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25 Articles

As we plod through – in the UK at least – the cold, dark, wet and frankly grim days of winter, about this time of year thoughts start to turn a bit more positive, with plans and excitement building for the season and what it holds. And none more so than for the Stafford show, where we’ve been working hard to put together something really special for the April event, insomuch as probably the biggest collection of SS100 Brough Superiors ever gathered together in a public place, which you can read about on our news pages. There will be more next month too, it’s shaping up to be something probably never to be repeated. Otherwise, I’ve been busying myself with all sorts of activities, including a club night talk in…

Quintet on the Island

Published in the June 14, 1956 issue, this picture had the accompanying caption: “Impressive line-up; The Motor Cycle staff machines in the Island comprised a Dominator 99 Norton, a 197cc two-stoke DMW, a 98cc DMW Bambi, a 147cc James Cadet with the new, optional, grey finish and a 646cc BSA Road Rocket.” The Dominator was the machine being used by ex-racer and road tester Vic Willoughby, in the picture here wearing his crash helmet, which is revealed as it is referred to in a feature, where Willoughby rides machines that have just starred in the TT races. More specifically, in the story of when he tests the two-stroke Montesa, examples of which had just finished second, third and fourth behind Carlo Ubbiali’s four-stroke MV Agusta in the Lightweight 125cc race.…

Quintet on the Island

A Superior centennial celebration At The International Classic MotorCycle Show, held at Staffordshire Showground, over the weekend of April 26/27, visitors will be afforded the opportunity to see what promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime gathering of SS100 Brough Superiors, brought together to celebrate the model’s introduction for the 1925 season. One of the most famous model names in motorcycling history, on launch the 1925 Brough Superior catalogue stated: “Every SS100 will be dispatched with a written guarantee, signed by the maker, that the machine has actually been timed over 100mph for a quarter of a mile.” It went on sale for £170; for comparison, the new overhead camshaft Velocette Model K was £65, an AJS V-twin and large sidecar £90. The SS100s held and broke numerous speed records, won countless…

THE WAY WE WERE IN APRIL

1900 As well as locally built engines, and those manufactured in-house, propriety engines by MMC (Britain), Fafnir (Germany), Sarolea (Belgium), Zurcher and Luthi (Switzerland), plus De Dion Bouton, Clement, Buchet and Aster were now available in the UK or from mainland Europe for those ambitious enough to start building motor tricycles and motorcycles. 1925 Current inflation levels, low pay and job insecurity were jeopardising motorcycle sales. Many makers had gone to the wall, while others struggled on, hoping for better times. But bargain-priced buys, including the 494cc Triumph Model P (£42-17-6d) and 249cc BSA Model B (£36-15s) were still securing orders. While both these were new designs, Douglas had pared the price of its old stager, the 348cc TS, to £35, to appeal to this market. 1950 Brands Hatch bituminised.…

Ducati Singles All the secrets of a painstaking restoration Author: Giuliano Musi Published by: FBA Moto Italiane Contact: email info@motoitaliane.it Can be ordered online at www.motoitaliane.it Available in both English and Italian languages. Softback, 210 x 285mm (portrait); 160 pages with over 90 photographs and illustrations. ISBN 978-88-86774-25-3 £29 UK; $37 USD; $52 CAD; $57 AUD. The charm of classic motorcycles is undeniable, but the shine of paint and chrome can often conceal underlying issues. This is not the task for the uninformed; one risks spending inordinate sums of money, buying fakes or acquiring motorcycles with serious mechanical problems. Alternatively, one might start a restoration without the ability to complete it properly. Giuliano Musi, an experienced journalist with a strong affinity for classic motorcycles, particularly Ducatis, has compiled a wealth…

From London to Holyhead

In ‘ideal’ weather conditions, in the early summer of 1921, 45 runners and riders faced the starter for a run from The Berkeley Hotel, Cranford Bridge, headed for Holyhead, with a report of proceedings published in The Motor Cycle of May 5, 1921. It was the second running of the event and the man raising the flag was none other than the organising club’s president Dr – before he became a self-appointed ‘professor’ – A M Low, whose name also came up recently (see page 16, January 2025 issue). Although undoubtedly a brilliant and pioneering inventor of all manner of things, Low was also known to love the limelight, so he’d have not minded a midnight assignment to Middlesex to do some flag waving, as it gained him a few…

