Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2018 i The Classic MotorCycle

Engines with more or less vertical cylinders have always been so much the norm that only a few motorcycle manufacturers have consistently adopted a different layout. Harley-Davidson has stuck with its V-twins, which look and sound so good, BMW has persisted with its logical flat twins and sensible shaft drive, and for the last half century Moto Guzzi has espoused transverse V-twins, which combine the virtues of each. It wasn’t always like that, however. From its foundation in 1920 to the last Nuovo Falcone of 1976, Moto Guzzi championed single-pot engines with their cylinders laid down almost horizontally. And this layout also makes a lot of sense. It lowers the centre of gravity, which is always a good thing, it means you can have a neat and effective exhaust, and…

It was time, late April. This year I had pledged I would get out on the bikes as much as possible. And the John Bull BSA rally in Belgium had rolled around. It was an event I had mightily enjoyed in the past, and this year was to be held outside Lommel in eastern Belge, near the border with Germany, and just 100 miles from where my good friend Axel Behrend lives. After checking with the organisers, Axel was going to come along on a Norton ES2 outfit, accompanied by brother Frank on his ’52 BMW R67/2 600cc twin. Axel is an Anglophile who also rebuilds Morris Minors professionally; Frank had recently retired as a distinguished surgeon in Bonn, and only then revived his youthful passion for the products of…

Since 1954, Manx Grand Prix organisers the Manx Club elected to bar all factory machines, a practice continued in 1958. The club reserved the right to reject machines or riders without detailing reasons – a tough stance, and although a few wriggled under the radar, the club policed it well. Riders aged 18-45 years were invited to enter the 1958 Manx GP at a fee of six guineas per race. All entrants needed to hold ACU, SACU or Motor Cycle Union of Ireland competition licences and never have raced in international meetings, other than North West 200, Leinster 100 and ACU International Races held at Aintree, Oulton Park, Scarborough, Silverstone or Thruxton, or held world records since 1930. Open to riders fulfilling the MGP entry requirements and who’d never competed…

It doesn’t matter what nationality the motorcycle you’re working on is or where in the world you are working on it, there will be corrosion to deal with. It’s a fact of climate life – various metals react in ways that promote an iron oxide on steels and irons and a white powdery oxidisation on aluminium alloys. Left alone this chemical reaction caused by the proximity of damp and oxygen in the atmosphere will eat through the base metal and the component, be it a washer or a bridge or a crankcase, will crumble. The condition is made worse by salt such as that in seawater, which means those of us in the UK are pretty much stuffed. An industry that has grown thanks to corrosion is the blast cleaning…

THE SPECIALIST Ariel owners are well served by their club’s comprehensive spares scheme, assisted by the Selly Oak manufacturer’s policy of commonality of parts. The surplus of spares from the wartime W/ NG has helped restorers of prewar models. Owners of later bikes benefit from the acquisition of NOS purchases. Then, as stocks run low, replacement items are sourced, almost exclusively from British suppliers. The scheme relies heavily on the energy and enthusiasm of Peter Kemp, obviously a man well-placed to advise on the VB 600 and to whom we are indebted. ■ Ariel Owners’ MCC: www.arielownersmcc.co.uk MODEL HISTORY The VB 600 first appeared in 1933, but had much in common with the preceding 557cc side-valve models included in Val Page’s updates to the Ariel range in the 1920s. The…

