Classic Bike Guide

BSa/triUmph tripleS the Ultimate triton rayguns from Times pasT TraD Twin. moDern TwisT

# 2 7 7 || 0 5 / 1 4

domiracer! riDing norTon’s sTonking new sTreeT racer – THe anTicHrisT of reTro Twins

Plus:

Doug Hele’s original TT race bike

£4.10

commanDo cafe for THe new worlD orDer

Benelli sei || Brooklands Velos || British 350s || yamaha 125s || tt memories

No.277May 2014

b s a & T r i u m p H T r i p l e s || T r i T o n || D o m i r a c e r || b e n e l l i s e i

Plus:

LiVE2 RIDE || Editorial

|| who’s who || eDItor || Gary Pinchin gpinchin@mortons.co.uk pUBlIsher || Dan Savage dsavage@mortons.co.uk DesIGNer || James Duke reproGraphIcs || Simon Duncan GroUp proDUctIoN eDItor || Tim Hartley DIvIsIoNal aDvertIsING MaNaGer || David England 01507 529438 dengland@mortons.co.uk aDvertIsING || Leon Currie, Jane Farquharson 01507 524004 lcurrie@mortons.co.uk jfarquharson@mortons.co.uk archIve eNQUIrIes || Jane Skayman 01507 529423 jskayman@mortons.co.uk sUBscrIptIoN MaNaGer || Paul Deacon cIrcUlatIoN MaNaGer || Steven O’Hara MarKetING MaNaGer || Charlotte Park proDUctIoN MaNaGer || Craig Lamb pUBlIshING DIrector || Dan Savage coMMercIal DIrector || Nigel Hole assocIate DIrector || Malc Wheeler

GARY pinchin nortons, old and new – and customised!

NortoNs. Factory Fresh Domiracer. Ridden. Original 500cc factory racer that finished third in the 1961 TT. Examined. Outrageous cafe racer custom from Lamb Engineering. Ogled.

You could say this CBG is a bit of a Norton special issue – but there’s much more than that.

We’ve got a BSA Rocket III and Triumph Trident feature. And the background to the first Anglo-American Match Races that were simply a marketing promotion for the new triples.

We’ve got Tony Cookson’s amazingly gorgeous Triton. Original cafe racer style with a modern twist.

There’s Andy Burbidge’s lovely Benelli Sei. The six-cylinder superbike that thinks it’s a two-wheel Ferrari.

With TT time looming we talked to four guys who recall their 59 Club trip to the Island in 1965.

And it’s great that the riding season is here – there’s been feverish outdoor activity with the fantastic Brooklands Velocette Centenary, the excellent Ardingly Real Classic Show and the Triumph launch party at the Ace Cafe, plus we’ve got a sneak preview of the new-look Haynes International Motor Museum.

Busy month. Enjoy the mag.

illustration by martin squires

More froM CBG...

coNtrIBUtors IN thIs IssUe Sarah Bradley, Alan Cathcart, George Cohen, Steve Cooper, Joe Dick, Tim Keeton, Phil Mather, Mykel Nicolaou, Paul d’Orleans, Martin Squires, Phillip Tooth, Frank Westworth.

eDItorIal aDDress Mortons Media Group, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6JR WeBsIte www.classicbikeguide.com GeNeral QUerIes aND BacK IssUes 01507 529529 24hr answerphone Email: help@classicmagazines.co.uk Web: www.classicmagazines.co.uk sUBscrIptIoN Full subscription rates (but see page 24 for offer): (12 months 12 issues, inc post and packing) – UK £47.88. Export rates are also available – see page 24 for more details. UK subscriptions are zero-rated for the purposes of Value Added Tax. DIstrIBUtIoN COMAG, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE. Telephone 01895 433600.

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LIVE2 RIDE || haynes museum

Haynes’ new-look museum £5 million is an investment for the long-term future PhotograPhy By Mykel Nicolaou

T

HE NEW-LOOK Haynes International Motor Museum was due to be officially unveiled on April 16 – the same time this issue of CBG was going to press, so we got a sneak preview of the inspiring new edifice and exhibits.

The famous Sparkford-based museum was originally opened in 1985, the brainchild of publisher John Haynes.

