four-mile stretch of country road that ran beside a railway line between Coonabarabran and Baradine. The central point of this road passed the property Tipperary Station, and the…

Atujara MCC Laurie Boulter Solo/ Hec Henderson Sidecar Hillclimb • 2 April, 2017 – Collingrove, SA This not much more than 3 metre wide strip of asphalt progression rising some 70 plus metres and 750 meters in length kept competitors’ concentration on the limit all day. The several classes included Periods 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 in Historic Solo’s, Super Moto S1, Super Moto S2, Super Moto S3, Moderns, Sidecars, Quads and Scooters for both male and female competitors, beginning promptly at 9am. Atujara Club Member, Chris Pash eventually lowered his best time to 37.44 seconds to take out the Period 5 Class for Historics. A close second at 38.96 was Club President Clayton Tilbrook on his 1981 Yamaha RDLC 250. Atujara Club member Scott Wait with Jason Whitfield…

All British Rally • 22-23 April, 2017 – Newstead, Victoria Since 1977, owners and enthusiasts of British motorcycles have been gathering annually for the All British Rally, which has made its home at the Old Newstead Racecourse in northern Victoria. By Friday, the site is a sea of tents with a moving throng drifting between the campsites, admiring the hundreds of fine motorcycles on display and chatting with owners. Non-British bikes are allowed, or rather tolerated, but are restricted to the adjacent paddock beside the main site. Saturday traditionally sees a ride into the nearby historic town of Maldon where the streets are soon lined with a colourful array of machinery. A highlight of the event is the drawing of the gate prize, which is always a desirable British motorcycle,…

Harold Parsons Memorial Ride 2017 • 25 March, 2017 – Maffra, Victoria The weather was perfect for the running of the 35th Harold Parsons and rider numbers were well up on last year’s event. The first rider departed the Maffra clubrooms in Morison Street at 10.15am and the rest continued to depart at minute intervals for the next hour. An arrowed course took the ride through Maffra via Johnson Street to make it known that the 2017 Harold Parsons was underway. The ride reached Heyfield via Riverslea and Tinamba where the first checkpoint was. With their time cards updated the riders continued through cornfields and dairy farms in the Cowwarr and Seaton areas. A further checkpoint on the Licola Road, just short of Blanket Hill was also the turnaround point.…

That Angola, a small village in upstate New York in Erie County, not far from Buffalo, should have such a motorcycle making facility is unusual in itself, because at the time of the formation of the Emblem concern, the town’s population was less than 800. Nevertheless, the Emblem factory was an awesome structure, designed and built expressly for bicycle and motorcycle production, “one of the most complete and up-to-date plants in existence, enabling us to produce Motorcycles and Bicycles of Class, Power, Speed and Satisfaction.” The company began in 1907, initially producing bicycles but soon motorcycles appeared, powered by Thor engines (with pedal assistance), and bearing a marked resemblance to Indians of the time. A feature of all Emblem models was a tubular seamless steel frame (plus steel forgings) with…

When Suzuki finally joined the four stroke multi club with the excellent GS750B in 1976, it had the lightest, best-performing 750 on the market. But in those heady times, the horsepower race was well and truly on, with a seemingly never-ending string of models flowing from the Japanese Big Four, each one slightly faster and/or more powerful than the last. Kawasaki had the Z1000, Yamaha the XS11, and Honda, eventually, the DOHC CB750 and 900. Given the success of the GS750, in that the model had no major problems or shortcomings, it was a comparatively simple step to join the 1-litre ranks, which Suzuki achieved by the simple expedient of lengthening the GS750’s short stroke from 56.4mm to 70mm to increase the capacity from 748cc to 997cc. The robust bottom…

Let me set the scene for this tale of motorcycling oddities. My wife Liz’s home village of Razdol in Bulgaria exists in a sort of time warp. 1,500 metres up in the Rodopi Mountains where winter temperatures plummet to 20 degrees below and where wolves and bears prowl the thick forest, little has changed in generations. Sheep graze, donkeys loaded with tools plod dutifully after their masters out to the fields and bells tinkle as the village goats are herded up the main street each day. Simple topographic isolation is accentuated by the road – best described as utter crapski – to the nearest town of any consequence. As Razdol lies within a piston toss of the border with Macedonia (formerly Yugoslavia), there was to have been a paved road…