EDITOR James Robinson Tel 01507 529405 Fax 01507 371066 email jrobinson@mortons.co.uk REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS Tim Britton, Rachael Clegg, Jonathan Hill, Roy Poynting, Richard Rosenthal, Martin Squires, Jerry Thurston, Alan Turner, Phil Turner, Steve Wilson. CONTRIBUTORS IN THIS ISSUE Leslie Bartlett, Bernard Holloway, Colin West. PRODUCTION EDITOR Sarah Wilkinson SENIOR DESIGNER Kelvin Clements DESIGNERS Michael Baumber, Libby Fincham PICTURE DESK Paul Fincham, Jonathan Schofield, Angie Sisestean PUBLISHER Tim Hartley DIVISIONAL ADVERTISING MANAGER Billy Manning ADVERTISING Sarah Mitchell-Savage Tel 01507 529418, email smitchell-savage@mortons.co.uk SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER Paul Deacon CIRCULATION MANAGER Steve O’Hara MARKETING MANAGER Charlotte Park COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Nigel Hole PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Dan Savage EDITORIAL ADDRESS PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ VISIT OUR WEBSITE www.classicmotorcycle.co.uk GENERAL ENQUIRIES & BACK ISSUES Tel 01507 529529, 24-hour answerphone email help@classicmagazines.co.uk www.classicmagazines.co.uk ARCHIVE ENQUIRIES Jane Skayman…

Everyone already knows about the big auctions, the headline events, the sales which rack up all the column inches in the press and miles upon miles of chatter out in the ethers. There are a whole lot of others out there too. Everyone already knows all about eBay, the most popular and well known of the very few online auction sites, but there are many other places to look, some well promoted and easy to find, others considerably less so. Did you know that several trade players buy stock at the smaller, local sales and then simply re-sell them at the huge multinational events? They do. You can usefully learn from them, too. Local Sales It’s a recurring surprise in this internet age that so many small local sales do…

Top Tips • Never, ever bid more than you want to pay. If you see a bike advertised be strict and always set yourself an upper limit • Try to resist bidding too early. If it’s got a week to go, wait until the last day, ideally until the last few minutes as that’s when all the action happens • Sticking bikes on your watch list also allows you to see what they are selling for. Do your homework beforehand • Avoid a bidding war. It’s amazing how quickly you can bid well over your limit. If you don’t win the auction simply wait for the next one to come along • Limits are not only about money. Set yourself a search area. If you’re happy to travel 100 miles…

Time it right Choose when you list your classic carefully to avoid popular holidays and international sporting events. Internet noodling and bike-buying both plummet during big kicky-ball competitions, for instance, and few folk have spare cash to flash during the eight weeks around Christmas. Once you’ve chosen your moment, be careful about when your listing ends. You might start an auction running at 6am because that’s when you walk the dog… but you’ll get a better surge of frantic last-minute bidding at teatime. 7pm on Sunday seems to be the magic hour; steer clear of Bank Holidays and the working week. What it costs eBay fees and T&Cs might change at any time, so it pays to double-check that everything we’ve written here hasn’t suddenly turned into a pumpkin. At…

In the early 1950s the 250cc class was, in many ways, the most interesting. While in the 350 and 500cc categories the prospective competitor could buy a number of ‘off the shelf’ racers – from Manx Nortons, to Velocette KTTs, AJS 7Rs, GP Triumphs, G45 Matchlesses et al – the 250cc class was a different matter altogether. Consequently the fields were made up of what we see in the picture above – cut down larger models, home-brewed specials and imported continental exotica. The picture was taken at Blandford at the start of August 1953, in the Lightweight category. The two leaders have already gone through, with Maurice Cann and Fergus Anderson setting the early pace. Cann was on his own 250cc Moto Guzzi, while Anderson (350cc world champion for Moto…

Bonhams has announce the sale of the Adrian Reed collection on Saturday, October 13, at its two-day Autumn Stafford Sale. The single-owner collection comprises 40 machines spanning the turn of the 20th century through to the 1960s. Highlights include a circa 1930 Henderson Model KJ Streamline Four (£25,000-35,000), a circa 1919 Henderson 1147cc Model Z Four (£25,000-30,000) and a 1914 Indian 7hp Power Plus (£18,000-22,000). Adrian was born in East Yorkshire in 1947 and had two great passions in life: family and motorcycles. His love of two-wheeled machines started at an early age and he amassed an impressive and prestigious collection of bikes, accessories and parts. Further highlights of the 40-lot collection include a 1923 NUT 498cc (£17,000-20,000), circa 1924/1927 NUT 700cc (£16,000-20,000), circa 1918 Hazlewood 636cc Combination (£16,000-20,000) and…

