RealClassic January 2022

Welcome to the new year. Another one! Although this is of course the time for making resolutions of some kind or another, I have decided to be honest with myself and make none of them. That’s it. No more promising myself that this is the year I shall ride to Nordkapp on a Norton Navigator; or the year that I’ll ride nothing but bikes at least as old as myself. Or that I will rebuild the 1953 (same year as me) AJS Model 20 into a machine of staggering beauty and engineering brilliance. That’s the stuff of fantasy! OK, so I’m being a tiny bit dishonest with you, but less so with myself. My only resolution for 2022 is that I intend to have a good time whenever and wherever possible.…

Rewinding a couple of years, a Meriden Triumph 650 twin was on the list of bikes I wanted to try. It just so happened that Chris at Venture Classics was selling a 1968 TR6P at a price I could afford. When I heard it’d had an SRM engine rebuild I was sold. Two of my bikes recently developed large, expensive engine problems so any assurance on the reliability of the mechanical components was welcome! The TR6R is a single-carb version of the twin-carb Bonneville, or a Bonneville is a TR6R with two carbs, whichever you prefer. By the late 1960s the differences between the two were otherwise cosmetic. The paint schemes were different and the Bonnie got the best bling, but the engine internals were, as I understand it, identical, as…

Summat to say? Send your comments, hints, tips, tales of woe and derring-don’t to: RCHQ@RealClassic.net SHURELY SHOME MISHTAKE? RC212 was an excellent read as always. I couldn’t help noticing that young Frank’s Sunbeam has different registration plates on bow and stern. I just wondered if this was to throw the local Bobby off the scent, when trying to catch Frank at warp speeds? Niall Maclean, member 14,721 Ha! I wondered how many folk would spot that. The number on the front was the age-related number which was on the bike when we bought it. The rear plate shows the number which was on it when it was delivered. Between us buying the bike and it arriving, all the touring kit disappeared and the previous owner sold the earlier age-related number and got a new…

It is probably simpler to define what the Moto Guzzi is not, rather than what it is. It certainly isn’t a sporting V-twin, a layout synonymous with the Mandello factory. Instead it’s a single-cylinder 500 built to replace the famous and beautiful Falcone sportster. Long before the now-ubiquitous, across the frame V-motors came into being, Guzzi made and raced single-cylinder motorcycles. The New Falcon, manufactured between 1971 and 1976, was a continuation of that heritage. But it would take a full decade after time was finally called on the NF for large-capacity singles to be fashionable again – and that only happened after the niche was reinvented by the Japanese in the shape of Honda’s XBR and the Yamaha SR/X. In the early 1970s, when the Guzzi first prowled the streets, the…

During a holiday in India in 2018, inspired by seeing so many Enfields, I looked into buying an old Bullet and shipping it home to restore. What I discovered online made me think again because of the difficulties of exporting and importing, plus the duties payable. However, while I was searching I came across an unfinished project for sale back in the UK. It was a very low mileage, Indian- built Bullet which had lost its original 500 engine - but came with a yet to be fitted 650cc twin-cylinder diesel engine. I paid a deposit while still in India and picked up the bike, diesel engine and several boxes of bits as soon as I was home. I regularly meet in the pub with a small group of like-minded mates…

It is a common misconception that the Douglas Engineering Company was the only company to use the fore-and-aft flat-twin. Douglas was the most prominent proponent of this engine layout, using them from 1907 until the outbreak of WW2, but they were not alone. William and Edwin Douglas got into the motorcycle business by accident, when a company they supplied castings to, Light Motors, went into receivership. Light Motors were probably the pioneers of fore-and-aft flat twins. The Douglas brothers spotted an opportunity to carry on production of these smooth, nimble, sturdy, low-vibration machines, which performed well and seemed to sell. Their appeal was enhanced with success on the Isle of Man, European race tracks, dirt tracks, and as dispatch rider mounts in WW1. So it is not surprising that a number of…