Issue#20 2015 by Retrobike Official

retrobike retro bike CLASSIC NOT PLASTIC

MAX HAZAN SPORTSTER

THROTTLE ROLL

HONDA CB1100R

HORNER VINCENT

(Both incl. GST)

KH500 CAFE RACER

ISSUE 20 SPRING 2015

DEUS BMW R NINET

AUS $14.95* NZ $15.99

‘

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EDITORIAL SPREAD THE WORD

G'DAY WITH GEOFF SEDDON

ELCOME to the fourth edition of the relaunched Retrobike, marking the end of our ﬁrst year. Life’s been good so far, with our sales on the right track and more importantly a lot more feedback coming in from you lot. Magazines can do much to foster a sense of community amongst likeminded folk, and we seem to have at least sown some seeds. My main partner in crime, designer Jarrad McCallum, has shot through for an extended European vacation, his big shoes ably ﬁlled by Alex Casey. Also new to our ranks this issue is Jamie McIlwraith, who has been writing for motorbike magazines even longer than I have, including a stint writing a column for Streetbike when I was the editor in the early 1990s. He’s a smooth quick rider from the ‘it’s not how fast you go, sonny, it’s how long you go fast’ school and loves to tell a tale, as you’ll discover on page 70. And then we have a bunch of new contributors from Perth and Canberra, notably scribes Rex Havoc and Billy Decatt, and photographers Ryan Kelly and Jason Weber respectively. These guys are mad cafe racer nuts so it’s great to see our coverage of that scene spreading in much the same way that the Sydney Cafe Racers model has exploded across the country. I think it’s the best thing to happen to

motorcycling since tubeless tyres and always have a fun time covering their rides and events. It’s also great to have Thomas Wielecki photographing our lead story for the second time. Thomas is one of Australia’s leading automotive photographers, but he is also a lifelong motorcycle nut and adventurer with a strong passion for

“If you like what you see, do us all a favour by letting your mates in on the secret” Ducatis. Kiwi Alastair Ritchie is another high-end photographer who has done much to lift the quality of our modest

EDITOR Geoff Seddon DESIGNER Alex Casey VALUED CONTRIBUTORS Paul Bailey, Alan Cathcart, Billy Decatt, John Fretten, Stuart Garrard, Rex Havoc, Ryan Kelly, Rob MGregor, Jamie McIwraith, Kyoichi Nakamura, Stephen Piper, Alastair Ritchie, Tom Shaw, James Walker, Thomas Walk, Jason Weber, Thomas Wielecki COVER Thomas Wielecki ADVERTISING MANAGER Fi Collins WANT MORE? Subs & back issues: 1300 303 414 or www.universalmagazines.com.au

effort, contributing to every issue with Max Hazan’s Ironhead Sportster on page 40 his latest. If you’re handy with a camera and would like to see your photos published alongside the pros, now is a good time to get in touch with some low-res examples of your work to our email address, retro@ universalmagazines.com.au. Same goes if you fancy yourself as a writer, or just want to promote your local event. You might also own or know of a bike that you think is worthy of a feature; as with all this stuff, there’s just one way to find out. Even if it’s none of the above, you can do your bit by spreading the word. Relaunching a title in today’s magazine market has its challenges, but if you like what you see then do us all a favour by letting your mates in on the secret. We’ll be back in January. Ciao!

UNIVERSAL MAGAZINES CHAIRMAN/CEO Prema Perera PUBLISHER Janice Williams CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Vicky Mahadeva ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Emma Perera ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Karen Day CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Mark Darton CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kate Podger EDITORIAL & PRODUCTION MANAGER Anastasia Casey PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE Nerilee Chen PREPRESS MANAGER Ivan Fitz-Gerald MARKETING & ACQUISITIONS MANAGER Chelsea Peters

Circulation enquiries to our Sydney head office (02) 9805 0399. Retrobike 20 is published by Universal Magazines, Unit 5, 6-8 Byﬁeld Street, North Ryde NSW 2113. Phone: (02) 9805 0399, Fax: (02) 9805 0714. Melbourne office, Level 1, 150 Albert Road, South Melbourne Vic 3205. Phone: (03) 9694 6444, Fax: (03) 9699 7890. Printed by KHL Printing Co Pte Ltd, Singapore, and distributed by Network Services. This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be addressed to the publishers. The publishers believe all the information supplied in this book to be correct at the time of printing. They are not, however, in a position to make a guarantee to this effect and accept no liability in the event of any information proving inaccurate. Prices, addresses and phone numbers were, after investigation and to the best of our knowledge and belief, up-to-date at the time of printing, but the shifting sands of time may change them in some cases. It is not possible for the publishers to ensure that advertisements which appear in this publication comply with the Trade Practices Act, 1974. The responsibility must therefore be on the person, company or advertising agency submitting the advertisements for publication. While every endeavour has been made to ensure complete accuracy, the publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. *Recommended retail price. ISSN 1838-644X Copyright © Universal Magazines MMXV. ACN 003 609 103. www.universalmagazines.com.au Please pass on or recycle this magazine.