The latest restoration project by the Sammy Miller Museum is this fantastic 1913 TT Rudge. This machine was donated to the museum trust by a staunch supporter, Bill McComb of Co Antrim. Bill had this machine for many years in a dismantled and poor state and decided that it needed restoring and bringing back to its full glory, so has donated it for display. There are many special features on this TT model which obviously had its early life in Northern Ireland with its Irish registration number. The New Milton museum is now open to visitors daily from 10am until 4.30pm. Tel 01425 620777/616644 or visit www.sammymiller.co.uk for further information and details.…

With help from the Dunmow club, the VMCC Grass Track and Speedway Section staged a meeting at Ugley Hall Farm, Essex, on June 24, where a hillside layout added a third dimension to the more common flat oval. Hot, sunny conditions were a little challenging for everyone. They all got four rides per bike, making a varied 44-race programme. All rides were points-scoring and the totals brought the more successful riders to the rostrum for the post-race presentation, witnessed by most of those who had been present during the day. Chris Mackett made the most climbs of the podium. After success riding 250 and 350cc bikes in the 1970s, he had many years away from the sport. Now approaching pensionable age his results with older machinery have eclipsed his earlier…

It's not often one is allowed to get too close to a prototype. They're usually tantalisingly out of reach behind ropes or on an elevated and rotating platform in the middle of a show hall; to stand over one, touch it or sit on it is a rare privilege, to start one up and ride it is pure fantasy. So it was a mixture of excitement, trepidation and wonder I was feeling as I pulled off Gordon Hallett's driveway on board the one-of-a-kind 175cc overhead camshaft Royal Enfield – at that point I hadn't realised he hadn't ridden it himself yet... Although you're hard-pushed to find reference to it in any of the Royal Enfield history books, the story of the 175cc OHC prototype is fairly well-known among aficionados. It's…

Here was a man who was pot-bellied, couldn’t walk properly and was very conscious he might destroy his own legend, or worse,” said Ted Macauley, Mike Hailwood’s confidant, friend and mentor. He was speaking of Hailwood’s comeback to the Isle of Man TT in 1978 after an 11-year hiatus from motorcycle racing. It’s not hard to understand Hailwood’s reservations – his last TT was in 1967 and the machinery in 1978 was completely different to the exotica he’d campaigned in the mid to late 1960s. What’s more, he’d sustained a serious injury during a Formula One car race at the Nürburgring, from which he was still recovering. But boy, how Hailwood blew all doubts to oblivion when he won the 1978 Formula One race on the Sports Motorcycles Ducati. Blasting…

These days, Brian Slark is known in the old bike world as technical advisor to the Barber Motorcycle Museum in Alabama, which is just about as far culturally as one can get from his origins in south-east London. His story is a familiar one for a generation of motorcycle-obsessed youngsters, who just happened to live close to where the British industry had one of its major factories. After working at AMC, a conversation with legendary American rider Bud Ekins saw Brian heading across the Atlantic, where he remains. With his background and experience, he built a business around British motorcycles and this was a successful period for Brian, who also volunteered to become the Norton Owners’ Club technical editor. Along the way he helped set up the AMA museum in…

Decades ago, a friend and his son bought a new 250cc Yamaha LC on which the youngster would go short circuit racing. When they arrived home, junior wheeled his new motorcycle into the workshop armed with a stack of ‘how to’ tuning guides. Dad, with 30-plus years of motorcycle engine building under his belt, refused. “We will service, maintain and set up the bike exactly as Yamaha recommend. When you’ve learned to race it on the track to its limit, then, and only then, will we tune it.” A second, and much better known story is also worthwhile here. Visitors to Steve Lancefield’s Forest Hill, south-east London home, where during his later years he built Norton racing single cylinder ohc engines in his front room, would get short change if…

