Real Classic October 2022

We recently asked you which bikes you would like to see more of in our somewhat eccentric magazine -and you replied. Well, maybe not you, exactly, but a minor army of other readers did, and reading those replies was as entertaining as it was inconclusive. Basically, the overwhelming message was that we should keep on doing what we do. There were of course a fair number who want to read about new bikes – retros, if you like – which was balanced out pretty much by others who swore blind that they’d cancel their subscriptions if we ever featured anything built after 1970. Or 1960. Or maybe 1945. More modern classics – which I think means more recent machinery which qualifies for classic insurance. Again, these were balanced out by…

Who doesn’t adore the looks and lore of the Gold Star? Back in the day, Martin and his pals simply salivated over Gold Stars but the prices ‘were so high they might as well be on the moon.’ So for 30-odd years Martin rode the next best thing, an oily rag 1949 B31 and a selection of other rigid BSA singles. But his dreams of owning something like a Gold Star never quite faded… The post-war Goldie was unveiled at the 1948 Earl’s Court show as the alloy-engined B32 – it adopted the ZB designation a little later – with its 71mm by 88mm dimensions giving 348cc. Almost immediately the plunger-framed Goldie was offered alongside a wallet-bending selection of optional upgrades which effectively makes it impossible to define the specification…

Summat to say? Send your comments, hints, tips, tales of woe and derring-don’t to: RCHQ@RealClassic.net SCRAMBLED! I confess to being puzzled by some maths in the test of the Scram 411 in relation to its range on a full tank. The tank capacity is given as 15 litres (approximately 3.3 gallons), giving a range of 280 miles at 40mpg. My maths gives a range of around 130 miles with those figures. Mileage would need to be around 85mpg to give that range, so perhaps the figure of 40 relates to mph rather than mpg? John Faulkner, member 1111 I confess that the figures may have got a little scrambled in translation. Owners report fuel consumption as 65+ mpg and a tank range of c200miles … Frank W PUBTALKING I am always…

The last time I wrote an article for RC I had just acquired a Harley-Davidson, a 1977 FLH1200 Electra Glide. Now I’m back, but with a 2001 FXDX-T. I blame Editor Frank for this – partly – and also I acknowledge the good and bad times I enjoyed with the Electra Glide. I had the Electra Glide for a little over a year and 5000 miles. In that time, I found it to be mostly reliable, comfortable, heavy, slow, numb, pretty, idiosyncratic, remarkably able, hard work, and many other things too. It was like many bikes of its age; a victim of many hands and much love and abuse. It could have been a great bike, but to be the great bike I wanted it needed to be stripped down…

In 1968 I was posted to Cyprus with the RAF for two and a half years, and I planned to save enough to buy my dream bike on my return to the UK. That would have been an Egli Vincent from Roger Slater, which cost around £525. Unfortunately on only £14 per week I didn’t make it, but I did save nearly £300. So on my return I went to Conways in London to buy the next best thing, a Vincent 1000. The salesman didn’t seem very impressed with a 20 year-old kid. He told me if I was interested then I should come back at 2pm as he was about to go for lunch! So I set off for Coburn and Hughes who had a Norvin with a Rapide…

It’s a Missing Link in the ongoing revival of Britain’s historic bike brands. Triumph, Norton, Ariel, Métisse, Brough Superior, Matchless and now BSA – all these and other less famous names from Britain’s two-wheeled yesterdays have already been resurrected to join Royal Enfield, which never actually went away, in the born-again biking section of British motorcycling’s history store. But there’s still no sign of the real time revival of the biggest one of all – Vincent. Ever since production at Vincent’s Stevenage works ceased in 1955, after founder Phil Vincent’s uncompromising insistence on the highest quality of manufacture and engineering, coupled with world-leading performance, was ultimately found to be sadly incompatible with also making a profit, there have been various attempts down the years to relaunch this historic marque. But…