Table of contents for January - February 2020 in Motorcycle Classics

Our feature bike, shown at the top and at left, is also one of just two copies of the Mercury that have come up for sale in recent years. Frame number 18129803, it was a past winner of the San Jose Clubman’s All-British Show People’s Choice Award. At the 2017 Mecum Las Vegas Motorcycle Auction, it was bid to $9,000, but apparently did not sell. More recently, the 2019 Mecum Las Vegas auction featured an original, unrestored 1970 Mercury, which was part of the MC Collection of Stockholm. It sold for $9,900, on an estimate of $18,000-$23,000.…

To say that Southern California’s Big Bear Run was a popular race in the 1950s is an understatement. In 1958, there were 851 entries for the offroad, mostly desert race, despite the fact that it was a really tough trip. Only 145 riders finished, with Bud Ekins taking the win. Ekins, the other top five finishers, and the majority of the other riders on the track were aboard Triumphs. The model chosen by most competitors was a single carburetor 649cc twin with high pipes and an easily detachable headlight — a Triumph TR6. Racers called it The Desert Sled. “Over a period of several years, Scott has put together a collection of all four of the 1967 Triumph 650s.” No one quite knows how a bike set up for racing…

Today the name Yamaha is synonymous with racing. Yamaha Motor Corporation was originally created in 1955 as a repurposed company from long-standing Nippon Gakki, a conglomerate with roots dating back to 1889 when Torakusu Yamaha formed the musical company Yamaha Organ Manufacturing; thus the famous tuning fork logo. The new motor company’s mission was to develop and manufacture motorcycles. Fittingly, Yamaha’s race history begins with the very first Yamaha, the YA1, launched in May 1955 and powered by a nondescript 125cc 2-stroke engine based on DKW’s RT 125 piston-port single. Two months after releasing the YA1 to dealers, Yamaha’s factory race team, itself still in the embryonic stage, entered a small squadron of the 125cc roadster for Japan’s most prestigious domestic race at the time, the Mt. Fuji Ascent Race.…

Ducati isn’t readily associated with 2-stroke motorcycles, but they formed an important part of the company’s marketing strategy in the early 1960s. Aimed at a new youth market, some knowledgeable fans of Ducati’s history consider the unusual 50 SL/1 of 1967 one of the most beautiful models it ever made. The ultimate development of a lightweight range first launched in 1961 with the Brisk and Piuma mopeds, the SL/1 took Italy’s crowded micro-motorcycle market to a new level of styling and performance. The tiny 50 SL/1 featured some significant design elements that would later appear on its much larger 4-stroke singles. Chief among these were the distinctive twin filler caps on the gas tank. Those dual bayonet-style levers became a signature for Ducati’s 1968 “wide case” Mark 3 singles. Those…

AC: Dani, did you enjoy your Goodwood Revival debut? DP: Honestly, it’s way better than I ever thought it would be! I think it’s a great experience that anyone who loves motorcycles has to come and be part of, even as a spectator. I must say I’m totally surprised about how the event is actually organized. Every single tiny detail has been thought of, and it’s all so nicely presented — it’s very English! I don’t know how they manage to make everything look like back then, but it’s an unbelievable experience, I really like it. I also like wearing my 1960s outfit! When you talk to people, you realize everyone is enjoying themselves, everyone is relaxed, people are super happy, and the place is beautiful, especially with this perfect…

Suzuki T20 GP kit Q: I have a NOS GP kit temporarily set on one of my T20 projects, just to get a visual. It is two projects away from starting and I’d planned to Caswell coat the tank for ethanol protection. It will get ridden several times a year and taken to our Western VJMC rally. The tank will be drained when not ridden. My understanding is the Caswell product can be used to protect fiberglass tanks from our wonderful Cal-ethanol “gasoline.” I’ve used it successfully on a couple of needy steel tanks. You recommended that Joe M. replace his GP tank with a steel one, and if it was never coated, I would agree. My tank has never been used and appears very solid. Would you have any…