From London to Holyhead

Low-cost publicity tour

The accompanying picture was part of a feature in the April 28, 1932 edition of The Motor Cycle, entitled ‘Showing the public the 15s tax lightweights.’ Our photograph was taken in Luton, and captioned: “The convoy parked in Luton, in an alleyway just off the main street.” Luton was one of the stops near the end of the tour, all undertaken on these sub-150cc machines. In his March 1931 budget speech, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden announced the half rate tax of 15s (so 75p in ‘new money’) for motorcycles under 150cc, in a move to try and help the general public, as well as motorcycle makers, all of which were struggling in tough economic climes. The new legislation came into place on January 1, 1932, with over a…

Low-cost publicity tour

Readers’ Letters

Email jrobinson@mortons.co.uk or write to The Classic MotorCycle, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, LN9 6JR. Tommy Robb RIP It was sad to read, in the February 2025 issue, of the death of Tommy Robb, at the age of 90. He was a very pleasant chap and always willing for a quick chat whenever I had the opportunity to meet him. I hope that you’ll be interested in these two pictures of Tommy. The first one shows him giving a ‘spirited’ jump at Ballaugh Bridge in, I think, the 1962 TT. The other shows Tommy pushing his Honda to the start line of the April 1963 Hutchinson 100 at Silverstone. In contrast to today’s international riders, Tommy pushes his own mount out to the start, while having some details taken by,…

Readers’ Letters

An off-road day out

The classic off-road scene seems to be doing very well thank you, especially if attendance and events (see our Talmag Trial report, page 62), and the success of this, the movement’s ‘big show,’ is anything to go by. Held over the weekend of February 8/9, showgoer numbers were strong. A date clash with an event at Hawkstone Park on the Sunday somewhat accounted for the especially high visitor figures at the show on the Saturday, as many went racing the next day. Held at the airy, spacious and well-presented (and well-signposted) Telford International Centre exhibition space, which boasts onsite parking, but is also handily right next to a large multi-storey carpark, the show brings together all of the ‘dirty’ off-road sports, with motocross/scrambling and trials the best represented, albeit there…

An off-road day out

Flight of the Thunderbird

“You know they say that the single carb Triumph Tiger is the thinking man’s Bonneville?” laughed Tim Ainslie. “Well, the TR65 Thunderbird is the thinking man’s Tiger!” Tim may well have a point, but at this point, full disclosure: a) he’s a good friend of mine, who rebuilt the engine on my current 1972 T120R Bonnie; and b) I don’t need convincing about the 1980-82 Thunderbird 650s, as I owned one a few years back, and only traded it in to get my Guzzi V7. Thunderfacts These late 650s are something of a cult bike, partly due to the fact that only about 400 were built in the dying days of Meriden. They were originally offered as a budget twin, £200 cheaper than the 750cc T140 Bonneville; with a single…

Flight of the Thunderbird

Feline forgotten

Just like its now endangered four-legged namesake, a Panther is a rare sight these days. I suppose you could put that down to the waning popularity of sidecar outfits; something the big cats have become synonymous with over the years. In fact, even makers Phelon & Moore were once quoted as saying that 90% of their 594cc Model 100s would end up attached to a chair. Though it was perhaps not the vocation founders Joah ‘John’ Carver Phelon and Richard Moore would have wished for their then top-of-the-line, fast-touring models, the Panther heavyweights’ prevalence as sidecar pullers was something they embraced. The Model 100’s successor – the 645cc Model 120 – was produced with sidecar gearing and sidecar fork-trail as standard; solo gearing being a free-of-charge factory option. Even with…

Feline forgotten

Sitting in the evening sun with photographer Terry Joslin, awaiting the arrival of our test machine, which Terry had told me was to be a Norton ES2, the motorcycle approaching from our rear sounded to be anything but a big British, low revving single. Glancing to my left as it pulled up I thought for one moment it was a ‘Yellow Peril’ Norton/Norvil Commando production racer from the 1970s, and that I had misheard the test details. Or that it was just a rider who had stopped to see what was going on, nothing to do with what we were awaiting. Anyway, on standing up to view the machine, as the owner and builder Steve Jones took off his helmet, I realised I was looking at something special that may…

The ES2’s racing origins

Though later Norton ES2s were regarded as sensible, middle-of-the-road motorcycles, the model was initially launched as a hot-stuff sportster, making its bow at the same time as the CS1 (Cam Shaft 1) and effectively being an overhead valve version of the range-topping cammy, the ES2 sharing with the CS1 its running gear, including the new three-stay frame and TT Webb forks. There’s long been debate about ES2s (although they didn’t even have a name at that point) in the 1927 Senior TT (an event in which the CS1 made a race-winning debut, thanks to Stanley Woods) and the model’s participation, while Bonhams have, in their April 27, 2025 sale, one of the earliest ES2s extant – a machine used in the 1927 Amateur TT, the forerunner to the Manx GP.…

The ES2’s racing origins

Promise unfulfilled?