ISSUE #20

retrobike

CONTENTS

40 Style, function, design and engineering mesh in an amazing work of performance art

FEATURE BIKES 06

PAUL SMART REPLICA

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HOT ROD SPORTSTER

To our eyes one of the purest and most innovative custom bikes ever, Max Hazan’s Ironhead cuts a mean proﬁle on the streets of LA

GLADSTONE TRIUMPH

HONDA CB1100R

The wonderful English bent for eccentricity is alive and well in Henry Cole’s limited run of rigid-framed, Triumph-powered bobbers

Once upon a time, the Castrol 6 Hour was the biggest production race in the world. This is the bike that Honda built to win it

DEUS BMW R NINET

WORLD’S FASTEST VINCENT

The cool cats at Deus Ex Machina follow their own muse with a radical big-tanked cafe racer they call The Heinrich Maneuver

Well, the Horner brothers’ Aussie-built 1948 Vincent Rapide beat all the Poms at the Goodwood Revival, and that’ll do us

KAWASAKI KH500 CAFE

Green is nice, especially when it’s wrapped around a souped-up two-stroke triple! Fast, loud and always interesting at speed

A modern living breathing tribute to the greatest Ducati that ever was, as tastefully modiﬁed by Sydney’s Herschel Smith

WHITTAKER SPECIALS

From Canberra, an awesome collection of mostly small-bore custom Hondas built in a wide range of themes and styles

OTHER STUFF O 18

RUMBLE IN THE VALLEY

Perth Cafe Racers bring the sound of rolling Pe thunder to Western Australia th

34 3

LAVERDA CONCOURS 2015

Back in Brisbane for Queensland’s biggest B ou outdoor motorcycle show

52 5

THROTTLE ROLL

Just another ride to the pub with a couple of J Ju mates to listen to some bands m

78 7

STAR BOLT C-SPEC

Clip-ons and rear-sets on a mild-mannered C ccruiser? Who’d a thunk?

46 80

REGULARS 30

03 70 72 74 76 80 84 86 90 94 98

G’DAY McILWRAITH BAILEY WALKER POPPA SHAW RIDERS LIKE US NEW PRODUCTS TANGLES’ WORKSHOP PROJECT BIKES ON ANY SUNDAY FEEDBACK

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retrobike

Modern Classics

2006 DUCATI PAUL SMART LE

Herschel Smith relives his youth on a rare green-framed Ducati WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOGRAPHY THOMAS WIELECKI

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Modern Classics

2006 DUCATI PAUL SMART LE

“IT HAS A LOT OF THE FEEL OF AN OLDER DUCATI, ESPECIALLY THE ENGINE”

HEN Herschel Smith from Sydney’s northern beaches decided to return to motorcycling after a lengthy spell doing other stuff, he was keen to pick up where he’d left off. “I had a 1972 Ducati 750 GT when they first came out,” he says. “I was a student and bought it as a wreck; it wasn’t hard to fix. I remember my first ride and thinking, bloody hell, this is terrific! I’d had Hondas before that. “I rode it into the ground over the next four years, then sold it after I finished uni. I got out of bikes, married, had kids. So I hadn’t owned a bike for more than 30 years when I got back into it in 2011.” Herschel bought a 620 Monster to test the waters and joined the Ducati Owners Club. He enjoyed both, and soon went hunting for something a little more special. “I wanted what I had before,” he 8

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says, “but bevel-drives were too friggin’ expensive and anything that wasn’t was a load of junk. So I started thinking what else was available, and Steve at Northside Motorcycles in Artarmon suggested the SportClassics.” Penned by Pierre Terblanche — who also designed the MH900e, 749/999, Supermono and the first Multistrada — the SportsClassics were unveiled at the 2003 Tokyo Motorcycle Show and went into production in 2005. Retro-styled to evoke the spirit of iconic early-70s roundcase models, the bikes featured the latest air-cooled 992cc dual-spark Desmodue engines and totally modern chassis geometry, suspension and brakes. Two models were available in that first 2006 model year, the Sport1000 and the PaulSmart LE, inspired by the 1973 750 Sport and 1974 750 Super Sport respectively. Named for the racer who in 1972 was first to win a race on

a Ducati V-twin, the PaulSmart was a genuine limited-edition special — just 2000 bikes worldwide — and featured upgraded suspension and a long list of quality finishing touches, including the obligatory ‘green’ frame. Its exclusivity was reflected in its local new price of $24,000, a record for an air-cooled Ducati. The Sport1000 continued on until 2009, joined in 2007 by the more touringoriented GT1000 which was modelled on the 1972 750 GT and remained on sale until 2010. “I spied a PaulSmart in Melbourne,” Herschel says. “They were all the same price but then this one dropped $2000. It was owned by a motor dealer who had it sitting in his office as an ornament. It had done bugger-all, just 4200km, and was still fitted with the original Pirelli Phantom tyres, which were like rocks. So my first priority was to get some decent rubber.”

Second priority was the exhaust. Like the stacked headlights on the 999, the original pipes were not Terblanche’s finest design moment. Herchel’s bike was fitted with Termignoni mufflers on stock headers; it sounded grouse but still didn’t look right. “I saw a guy on the street on a PaulSmart with a Zard exhaust and thought I’ve got to have some of those!” Herschel says. “I bought them from Speed Cycle in Melbourne. They’re stainless steel and came in a brushed finish, so I had them polished. It has a nice note, not as loud as Termis but loud enough.” It was money well spent, turning a negative into a positive and transforming the look of the bike. The PaulSmart and ’06 Sport featured a radical asymmetrical swing arm, with a single shock mounted to a conventional straight arm on the left

and a curved arm on the right. It was not initially well-received — Ducati returned to a conventional twin-shock set-up from 2007 on, with mufflers either side — but it all makes sense with the Zard system fitted. The high pipe weaves its way behind the frame then exits right where a shock unit might otherwise sit. Similarly, the bottom muffler perfectly fills the space under the bent arm. Freed from the tyranny of originality, Herschel has made a number of other changes to improve the look and ride. The big black plastic rear mudguard that held the taillight and number plate was canned, and the original taillight refitted in a custom mounting fabricated by Gold Star Engineering in Mona Vale. Similarly, Herschel is in the middle of replacing the stock plastic chain guard with one made from polished aluminium.