It initially featured an office block plus two halls containing 29 cars and one motorcycle but this winter has undergone a £5 million facelift to expand the building.

26 May 2014 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

Above: Speedway display is beautifully laid out with many rare bikes and detailed information boards charting the history of the sport

The museum now boasts more than 400 motor vehicles, including a large motorcycle section, which is split between road bikes and an impressive collection of rare speedway bikes.

The museum’s deputy curator Matt Piper said: “John Haynes OBE is the benefactor and chairman of the board of trustees who run the museum. It’s through John’s success in publishing and his passion for motoring that the museum exists.”

Legend has it that in the early days of collecting cars and bikes John Haynes kept them in several lock-ups until friends pointed out that he had the makings of a museum collection – if he put all the vehicles under one roof. John has since signed his collection over to the trust.

While John Haynes was the man behind the Haynes

The building work means visitors will be greeted by a new exhibition of vehicles dubbed, ‘The Dawn of Motoring’ in the foyer. There’s also a new cafe with 120 covers (it’s currently only 40).

The museum has remained open throughout the building work, which says, Piper, is a testament to the people who run the place, the construction workers and the public.

The Haynes Museum is a charitable trust, which in real terms means, according to Piper, that “education is the core of what we do. We collect vehicles but we want people to see them.”

For bike fans the new building means that motorcycles now have a dedicated mezzanine – with the exhibits split between a good selection of road bikes and the impressive Forshaw Speedway Collection.

Pride of the road bike collection is a 1901 Ormonde.

Built in Romford by the Ormonde Cycle Company and fitted with a VAF engine produced by the Antoine Company in Belgium, this particular machine was purchased from

Above: Road bikes feature prominently thanks to a new mezzanine. 1901 Ormonde (above left) was originally a locally registered machine

♠

Publishing empire, as well as the museum, the two are now connected only by name and run entirely independent of each other. Interestingly the new building work has been funded entirely by the trust with no resort to Government lottery funding.

As the Haynes collection has expanded over the years, halls have been added to the original buildings to contain the new exhibits. The collection of buildings began to take on the look of an industrial park rather than a museum but the recently extended frontage of building gives it a whole new coherent image, with its curvaceous lines reflecting the elegant lines of the classic cars and bikes inside.

Says Piper: “It’s not just about the building, a lot of the changes are to do with the ‘visitor experience.’ We’re changing the way we exhibit our vehicles – in what we’re calling ‘augmented reality’.

“It’s about interactivity but we’re careful not to overlook what we are about – displaying a wonderful collection of motor vehicle that the public can enjoy. It’s all about metal – the way the vehicles look, the way they feel.”

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || May 2014 27

DOMIRACER Norton’s latest twin is a balls out, aggressive cafe racer for the modern era.

Distilled to deliver, the Domiracer does away with luxuries and strips the original street-racing concept back to the core. First revealed in July 2013, it’s now on the production line and CBG was given exclusive access to Norton factory.

WORDS BY MARC POTTER. PHOTOS BY GARETH HARFORD

44 MAY 2014 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

W

♠

hen Norton CEO Stuart Garner has an idea he’s not a man who will let anything stand in his way. The new Norton factory, now based in the former offices of airline BMI Baby at Donington Hall, stands testament to that – and the striking new Domiracer is the latest creation to come from the minds of the men who work there.

At the back of the hall is a modern building where Norton is set for expansion, whereas Donington Hall itself doubles up as Garner’s home, and where he intends to open a huge luxury hotel.

You could say the man who started his working life as a gamekeeper, then went on to run Britain’s biggest fireworks factory, before buying one of the most famous and historic names in motorcycling back in 2008, is on a mission.

In the entrance to the factory sits a modern-day 961

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || MAY 2014 45

Domiracer in detail

ENGINE:

961cc air-cooled parallel twin is taken from the Commando series and, with the open pipes, makes 80bhp at 7700rpm and 59lb-ft of torque at 6000rpm. The bikes are tested for 100,000mls before they go on sale in the States.

CHASSIS:

Steel tubular frame is based loosely on the legendary Featherbed design, crossed with the current Commando. It’s made in-house using the equipment Garner bought when he purchased Spondon and brought it in-house.