Classic Master of Mac Park • 4 March, 2017 – McNamara Park, Mount Gambier Mount Gambier Motorcycle Club hosted the Classic Master of Mac Park, where over 100 bikes rolled up from Pre-War bikes through to Period 6. David ‘Davo’ Johnson put on a great show riding Shane Zakelj’s beautifully prepared Period 5 bevel Ducati; all part of the build up to the national titles that Dave will compete in once he has done his tour of duty at the Isle of Man. Fears of the P3 700 bikes being lapped by the later Unlimited bikes didn’t happen, in fact Keith Campbell was up the pointy end with many younger bikes behind him. Good weather and a largely accident-free weekend made for an excellent meeting. The event was well run…

Shannon’s Insurance Broadford Bike Bonanza • 14-16 April, 2017 – State Motorcycle Complex, Broadford, Victoria The Shannon’s Insurance Broadford Bike Bonanza was, for the ninth year in succession, blessed with perfect weather, much to the delight of the hundreds of campers who packed the venue. And for the first time, the event began early, with sessions for Ducati road bikes held on the Friday afternoon. For 2017, the theme for the event was Ducati, and dozens of examples of Bologna’s best turned out. Ducati’s triple World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss was on hand and as well as firing a Panigale superbike around in very rapid fashion, conducted a number of pillion runs for intrepid passengers who included the event organiser Rachelle Wilkinson. Each year the Speedway segment of the SIBBB…

Bill’s bike? Roly Orr, from Young NSW, is looking for information on his TR2 Yamaha, which is reputedly the ex-Bill Horsman machine. “What we do know is that when the TR2B came out, the original bike was sold off through Pitman’s in SA. The bike I race is reportedly this one, and was owned by Ron Adam in Victoria in the late 1970’s. Ron is unfortunately deceased, but someone may remember selling him a TR2, or perhaps know who bought Bill’s bike from Pitman’s so that I can trace its ownership.” Roly can be contacted by email at... rolyrepairs@ozemail.com.au Old Gold Project bike day More than 100 bikes will be up for grabs on Saturday July 1st when Old Gold Motorcycles have their annual Project Bike sale at their Londonderry,…

As the event’s name implies, this show, first launched in 1949, focuses on four wheeled vehicles albeit not all technically qualifying as “roadsters” which back in the day meant an open two-seater minus doors and even windshields. Tracing the nomenclature further, “roadster” initially was the label attached to a horse well-equipped for traveling, the term later applied to bicycles and tricycles by the end of the 1800s. Sportiness was the operative word no matter the size of the chassis so “roadster” could include the full spectrum of cars from an Everyman’s Model T to a celebrity’s 16-cylinder Caddy. It’s noteworthy that “roadster” is an American creation, the Brits calling such cars a “two-seater tourer.” So, to stretch the rules a bit, motorcycles, in that they are very “open” and often…

Victorian Historic Road Racing Championships • 7-8 April, 2017 – State Motorcycle Complex, Broadford, Victoria…

OLD BIKES DOIN’ THE ROUNDS Singleton Classic MCC 22nd Heart of the Hunter Rally • 5-7 May, 2017 – Singleton, NSW We were well primed by our Macquarie Towns Club mates that the Singleton rally was one not to miss and they were right! The small club of 65 members, Singleton Classic Motorcycle Club put on a fabulous rally with the hub of the action being the beautifully preserved Singleton Showground Grandstand Pavillion. Blessed with beautiful weather, there were two Saturday rides; a short run of 110km and a longer one of 230km. The latter took riders (and many pillion passengers) from HQ out through the vineyards of Broke and on to the morning tea stop at Lake Liddell, near Muswellbrook. From there the run continued to Denman and through…

23rd Velocette & Vincent Rally • 10-12 March 2017 – Oberon NSW There were 11 Velo’s and 7 Vincents on the Saturday run, which was a good turn out for us. Nice to see some new faces, camping were Murray Barr and Cheryl Fennell who were making their way down to do the Tassie Tour with their bikes in tow. We had a big run organised for the Saturday about 185km, starting at Oberon to Black Springs, Mt David, Rockley, Perthville and on to the Old Vale Circuit which was used for racing in the 1930s before Mt Panorama. We did a lap of the circuit for nostalgia and everyone stayed below 60 km/h. Then it was on to the O’Connell pub for lunch followed by a short way back…

A globe trotting bon vivant such as Edgar was naturally welcomed into the most exclusive coterie wherever he went, and in the old money society of north western United States, he was feted as royalty – a concept that he did little to dispel. Following his victory in the Grand Prix of New Jersey (one of the very few occasions when the Spagforth Styx failed to exhibit its usual tendency to self destruct), Edgar received an honorary doctorate in Bacchanalia from Princeton University, resulting in an avalanche of offers to attend all manner of glittering social occasions. These of course generated introductions to affluent and influential pillars of industry, one of who was Count Domenico Blapperati, scion of the illustrious Grappa producing dynasty, the products of which Edgar was more…