BUY SELL RIDE RESTORE
NOVEMBER 2018
No. 331 November 2018 £4.30 UK Off-sale date 28/11/2018
PRINTED IN THE UK
BSA A65 FL LAT TRACKER // DUCATI SCRA AMBLER // K75 // HAILWOOD D’S MACHINES PART 4 // MV 125 SPORT T TRIP OUT // THE
Welcome
Your magazine needs you! NOT OFTEN, IN fact extremely rarely these days, a moment of clarity hits me and the other week I was bludgeoned with said ability to see ahead. You see, I’d looked forward to the coming Saturday with sheer glee – not because of what was planned, but because there was nothing planned. ‘I can spend the day in the workshop tidying, finishing jobs on my bikes and maybe even trying to get some of the cars sorted.’ Strange how a mere day can, in the eyes of an idiot, fit so much work in… This list barely got touched, despite my best intentions. Tidying took the whole time up, because you can only move ‘stuff’ around for so long. It was quite disappointing. But, taking a break with tea in hand and senile cat brushing against leg, I came to the assumption that something drastic had to happen. So I made a more reasonable, more achievable to-do list. ‘What do I really need’ and ‘will I really use it’ was my mantra. Not, as it had previously always been: ‘Well, I’ve had that one for years’. It was really hard, but after some soul-searching and a huge reality check I have decided to sell lots of stuff. So my Honda Bros, for so long my dream bike, with hours and hours of work in it and hundreds more left for it to even resemble a
motorcycle, will go. I have no use for it and with knackered knees, I can’t even get on the diminutive machine. The Honda CL350 that would be my trials steed is to go too, as is the K4 racer I was so looking forward to racing. I love building racebikes with all the attention to detail and thinking how to get the best from a bike, but again I’ll never get my leg over it and I underestimated how much money these things cost to build… My café racer was sold, until for some reason the potential buyer realised that money had to be handed over – which he didn’t have. And now it keeps blowing a fuse, so that’s on the bench just in time for winter. But it will go. My old racebike has survived the cull, because it’s in the dining room and I can’t be bothered to get it out. And it’s useful for drying towels on. Which leaves me with my trusty Beeza, CBG’s Matchless G3L and a Suzuki GS500 that I’m building for a friend. That’s more than enough. It means I can make what I have really nice and keep the workshop clear. Clear for another CBG project… Yes! CBG needs a new project bike so what should it be? I’ve looked behind the sofa and blackmailed the finance director to let me spend a little money – but on what?
I’ve never owned a Triumph, so maybe a 5T? Or a sports Beeza? It doesn’t have to be British. How about a Morini 31/2? Steve is always buying Japanese two-strokes, Oli has a couple of Honda four-strokes and I have my CZ175, so hopefully next year will be a multi-cultural pot of two-wheeled classic goodness. But we want your thoughts – what should we buy for under £3000? What would you like to see us rebuild? Should it be made to concours standard, modified or on a budget? Let us know through the usual channels – we’d love to hear from you. And we also want to see your photographic excellence! Get those cameras out and show us your bikes – there’s still time before the weather draws in. Email them to us or send them in and we’ll publish what we can and you could be in with a chance to have your bike displayed at our show in January. Right, I’m off to finish making an exhaust I foolishly agreed to do. Be good.
Matt Hull editor@classicbikeguide.com
CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE ||NOVEMBER 2018 3
Contents
#009
#106
#086 006
From the archive
009
On any Sunday
016 020
Dave Aldana wasn’t just a great flat track rider
We take a look at the BSA A65 Trackmaster that was to take on the American V-twins at their own game
028 034
Subscribe!
Save money, get Classic Bike Guide delivered to your door and receive one of our limited edition T-shirts. It’s simple!
New Royal Enfield 650 twins
The Interceptor and Continental GT are finally here and we’ve ridden them! What are they like?