48 MAY 2014 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

BRAKES:

Latest-spec Brembo brakes, along with the Öhlins rear shock and forks are some of the only parts imported – but then, they are the best available for the job.

As much as possible is made in-house or bought in from British suppliers.

FORKS:

Fully-adjustable Öhlins front forks with radiallymounted Brembo brakes.

They’re the latest kit from Öhlins and are set-up intentionally hard by Norton’s technical team to give that true hardcore cafe racer riding impression.

PETROL TANK:

Each tank is hand-beaten sheet alloy, then rolled. If it looks impressive on the outside, it’s underneath where the whole thing has to sit round the frame and the bike’s electrics. The side-mounted filler cap is a nod back to Norton’s wonderful history.

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new Italian-owned company as opposed to the original British motorcycle company that went bust in 1966) selling clothing will ruin the brand.

For Garner, building motorcycles is number one priority.

It’s why Norton exists and what keeps the brand alive and what makes it valuable. He’s a motorcyclist through and through (he was out on the Domiracer for a Sunday ride after we rode it). Motorcycles are what drives him and without motorcycles there’s no Norton and no business.

If Garner is the living embodiment of what Norton means in 2014, then the Domiracer is the angry, hunched over vision of Norton pushed to its extreme. The vision of Simon Skinner to build a modern day cafe racer, and the kind of bike you would build if you took a modern Norton Commando and had unlimited budget, access to the latest innovations and kit in your garage.

Skinner explains that one week after they announced the bike, all 50 in the limited-run were sold-out. At £24,000 plus £2000 to get the bike single vehicle type-approved that’s no mean feat.

You get the impression that this is the bike Skinner is most proud of. Close-up you can see why. Skinner who’s bought one for himself, explains: “When people first see the bike they’re drawn in by the stance of it, it’s hunched forward and aggressive. Then they’ll notice the hand-made tank, the tubular swingarm, the pipes, the Öhlins shock and the Brembo brakes.

“But the more they look at it, the more they’ll see the detail. Take the CNC-machined brake levers. No big manufacturer would make them as they’d be too expensive for someone like Triumph, and a custom builder wouldn’t have access to a £5000 CAD set-up and CNC machines.

We’ve combined the modernity of carbon-fibre with classic parts like the tank and there’s no other factory that would or could do that.”

Look closer and you can see the side-mounted fuel filler on the hand-curved aluminium tank, which is fabricated by hand at the Donington factory. Where the oil tank would traditionally sit on a classic is a carbon-fibre cover shaped like an oil tank complete with three flutes. The pipes are curved beautifully from cylinder head to the megaphone exit.

What starts life at Donington as a box of parts and steel tubing is now alive, ready to ride out of the gates and revving up outside for us to ride and with those megaphones pipes, there’s not a person in 20 miles who doesn’t know about it.

SEAT UNIT:

Echoes the lines of a traditional cafe racer complete with racing foam but made from carbon-fibre, mixing old with new. A hand-knurled cap covers the seat bolt and is lovingly referred to in the factory as ‘Skinner’s Nob’.

SWINGARM:

Tubular steel swingarm is hand-crafted at Donington Park by former Spondon employees. Shock is centrally mounted and features an Öhlins fullyadjustable shock. Spring is powder-coated black to fit with styling of the rest of the bike.

CLOCKS:

Just one. A single revcounter complete with period font to hark back to the Domiracer’s roots and keep the whole look of the dash pure. It sits on top of milled aluminium and polished yokes all designed and made in-house.

PIPES:

Stainless megaphone exhausts are meant to ape the style from back in the day. They are hand-made at Donington and on this version were completely open. A noise-deadening and road-legal decibelkiller is also available.

But why spoil it?

DETAILS:

Everywhere you look on the bike the detailing is incredible. From the angles of the mudguard stay ends to the oil cooler mounts, the brake reservoir bracket and polished rear sprocket, all the wiring is hidden. The bike just oozes class.

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || MAY 2014 49

CAFÉ BLEU ( E T L’ O R A N G E ) Accentuated Featherbed lineage. Exquisite engineering.

Artistic sheet metal work. And iconic Gulf livery.