What’s In A Name? PAUL Smart is a former English road racer who made his mark riding Cottons, Greeves, Nortons and Triumphs in the 1960s before competing in the 250 and 350 World Championships on Yamahas. In 1972, he was racing an H2R Kawasaki in the US when offered a start in the Imola 200 on an untried Ducati 750 racer; a stripped-down 750 GT ﬁtted with desmodromic heads. He was broke and accepted it only for the 500 pound rider’s fee. To his surprise, the bike was a rocket and he and teammate Bruno Spaggiari dominated qualifying and the race itself, ﬁnishing a close one-two before a rapturous home crowd. It was a big deal for Ducati, previously best known for small singles, and for Smart, who pocketed 5000 pounds in prize money and got to keep the race bike, which is currently on loan to the Ducati Museum. The factory responded with a road-going replica in 1974, the revered ‘green-frame’ 750 Super Sport which was the inspiration behind our feature bike. ISSUE #20

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Modern Classics

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2006 DUCATI PAUL SMART LE

“IT HAS A NICE NOTE, NOT AS LOUD AS TERMIGNONIS BUT LOUD ENOUGH” He considered the original seat pretty ordinary, so commissioned something better from trimmer Rob Wall, also in Mona Vale. Double-stitched in leather, it is highlighted by rare silver fleck piping (left over from a Falcon GT-HO resto) to subtly blend in with the silver bodywork. The sharp end has also been cleaned up with a full complement of Rizoma fluid holders (which extends to the clutch slave cylinder) and hand grips. Mechanically, a smaller front sprocket was ﬁtted to lower the gearing from autobahn spec, and the steering damper replaced after a moment on the notorious Wollombi road north west of Sydney. “It had no pressure in it at all,” he says, “so I got an Ohlins from Northside which I can dial up or down and it’s good now.

“It has a lot of the feel of an older Ducati, not quite but very close, especially the engine. It feels like what a Ducati should feel like and it makes me smile. I don’t like new Ducatis. The PaulSmart goes back to the original concept, just you and your bike, not you and your bike and your bike’s electronics. “The ride is firm but it’s terrific on the road with no vices. It handles well but is uncomfortable; it’s a long reach for the clip-ons, almost lying on the tank. It’s not a touring bike at all, very much a sunny Sunday blast bike. “It’s fabulous and I love it. It attracts a lot of attention, even old blokes want to talk about it. My mates call it the ‘dog test bike’, because everyone wants to come up and sniff it.”

Retro Specs ENGINE Air-cooled four-stroke 90-degree V-twin; 94 x 71.5mm for 992cc; SOHC, two valves per cylinder with desmodromic valve actuation; fuel injected, dual spark; straightcut primary drive to six-speed gearbox and chain ﬁnal drive; 91hp @ 8000rpm CHASSIS Tubular steel trellis frame; 43mm Ohlins forks with laced 17in rim and 2 x twin sliding-piston calipers on 320mm rotors; asymmetrical dual-sided swing arm with single Ohlins shock, laced 17in rim and a single-piston caliper on a 245mm rotor; Continental Road Attack tyres DIMENSIONS Wheelbase 1462mm; dry weight 181kg; fuel capacity 15 litres BEST FOR Scratching NOT SO GOOD Touring

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retrobike

Chops & Bobbers

GLADSTONE NO.1

Henry Cole realises a boyhood dream in typically eccentric fashion WORDS SIR ALAN CATHCART PHOTOGRAPHY KYOICHI NAKAMURA

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HE MODERN passion for political correctness has much to answer for, not least the decline in the great British tradition of eccentricity. Today’s Orwellian insistence on conformity has resulted in an increasingly bland global society where the art of the individual is much less practised. Fortunately, the world of motorcycling is one of the last bastions of political incorrectness, and nobody epitomises that better than Henry Cole, cocreator of the Gladstone No.1 bobber on sale to discerning hooligans at almost $40,000 a throw. Just 10 will be built, nine of them for customer sale, of which eight have already been spoken for, he says.

Henry is an Old Etonian and thus very much a prima facie member of the British establishment. David Cameron, the 19th former Eton pupil to become British Prime Minister, was a year below him and the current Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who may become the 20th, was one of his classmates. Indeed, Cole is the great-great-grandson of William Ewart Gladstone, an illustrious Prime Minister in Britain’s Victorian era who, while acknowledged as one of history’s great statesmen, was as eccentric as they came. In between nurturing parliamentary democracy, he relaxed by chopping down trees with an axe and taking long walks alone in London at night, talking to prostitutes seeking to reform them.

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Chops & Bobbers

GLADSTONE NO.1

Henry Cole has had his own battles with demons en route to becoming a globally recognised TV celebrity on World’s Greatest Motorcycle Rides, The Motorbike Show and Shed and Buried, viewed in 128 countries encompassing 19 languages, and reaching 255 million homes. “I had no hope of being anything other than an individual,” he says. “My father was a gloriously eccentric, handlebarmoustached army officer, my mother a stoically aristocratic 1950s BBC presenter. At the age of 51, I’ve tried anything and everything to fulfil the craving for individuality instilled in me by my parents. I had the dubious honour of being the first Mohican punk at Eton College, I’ve tried heroin addiction, I’ve been a session drummer, a war cameraman, a movie director, a TV presenter and lived a rock ’n’ roll lifestyle filming every heavy rock band in existence; anything that could take me away from the horror of conformity derived from an everyday life. “There’s only one drug that’s never failed to make me feel like an individual, and that’s riding a motorcycle. I already knew that at 15 when I started, so why the hell I had to go through that other stuff is one of life’s great mysteries. Anyway, with 25