When Thomas Paine said, “These are the times that try men’s souls,” he was referring to the American Revolution, and things were not going well. George Washington’s Continental Army had not a single victory at the time that Paine uttered those famous words. All that changed during 10 crucial days starting on Christmas Day 1776. Ten days later it all came together at the Battle of Princeton, where the Americans resoundingly defeated the British and forever altered the trajectory of the American Revolution. Back to those 10 crucial days: On Christmas Day 1776, American troops crossed the Delaware River. On Dec. 26th, Washington’s Continental Army defeated the British mercenaries (the Hessian troops) in Trenton, New Jersey. On the 27th, the British retreated from western New Jersey, and on the 28th…

Another Fastback When I graduated from high school in 1971, I got a summer job at a furniture factory in neighboring Winooski, Vermont. Just down the road lived a British racing green 1968 Norton Commando Fastback. With the factory windows always open, I could hear whenever that glorious machine was approaching, and I would drop what I was doing to watch it pass by. When I noted a "For Sale" sign on the bike while headed home one day, I had worked long enough to stash the necessary cash — so I bought it that day. I got a couple of months of riding in before turning the bike over to a mechanic for a tuneup. A mutual acquaintance attempted to steal the bike from the mechanic’s shop, and exposed…

1966-1970 Kawasaki W1/W2 Though U.S. and European manufacturers often accused the Japanese of copying their products, in the case of the 1966 Kawasaki W1, they had a point! When Kawasaki acquired Meguro in 1964, they also got the K1, a 500cc air-cooled OHV parallel twin that was essentially a reverse-engineered BSA pre-unit A7 twin. Stretched to 624cc, the K1 became Kawasaki’s W1 of 1966. But like many “copied” Japanese products, the W1 was in many ways better than the original. For example, the W1 replaced BSA’s suspect plain bush bottom end with a built-up crankshaft, ball and roller bearings and improved oil feed. Breathing was also revised to reduce the potential for oil leaks. The separate transmission had four gears in an N-1-2-3-4 pattern with the shifter on the right.…

The Barber Vintage Festival seems to get bigger and better every year. This year's event, which ran Oct. 4-6, was maybe the hottest temps we've ever faced, but we're told ticket sales were up some 15 percent over the prior year. Event Grand Marshal John Penton was the guest of honor at Friday night’s Motorcycles by Moonlight museum fundraiser, but before that, he kindly swung by the Motorcycle Classics tent to sign autographs and chat with readers. Also joining us was John's son Jack Penton. Jack is an accomplished offroad racer, and also a member of the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame. Gentlemen, thanks for joining us! Our featured class this year was Honda Fours, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the debut of the 1969 Honda CB750 Four. Two Fours…

1965 Giulietta Super Sport Giulietta was a division of the Peripoli motorcycle company, which started making motorcycles in the late 1950s. By 1965 it was the seventh largest manufacturer in Italy and production continued into the 1980s. This unrestored 1965 Super Sport 50cc was last registered (in Italy) in 1974. 1966 Garelli Monza Junior Twenty-two-year-old Adalberto Garelli founded his factory in 1919 with the first Garelli motorcycle using his own 350cc 2-stroke engine. It set a long-distance record from Milan to Naples, proving 2-strokes were durable. This is an unrestored, 5hp, 1966 50cc Monza Junior. Early-1960s Atala Golden Arrow Atala produced a range of 2-strokes from 49cc up to 125cc, usually powered by Minarelli engines. This early-1960s Freccia D’oro (Golden Arrow) uses a 49cc type P-3 Minarelli engine. Note the…

