Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 112 i Old Bike Australasia

Dave Stanley In the early ‘seventies, Motorcycle Racing services at Moorabbin was where many aspiring racers took their machinery for preparation by Dave Stanley, who was a pretty good rider himself. Bob Rosenthal, whom Dave sponsored on a TZ350 Yamaha for several years, says, “Dave knew what was required to make the TZ Yamahas reliable and quick. He knew all the top riders of the period well and was respected by everybody. He was a very handy motorcycle mechanic and was all too ready to help others. Eventually he sold the business to pursue joining the Continental Circus in 1975. As was usual then, at season’s end he came back to work during our summer and build up cash reserves to go back for another year.” Dave made a fateful…

Norfolk Island is an Australian territory nearly 1600km northeast of Sydney and roughly halfway between the northern tip of New Zealand and New Caledonia. It was settled in 1788 as a convict penal colony, beginning a turbulent existence for the tiny spec in the South Pacific Ocean that measures just 34.6 square km. When I was taken on a family holiday to Norfolk Island in 1955, I was an impressionable child, and most of the experience left me underwhelmed. True, the flight in a DC4 was my first airborne adventure, and the landing on the airstrip that had been established by Australian, New Zealand and US servicemen during WW2 was something of a sensation. But I brightened up when I discovered a Triumph motorcycle, hitched to an old chassis with…

BINDERS back in stock… Protect your prized issues of OBA with these rugged binders, now back in stock. Priced at $39.00. If you’ve missed an issue, spotted an article on our website or social media posts that you would like to read, or you just want to purchase a copy for a friend, our OBA Back Issue Library is the place to go. SOLD-OUT ISSUES Please note that issues 1-11, 13-15, 22-26, 28-32, 34-36, 41-43, 45, 47, 61, 64, 66 and 67 have sold-out and are unavailable for back-order. Subscribe online anytime Visit mymagazines.com.au or call 1300 361 146 for full issue details and pricing.…

For after becoming commercially successful via their Métisse off-road frame kits into which either they or their customers the world over installed a plethora of different engines, the Rickmans built their first tarmac Métisse frame in March 1966, the first of exactly 999 such chassis they made altogether for twins and singles. The first complete road legal Rickman Street Métisse was then created in November 1966, built with a Triumph T120 motor for delivery to their Austrian importer. But these were essentially all one-off creations constructed to order, not series production models built to attract customers by adorning the showroom floors of appointed dealers. Despite this, the Rickmans’ US importer John Steen based in Alhambra, California, was continually ramping up his orders, as the American appetite for recreational motorcycles –…

All Brit hits 40 The 40th running of the All British Day on Sunday 3rd March, 2024 event at Echunga Recreation Grounds, South Australia is scheduled as the first International event for motorcycles, titled the 1st International Bike Muster. The event will be open to the public from 10.30am to 3.00pm. Entries are still coming in at time of writing (mid-November) and the 2024 event again promises to be worthwhile attending. Entries have been received for Ariel, Triumph, BSA, Royal Enfield, Norton, Douglas and Velocette, with possibly more marques represented by close of registrations. More information can be found on the All British Day website, allbritishday.com/entrant-information From Ray Goulter New club for Gold Coast On 23rd June the 16th Area for the Historical Motorcycle Club of Queensland Inc. was formed…

The club’s recognition of this centenary took the form of two events being a dinner at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron to toast the achievement, and a bike show to showcase the development of BMW motorcycles during those 100 years. Special guest speaker at the dinner, Andreas Lundgren, General Manager Motorrad BMW Group, Australia painted a picture of the development of BMW Motorrad to where it sits today and gave an insight to what the future may hold. The evening had another very special guest in the form of an original BMW R32 motorcycle that had been very generously loaned to the club by Trevor Dean, who is a member of the BMW Motorcycle Touring Club of NSW and a Board Member and Vice Chair Motorcycles on the BMW Clubs…

This year saw the 40th running of the Southern Classic run by the HMRAV; one of the biggest, if not the biggest, classic motorcycle race meet in Australia. The weather was close to perfect with temperatures in the low to mid twenties, blue sky with some clouds passing through and a slight breeze. The Southern Classic is open to bikes from Period 2 to Period 5 with the oldest bike being a 1937 Rudge Special ridden by Bryce Davies. The 1930s through to the 1960s were dominated by British manufacturers with a spattering of European bikes in the form of small capacity Ducatis, Motobis and Bultacos. In a similar vein, the ‘seventies and early ‘eighties were the Japanese manufacturers with a few Italians, the likes of Pantahs, TT2s, S2 and…