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“LIKE ALL MÉTISSE FRAMES, THE TWINLOOP CHROME-MOLY TUBULAR-STEEL CHASSIS IS NICKEL-PLATED” years of sobriety under my belt, I’m now a workaholic and fulfilling a boyhood dream by launching the first new British motorcycle brand to come to the market since the Hesketh. I’m aspiring to create a high-end, bespoke and very exclusive range of motorcycles which encapsulate true British individualism and eccentricity.” Which is how I found myself inspecting the Gladstone No.1 staged invitingly on the gravel parking lot of my local Warwickshire pub, the Crab Mill at Preston Bagot. Henry had brought it for me to ride one Sunday morning in the lanes around Meriden, where its T140 engine was built in 1976 in what was still then the Triumph factory before John Bloor carpeted it with houses. Back in 2013 we’d shared a not so very different kind of motorcycle, but in quite different riding conditions, when Henry and I teamed up to set four new land speed

records on the Bonneville Salt Flats aboard another rigid-framed 750cc motorcycle, albeit a vintage Brough Superior with V-twin engine rather than this retro-styled parallel-twin bobber. This time, Henry has teamed up with Guy Willison, who jointly conceived the Gladstone and is responsible for building them. “I’ve known Guy since 15, when we both started riding bikes together,” says Henry. “He later became a heroin addict too, but he got himself clean and came knocking on my door when nobody else did and saved my life. We both share a love of early Kawasaki Z1s, Rickmans, Moto Martins and stuff like that, and we both had the same vision for what the first Gladstone would be. “As for the name, it was another Gladstone who left an indelible impression on me at the tender age of 12; my uncle

Dick ‘Redbeard’ Gladstone. Born in 1898, he was a true British eccentric who fettled and rode the best of British motorcycles, and I knew the feelings they inspired would constitute a key part of my life at some point. “My ambition is to develop a range of hand-built British motorcycles. I’m talking to Stuart Garner at Norton about making a Commando bobber, which he’s very excited about after seeing the Gladstone. I’ve also talked to Mark Upham at Brough Superior about making two very luxurious models, which will be quite diﬀerent to anything he’s doing with the new SS100. And I’m in conversation with Gerry Lisi about using his all-new Métisse engine. We have great relations with all these chaps, and we will indeed be making other models.” For the Gladstone No.1, the two partners sourced a ready supply of rebuilt aircooled 744cc Triumph Bonneville motors, all post-August 1975 when the ﬁve-speed transmission’s gearshift was swapped to the left side. All are kick-start only, although a QPD starter using a lightweight Bosch snowmobile starter motor is available at extra cost. They breathe through a single 30mm Amal Concentric rather than the

standard pair, and a Boyer Bransden electronic ignition provides the spark. The two partners revived a historic association by sourcing the frame from Métisse owner Gerry Lisi, whose successful Steve McQueen Replica Triumph Métisse is built around the earlier 650cc T120 Triumph engine. Like all Métisse frames, the twin-loop chromemoly tubular-steel chassis is nickel-plated, with the dry-sump engine’s lubricant contained in the upper frame tube (what looks like an oil tank beneath the seat is a dummy). The 35mm Ceriani fork is kicked out at an extreme angle to deliver a stretched 1600mm (63in) wheelbase. As on all proper bobbers, the Gladstone is devoid of rear suspension, though the fat rear 16-inch Avon tyre that looks like it came off a Ford Thames van (maybe it did!) does flex a little in the sidewalls. A 230mm Grimeca four-leading-shoe drum front brake as found on mid-70s Laverdas and Guzzis is laced to a skinny 19-inch front rim, matched to a conical BSA seven-inch single-leading-shoe drum and 16-inch rear wheel down back, the two combining to stop a bike weighing in at a claimed 158kg dry. Top speed as measured ISSUE #20

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Chops & Bobbers

GLADSTONE NO.1

on the handsome five-inch pseudo-Smiths analogue speedo housed in a billet alloy casing is “sufficient”, says Henry. How very Rolls-Royce. With lowly 7.9:1 compression, getting the plot lit up with a determined kick isn’t too tedious, though it’s not a first-time effort from cold, at least for me. Once it chimes into life there’s a delightful crack from the twin straight pipes, with the authentic beat of a 360-degree two-up British parallel twin. How it passed homologation is a miracle considering it was loud enough to get horses rearing in the air; sorry, Madam, but I was only on a hair of throttle, I promise! Its riding stance is stretched out, with a fair reach to the flat-set handlebar, yet still offers a comfy straight-backed posture. The steering is light in spite of the fat rear tyre and loads of trail emanating from the raked-out fork. Any risks of numb-bum syndrome are negated by the surprisingly well-damped and comfortable seat springs, which combine with the amazingly well setup Ceriani fork and the flexible Avon rear tyre to deliver improbably good ride quality 16

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for a rigid-framed motorcycle. It’s not as if Warwickshire roads are the smoothest. You won’t want to get it on too good rounding a bend, however, because that hand-beaten nine-litre aluminium gas tank is too svelte to brace your knees. No worries, just chill out and ride the Gladstone as it was conceived to be conducted, by leaning over just enough to make the turn and trying to look cool and unconcerned by any bumps encountered on the way. Nor will you be going that fast, as the bike is geared very low and vibration intrudes from around 100km/h in top. But that’s okay – this is a comfortable cruising speed on a bike made for high days and holidays, not a regular commute or high-mileage hound. Short shifting keeps everything smooth enough and the gearchange is excellent, ultra-precise with a short travel. The green neutral light on the dash is joined by low-fuel and highbeam warning lights, and that’s about it. Minimalism rules. The Grimeca front brake works okay at the Gladstone’s relaxed pace although the rear stopper needs

“THERE’S ONLY ONE DRUG THAT MAKES ME FEEL LIKE AN INDIVIDUAL, AND THAT’S RIDING A MOTORCYCLE” more work; it’s pretty weedy until you practically stand on the lever and push it more than halfway through its travel. Apart from that, this British bobber does precisely what it says on the label, allowing you to just bob along gently on a sunny day, with not a care in the world. It’s a true plonker in the old sense, a bike to convey you in a relaxed, unhurried mode from A to B and back again, doubtless taking the scenic route as you do.