Love him or loathe him (and there were plenty who did), Dr Josef Ehrlich was a true original. Volatile but inventive, constantly coming up with new ideas and innovative designs right up until his death in September 2003 at the age of 88, the sprightly, dapper engineer universally known as ‘Dr Joe’ was involved with motorcycles all his life, ever since the early 1930s when, in between earning his Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering in Austria, he competed in sand track and road races on a 250cc Puch two-stroke and OHV 500cc Sunbeam. Like so many people forming part of that vast tide of refugees from political and religious oppression which has poured into Great Britain over the past century, Joe Ehrlich was an ultra-Brit, passionately committed to keeping the Union…

Promise unfulfilled?

It’s a washout!

January 2025 saw the Talmag Trophy Trial celebrating its 50th anniversary as the premier event for four-stroke trials bikes. Interestingly, to promote it, the organisers’ Facebook page showed an image of a programme from May 1950 for the Talmag ‘Scramble’ at Hungry Hill, costing one shilling. Hungry Hill, part of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) land at Aldershot in Hampshire, has of course been the main location of the event, created after it was felt that trials sections were getting too tight and nadgery for the larger machines as a result of the increasing sales of predominately Spanish lightweight two-strokes. So the organising club created an event that would allow the ‘big bangers’ to use their performance on longer climbs and more open sections, more reminiscent of the early days…

It’s a washout!

Best thing of the year

What are the most famous three letters used as a model name for a motorcycle, particularly a racer? Well, for those of us with an interest in older classics, it must be ‘KTT’, and surely up there with the later NSR, YZR and RGV, as used by Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki respectively, in terms of fame. British makers tended to use a mixture of numbers and letters (I’m thinking Model 18, TT90, 7R) or a name (Manx, Ulster etc) rather than initials – KTT of course meaning ‘Kamshaft Tourist Trophy’. Though it was 1929 before the first KTT was officially launched, the letters had been applied before to a Velocette, as witnessed by photographic evidence at the 1926 Olympia motorcycle show, where a machine was displayed with a ‘Model KTT…

Best thing of the year

For those with a basic knowledge of the post-Second World War Italian motorcycle industry, the story of Motom will be a familiar one; an established prewar concern (in their case textiles and printing) diversifying into the production of affordable motorised transportation to meet the growing demand. Unlike most, the De Angeli-Frua (named after the two founding families) firm’s factory on the outskirts of Milan was left untouched by the bombing – it wasn’t considered strategically important to the enemy, nor was it located near to anything that was. So when many concerns were, well, concerned with rebuilding or relocation, they could focus wholly on restarting production. Initially that would mean back to business as usual (the textile production and printing end of the business would continue into the late 1960s),…

THE SPECIALIST Burton Bike Bits has been securing NOS spares for many years. The business also supplies secondhand parts, or commissions replacements. The product lines have expanded so much as to force changes of address to keep accommodating everything. Carolyne, daughter of the business’s founder, has been looking after the stock for many a year, and we thank her for helping out with this guide. ■ Burton Bike Bits: 01530 564362; www.britishbikebits.com MODEL HISTORY After BSA’s first half-litre twin was considerably revised for 1950, it became a catalogue stalwart for the next 12 years, until the A50 was announced for 1962. By then, electrical suppliers Lucas had decreed dynamos and magnetos would henceforth no longer be mainstream product lines. Unit construction allowed clean lines to the power unit, mirrored in…

The wire wool treatment

Body text: A couple of planned activities meant the MZ hadn’t received any attention for a couple of weeks. One of said activities, however, was a Sunday morning ride-out with friends Jon and Paul. It followed our usual MO of taking an indirect route round the quiet lanes of Suffolk and/or Norfolk to a suitable breakfast spot for a sausage sarnie and a good chin wag; I on my modern bike, Paul on his Moto Guzzi V7 Sport and Jon on a recently acquired Ducati Scrambler 350. Conversation quickly turned towards how I was getting on with the MZ, and resulted in the revelation that Jon has a hydraulic press in his workshop, and that I’d be very welcome to pop over and press apart the crank and assess any…