4 NOVEMBER 2018 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE
040
News
Métisse is up for sale, Freddy Spencer is coming to the Classic Bike Guide show and more exciting news from the world of classic bikes
New Retro – Ducati Scrambler Ducati have enjoyed a runaway success with their V-twin homage to the Sixties single-cylinder scrambler range. CBG gets to ride the latest evolution
Classic Buying Guide – Honda CB450
This was the bike Honda used to show the world they didn’t just build little machines. And it was so good it was banned from racing…
051
Classic Buying Guide – BMW K75S
The ‘flying brick’ was a brave move from the air-cooled twins for BMW and has to be one of the best usable classics around
058
Classic Buying Guide – Triumph T20 Tiger Cub
It started many a motorcyclist’s career and has won hundreds of trials. The Tiger Cub is a lot more than a ‘little bike’
066
Archive poster – BSA Catalina
068
The Trip Out
Born from a race around a Californian island, the Catalina ended up being the last incarnation of the Gold Star
CBG went along to the Trip Out and spent a great weekend admiring, riding and talking all things custom and choppers
#020
#076
#040
#051
#058
#034 070 072
Steve Cooper
Oh dear – Steve has been getting involved in forums and has paid the price…
Paul Miles
Paul looks at the hoops new riders need to jump through and reminisces that it wasn’t like that in his day…
074
Paul D’Orléans
076
Mike Hailwood’s machines – part three
Paul tells of finishing the mammoth vintage Cannonball run
We look at the little Ducatis that helped Hailwood to progress up the racing ladder as the Sixties drew closer
082
Letters
#096 084 086 095
What’s on
The sun may be setting early, but there’s still plenty going on, like the International Dirt Bike Show and lots of autojumbles
MV Agusta 125 Sport
It may be just a 125, but it was born of Ago’s victories and became the last bike ever produced by the original incarnation of the famous marque
Workshop – What we’ve been doin’ We look at how to cheaply modify a boring exhaust
096
106
How to rebuild a two-stroke – part two
This month our two-stroke gets the crank rebuilt – an exacting job
112
Reader ads
129
Next month
130
Frank’s last word
Get that heater into the workshop and make space for a nice project! What you can expect in the next packed issue of Classic Bike Guide Lists. Frank talks about his lists
Rocket 3 racer build
We look at a Rocket 3 racer for the road, built by Les Whiston at Trident MCS
Let us know your thoughts and stories
CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE ||NOVEMBER 2018 5
From our archive
DAVE ALDANA – THE WILD ONE David Aldana was one of American racing’s largest characters, successful in racing dirt ovals, speedway, motocross and road racing – making him one of the most all-round riders of the day. Later in his career he often raced in his trademark ‘skeleton’ leathers, much to the annoyance of the AMA bosses. But his ‘win or bin’ attitude earned him the admiration of the fans. Aldana won four AMA nationals, the Suzuka 8-hour and was a factory rider for BSA, Honda, Suzuki and Kawasaki. But here we see Aldana at Brands Hatch in 1973, racing a John Player Norton in the Match races. He later said that racing in the UK and Europe ‘really honed my riding skills’. To see the man in action, watch ‘On any Sunday’ which captures Aldana in his first year on the AMA Grand National circuit, riding for BSA. You can also see one of his flat track bikes on page 9. He was racing until the end of 1985, when he partnered a young John Kocinski in an American endurance series. Still active at 69, Aldana runs a flat track school in the USA and was over in the UK this summer racing a BSA flat track A65. For a copy of this and more great shots, visit mortonsarchive.com
CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE ||NOVEMBER 2018 7
On Any Sunday In 1968, a change in the rules gave British manufacturers a chance to compete in AMA racing – and with it the opportunity to excel under the spotlight of the huge American market. BSA found their A65 was perfect against the V-twins... WORDS BY RACHAEL CLEGG PHOTOGRAPHY BY GARY CHAPMAN. WITH THANKS TO THE NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM
T
here’s a frame from Bruce Brown’s film On Any Sunday that shows a huge BSA banner across an American racetrack. A few moments later, Brown zooms in on Dave Aldana, donning his BSA leathers and a thousand-mile stare. He fastens his Tweety Pie-stickered Bell helmet as he mentally prepares for a race which will determine whether he becomes the 1970 American champion.
The sun-drenched, award-winning 1971 film about American motorcycling is crucial context to this issue’s Bike of the Month – the 1969 National Motorcycle Museum’s A65 dirt slider. This machine, which stands proudly in Hall Five of the NMM, is believed to have been raced by Dave Aldana himself. Aldana joined BSA’s West Coast team in 1970 to finish third in the multi-discipline Grand National series in 1971 and fourth in 1972. And that’s not to be sniffed at. The Grand National Races required entrants to compete in five different types of motorcycle racing, including ‘TT Steeplechase’ racing – a track featuring bumps and turns, half-mile dirt races, one-mile oval races and road races on regular circuits. Here, throughout the dust-sprayed tracks immortalised in On Any Sunday, is where the A65 flourished. It was, after all, designed to race on America’s onemile and half-mile oval dirt tracks – a huge component of the Grand National
10 NOVEMBER 2018 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE
Championships. The parallel twin engines provided BSA with an effective challenge to Harley-Davidson V-twins, which also dominated the series. A65s were desirable all-rounder contenders for any budding American motorcycle racer. The prevalence of A65s in the Grand National Championships was thanks to a change in rules. In late 1968 the American Motorcycle Association approved overhead valve machines over 500cc whereas before that machines up to 700cc ran on side valves. Suddenly, the A65 twin became one of the go-to machines for racing. And the A65 is a robust machine too, thanks to its unitised engine construction. These machines were built with a slimline primary drive casing – a technical adaptation which increased the cornering clearance on the anti-clockwise oval circuits. This machine also has a rear disc brake but no front brake, as flat track racers would ‘slide’ the machine into turns sideways, rather than control speed through braking.
“This machine also has a rear disc brake but no front brake, as flat track racers would ‘slide’ the machine into turns sideways, rather than control speed through braking.”
CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE ||NOVEMBER 2018 11
THE A65 ENGINE: 654cc air-cooled, overhead valve parallel twin with Mikuni carburettors and coil ignition. TRANSMISSION: wet multi-plate clutch, four-speed gearbox, chain ďŹ nal drive. CHASSIS: Ceriani telescopic fork front suspension, swinging arm rear suspension, disc rear brake and Trackmaster tubular double cradle frame. POWER: 55bhp and 7000rpm with a top speed of 125mph
12 NOVEMBER 2018 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE
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