Table of contents for RCBE #22 AUTUMN 2016 in Retrobike

“THE CITY SEES NECK TATTOOS AND BEARDS AND PREPARES FOR THE WORST, BUT THIS IS SUCH A MELLOW CROWD” LONG deserted beaches with hard-packed sand have been used for finding out who could go the fastest since the early years of the 20th Century. In Australia, Sellicks Beach in South Australia was probably the most famous, hosting the long-running Speed Trials over a two-mile track from 1913 to 1953. In the USA, it was Daytona Beach in Florida; it not only conducted land speed events but also circuit racing on a mixture of tar and sand from 1936 until the famous banked speedway opened in 1958. Apart from occasional reenactments, beach racing was an almost forgotten chapter of motorcycling history and then that movie came out. The thrill of watching…

“WHEN I READ THE ITINERARY, IT SCARED THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF ME AND I ALMOST CANCELLED” HAVE you ever said, “Hell, yeah, I’m gonna do that one day?” For me, the seed was planted in late 2007 when I was diagnosed with cancer. Recovering from surgery, I realised that ‘one day’ I wouldn’t be here anymore and what have I done with my life? I vowed that things in my life needed to change. Time flies and before I knew it I was back in hospital two and a half years later to get more internal organs removed. I’d done nothing to change my life in the meantime, so the very next day I walked out of the hospital, drove myself to the D.O.T. and sat for my motorcycle…

“IT WAS TOTALLY STABLE AT ALL TIMES, WITH NOT A HINT OF ANY SHIMMY OR SHAKE” CUE a magical morning on Day One, with not a cloud in the sky as the sun’s bright red orb rose over the horizon. We were readying the 750cc Brough Superior for its first shakedown run after driving onto the salt flats at dawn. Apart from some dyno pulls and a few hundred street miles, this was a virgin motorcycle and we had no idea how fast it would go. The salt was in great shape, the best in a decade, with a hard, flat surface and heaps of grip. We were at Bonneville for the BUB Speed Trials, a motorcycle-only meeting organised since 2004 by legendary bike builder Denis Manning, aka BUB or…

“A few years ago I was concerned about where our motorcycling future was heading” LAST issue I talked about the many different types of restorations or builds of your favourite bike that you can endeavour to do. The choice you take can lead you into a world of motorcycling that only motorcyclists can really appreciate. The world, or worlds to be more precise, are not the shops selling bikes or the accessory markets that exist for motorcycles. It’s more than that; it’s the very fabric that keeps us and our machines alive. I’m not referring to your mainstream shops or brands here — we all know them and how to find them and what they do or don’t do for us as motorcyclists. Remember what I said last issue? Motorcycling…

RETRO & CUSTOM I LOVED the pics in the ‘Style Council’ feature last issue. My favourites were the yellow Norton on the go, the Honda on the last page and the Triumph Bonny with the canvas side saddles. So many great photos of bikes lined up, riding in city and in the bush, even in the rain — brilliant all round. It’s great to read about the young ones coming through. Keep up the great work, Retro. Rere Huia Luckman TO THE MANOR BORN ISSUE 20 was the best yet, especially the story on the Gladstone Triumph as I’d just caught a documentary about Henry Cole. And as a dyed-in-the-wool two-stroke nut, Craig Johnston’s green meanie Kawasaki tickled me. Jeff Walker LA FRECCIA NERA OF all the bikes you’ve featured,…

“COMPACTNESS WAS A KEY POINT THROUGHOUT THE BUILD, KEEPING EVERYTHING REALLY TIGHT AND MINIMAL. WE WENT THE WHOLE HOG WITH THIS ONE” ALEC Sharp and Rafe Pugh build custom bikes in rural Norfolk on the east coast of Great Britain, just over the ditch from Europe. In mediaeval times, the fertile plains of Norfolk were the centre of the English universe, evidenced today by ancient architecture on every corner which gives it the air of a place that time forgot. In later times, its flat country proved ideal for aviation and during WWII, Norfolk became the launching pad for swarms of RAF and US warplanes doing their grim best to defend the realm. The two young craftsmen acknowledge this rich history by calling their modest works Old Empire Motorcycles, and…

RONNIE Fiala and his Ducati cafe racer are well-known on the Sydney motorcycling scene. The Ronster is an active member of Sydney Cafe Racers and one of the team behind the fast-growing Sydney Ducatista. He gets to all the runs and events and, let’s face it, it’s not like his bike doesn’t stand out in a crowd. Superleggera, as Ronnie calls it (‘superlight' in Italian), was constructed a few years ago by Sydney custom shop ShedX, one of a series of bikes built from unloved Ducati touring models, in this case a 1999 ST2. “Neil and Jim at ShedX have the balls to build bikes that others won’t,” Ronnie says. A longtime Harley guy, Ronnie was toying with the idea of a Ducati but it was his buddy and workmate…

“AGO LIKED SMALL, LOW, TIDY MACHINERY THAT COULD BE FLICKED AROUND EASILY AND HANDLED RESPONSIVELY” NOBODY who was there 40 years ago will ever forget the day the music died — the last time a multi-cylinder MV Agusta GP bike raced in anger. But not at a classic Grand Prix circuit, not in the blazing heat of an Italian summer, not with championship points at stake and world titles to be won. Instead, MV's last race was at Brands Hatch in England in October 1976, at the final non-championship International race meeting of the team's last-ever season, after winning no less than 275 world championship GP races and 75 world titles. The bike that 15-times world champion Giacomo Agostini brought to Brands was the 350 four on which he'd won…