It’s a situation familiar to many motorcycle wrenchers: In one corner of the garage is a frame left over from a previous project, and hiding under the proverbial workbench is a similarly orphaned engine. In Lyle Whitter’s case, the engine was a 1949 alloy two-pipe Ariel Square Four Mk1, and the frame was a 1957 BSA A10 Golden Flash. And the question uppermost in Whitter’s mind: would the two go together? The eventual answer was … yes — but not without some considerable workshop skill and patience. The engine The engine that Whitter used for his BSA-framed custom bore little resemblance to Edward Turner’s original design — except for the “Square Four” cylinder layout. In the 1920s, Turner owned a motorcycle dealership, but his goal was to become a designer…

There comes a time when practicality overcomes originality, and a good example of that is our project for this issue, converting a 6v Energy Transfer (ET) ignition Triumph over to 12v while retaining the original no-battery look of the ET system. For that we used a 12v Lucas alternator and a Boyer Power Box, both sourced from Klempf’s British Parts in Douglas Center, Minnesota (klempfsbritishparts.com). I explained to Mitch Klempf that I wanted better lighting, but didn’t want to alter the look and he agreed that changing the alternator and putting a Power Box up under the seat would keep the look while allowing me to see the road ahead at night. This How To will show you how you can do this too if needed or wanted. SPONSORED BY BikeMaster…

What: Princeton Battlefield State Park, 500 Mercer Road, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, (609) 921-0074. Admission is free; the Clark House is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Avoid: Not checking the weather. The roads can ice during the winter months. How to Get There: Princeton is about 55 miles southwest of New York City. The quickest ticket in is on the New Jersey Turnpike (I-95). You can take Exit 9 to enter New Brunswick (follow the signs for SR 18 and the Rutgers campus). Pick up SR 27 in New Brunswick and follow it southwest to Princeton, and then turn left on Mercer Street (shortly after turning left on Mercer, you’ll pass…

When the 750 Commando was launched at London’s Earls Court motorcycle show in 1967, cynics were quick to point out that Norton had ditched the best feature of its heavyweight motorcycle range — the sweet-handling Featherbed frame — and retained its main liability — the 20-year-old parallel-twin engine. But the Commando, with its vibe-killing Isolastic frame, was such a success that by 1969 the remaindered items in the company’s parts inventory included Featherbed frames and a quantity of 650cc engines from the Manxman and 650SS. What to do? The result was the Norton you’ve never heard of — the 1969-1970 Mercury 650. Although no doubt intended to clear out Norton-Villiers’ stock of pre-Commando parts, the company created what is sometimes described as the nicest Norton ever. The long-stroke 650cc engine…

2020 Las Vegas auctions Auction houses Mecum and Bonhams are busy preparing for the 2020 Las Vegas motorcycle auctions. Mecum will return with another massive portfolio of bikes, with a reported 1,750 machines scheduled to go under the hammer during their six-day mega-auction, Jan. 21-26, at the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa. Headlining the Mecum auction (mecum.com) are eight individual collections, including The Hamilton Triumph Collection, The Stephen Ross Estate Collection, The Northwest 100 and more. The Northwest 100 is a particularly interesting group of 100 rare and desirable vintage Honda motorcycles, collected over the years by Brown. M. Maloney. Nearly all of the 100 bikes are in top, unrestored condition. Also on auction will be the famous “Greenie” 1940 Harley-Davidson EL Knucklehead. Formerly part of the Wayne “Pappy”…

Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor, this one is all on you. When Matt Balestrieri first saw an episode of Long Way Round, he knew his dad, Jim, would love the 2004 adventure where Charley and Ewan essentially circumnavigate the globe from London to New York City aboard a pair of BMW R1150GS motorcycles. Matt bought his dad the series on DVD, and Jim binge-watched the episodes. “You know, it was winter in Wisconsin,” Jim laughs, and adds, “so I watched them again. It was just great stuff.” He followed this up by watching Charley Boorman’s attempt to race in the 2005 edition of the Dakar Rally and then took in the 2007 series Long Way Down — another Charley and Ewan adventure. Jim later bought himself a 2010 BMW R1200GS at…

