Real Classic February 2022

It is that time again. No no, nothing important, like a birthday, or a best pal’s turn to buy dinner. Although… In this case, it’s (inevitably) motorcycle related. Once again, one of The Shed dwellers is running well. It has an MoT (even though it doesn’t need one), it’s entertaining to ride, and it’s even taxed (free, of course). So what is ‘that’ time? This is what always but always happens to me when an old clunker is up and running. Starting reliably, pulling as well as it can be expected to, and as entertaining to ride as they can be. Like the world’s silliest case of déjà vu I immediately find myself wondering what to do with it. Ride it, of course, usually in ever-increasing circles until inevitably I…

How can a Golden Flash be blue, I asked myself? Isn’t it remarkable how irrelevant thoughts can descend when we’re out and about on a rather grand motorcycle? When borrowing a bike which proves to be - how can I put this? - difficult, my mind is usually filled with worries about my ability to actually ride the thing, whether it will expire before I can return it, and whether I’d have the courage to write up its story once I’d returned to the bosom of sanity that is RCHQ. This blue Beezer was just great. The A10 range of 650 twins is right up there with my own favourite old Brit 650s, alongside their AMC rivals, and ahead of Triumphs and Nortons. Mostly. There’s something reassuringly solid about them.…

Summat to say? Send your comments, hints, tips, tales of woe and derring-don’t to: RCHQ@RealClassic.net A NOTE FROM THE COLONY A real RealClassic subscriber here, from the States. Now I know we Yanks and you Brits don’t always agree – for example there was the nasty bizz with your employment of those drinkin’ and whorin’ Hessians in the War for Independence, and then settin’ our White House on fire in the War of 1812 – how was that cricket? And lettuce not even mention how there’s a whole wide wonderful road out there and y’all insist on regularly drivin’ on the wrong side of it. Nevertheless, regardless of which side of the road or the Atlantic we query, one thing that everybody but Frank’s old girlfriend can agree on is…

As a young boy, Chas grew up living quite close to the AMC factory in Plumstead. Back then, he had no real knowledge of the motorcycle factory on his doorstep. Instead, his father was a keen cyclist, so one Christmas Chas was delighted to receive a James bicycle. This introduced him to the freedom of a world explored on two wheels. Chas also developed a love of music and spent many hours gazing in the window of the Holdsworth cycle shop and Art Nash’s music shop. He promised himself that he would one day own a racing bicycle and a guitar. There was also a motorbike shop, a James dealer, opposite Chas’s school. James, the very company who had manufactured his bicycle. Each day, while waiting for the bus, Chas…

No contest. Only the most dogmatic fan of any of the other Big Four J-marques would argue against the belief that Yamaha has always been by some way the most innovative and daring Japanese motorcycle manufacturer in terms of product design. From left-field models that became legends in their lifetime, like the DT-1 Ténéré and RD250/350LC, or the V-Max, of course, and the Ténéré’s much-loved two-valve street-single forerunner, the SR500, right up to the groundbreaking R1/R6 hypersport sisters with which Yamaha reinvented the four-cylinder sportbike class. Or the WR/YZF400 twins with which they then did the same thing off-road, let alone the twin-cylinder TMax XP500 maxi-scooter which also reinvented the twist’n’go category. The house of the tuning forks has a proven track record of innovative response to market trends with…

I can’t deny that the bright light of good fortune has shone on me and my life more often than anyone could usually dare to hope. When it comes to bikes, I’ve definitely been a lucky boy. I was at Dave Goddard Motorcycles (about 200 yards from Heathrow’s northern runway) in the late 1990s, trying to blag whatever death trap I was riding through an MoT, when my path first crossed with this Norton. A chance encounter with a friendly chap whose Bantam refused to start led to him borrowing my tools and Bantam knowledge to get him on his way. ‘Do you like Nortons?’ he asked through a haze of two-stroke smoke as he donned his hat and gloves. ‘My friend is selling one and is asking £1500 for…