Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2018 i The Classic MotorCycle

Many years ago, I was instructed to never mention the weather in columns such as this, as it smacked of having nothing else to say. Well, I’ve long followed that advice but I’m going to make an exception this issue, because, basically, weather has dominated so much of what we’ve done – or not done – this month. Our base in Horncastle had a few days of isolation, with skeleton staff able to get in to work (people like me who walk, basically; many roads were impassable) which meant that everything this month has been a little bit of a struggle And then, just when it all seemed to have cleared off, back it came on Pioneer Run weekend. I was staying in south London, the intention being to drive…

We are always pleased and interested to hear readers’ thoughts about the magazine we’re producing. Whether you have been a subscriber since the start or have just picked up your first copy, we’d like to know what you think about it. What’s good and what’s not? What do you want to see more, or less, of? So, we’ve created a simple online survey which can be found at www.classicmotorcycle.co.uk and we’d really appreciate if you could take a few minutes to complete it. As a ‘thank you’ for completing the survey all respondents will be entered into a free prize draw to be in with a chance of winning a Held helmet or gloves. One lucky winner can choose from either a Held by Schuberth H-R2 full-face helmet, worth £419.99…

Paul Goff has launched a new Lucas K2F magneto replacement body for British pre-unit twins. This is externally a replica of the K2F but able to house an electronic ignition system. The body was designed to accept the Wassell ignition system but can also take Pazon and Boyer systems. The body is machined from solid with two sealed bearings and includes dummy pick-ups and leads through which the wiring is fed, out of sight. Cost for the body is £349 and the Pazon ignition is £159.85. A cheaper version of the magneto replacement body is also available at £125, where the original appearance is not so important. Visit www.norbsa02.freeuk.com or 01494 868218.…

One of my best sources of interesting motorcycles to write about is my local MoT station and it was thanks to a conversation with the examiner Tony Clark that I was put in touch with the owner of this rare machine. The machine in question is a Swiss-made Universal B50 Meteor and it is believed this particular model is one of only six left from a production run of 1000. The owner of this BMW lookalike is West Countryman Gareth Burnard, who invited me to take his 570cc horizontally opposed twin for a spin through the Wiltshire lanes. But before we fire the big four-stroke into action, Gareth’s father Jim told me a little about when he bought the bike in 1997: “I had a Harley-Davidson Sportster but it wasn’t…

When I started testing motorbikes for The Classic MotorCycle, Peter Watson (editor at that time) initially came along to supervise the action photography during which – as you may well have noticed – the photographer often stands on the outside of a bend as the tester whizzes past. These cornering shots have several virtues; they show that the bike can actually be ridden in realistic conditions, they are generally more interesting than simple broadside pictures, and they show off the machine rather than its rider. Incidentally, I notice that test reports of modern bikes often employ the opposite logic, so the rider in garish leathers leans towards the camera to create interest, while the bike – often looking like all the others in anonymous silver-grey bodywork – is semi-hidden from…

I was going to start this column with the line ‘Where would we be without the humble screw thread?’ But I stopped myself and reconsidered, because there is nothing at all humble about the screw thread. Not only is the screw thread perhaps the most significant discovery ever made, in 2500 years the principle has yet to be bettered. I’ve handled thousands of different threaded fasteners over the years, yet never really looked into them or, to be honest, thought very deeply about them. There were certain hazy facts that I could recall, all that schoolboy stuff about Archimedes and the screw principle. But here my knowledge stopped – it was definitely worth an hour or two of my time to learn just a little more about this remarkable, but…

This wonderful picture captures Italian rider L Albertazzi, aboard a 75cc Albino, during the 1957 International Six Days Trial, held that year in Czechoslovakia. In what was widely reckoned to be one of the hardest – if not the hardest – in the 32-long series of the trial, of 246 competitors, only 95 survived, with our matchstick chewing man Albertazzi not listed among them. The other unnamed Alpino rider in the image isn’t recorded among the finishers either. The Czech organisers had made the 1957 trial tough, the rationale being that it wouldn’t come down to the final one-hour speed test alone to decide the top prizes. But they’d not reckoned on the awful weather (dense fog, teeming rain and snow) which made what was tough incredibly hard. Only the…