Although it’s a bit wordy for today’s synthesized Twittersphere and nanosecond attention spans, I still like the old phrase, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Particularly in terms of the current market segment of retro bikes, it is absolutely the case. For proof, consider Kawasaki’s new W800 Cafe twin. Designed to mirror the Kawasaki’s star-crossed W1 and W2 twins of 1965 and later, it attracts both veteran riders who remember the good old days, and new riders with old souls. And it looks the business too, with a low-set Clubman handlebar, bikini fairing, peashooter mufflers and other ’60s and ’70s design cues. However, despite a half century with which to perfect the basic goodness of a parallel-twin, dynamically the W800 Cafe rather falls short — an ironic throwback to the…

Britain’s annual Goodwood Revival is universally recognized as the world’s premier Historic race meeting — on both two wheels and four. It’s been staged each September since 1998 over the 2.37-mile Motor Circuit opened in 1948 by the Duke of Richmond, and laid out on a decommissioned WW2 airfield, which the RAF had built on his Goodwood estate near Chichester, on England’s leafy South Downs. Catering for the bikes and cars that would have competed at the circuit before it closed first time around in 1966, the three-day event thrills an annual sell-out crowd of 150,000 spectators, almost all in ’60s-style period clothing. It complements the annual mid-summer Goodwood Festival of Speed founded in 1993 by the present Duke, after he took over management of the Goodwood Estate from his…

It isn’t often that David Rutherford is invited to a new type of motorcycle event. He has road-raced for decades, toured in the U.S. and Europe extensively on a variety of sport bikes, raced flat track occasionally, run the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb six times, raced the Baja 1000 and the Baja 500 several times, and has ridden the course at the Isle of Man. When he was approached about participating in a “new” kind of concours event he was somewhat skeptical. The idea of standing around next to your motorcycle was not exactly his kind of event. The promoter invited him to apply to run in the Inaugural Concours de Competition at Barber Motorsports Park. David knew the facility well since he had raced there during the annual…

My interest in the storied Laverda motorcycle brand is no secret. Launched in the energetic post-World War II European market when motorcycles were the personal transportation of choice owing to their affordability, Laverda went on to become one of the most famous of the many Italian motorcycle manufacturers. Initially producing small motorcycles for urban use, Laverda found its real voice playing at the top of the game with the 2-cylinder 750cc SF series and, most influentially, a line of 1,000cc triples that included the legendary Jota, in 1977 the fastest production motorcycle in the world. I’ve been a Laverda nut since my introduction to the brand in the mid-1980s when I lived in San Francisco. I was then riding a 1974 Norton 850 Commando, and was a regular in the…

Highway 21 Axle Riding Shoes When it comes to motorcycle gear I freely admit that I have a problem with two things: jackets and boots. With so many variables in aesthetics and function, it’s easy to spend a small fortune and fill a large closet. For the past few months, however, I’ve left the boot rotation idle and almost exclusively worn the new Axle Shoe from Highway 21 (highway21.com). Aesthetically, these shoes move seamlessly from the bike to office to the local brewpub. The canvas uppers and classic high-top appearance garner compliments from motorcyclists and pedestrians alike, and the beefy sneaker format makes them comfortable enough to walk around in all day long. I even wore them all weekend at the Barber Festival without complaint! The common axiom of moto…

There are great flat track racers, and then there are great flat track racers. Consider the late Ricky Graham, who billed himself as “Ricky ‘G’” during racing hours, among the great flat trackers of all time. The three-time AMA Grand National Champion (1982, 1984 and 1993) set a record in 1993 with six National wins in a row that accounted for half of his 12-win tally for the season, also a record. Beyond those statistics, most of his contemporaries agreed that nobody forced a bike harder into a turn before pitching it sideways than Ricky G. That riding style was never more evident than at Mile tracks where Graham often seemed unstoppable. Perhaps his greatest single Mile lap occurred in 1984 when, as Bubba Shobert’s teammate on American Honda’s fledging…