“IT WAS MY FIRST BUILD, SO EVERY PART OF IT WAS HARD. BUT, HEY, WE HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE” AMAZINGLY, this radical Suzuki is not only Chris Acké’s first custom build, it’s his first road bike! The longtime motocrosser from New Zealand’s North Island had never even ridden on the street when he purchased a stock 1989 Suzuki LS400 Savage for $1500 and reached for the grinder. “It was hardly going, it had a blown ECU and coil pack,” he says. “My brother-in-law Alan had to ride it home for me because I didn’t even have my L-plates at the time. It took him four hours in the rain, with the bike cutting out every few kilometres as the coil overheated. He wasn’t happy so it’s lucky we’re related. “First…

“The GT550 stood up and headed for the hedge. Amazingly, we survived relatively unscathed” SOME people hate ’em and some people love ’em. I’m one of the latter breed. I mourn the demise of the two-stroke sports motorcycle. These were the bikes I grew up on, the bikes that gave me my first taste of freedom in a world of spots and hormones. Yamaha was the breed I stuck to for years, their RD range in particular, but I sometimes crossed over to the dark side and sampled the heady sins of a threesome. There is in my mind nothing quite like a tuned and ported 350cc RD coming ‘on the pipe’, though, and that will always be my first love. They were the giant killers of their day, from…

“All bikes are different but it’s not a difficult job if you take your time” DESPITE having zero problems with the points ignition on my 1978 CB750K7, I decided to fit an electronic ignition system (EIS) anyway, as part of a comprehensive electrical upgrade. My choice of brands is a Dynatek Dyna S, which came highly recommended with a proven track record. We compared the benefits of points and electronic ignitions last issue, and included a general rundown of what an ignition system does. We also looked at how to set up a points ignition for maximum reliability and performance. While we are now replacing some mechanical components with electronic ones, there are many similarities, especially when it comes to setting the timing, so this article should be read in…

“EVERY MOTORCYCLE IS BUILT TO THE SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS OF EACH CUSTOMER AND TAILORED TO HIS OR HER NEEDS” BROUGH Superior, founded by George Brough in 1919, was the manufacturer of the world’s fastest, most desirable and most exclusive motorcycles of the pre-WWII era. Only 3000 were made before the company ceased production in 1940 with the onset of war. Holder of the two-wheeled World Land Speed Record for much of its 21 years, the ‘Rolls-Royce of Motorcycles’ built its reputation on unrivalled performance, dazzling looks, competition success and clever marketing. Brough (rhymes with 'rough') did not resume production of motorcycles after the war, but that’s all changed under the direction of its present owner Mark Upham, the Austrian-based Brit who acquired the company in 2008 and has since been busy…

“BETTER TO HAVE AN OLD BIKE BACK ON THE ROAD IN ANY FORM THAN A MUSEUM PIECE SITTING IN A SHED” LINDSAY Jennings went back to the first hot rods and bobbers of the late 1940s for his inspiration in building this custom Triumph Thunderbird. “They were just trying to make their cars and bikes go faster and the ‘look’ evolved from there,” he says. “All the mods were done in the back shed by the owner and his mates; they were pretty rudimentary. There wasn’t too much in the way of bling or fancy engineering.” And so he decided to follow suit, restricting himself to what he already had in his shed and doing as much work as possible himself. “I built it with an arc welder, a 100mm…

I REMEMBER it like it was yesterday, not 1979. My well-sorted Norton 850 had the measure of most Japanese bikes as I defended the realm against the invading hordes from the east. The magazines were full of the new Honda CB900 Bol d’Or, gushing on about how good it was, but I’d read it all before. But they did look great in the metal and I soon discovered they had the performance to match when I was unceremoniously hosed along a mountain road I thought I knew well. I pinned my ears back but the Honda was gone in a flash. OMG, the tide really had turned. By 1978, Honda was well overdue for a new model to replace the SOHC CB750 but the radical CBX wasn’t it, despite boasting…

“He picked up the bike and shook it like he was mixing a cocktail” I BOUGHT my first bike on a Saturday morning. That afternoon I spent a few hours in a large, deserted car park learning how to ride it, and on Sunday morning I ignored all the advice to “take it easy, son”, jumped on the bike and headed out of Sydney aiming for Gosford. I just wanted to get out of town on my new bike. Which bike? Almost forgot. A BSA 250 Starfire. It wasn’t my favourite bike by any means, but it turned out to be a good first bike. I made it to Gosford on my own and was starting to head home, up those many tight, twisty curves rising up the hill to…

“ONE OF THE MOST PLANTED AND SUREFOOTED BIKES I’VE RIDDEN IN A GOOD WHILE” WHEN you pick up a test bike from Ducati, they mandate you collect it in person and get a thorough run-through of all the key points. This can sometimes be a lengthy briefing, with tonnes of settings and pages of dashboard to negotiate. With the Scrambler, the process took a minute. Here’s how to turn it on and off, here’s how to reset the tripmeter, off you go. There are no ABS modes, no switchable engine maps, no traction control, no electronic suspension adjustments — nothing. With a seat height of only 790mm (there’s a 20mm-lower option for short people), you really sit in this bike. Ergonomically, there’s a great little triangle between feet, bum and…

“I DIDN’T HAVE MUCH MONEY SO MADE DO WITH WHAT I HAD” JEFF de Witte has been into motorcycles his whole life, much of it aboard BMW twins starting with an R75/5. He switched to adventure-style bikes with the purchase of a new R80G/S in 1981 and later added an R100GS, clocking up more than 420,000km on roads less travelled all around the country. He still owns both but his focus switched back to the tar when he bought an unfinished BMW K100RS project for $2600 in April 2014. “It was a frame, motor, wheels and nine boxes of parts,” Jeff says. “K100s had a good reputation as reliable machines. This one had only 48,000km on the clock and was reasonably cheap. “The guy I bought it off started the…