Dee, Atkinson & Harrison enjoyed a successful classic motorcycle auction on March 3, 2018, at Sledmere House in Yorkshire. In spite of the worst snow conditions for many years, all but three of the 50 machines entered were delivered for the sale and the attendance was well supplemented by internet bidding from the rest of the country and Europe. The highlight of the auction was the 1938 HRD-Vincent Series A Comet which had been in the same family for some 60 years; with non-original crankcases it sold for £34,000. Next in line was a Matchless G50 with unknown provenance until the 1980s when it was campaigned by Northumbrian Dave Storry until the early 1990s; unused since, it sold to a collector for £26,000. Prewar machines were in demand with a…

The Norton Commando Bible All models 1968-1978  Author: Peter Henshaw Published by: Veloce Publishing Ltd, Veloce House, Parkway Farm Business Park, Middle Farm Way, Poundbury, Dorchester DT1 3AR Tel.: 01305 260068 E-mail: sales@veloce.co.uk Fax: 01305 250479 Hardback, 215 x 255mm (portrait); 144 pages with over 150 photographs and illustrations. ISBN 978-1-78711-006-9 £35 UK; $65 USA; $72 Canada With its introduction in 1969, the 750cc Norton Commando was one of the first modern so-called Superbikes and has become a most usable and collectable classic. However, unlike its competitors, the Commando was only intended purely as a stop-gap to be built for a couple of years before a new engine was ready. Of course, that did not happen, and the bike was in production for nine years. The Commando was in…

1918 For those planning a long motorcycle trip once the war ended, this comment from a Government official would be of interest: “Do not be so sure it will be years before petrol is plentiful when the war is over,” he stated continuing, “the likelihood is that the shortage of motorcycles will be felt more keenly than the lack of fuel.” 1943 Using essential users’ coupons, a motorcycle was filled with the new leaded ‘pool’ petrol. This new fuel had a claimed octane value of 80, compared with approximately 68 for ‘pool’ fuel. Thus the new leaded fuel had the same ‘anti-knock’ value as prewar Ethyl. Brilliant! 1967 The BSA factory held functions to celebrate the retirement of Bert Perrigo. The son of a baker, Albert ‘Bert’ E Perrigo was…

Velocette, as a manufacturer, has a long and proud history in racing, dating back to when the company (Veloce) was a maker of two-strokes in the early 1920s, the pinnacle being Stan Jones’ third place in the 1922 250cc Lightweight TT. Once four-strokes had been reintroduced, with the superb overhead camshaft model that was so good, dealer (and respected racer) Alec Bennett requested the company let him ride one in the 1926 Junior TT, with nothing payable unless he won (which he did) then Velocette was established as a ‘racing’ firm. There were numerous TT wins (though none in the 500cc Senior category; Stanley Woods came oh-so-close with seconds in 1936 and 1938) and consecutive 350cc world titles (Freddie Frith and Bob Foster) in the first two years of the…

Although a fixture of motorcycling since the pioneering days, it’s the postwar period that most of us associate with sidecars – for the austerity-pressed working man in need of transport for his family, bolting a chair to his existing solo machine was the obvious and affordable option. It stands to reason that said solo machine would – as well as being capable of hauling a rig laden with partner, children and the accoutrements required for the well-being and happiness thereof – need to be dependable enough to deal with a weekend round trip to the coast and be ready for the working week again on Monday, without requiring too much Sunday night servicing. Of the many postwar marques, BSA would’ve been one of the first catalogues to look at and…