“The whole Gladstone aspiration is to encapsulate the spirit of eccentricity that was once so prevalent in British society – at all income levels, not just the toffs like yours truly,” he says. “Is the market ready for Gladstone Motorcycles, and for my unwavering passion for individualism? Or will I become that man immortalised by Tom Petty’s lyric as ‘just another clown working on something big’? Very soon, I’ll find out!”

Retro Specs ENGINE Triumph T140V air-cooled 360-degree OHV parallel twin; 76 x 82mm for 744cc; two valves per cylinder; 7.9:1 comp; 30mm Amal concentric carburettor; Boyer Bransden CDI; chain primary drive to a wet multi-plate clutch and ﬁve-speed gearbox; chain ﬁnal drive CHASSIS Tubular chrome-moly twin-loop oil-bearing rigid frame; nickel-plated; 35mm Ceriani conventional forks; 19in laced front wheel with 230mm Grimeca four-leading-shoe drum brake and 3.5in Avon Speedmaster tyre; 16in laced rear wheel with 7in BSA single-leading-shoe drum and 5in Avon Safety Mileage tyre DIMENSIONS Wheelbase 1600mm (63in); head angle 30 degrees; dry weight 158kg BEST FOR Wealthy discerning hooligans

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Lifestyle

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PERTH CAFÉ RACERS

A celebration of loud pipes and custom bikes on the west coast WORDS REX HAVOC PHOTOGRAPHY RYAN KELLY

BSA Gold Star kicks into life first stab and sends a ripple through the crowd. It sets off a wave of different sounds as others follow suit; airhead boxers, a couple of Guzzis, some Ducatis and a bunch of retro Triumphs, including one that engaged in a valve-bounce contest with an XJR1300. We called it a deadheat rather than see a dead engine. The call had been put out by Perth Café Racers for all bike owners to smash the silence and simultaneously start their machines. And with that, Rumble in the Valley was born. The noise of laughter replaced the noise of singles, all varieties of twins and a gaggle of Japanese inline fourcylinder engines reaching for their redlines while remaining stationary. Cheers and applause from many in the 10,000-strong crowd followed, the numbers boosted by everyday folk attending the Vintage Collective Markets in Perth’s picturesque Swan Valley, of which the Rumble was part. When Perth Café Racers kicked off in 2011, the intention was to eventually hold a bike show for others to see what all the fuss was about. Perth already had a wellattended Japanese bike show, an Italian bike show and the biannual Motorcycle and Scooter Expo, but if your passion was for shed-built custom bikes, the only place to see them was in the car parks! Hence this year’s inaugural Rumble in the Valley to showcase the west’s ever growing numbers of café racers, street trackers, scramblers, bobbers and retros. We set the date and crossed our fingers, hoping 40 bikes might register to display; ISSUE #20

retrobike

Lifestyle

PERTH CAFÉ RACERS

65 bikes rolled into the grounds of Oakover Winery and set up nose-to-tail in no particular order. A 1935 Panther was next to a modern Bonneville café racer, which was next to an XS650 bobber and so it went without rhyme or reason. Attending many bike shows over the years, one thing that always caused grief was the awarding of prizes, with people often whinging that it was rigged. To minimise the controversy, we had just four prizes on the day. The first was People’s Choice, which was taken out by a stunningly restored, ex-US police Moto Guzzi Eldorado, the owner taking home a $300 premium rider’s bag from Jack Stillman. The second gong was ‘Which bike would you most like to ride?’ as voted by the entrants. This was a close call with three bikes vying for the award, but in the end the owner of a customised Ducati 900SS took home the $500 prize pack from 66 Motorcycles. 20

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“THE CALL HAD BEEN PUT OUT FOR BIKE OWNERS TO SMASH THE SILENCE”

Lifestyle

PERTH CAFÉ RACERS

Judges’ Choice was for shed-built or unfinished projects that needed some loving or finishing. A $300 workshop voucher at Rogue Motorcycles was awarded to a Kawasaki KZ750, with the owner and John from Rogue discussing tank mods late into the afternoon. Finally, we had a lot of help from many

volunteers, but Simon Harding was the one deemed to have most gone above and beyond the call of duty, and so was rewarded with a $500 voucher from Himalayan Heroes Motorcycle Adventures. The show was a way for members of Perth Café Racers to meet each other,

show off their bikes to the general public – who showed a lot of interest – and make a bit of noise. Every bike on display was a runner with some travelling 600km to be part of it. Going by the smiles on the faces of the participants and the enthusiasm shown by the crowd, we will Rumble again next year!