It all adds up to a bike that attracts attention PHOTOS BY TIM KEETON

L

♠

arry Houghton doesn’t do subtle when it comes to building custom motorcycles.

He does intricate, with his incredibly well detailed, award-winning BSA single, ‘Son of a Gun’. He does outrageous – with bikes like ‘Café Rouge’, a Norton-powered cafe racer that originally featured Perspex fuel tank and seat – but has since been re-engineered with beautifully sculptured alloy bodywork. He even does bobber – with a delightful old-school chop featuring a 90bhp, 50º 1326cc, two-valve-per-head JAP V-twin engine that he re-engineered himself.

But subtlety? Not happening. In fact, this Norton cafe racer, based on what was originally a 1959 Dominator rolling chassis but with a 750cc Commando engine, is about as outrageous as you can get. A bike that stops you in your tracks but still retains the original ethos of the stripped to the bare bones bikes built by the 1960s Rockers. And incorporates a lot of highly skilled engineering practices to create a real standout motorcycle. Think of it as a slightly more sophisticated Americano than a mug of black instant!

The Norton, in truth, had been sat in the Lamb Engineering workshop for some time. Its owner, Andy Stewart, had left it in Larry’s hands some time back, after being inspired by the radical Café Rouge.

“The only stipulations Andy made were that he wanted a professional build, and he wanted us to include a Union Jack in the final paintwork. He left everything else entirely up to us,” says Larry.

The project stalled because Larry was busy with his precision engineering business. It’s that successful enterprise that earns him the cash to indulge his spare time creating show-winning custom bikes.

But things got kick-started once Tony Taysom joined forces full-time with Larry. Tony’s first link with Lamb

This Norton cafe racer is about as outrageous as you can get. A bike that stops you in your tracks but still retains the original ethos of the bikes built by the 1960s Rockers 60 MAY 2014 || CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE

CLASSIC BIKE GUIDE || MAY 2014 61

Rayguns

from another time Triumph and BSA took the world by storm when they launched their 750 triples in 1968 Words and photos: PHILLIP TOOTH

A

BELOW

What’s your triple? BSA had canted forward cylinders and egg-shaped crankcase covers to hint at A65 heritage. Triumph cases looked very similar to their twins. Both had slabby bodywork – and ray guns

inch hot pink Corvette Stingray among the swarming minicars of Triumph’s homeland. Single and twin cylinder bikes are commonplace; even Fours are offered by more than one manufacturer. But there is only one Three.”

The year was 1968 and it looked like BSA-Triumph had hit the bull’s-eye with their triples. Triumph engineering bosses Bert Hopwood and Doug Hele had discussed the radical idea of a three-cylinder road bike as early as 1963, but it wasn’t until the threat of a bigger Honda loomed on the horizon that they got the go-ahead to develop the concept. Housed in a Bonneville frame, the prototype Trident was completed in 1965 and Hopwood claimed that it was so good right from the start that it could have gone into production immediately. But it wasn’t until the end of 1968 that Triumph T150 Trident and BSA A75R Rocket 3 were finally on their way to American dealers’ showrooms, while European riders had to wait until the spring of 1969... and then they were available only in limited numbers.

But why BSA and Triumph versions of the triples?

American importers needed something to replace the aged BSA twins, and as the BSA group owned Triumph it was

♠

merican magazine Cycle Guide enthused: “For you performance buffs, let us state that the Trident is the fastest street machine we have tested, bar none.”

On this side of the pond, Motor Cycle gushed: “Racing power with garden-party manners, an iron fist in a velvet glove – such is the dream of many a connoisseur. In the 740cc Rocket 3, BSA translates the dream into reality.”

After Brit mag Motorcycle Mechanics tested the Trident, the team trumpeted: “What a fantastic machine!

From a standing start to 100mph and back again in approximately 600 yards, plus a top speed of 130mph through the electronic timing gear!”

Motorcycle Mechanics also took a spin on the Beesa triple: “It’s the sort of machine which makes Jaguar and Lotus car owners feel sick... they would have to try very hard to stay anywhere near this Rocket up to 100mph.”

Back Stateside again, and Cycle World opined: “The Trident is a prestige motorcycle. An awesome number of people will find that third cylinder irresistible. It will mark its owner as surely as if he were to drive a 427cubic