A small rain shower tried to put a dampener on the Annual Oatlands Motor Cycle Show but a feast for the eyes still turned up. Southern collector Peter Bender arrived with a fleet of Brough Superiors and took away two class trophies for his effort. Many unusual bikes were on display like organiser Howard Burrows’ Norman Dickson JAP and sidecar, to three examples of 50cc “Tiddler” racing from Jim Fruin. He displayed a Kreidler, a Moto Morini and an Itom Astor. The Itom was sold by London dealer A.H. Tooley after WW2 and became the go-to bike for young riders in Britain. Among the many to race one were Mike Hailwood and Bill Ivy. Other unique bikes were a 1969 700cc Indian Chief made in England under license by Royal…

Entries are now open for the 2024 Bridgestone Festival of Speed, to be held at Sydney Motor Sports Park on 17th and 18th February, with private practice on Friday 16th. Spectator entry will be by a cash donation and camping is available at the circuit. Event organiser Ken Lindsay says the meeting is shaping up very well. “The program is basically identical to what we ran in 2023, with 12 Qualifying sessions of 10 minutes each on Saturday morning from 8.30am. Then we go straight into racing with one round for each class. On Sunday we have a full 30-race program including Feature Races that include the Unlimited Top 45 Challenge over six laps with a Rolling Start. “This year we will again be featuring the Unchained Formula 1 class,…

This machine was originally designed and built by Jaroslav Walter, initially in 1938 as a 248cc pushrod and in 1939, as an overhead camshaft version. In 1947, a new 348cc version was added, and when Walter joined the Ceska Zbroiovka (CZ) company in Stakonice in 1948, the bikes went with him. In the early 1950s Laurie Summers Motorcycles Ltd, located in Ponsonby, Auckland acquired the North Island rights to import CZ and Jawa motorcycles from Czechoslovakia (the South Island rights had already been picked up by McFarlands), to run alongside their existing Velocette agency. This arrangement was sponsored by the NZ government as a sort of early free trade deal. The workshop side of Laurie Summers’ business was operated by the late Peter Stone. Peter had merged his small repair…

I was still a school kid when my brother Cliff (seven years my senior) commenced doing some machining of components for Ted Carey. The castings were moulded from Teddy’s home-made patterns, in his back yard, at Lidcombe in western Sydney. His copies of Amal fuel carbies were rough on the outside, but extremely accurate internally. Cliff turned the bellmouths, brass slides and inner blocks on his lathe when Teddy was too busy to do it. His patterns and alloy castings also included cylinder heads, barrels, pistons and brake plates, particularly for Velocettes, but also for other motorcycles and some car pistons. All his pistons were cast in Y-Alloy (a Rolls Royce-developed specification) and probably were the most common components he made. I recall that his sand-cast MAC Velo pistons had…

Originally called “The Harley Davidson Motorcycle Club of Victoria”, it was changed to “The Harley Club of Victoria” in 1929 and became incorporated in the early 1930s. In those days clubs were mostly named after a type of bike such as ours, or the district their members came from, such as the Hartwell, Sandringham or Rosebud Clubs. Competition was beginning within these clubs, and it was recognised that regulations were needed to create a uniform standard for all clubs to operate under. Members from the Harley Club and others at the time formed a group called the Auto Cycle Union of Victoria (ACUV) to formulate the rules, and members from the ACUV and other states formed a national body called the Auto Cycle Council of Australia (ACCA). The Harley Club…

Here’s an interesting contrast from Gary Reid’s immense collection. Both these shots are from Brands Hatch, but around 15 years apart. In OBA 108 we featured a brilliant shot featuring solos from the days when Brands Hatch was a grass track. Gary has now unearthed an almost identical shot, but from a sidecar race, with the same band of intrepid photographers snapping away just feet from the track. Fast-forward quite a few years and the Brands Hatch circuit is now tar-sealed and running in the opposite direction. The same corner is now called Paddock Hill Bend, leading up Pilgrim’s Rise to Druid’s Hairpin. On a day of typically dismal weather, Phil Read crests the hill in front of the pursing pack.…

Like many readers, there was a period in one’s youth where riding bikes was a lifestyle but, at some stage, family, career and the mortgage got in the way and often meant an end to the weekends away or the fang through the hills with friends. Jump forward a few years or perhaps decades, and the career is established, the mortgage paid off, the family has grown up and you start thinking about bikes again. This time you may buy the bike you once rode or perhaps finally get that dream bike. Then there are those who will opt to go racing. Period 5 (1973-1982) or Period 6 (1983-1990) classes provide the ideal scenario especially as the Sureflight Superbike Masters are a support category for some rounds of the ASBK…

Often referred to as KOTH, this is a hill climb event on a property between Canberra and Yass. Unlike such events today, which are often on bitumen or specifically for custom bikes and extreme in their nature, KOTH is a grassy hill which most modern bikes could surmount without much trouble. It is for pre-1985 American and British steed although the Hooligan Class for bikes manufactured after 1985 was included. Riders arrived on Saturday, setting up camp and the pits, with registration and scrutineering before the social side began, with a couple of big bonfires in the evening. Sunday dawned perfect for racing, which was more about having fun than claiming trophies for the classes. The organisers had arranged for some local car clubs to put on a show with…