The wire wool treatment

Sketchbook Travels presents: MOTORCYCLE SPECIALS Alpha Centuri Specials

The birth of Alpha Centuri Alpha Bearings started shortly after the Second World War, making big-end bearings for motorcycles brought out of wartime storage and needing repair. The company started out with Frank and Norman Cutler making parts in a shed after work. The enterprise grew quickly, first moving to a factory in Oldbury and then another in Dudley. In the early 1960s, Alpha became part of the E and HP Smith Group, which included Royal Enfield and the Albion Gear Company. Alpha provided main bearings, big-ends, connecting rods and cranks for the motorcycle industry. In the late 1950s and early 60s, Alpha offered upgrades for two-stroke engines, especially the popular 197cc Villiers 9E. While these parts provided a decent revenue for the company, Frank Cutler, managing director at the…

Sketchbook Travels presents: MOTORCYCLE SPECIALS Alpha Centuri Specials

In the old days of the 1970s, we used to be able to find all sorts of stuff on autojumble stalls, things which we should have bought because it was genuine and in good condition… but we didn’t because the prices were ridiculous… The conversation would go “A pound? A whole pound for one of them? They were 3/6 in the day… not paying a £1…” and we’d move on. Now, it often seems there’s nothing on an autojumble stand for under £20, and, anyway, if it is keenly-priced and decent, then the bloke in front gets it before I do. Just such a scenario happened at the Classic Dirt Bike show the other weekend. On the hunt for bits, everything seen was picked up by the lad two in…

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 obmwallplanner@mortons.co.uk MARCH 8 Kempton Park Motorcycle Jumble at Kempton Park Racecourse, Staines Road East, Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey TW16 5AQ. Web: www.kemptonautojumble.co.uk. What3words: crowd.costs.foam. 8 VMCC South Dorset’s Breakfast Meet at the Three Compasses, Charminster, Dorset DT2 9QT. Tel: 01305 774793. What3words: barefoot.rots.chainsaw. 8 Mr Autojumble at New Marske Sports Club Field, Gurney Street, New Marske, Redcar, North Yorkshire TS11 8EG. Tel: 07970 673175. Email: michael_chambers84@hotmail.com. What3words: liquid.hired.grumbles. 8-9 Scottish Motorcycle Show at the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, Newbridge, Edinburgh WH28 8NB. Tel: 01775 768661. Web: thescottishmotorcycleshow.com. What3words: scared.healers.finely. 9 Classic Bike Day at the…

Squeak, rattle and roll

As part of one of my somewhat frenzied tidy-ups, I have been rationalising the various tins and cans of lubricants that litter the various shelves of the workshop. It is only when you start to collect them up and shove them almost tidily onto a single shelf, you realise just how many there are. Half-an-hour of digging around netted me various half-empty one litre bottles of engine oil, proper big gallon cans of the same, bearing grease, water-pump grease, assembly lube, anti-seize compounds… So the list goes on. To start with, I’m thinking that this is a ridiculous amount, then comes the realisation that each machine in the workshop needs its own combination of different types to ensure it is all spinning properly. Just for fun, I counted the number…

Squeak, rattle and roll

Back to the future?

We are all well aware that electrically powered cars are currently being heavily promoted as a partial solution to climate problems. The concept is trotted out with monotonous regularity by virtue-signalling pundits and politicians who ignore the fact that pollution arising from fossil fuels used in private motoring only accounts for a tiny fraction of the total. The eco-warriors on this bandwagon also choose to believe the lack of obvious exhaust emissions from electric cars cancels out the environmental damage caused by scrapping their predecessors and mining materials for new production. The motoring public is not easily convinced of the benefits. They ask why they should abandon their existing petrol and diesel cars in favour of electric ones, having numerous downsides like greater purchase price, limited range, long charging times…

Back to the future?

Mineral to synthetic

Multigrade mineral oils When development of multigrade oils began is unclear, though the first multigrade oils were introduced circa 1950 and became commercially available 1953-1954. As we know, a multigrade oil fulfils the role of two oils and the first multigrade identification system appeared in 1955, indicating its viscosity range. Taking common examples of 20/50 or 10/30, which may be expressed as 20W/50 or 10W/50. The 20 (or 10 etc) before the oblique indicates the ‘cold’ start up viscosity of the oil; if included, the ‘W’ relates to the winter temperature start up viscosity. The figures 50 or 30 after the oblique indicate the viscosity of the oil at ‘normal’ hot running temperature. These figures relate to the viscosity of a straight grade oil at temperatures implied. There are ‘ifs’…

Mineral to synthetic

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