No no, the title is not a joke, but it could too easily be a trick question. Leaving aside until a little later the vexed and indeed thorny dilemma of How Much To Pay, the very, very first thing any buyer needs to understand is what they’re buying. Exactly what they’re buying. This sounds entirely obvious, and indeed it is, but here’s a question: who has spent rather too much on a bike bought at an auction? It’s a rare bidder who can maintain both their cool and their self-control. Because bidding at an auction is fun. It is also exciting, so we enjoy doing it, and it is competitive, so we like to win. Unfashionable though that may sound. Back to basics Here comes the first and best piece…

Actual auctions Leaving eBay firmly aside for the time being, there’s a thriving marketplace of actual physical auctions in the UK which serve the classic motorcycling market. There are several big auction houses which have entire departments dedicated to old bikes (see our listing elsewhere), and a wide range of smaller, less specific salerooms who include two-wheelers of all types in their general vintage and vehicles sales. They may not be ‘online only’, but actual auctions are well up to speed with info-tech, so the vast majority are also accessible online and worldwide. Unlike eBay sales, actual auctions take place at a fixed time and date but in a ‘best of both worlds’ scenario they cater to bidders who want to see the machine in the metal, kick its tyres…

The price of actually entering an auction varies between each sale. Some sales are free to enter and you don’t have to buy a catalogue. Others insist that you buy a catalogue to get into the auction, and catalogues can cost anything from £2 to £30. When an auction is held within another event, like a show or exhibition, you have to pay the event admission fee before you get anywhere near the sale. If you don’t attend in person but use the online or telephone bidding service instead, then that attracts another charge; this can be a flat fee of a fiver to register to bid, or it can be anything up to an additional 10% based on the hammer price. Unless specifically mentioned, all the buyer’s premiums and…

Motorcycle insurance specialist Bennetts has launched insurance for classic motorcycles, offering owners of modern classic and vintage machinery individually-tailored, five star Defaqto-rated coverage. Bennetts have designed the insurance for classic motorcycles package to make it as easy as possible for owners to customise and modify their bikes. The policy includes 16 common modifications covered as standard (www.bennetts.co.uk/customer/help-advice/modifications/standard)and – for the many classic bike owners whose machinery is an ongoing project – if any of those 16 modifications are made after taking out the policy, they do not need to be declared to Bennetts. For non-standard modifications to the bike, there is no administration fee to amend the policy to include these changes. Bennetts insurance for classic motorcycles also includes optional agreed value, making sure each unique bike is insured to…

While Norton motorcycles may have been ‘unapproachable’, the members of the marque’s owners’ club were extremely welcoming when the Surrey Branch held its annual BBQ at the Stepping Stones pub at Westhumble, near the foot of Box Hill. The pub has long been established as a regular meeting place for the club, while nearby Ryka’s cafe is a Mecca for motorcycles, often playing host to hundreds of visitors. Among the highlights were John Duplain’s cafe racer Dominator, a 600 repatriated from America in 1985. The bike now has a 650cc cylinder head and some Commando-sourced updates. Highly polished (including a row of old pennies in the tank strap!) John describes it as his ‘pride and joy’. Based in Sussex, the bike has attended European rallies as well as the Isle…

Our story starts in the summer of 1968 and outside a cafe in Cardiff – which was a popular hangout for local two-wheeled enthusiasts – a motorcycle is kicked into action. The bike is a British twin, but unlike most of the machines of that era, it doesn’t wear the name of Triumph, BSA, Norton or Matchless on the petrol tank but that of a two-stroke made in Birmingham; a Scott. With gear engaged the bike howls away leaving a fresh-faced teenager open mouthed at its distinctive exhaust note, and planting a dream of him one day owning such a machine. The youngster’s name was Andy Rowett, and 50 years on that dream has turned into reality twice over, as not only does he now own an early-1930s TT Replica,…

In the summer of 1949, Frank came up with an idea – Aberdeen to Genoa and return by motorbike. Ray and I found this proposal on the wild side but Frank’s persistence and enthusiasm won us over. All three of us had recently acquired motorcycles – Frank a BSA, Ray a Triumph twin and I myself an Ariel Red Hunter: all three 350cc models. None of us knew much about bikes and engines. Indeed, I never did, moving on to cars a few years later. In advance of our departure I failed my driving test – I had been given bad advice about making the emergency stop. Failing the test, the examiner told me I had performed perfectly well – except for the disastrous, ineffectual emergency stop. What to do…