A grey, inclement Barossa morning failed to dampen the spirits of over 60 classic motorcyclists who donned their wet weather gear and departed rally headquarters at Angaston Recreation Park for an 80-kilometre tour of South Australia’s iconic Barossa Valley, with its backdrop of new vines heralding another vintage. Preceded by a warm Barossa welcome by Peter Rosser (rally organiser), and Gerard Daff (President), the rally got underway with perennial Club Captain Brian Randell at the helm, for a spirited run via Seppeltsfield to Lyndoch for morning tea. Suitably recharged, the contingent took in a leisurely gallop through the Southern Barossa, traversing Rowland Flat and Bethany en route to a cloud-shrouded Mengler’s Hill, best taken in 3rd gear to afford an occasional glance over the valley floor’s patchwork quilt of vines…

In early 1973, Norton Villiers Triumph was created thanks partly to a major injection of cash from the Department of Trade, with all sorts of bluster about the move being a saviour for the industry. It was a shotgun wedding, and the major casualty was Triumph’s Meriden factory which was to be closed in the interests of manufacturing economy, with all future work to take place at the larger but more antiquated BSA complex at Small Heath in Birmingham. While this unpleasant scene was developing, one of the most significant figures in Triumph’s history, Edward Turner, died. Within weeks it was announced that Meriden would begin the wind-down process in February 1974 with around 1,500 redundancies – an announcement that galvanised the militant workforce in to action. The gates of the…

If, in fact Thomas Edison was correct when he noted that “to invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk”, then my shed is indeed fertile ground for invention. Except, as many of us may have, or indeed currently are experiencing, the shed’s contents can easily exceed the shed’s capacity thereby creating that diabolical of all shed phenomena – shed lock. For those fortunate enough to have avoided such (for now) it’s akin to that traffic phenomena, grid lock, where so many vehicles are on the road that none are able to move. In an effort to ease my shed lock, I set about making movable stands/benches on which I put the various motorcycles I was working on. This worked well but sardonically reminded me of those…

The three days of the biggest-ever meeting for Historic bikes at Hobart’s Baskerville track copped the full extremes of weather, with Friday’s practice and qualifying run in hot and humid conditions. Come Saturday morning and the rain arrived and pretty much stayed all weekend. This meant very tricky conditions but with the recent complete resurfacing of the circuit, which has been in continuous operation since 1958, held up very well. The notoriously bumpy downhill back straight is now billiard table smooth, and the Esses following the start have also been much improved with better drainage – just as well! Around 170 entries were received, including the inevitable last minute ones that were too late for the official program, but several classes fell short of the required 10 entries to constitute…

The Round was run in cloudy and overcast conditions with a couple of light showers around lunchtime, which was in complete contrast to the previous day’s ‘Practice Day’ which ran in near perfect conditions. Brothers Hayden and Kobi Treversh had vastly contrasting race days. Hayden had two third and a second place, while Kobi crashed in race one, missed race two but finished third in race three after starting from the back of the grid. Steve Martin (Martin Race Team Kawasaki ZX-10) dominated taking three wins. In the Historic and Modern Sidecars Des Harvey/Gary Cushnahan (City Panel Beaters Truck Repairs Kawasaki 1000) took three strong wins. Cushnahan was in the chair so he could have one last ride with his great mate Des Harvey, thanks to Steve Marshall generously standing…

The annual Pine Rivers Mostly Ariel Rally of the HMCCQ was again very well patronised for 2023. I counted 17 Ariels dating from Graham Piper’s 1928 side-valve single to 1958, covering 30 years of the marque. There were two twin-cylinder Ariels, 4 Square Fours with the rest powered by a single cylinder. Brian Fleming’s early 1934 Square Four had a very different architecture from the later counterparts, particularly with the engine, but also still sporting a girder fork front end and rigid tail. Of the well-patinaed Ariels there was a circa 1956 Cyclone twin and ‘Black Fury’, a twin port single with high pipes. Starting at the HMCCQ Pine Rivers clubhouse, Murray Deeth gave the rider briefing before we headed to Bullocky’s Rest on Lake Samsonvale. The rally continued on…

Such a case presented itself when Edgar accepted an invitation to compete in the Grand Prix of Sierra Leone, run over a challenging public roads course on Bunce Island in Freetown Harbour. This outpost in West Africa boasted rich mineral reserves and myriad diamond mines that attracted hoards of undesirables from many races. Naturally Edgar was untroubled to cruise to victory in the prestigious event, for which he was awarded the keys to the city of Freetown itself, an honour he politely declined for fear of being kidnapped and held for ransom, as was the usual case with celebrity visitors. Instead, in heavy disguise, he toured the outlying regions where impoverished farmers slaved to earn a living among the rocks and dense forestation. A skilled linguist, Edgar soon mastered the…