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Modern Customs

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DEUS BMW R NINET

The cool cats at Deus Ex Machina cut loose on a new BMW R nineT WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOS GEOFF SEDDON & THOMAS WALK

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Modern Customs

DEUS BMW R NINET

“I LOVE THE WAY THE RIDING POSITION ENCOURAGES ME TO HAVE A GO AROUND EVERY CORNER I COME TO”

ROM its inception almost a decade ago, Deus Ex Machina has been all about setting the style of custom bikes, not following it, so it was anyone’s guess how their take on the new BMW R nineT would turn out. We’ve learned to expect the unexpected from the House of Simple Pleasures but few could have anticipated anything as left ﬁeld as this. “The R nineT has been fettled by some of the world’s best production houses since its release in late 2013,” Deus’s Carby Tuckwell says. “When BMW Australia asked

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if we’d be interested, we jumped at the opportunity. The bike is already a modern classic so the challenge was intriguing. “Custom bikes can often sacriﬁce function for style and we wanted this to be an everyday motorcycle. We wanted to create a bike that was a blend of BMW heritage with a hint of R nineT technology.” Which brings us to the bike’s most obvious departure from modern custom style; the fuel tank. Younger readers might be puzzled but old timers will immediately recognise the nod to the long-distance

Heinrich accessory fuel tanks which were all the rage on early OHV airhead twins a generation ago, especially here in Australia. We had quite a subculture in the 1970s and 80s of high-speed longdistance touring to obscure inland places, and few bikes went faster for longer than a big-tanked Beemer. And so The Heinrich Maneuver, as Deus calls it, is doubly clever, as much acknowledging our own motorcycling heritage as BMW’s. To pull it off with the modern DOHC eight-valve twin, with much larger cylinders mounted much higher in the frame, shows just how good these guys are at what they do. To get the ball rolling, Jeremy Tagand stripped the donor bike of its bodywork, exhausts, handlebars and instruments in the Deus Sydney workshop as design sketches were finalised. The R nineT was engineered from scratch as a platform

Retro Ride IT’S NOT very often that we get the opportunity to ride a feature bike, so when the offer came via Miles Davis at BMW Australia, I didn’t have to be asked twice. I know the BMW R nineT well from my second job as a road tester for sister magazine Australian Road Rider and there’s a lot to like; they sound good, handle very well and go like stink. Apart from paint, Deus has left the running gear alone and the bike performed on test exactly like a bought one. It runs stock switchgear and starts on the button with that familiar rocking feeling. The Cone exhausts are noisy with a sharp bark, and that’s just at idle. Give it the berries and it roars; it’s certainly at the louder end of loud. A surprise is the diminutive Motogadget dash, which contains a digital speedo, an easy-to-read tacho across the top and all the usual warning lights for high beam, blinkers, low fuel et al. It

looks toylike but is super functional and easy to read, and with the clip-ons cleans up the front end dramatically. The reach forward to the clip-ons is a marked change from the gentle sports-touring stance of the stock bike, as is the placement of the rearsets, and both are perfectly matched to the knee scallops in the tank and the location of the solo seat; all as you’d expect of a bespoke build. It is what cafe racers are all about and I love the way the riding position encourages me to have a go around every corner I come to, even in the city. Yeehar! On good scratchin’ roads, the Deus BMW is as quick as anything. The seat is surprisingly comfortable for short hauls and detaches easily for some useful storage space in the tail cone. It would get a bit thin towards the end of a tankful of fuel but apart from that the Heinrich Maneuver goes as good as it looks. I’d own it in a heartbeat. ISSUE #20

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Modern Customs

DEUS BMW R NINET

“THE SEAT MIGHT GET A BIT THIN TOWARDS THE END OF A TANKFUL OF FUEL”

to be customised, and it wasn’t too long before the team was staring at a blank canvas of engine, chassis, suspension and wheels. Jeremy relocated the battery from under the seat to a box under the engine and made templates to roughly position the rear-set foot pegs. The stock header pipes were retained but cut at the rider’s foot pegs. A two-into-one collector was then manufactured from stainless steel before branching back out into a pair of US-sourced Cone Engineering megaphones. The bike was then shipped to MotorRetro, a small bespoke auto bodybuilding business which would turn Carby Tuckwell’s ideas and sketches into three-dimensional reality using traditional old-school methods. They started with the mudguards, which are not bobbed originals but custom-formed in aluminium on an english wheel. Moving onto what would be the tank, Vaughn Ryan and Georgio Rimi first built by eye a lattice frame from thick wire to act as a skeletal buck; the tank was then formed by hand from flat-sheet aluminium in two

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matching halves. The process is similar to the way high-end restorers re-body rare vintage cars using timber frames; highly skilful and eye-wateringly labour intensive. A recess was later added to the top to contain the fuel filler and ignition switch under a hinged cover.

The detachable rear subframe was downsized to house the solo seat unit which was constructed using similar methods while work continued on the more complex fuel tank. Getting the outside shape right was one thing; shaping the underneath to ﬁt the modiﬁed frame and hide ancillaries

padded and covered in kangaroo hide, and Jeremy fitted clip-ons and finalised the position of the rear-set foot pegs a little further back to suit. He added a Motogadget Motoscope Pro instrument pod and small aftermarket blinkers up front, while a single strip of LED lights in the seat unit contains blinkers, tail and brake lights. Headlight is stock but refinished by Dutchy’s Motorcycle Paint in black along with the forks, mudguard brackets and rear shock, so as not to distract from the gloss white tank with exposed brushed alloy highlights. A super classy finishing touch are the BMW tank badges and Deus engine breastplate, sand-cast with the help of Andrew Simpson of Vert Design from stock alloy parts discarded during the build. The engine is internally standard. K&N pod filters were fitted along with a Power Commander fuel module to coax 110hp at the rear wheel. The bike was completed in late autumn and launched with a tyresmoking burnout at Deus’s digs on Parramatta Road. According to Carby Tuckwell, the project was “a coming together of like minds and shared vision, and a desire to evoke the spectacular”. It does all that and more, a well-constructed, uniquely-styled bike which so strongly recalls the past while offering all the performance, practicality and reliability of a brand new bike. Well played, everybody.