One of the staples of the Classic TT schedule is the VMCC-run Jurby Festival. The festival is a one-day affair, taking place on the Sunday of the Classic TT weekend. It features more than 5000 machines spanning more than 100 years of motorcycle history. One of the event organisers, Rupert Murden, said: “The event has grown and grown and it’s in a very compact area, so it always has a very good atmosphere. There’s so much going on with the racing and the parade laps, not to mention the displays at the event. “This year we have some very exotic machines lined up, including the Sammy Miller Museum’s 1954 Rennsport BMW RS54 and ex-Tait triple – which is also being displayed and paraded at Jurby thanks to the Sammy Miller…

AUGUST 31-SEPTEMBER 1 The 25th Carole Nash Eurojumble. Netley Marsh, Meadow Mead Farm, Ringwood Road, Woodlands, Southampton SO40 7GY. www.classicbikeshows.com Tel 01507 529529. AUGUST 3-5 The 44th Annual Gloucestershire Vintage & Country Extravaganza. South Cerney Airfield, Cirencester. www.glosvintageextravaganza.co.uk AUGUST 4-5 S&T Regularity Run. VMCC (Stirling Castle Section), Cultybraggan Camp near Comrie. Tel 01764 653474. International West Kent Run. The Friars, Aylesford, Kent ME20 7BX. Tel 07761 005995 or visit iwkr.co.uk Trimpley Vintage Rally Weekend. Bite Farm, Trimpley, Bewdley, Worcestershire DY12 1NU. Tel 07986 170715, www.bvmc.org.uk LlandBikeFest 2018. Royal International Pavilion, Llangollen LL20 8SW. www.llanbikefest.co.ukTel 07960 693398. National Sprint Association (Southern Section). Westonzoyland Airfield, Bridgewater, Somerset TA7 0LZ. www.sprinting.org.uk AUGUST 5 Garstang Autojumble. Hamilton House Farm, on A586, off A6, Garstang, Preston PR3 0TB. www.garstangautojumbles.co.uk Email info@garstangautojumbles.co.uk ’Normous Newark Autojumble. The…

The very best thing about motorcycle auctions is that they are exciting. They are also, entertaining, involving, thought-provoking and fascinating. Those are the best things. They are also the worst things. Strange but true. Motorcycle auctions – this is a motorcycle magazine, and although auctions of second-hand furniture and piggy banks, so forth, may excite many, many people, we’re ignoring all that here – our kind of auctions can be many things. Their purpose is clear if you’re the guy doing the selling or the guy doing the buying, but an ever-increasing numbers of folk at motorcycle auctions are simply there to be entertained. Is that Brough Sosuperior actually going to be hammered down at a quarter-million? Is anyone really going to pay that? How can it be worth that?…

Actually, the headline here is just a joke. Honestly. If you do happen to find yourself in a bidding war, leave it at once. Unless you are both very desperate to own the bike under bid and are possessed of deep pockets. We’ve seen some truly scary bids for bikes which – to be kind – were truly unworthy of the amount of money unloaded in their acquisition. Which is not to say that the buyer failed to get what she or he wanted, simply that come selling time, unhappiness may result. So, you’ve studied the online listings, read the glossy catalogues or just walked up and down the rows of bikes offered for your delectation. The more bikes there are on offer, the more room you have to spend…

Presentation First impressions count for a lot. You do not want the bike you’re selling to be lost in a crowd of shiny temptation – or even the rather more fashionable tatty temptation. Your first task is to make your bike catch the famous eye of the beholder – and we all know what lies in that eye. So give the thing the best clean it’s ever had. Even if you’re intent upon taking advantage of the current craze for patina, and the fabled ‘barn find’ there is no reason why a well-worn, unrestored machine shouldn’t be clean. So… clean your machine. Advice occasionally offered to prospective buyers should always include the suggestion that if a bike is dirty, lathered in oily grot, the reason might well be that there’s…