Behind three letters and three numbers – HNP 331 – lies the story of one of the most important trials machines and important trials riders in motorcycle history. HNP 331 – aka the famous works trials Royal Enfield 350cc Bullet – won more than 50 championship trials and was also a technologically pioneering machine. Some of the most ground-breaking mechanical advances were developed on HNP. In fact, the Bullet was so ahead of its era that it would take years for many of the other major manufacturers to cotton on. But more of that later… The staggering successes of this machine were also owing to Royal Enfield’s star rider, Johnny Brittain. From 1949 to 1960 Brittain would ride a raft of Bullets, always retaining the HNP 331 registration. Johnny Brittain,…

It is 60 years since Norton managing director Gilbert Smith walked out of the door at Bracebridge Street for the last time, having been in the employ of the company since 1916, when he joined, aged 15, as an office boy. Smith became the fourth member of Norton staff, and on his resignation was managing director of Norton Motors Ltd and R T Shelley Ltd. Writing in Motor Cycling in 1961, Geoff Duke said: “Gilbert Smith was… Almost as much a part of that famous racing marque as old Pa Norton used to be.” Gilbert Smith was 57 when he announced his resignation on January 30, 1958, with his departure bringing to its conclusion 42 years of association with Norton. He’d joined the company direct from a Birmingham technical college,…

This month’s sketchbook entries both have human stories behind them. I’m always happy to find tales like this behind machines I decide to draw as it gives some perspective as to why these machines survive due to their associations with the people that they come into contact with. 1934 HRD-Cross Model P This Vincent-HRD was used as a test bed for Cross rotary valve engines in the mid-1930s. Purchased by company owner Roland Cross, this machine now sports a 500cc Cross engine, one of a few tested in this Model P. Bath-based engineer Roland Cross was a pioneer of rotary valves in England, a forward thinking design that has only really come to fruition in recent years. Based on Rudge crankcases, this innovative engine would test piston rings to the…

Top level racer and ex-Honda race boss Neil Tuxworth is the guest of honour at the 38th Carole Nash International Classic MotorCycle Show, on April 21/22 at Stafford County Showground. Tuxworth started racing at Cadwell Park in 1969 aboard a BSA Bantam, soon graduating to racing in British National and International meetings. With a love of road racing it was inevitable he would be drawn to the Isle of Man TT – racking up a Manx GP win, a runner-up spot in the Formula 2 TT and five third places. Latterly, Neil is most widely known for managing many of Honda’s racing efforts, giving Honda multiple world and national championship titles. The Carole Nash International Classic MotorCycle Show at Stafford is packed with thousands of classic machines and is the…

ASI MOTOSHOW The fabulous ASI Motoshow, in Parma, Italy, is this year on May 11-13. Details at www.asifed.it SALISBURY RUN The Salisbury Club’s Five Valleys Run is on Sunday, April 15, and starts from Salisbury livestock market at 11am, signing on from 9.30am. Entry fee is £6 for club members, £7 for others or £8 on the day. Jane Wiltshire, 26 Queen Alexandra Road, Salisbury, SP2 9LN, is the secretary of the meeting. The run is open to all classics and will be approximately 90 miles with a stop for lunch. See www.salisburymotorcycleand  lightcarclub.co.uk for an entry form. KENT MAY DAY SHOW There’s a show on May 7, at the village hall, Hamstreet, south of Ashford, Kent TN26 2NJ. All proceeds go to Air Ambulance. Details from…

Always slight in build, Tommy Barker, who has died age 91, was frail in the final decade of his riding years and a lack of strength in his legs closed down his riding career at the age of 89. But, in his younger day he’d been a formidable Western Centre scrambles champion, first on a Gold Star when he came out of the Army in 1948, then on two specials he built. The first, based on an early 1930s 150cc BSA, bought for £5 and much modified to 125cc – the TBS (Tom Barker Special) went like stink and was a winner. He recounted: “I started with Phil Irving’s ‘Tuning for Speed’ and learned as I went along.” The second was a Velocette 250cc MOV engine with Venom cams built…

