Tabla de contenidos para November/December 2024 en Motorcycle Classics

I think you’d agree that any private American corporation with over 120 years in business is a success. They have endured several wars, the Depression, recessions, strong competition, strikes and high interest rates many times over — yet they may still be making the same basic products. They must be doing many things correctly, remaining relevant and making four or five generations of customers happy. Could their secret be focusing on “continuous improvement”? And along the way, in those 120 years, did they assume that improving product design, marketing, manufacturing systems, materials procurement, employee benefits and their relationship with their sales force would all go well, if they always strived for improvement on all fronts? That’s where I’m at, more specifically, where WE are at. We are carrying on from…

A classic motorcycle enthusiast could labor several years attempting to track down a rare and historically important machine. It was a different story for Bill Sevier, although the Texan doesn’t consider himself a “true” classic aficionado. And when he bought this 1957 Triumph Twenty-One, he didn’t quite realize the significance of what he’d found. His connection to the Triumph gracing these pages began when he was working for Shell. In the early 2000s, he’d been sent from his home in Houston, Texas, to work in the Netherlands. Around 2013, Bill’s elderly neighbor in Wassenaar, near The Hague, asked if he’d be interested in buying a motorcycle. “He had this bike sitting in his backyard that he wanted to show me,” Bill recalls. “It was killing him that it was just…

It’s not always that old race bikes get the respect they deserve. Especially when racing formulas are changed by sanctioning bodies, or a model simply becomes uncompetitive — as the BMW R90S did against the onslaught of bikes like the Kawasaki KZ1000. Switching brands, Pridmore took a second AMA Superbike championship in 1977. There are likely some tales as to how Reg Pridmore’s factory BMW languished, but eventually, the BMW Archive acquired it and carefully restored it to its 1976 Daytona Orange racing glory. But if you’ve been around BMW’s paintwork over the past 50 years, you know that what looks straightforward, is not. Enter Kent Holt, long-time painter for BMW, and for many BMW owners and restorers for decades. As a youth, Kent and a buddy built scale model…

Over the years, we have received many positive responses from our step-by-step instructions and advice on rebuilding various mechanical components. This month, we’ll show you how to rebuild a set of carburetors, using the Keihin carbs from the Honda CB500 Four as an example. Note that we recommend having a shop manual handy, either an OEM manual or one from Clymer or Haynes. OEM rebuild kits are typically best. Even more important is that you document the project before you begin. After removing the full lines at the petcock, remove the fuel tank and the airbox side covers and set them safely aside. Now make photos of the choke and throttle cable connections. Then photograph the carb group from all angles, including the underside. Inspect your intake manifold boots for…

It’s been a couple years since I resurrected my 1988 Ducati Paso. In hindsight, I think I bought the Paso to rationalize putting off rehabilitating a 1984 Laverda RGS 1000 I’d bought two years earlier. Through nobody’s fault but my own, the Colorado Laverda (its former home and my second RGS) had become a thorn in my side, a bike that made me wince every time I looked at it. It was late November when I towed the RGS from Colorado home to Kansas. It hadn’t run in four or five years, and with winter setting in I knew I wasn’t going to get anything meaningful done on it until early spring, so I rolled it into the unheated half of the hovel. The first weekend of February marks the…

“I will always have the joyous memories of riding the very best of that era.” Balancing Act: automotive engineer speaks to isolastic-framed Norton I did enjoy the issue of Motorcycle Classics that you gave me at the Wauseon AMCA meet, particularly the article on the development of the Norton Commando. It’s interesting to compare the actions of the two premier British companies in the late 1960s. Norton executed a brilliant re-design that solved the vibration issue while reducing weight and providing a modern design that has become a classic. In comparison, BSA/Triumph took some of the most beautiful bikes available with great handling and proceeded to make some very plain-looking machines with mediocre handling (The oil-in-frame era, ED.). And the real problem of vibration was not addressed. Management was very…

British-built Panther motorcycles were designed to be sluggers by tradition, with their single cylinder slanted forward at 40° to function as a stressed member of the frame replacing the downtube. Thus, they were mainly aimed at the sidecar fraternity until the 1967 shutdown of production at the company’s factory in Cleckheaton, far away from the epicenter of the British motorcycle industry in Birmingham and Coventry. But in 1926 Panther’s P&M parent company — named after its founding fathers back in 1904, Joah Phelon and Richard Moore — produced something far removed from its habitual 400cc-and-upwards range of long-stroke heavyweight singles: a longitudinally mounted OHV 250cc V-twin with a unit-construction engine incorporating leaf-spring valve operation. Perhaps inevitably, this completely unique motorcycle was christened the Panthette. Before Moto Guzzi Unveiled at London’s…

In 2024, BMW is firmly entrenched in road racing. As of this writing, three of the top ten racers in MotoAmerica Superbike racing and two of the top ten in World Superbike racing are riding BMWs. No one doubts that Beemers are fast and capable. Before the introduction of the R90S, most Americans thought of BMWs as stodgy touring bikes. At the time, the cool kids rode Kawasakis, Nortons, Harley Superglides and choppers. While Hans Muth made the R90S beautiful, a road racer named Reg Pridmore proved that it was fast. Very fast. Fast enough to win the first AMA Superbike championship in 1976. Pridmore gets started on BMWs. Pridmore, an expat Englishman who moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970s, started racing BMWs in 1971, sponsored by Butler…