Retro Specs ENGINE Air-cooled horizontally-opposed four-stroke twin; DOHC, four valves per cylinder; 103 x 73mm for 1170cc; 12.0:1 comp; Power Commander tuning module; K&N air filters; custom two-into-one-into two exhaust with Cone ‘mufflers’; dry clutch to six-speed gearbox and shaft final drive; 110rwhp CHASSIS Tubular-steel trellis-style mainframe; modified detachable subframe; clip-ons; custom rear-sets; 46mm non-adjustable USD forks, 2 x 320mm rotors with Brembo calipers on 17in laced wheel; mono-shock rear adjustable for preload and damping, single 265mm rotor with Brembo caliper on 17in laced wheel BODYWORK Hand-formed tank, seat unit and mudguards in aluminium by MotorRetro to Deus design; paint by Dutchy; Motogadget Motoscope Pro instrument pod WEBSITE deuscustoms.com BEST FOR Setting a new around-Australia record

like the fuel pump and electrical loom was another. Internal surge baﬄes were added to account for the increased fuel load and also act as internal supports. The project then returned to Jeremy for ﬁnal fabrication and assembly in the Deus workshop. The detachable seat pan was

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Cafe Racers

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1976 KAWASAKI KH500

We love the smell of two-stroke in the morning. It smells like victory WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOGRAPHY RYAN KELLY

T WAS “the sound of that evil triple” that first attracted Craig Johnston to the world of high-performance aircooled two-strokes, in particular this stunning 1976 KH500 Kawasaki cafe racer that he has owned for almost 20 years and affectionately calls Kermit. “I bought it in 1996 from a mate of mine who had cafe’d it previously but had to sell it due to other commitments,” Craig says. “It was in this basic layout but a bit rough around the edges. I rode it for a few years and it was always a blast with its raw power delivery and sometimes interesting handling. But then things started breaking and, being pretty much pre-internet days, it was near impossible to find parts for it locally. “So I parked it in my father’s shed for over 10 years where it was mostly used as a saw horse. I dragged it back out about four years ago after deciding its time had come. It was stuffed — engine locked up, tank rusted out, fairing broken. Ten years of sitting with half a tank of avgas had transformed the inside of the tank into something resembling a brown forest of rust, you wouldn’t believe the smell!” The only solution was a ground-up rebuild, which Craig accomplished over 12 months with the assistance of his mates in the Kawasaki Triples Owners Club. “These guys from around the world have been a massive source of information and encouragement,” he says. “They have years of knowledge and experience in keeping these things going and getting the most out of them.” Aside from sourcing a replacement petrol tank from a wrecker, the cosmetic side came together easily enough and so Craig concentrated on the engine, chassis and running gear. “One of the biggest problems with these old things is they always had a lot of issues with detonation,” he says. “And modern fuels only make the problem worse. So it is well worth the time and effort to get the squish band sorted if you want it to last.” This involves reshaping the combustion chambers, a job Craig entrusted to Les Dean. The engine was then expertly assembled by Ray Eason with a rebuilt crankshaft, Vesrah connecting rods and ISSUE #20

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Cafe Racers

1976 KAWASAKI KH500

2mm-oversize Wossner pistons. Porting is stock, as is the oil-injection system pumping Motul 710 synthetic oil. Carburettors are stock 28mm Mikunis fitted with Unifilter pods and newly-developed innards from Ivan’s Performance in the United States. “They are nearly impossible to tune well with K&N-style filters; full foam filters are much better,” Craig says. “Ivan’s Performance has done a lot of testing and development of the carbs. He’s developed a needle profile that is much improved over stock, with much better mid-range fuelling. It makes the bike a lot more user friendly lower down, while still providing that infamous rush of power when the engine comes on the pipe at 6000rpm.” The clutch has been beefed up with heavy-duty springs and some Black Forest Industries bits, driving a five-speed 32

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gearbox with undercut dogs and chain final drive. 100mm was trimmed from the rear subframe and a plug-in support fabricated for the seat-tail unit, while up front a subframe was welded up to hold the RZ350 headlight, refurbished standard instrument cluster and bevel-era 900SS Ducati fairing. The frame was then sandblasted and powder-coated before Craig tackled the reassembly. “While it was apart, I did a full rewire on the bike,” he says. “There’s nothing worse than dodgy electrics! All bearings, cables and rubber components were also replaced, and all the shiny metal parts were either polished or re-chromed.” The front end is from a Kawasaki Z1, including the polished forks with Wirth progressive springs, twin discs and the wheel hub laced to an 2.15 x 18in Akront

alloy rim with stainless-steel spokes. The top triple clamp was custommachined from aluminium (lower is stock), while clip-ons are Tommaselli with reproduction KH500 switchgear and Napoleon bar-end mirrors. The dusty end is largely stock apart from the Koni dial-a-ride shocks and 2.5 x 18in Akront rim. “The twin front discs and Goodrich braided lines definitely improve the braking performance,” Craig says. “It’s still a bit shady in the wet with the discs being stainless steel and undrilled, but it’s not too bad.” Rear brake is a stock KH500 drum, although it is now activated by a rod rather than a cable. Apart from the fairing and fibreglass seat unit, bodywork is stock, painted by Niall (aka Potato) at Straightline2ten Panel & Paint. As for decals, there aren’t any. “It could only be one colour!” Craig