Regular readers will be familiar with the acronym NAIT – Not Appearing In Tragatch’s encyclopaedia of motorcycles. Well, here’s a marque that does appear in Tragatch, but hardly anywhere else except, naturally, in that home of the rare and unusual – Sammy Miller’s Museum. Unusually, it’s not one of Sammy’s own restorations, being bought at auction last year, so he doesn’t know too much about its history, except that its vendor and restorer had bought it in a dismantled and incomplete state nine years previously. He obviously made a very nice job of the restoration, as the Grigg both looks and goes very well. In fact, after a ride on it I was left wondering why the marque wasn’t more successful or better known. Perhaps part of the answer lies…

Is there some kind of law that kicks in when things really need to go right? With a bunch of new parts turning up from Len Craig and Burton Bike Bits the project could advance... or so it seemed. There were enough bits to assemble the crankcases, complete with crank, and also add the big bearing in the gearbox. As the rest of the gearbox cases bolt on to the crankcases there’s less need to put the bearings in them straight away, unlike the final drive bearing, which would require the crankcase to be heated. I don’t know if it is poor working practice, or even if it would matter all that much if I had to heat the case around the gearbox after the other bearings were in and…

Brooklands comments: one John Earnshaw, the third generation of veteran and early vintage motorcycle enthusiasts from Yorkshire, (‘real motorcycles’ as his father the late David Earnshaw described them), telephoned to note the machine Eric Remington entered in immediate post First World War Brooklands events as a 986cc NUT-JAP, pictured and captioned as such in Back on Track part 2, TCM April 2018, page 70 looks more Matchless than NUT. And having taken a closer look I agree totally with John’s comments. Riders such as Remington, Baragwaneth, Don, Le Vack in his early days, Garrett etc built their Brooklands racing machines from what they had or could scrounge, buy, persuade factories to donate or even borrow, and the rolling chassis of his ‘NUT-JAP’ looks exactly like that of a late veteran…

Rolling element bearings Removal Usually, such bearings are secured by interference fit into housings cast and machined into crankcases, gearbox shells, end plates or other components. And – usually – these components are manufactured using aluminium or aluminium alloy which fortunately for us expands at about four times the rate of steel/ steel alloys, making the removal of ball bearing races, the outer rings of crowded roller, caged needle roller etc bearings easy in 98% of cases. Rather than press out the bearing, even if this is possible, I prefer to heat the case to 250°C in our old domestic oven (part of the equipment in a large shed, housing presses, an old lathe for grinding only work and many more ‘precious items’). Then, wearing a stout heat resistant leather…

YOUR EVENT SHOULD BE HERE The Classic MotorCycle is anxious to learn all about your motorcycle-related events. Contact us at The Classic MotorCycle, Mortons Media Ltd, Diary Listings, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ or email obmfreeads@mortons.co.uk APRIL 7 Adventure Bike Ride-In. Sammy Miller Museum. www.sammymiller.co.uk Isle of Wight Vintage and Classic Bike Show. The Winter Gardens, Pier Street, Ventnor, Isle of Wight PO38 1SZ. Tel 01983 752861. West Country Autojumble. New Cattle Market, Driffield Road, Cirencester GL7 5QA. Tel Paul Powell 07831 421455. APRIL 7-8 Cardiff Motorcycle Show. Llanishen High School, Heol Hir, Llanishen, Cardiff, CF14 5YL. Tel 01443 435125.www.southwalessunbeammcc.co.uk KICKBACK. Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire CV8 2LG.www.thecustomshow.com Email lorne@rwrw.co.uk Tel 07758 068072. APRIL 8 ’Normous Newark Autojumble. The Showground, Drove Lane, Winthorpe, Newark, Notts NG24 2NY. www.newarkautojumble.co.uk Tel 01507…