Like a lot of good ideas, it got dreamed up over a drink or two, some consolatory glasses of Zipfer pils for the TaylorMade team in the open-air cafe at Zeltweg’s scenic Österreichring circuit — now Red Bull Ring — in the summer of 1993. We were drowning our sorrows after I’d DNF’d earlier in the Austrian round of the European Thunderbike series, with a blown motor in Paul Taylor’s Saxon-framed 1137cc Motodd Laverda triple, on which I’d won Europe’s most prestigious event for such machines at Assen the previous year. The Triumph boss says, “No Racing,” but — “I guess this is going to have to be it,” said ARCO oil geologist Taylor resignedly. “We have to accept that any air-cooled three-cylinder engine with Laverda on the sidecases is…

11/3 Join the Southern California Norton Owners Club for “the best ride by a dam site,” the Hansen Dam Ride. Now in its 45th year, the ride is a great way to spend a day enjoying classic motorcycles. Recent years have seen more than 500 bikes of all makes show up, making it the largest classic motorcycle event of the year in Southern California. A 75-mile-plus route is mapped out for the day. Show up as early as 8 a.m. for coffee and donuts. Meet at the lower lot of Hansen Dam on Dronfield (off Osborne). Riders on British Iron will receive free Hansen Dam ride pins! The ride departs at approximately noon. On the web at socalnorton.com 1/25 Mark your calendar early for the largest vintage motorcycle show in South Florida.…

In an earlier life, my favorite sound was the slap of my weekly copy of Motorcycle News hitting the doormat. I was 15, motorcycle crazy and loved watching motocross. My new issue of MCN revealed the BSA range for 1966, which included two brand new scoots: the 441cc Victor Grand Prix scrambler, and the “dual-sport” Victor Enduro. I knew right then I had to own one. It took me another ten years, but I finally found a 1969 highway spec Victor Special. By that time, works rider Jeff Smith had taken two motocross world championships on the Victor Grand Prix. BSA had entered the 1950s with new 500 and 650cc parallel twins. But their singles range was pretty much just pre-war models with fresh paint, and the engine and gearbox…

Some older bikes stay functional, while the time for others passes. The inexpensive and economical 2-strokes of the 1940s and 1950s are rarely seen on the road, while it is not unusual for a mid-sized Japanese machine from the 1970s or 1980s to continue chugging along as a daily rider and for BMWs from the same period to show up at rallies several hundred miles from home. The R90S, often described as the first purpose-built sport tourer, not only continues to be used for its original purpose as an enjoyable way to eat up miles, but also continues to turn heads due to its Hans Muth styling. A pharmacist’s obsession Owner Ken Morris restores motorcycles as a way to relax from his demanding job as a pharmacist. He concentrated on…

Political pundits likely will label 2024’s presidential campaign and election as one of America’s most unusual ever. Or not, because more than 60 years ago, the editors for of Car and Driver automotive magazine launched a political campaign supporting a popular race car driver for the office of U.S. President. Election Day was November 3, 1964. Their candidate? Daniel Sexton Gurney, a tall, rugged man with all-American looks and superhero credentials that included, at the time, 3 wins in Formula 1 racing. Formula 1 itself was, and still is, considered the top echelon in motor-sport competition, and Gurney could race with the best of them. Gurney passed away on January 15, 2018, from complications of pneumonia, leaving a legacy in racing that included some unforgettable events in his driving career.…

A hidden gem and a great destination, the Yanke Motor Museum in Boise, Idaho, is as good as it gets. There’s precious little information on the Internet about the Yanke collection, but trust me, the Yanke museum is worth seeing. It’s not widely publicized and you can’t just roll up and visit its treasures; admission is by appointment only. I only came across it because I Googled “motorcycle museums in Boise” on a recent trip. The Internet might not mention that it’s by appointment only, but that’s the deal. Further complicating things, some of the GPS navigation programs get the directions wrong (we used Waze to find the address and it worked). We made the required appointment, and Tyler (one of the curators) pulled up just as we rode into…

Fallingwater is the famous Frank Lloyd Wright home, and it is a marvelous motorcycle destination for two reasons: The site itself, and the riding in western Pennsylvania. Frank Lloyd Wright designed Fallingwater as a vacation home for Pittsburgh’s wealthy Edgar Kaufmann family in the 1930s. The Kaufmanns wanted a unique architectural achievement that would blend seamlessly with the natural materials and terrain of the Allegheny Mountains. Wright designed a home that straddled Bear Run, a local stream in an Appalachian ravine. For much of the construction, Wright used the surrounding Laurel Highlands’ sandstone rock. He also designed the interior furnishings and decor utilizing the area’s natural materials. The result is an architectural masterpiece. Several decades ago, the Kaufmann family turned the estate over to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and it…

Larry Huffman, among motorcycle racing’s most recognizable and entertaining announcers during the 1970s and ‘80s, passed away in July 2024 due to complications from previous surgery. He was 82 years old. Huffman was best known among motorcycling’s colorful cast of characters as the “Voice of Supercross.” Also as “Motor Mouth,” “Super Mouth,” among other monikers, including in a description by a race fan who D. Randy Riggs quoted for a 1974 Cycle World feature article about Huffman. The fan assessed Huffman as “a raving maniac — I love him.” Indeed, whether he raised your blood pressure or you raised your eyebrows at his antics, there was no disputing that Huffman’s performance with the PA system convinced you that he wasn’t your typical race announcer. Consider Riggs’ description of a patented…