RealClassic April 2022

This is a slightly nervous time of year. Well, it is for me! I’m writing this in mid-March, when the wind from the mighty Atlantic is still battering away at the windows and the weather should probable be best described as changeable. I have no idea what that means, because weather is surely always changeable, but you know what I mean. This is also the time of year that I remember to get grumpy with continuously inaccurate weather forecasts. And why is it that this is particularly important in the middle of March? Because this is the time of year when we drag out our old bikes and discover whether they are working well, whether they’re going to repay a winter of spanner-flinging by working better than they did last year,…

This Easter issue of RealClassic magazine was quite possibly hatched from a primeval egg in the same way that Ra, the ancient Egyptian sun god, was created. Alternatively, Frank Westworth and Rowena Hoseason of the Cosmic Bike Company Ltd might’ve assembled the editorial while Chris Abrams of AT Graphics designed the actual pages of this splendid publication. Mortons Media Group Ltd handle subscriptions, trade advertising and all other awkward admin things. But we like the idea that it all just popped out of a cosmic egg... READ MORE about old bikes at www.Real-Classic.co.uk TRADE ADVERTISERS for the magazine or website should call Sarah on 01507 529418 or email SMitchellSavage@Mortons.co.uk EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES should be sent to Frank@RealClassic.net or to PO Box 66, Bude EX23 9ZX. Please include an SAE if you want something returned…

I had been waiting for years to ride one of these fabled I beasts and suddenly had the I chance to grasp an unfulfilled dream by the short and curlies. We all know the tales of those who’ve spent every bit of their disposable income on these machines; owners forced into poverty but elevated to riding riches when they took on a legendary Laverda Jota. Back in the 1970s, some joined-up thinking from two genius minds provided British riders with an Italian steed built for extreme speed exhilaration on the road. Starting with developing the performance of the 3CE, through racetrack success with PK Davies in the Avon production series, and with plenty of dogged enthusiasm, the Slater brothers produced an icon that stretched across the biking world. So it says…

Summat to say? Send your comments, hints, tips, tales of woe and derring-don’t to: RCHQ@RealClassic.net THRILLING STUFF Canada calling. Signing up to a RealClassic subscription two months ago was the best thing I ever did. My copies regularly arrive now so there’s no more poaching magazines from my friends. Digressing away from two wheels, restorations, rescues, trials and tribulations of the two wheel world, I wondered if Frank knew of his alter ego. I am an avid reader and picked up ‘The Shout’ by Stephen Leather. The book’s theme is about fires and murder, and getting into the second chapter the reader is introduced to Frank Westworth, crew manager of a London Fire brigade pumper. I wondered if Mr Leather might be a rider and fan of Frank’s, and put him in…

Unlikely as it may seem nowadays, given how its Boxer twins and especially its R1250GS cash cow continue to underpin BMW Motorrad’s profitability as it closes in on selling over 200,000 motorcycles in a single year, in the early-80s after the debut of the four-cylinder K100 ‘Flying Brick’in 1983, serious consideration was given by BMW AG top management to killing off the German marque’s trademark model, and allowing the Boxer range to die a peaceful death. The September 1992 debut at the Cologne Show of the all-new R1100RS with its air / oil-cooled 1085cc fuel-injected, high-cam, flat-twin R259 motor put paid publicly to that notion – but it had meantime been left throughout the 1980s to the myriad specialist manufacturers then existing in Germany to satisfy the demand of Boxer enthusiasts…

Sometimes you start a bike build with a clear goal in mind. In fact, it’s true to say most builds probably start out that way. Builds are somewhat different to restorations. Restorations still have their choices and decisions: repair the old or buy the new? Choose cheapo parts off eBay that might possibly maybe with a following wind perhaps fit, or quality parts from a knowledgeable supplier? Zinc or stainless fittings? Etc etc. But the end game is still to more or less create a reasonable facsimile of a factory-new motorcycle. Builds are different. They are a combination of parts that have never been together before. Even following a well-worn path such as Triton building still leaves plenty of room for individual expression. Yet generally when you start building a bike,…