Triple Treat KAWASAKI introduced us to inline two-stroke triples with the release of the drum-braked spaghetti-framed H1 Mach III 500 in late 1968. With 60hp and dry weight of 174kg, it was the fastest accelerating and best wheel-standing bike of its time, provided you managed to not flip it over in the process. Handling was generally described as diabolical and they sold them by the shipload. The factory eventually got it handling and stopping well enough, and followed up with popular 250 and 350cc versions before unleashing in 1972 the mighty 750cc H2 Mach IV. This was a bit of a torque monster, the opposite of the flighty 500, although both shared a thirst for petrol not seen in the motorcycle world before or since. Alas for all models, the mid-70s saw the introduction of pollution controls that the Kawasaki strokers struggled with, with the H2 dropped in 1975 and the H1 rebadged as the KH500 in its final year of 1976, by which time it was down to a wheezy 52hp at a thousand less revs. The world was going four-stroke — Kawasaki released its 64hp four-cylinder Z650 the same year — and suddenly it was all over for the legendary widow maker, although the little 250 and the 400cc two-stroke triples remained on sale until 1980.

“THEY DON’T MAKE BIKES LIKE THIS ANYMORE – ANYONE WHO OWNS ONE SHOULD RIDE THE HELL OUT OF IT” says, referencing Kawasaki’s famous green meanie race bikes. “And I’ve never been a fan of stripes and shit. Clean and simple works for me.” So what’s it like to ride? “They don’t make bikes like this anymore, so anyone who owns one should ride the hell out of it and show the kids on the Blades and R1s what they are missing out on,” Craig says. “Kermit and I have also done quite a bit of riding with the Perth Café Racers; they are a good bunch, and most have no objection to a generous dosing of two-smoke on a run!

“The bike goes great in a straight line, and is not too bad in the twisties, where the biggest issue is cornering clearance. The expansion chambers bottom out and drag when cranked well over; I’m planning on a new set next year, probably Higgspeed GPs. “It loves a drink and its range is rather limited, just 100-120km a tank and that’s pushing it,” he says. “Overall I’m very happy with the bike, it is a whole lot of fun. I’ve done about 5000km on it since the build, and they’ve all been a smoky howling hoot!”

Retro Specs ENGINE Air-cooled inline two-stroke triple; 62 x 58.8mm for 533cc (2mm oversize); 3 x 28mm Mikuni carburettors with Ivan’s Performance needles; 6.4:1 comp; Vesrah rods, Wossner pistons; reshaped combustion chambers; expansion chambers by some old German bloke; kick-start; heavy-duty wet clutch, undercut fivespeed gearbox; chain final drive CHASSIS Twin-loop steel tube chassis with modified seat subframe; 36mm non-adjustable Z1 forks with Wirth springs, twin Z1 rotors with twinpiston calipers; stock KH500 swing arm with Koni shocks, drum brake; 18in Akront rims (2.15in front, 2.5in rear) with Bridgestone BT45 tyres BODYWORK Stock KH500 tank and side covers; Ducati 900SS fairing; custom seat; Tommaselli clip-ons, custom stainless rear-sets; paint by Potato SPECIAL THANKS Clean Ride Auto Detailing BEST FOR Living in the 70s ISSUE #20

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Spit & Polish

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LAVERDA CONCOURS 2015

Brisbane’s biggest bike show brings out the best WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY GEOFF SEDDON

MAIN Honda Fours galore TOP RIGHT Interesting take on an XV750 Yamaha (with XV1100 engine) by Jace Hamilton BELOW RIGHT Cliff Drevermann’s 1975 Moto Guzzi 750 S3

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Spit & Polish

LAVERDA CONCOURS 2015

“BY DEFINITION, A CONCOURS IS A DIFFERENT PAIR OF UNDERPANTS TO A REGULAR BIKE SHOW”

OR a drinking club with a motorcycle problem, Club Laverda Queensland punches way beyond its weight. Their annual Concours at Cleveland Showgrounds is one of the best attended outdoor bike shows in the land, with a crowd of around 5000 making their way through the gates in 2015 to ogle a diverse bunch of more than 200 motorcycles. A feature that distinguishes it from other shows is a strong trader and club presence, as well as plenty of tucker, a cracking live band and a dyno comp that never ran out of

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machines willing to be tested. The weather held off, just, to make a great day out. By definition, a Concours d’Elegance is a different pair of underpants to a regular custom or historic show, with the emphasis on elegance and beauty. With so many different marques on display, it is not possible at this event for the judges to be experts on each and every one of them, and so there is little of the usual focus on originality. Quality of construction, presentation and wow factor are the main criteria, and with nearly 60 trophies in 28 classes, there’s a lot of love to be shared.

OPPOSITE PAGE Morgan-inspired Guzzi-powered three-wheeler built by Graeme Mudey (top); and Glenn Liebelt’s Transformer (bottom) which recorded 133rwhp on the dyno for most powerful V-twin ABOVE Rare XR1000 Harley spied in the bike park TOP RIGHT Oldest bike entered was Andrew Rauchie’s 1912 Indian; ABOVE RIGHT Best of the bevels was this 1978 NCR900 owned by Terry White (bottom) BOTTOM Club Laverda members with Matt Laycock’s Jota which won Best In Show

The Best In Show gong, complete with a cash prize for $2000, went to Matt Laycock’s recently restored 1981 Jota, the first time in the Concours’s 27-year history that a Laverda has won the main event. Matt also took home tin for Best Laverda and Best Continental Over 750cc. The other standout Italian bike was Elton West’s 1988 750 Sport which debuted after a long five-year build; it was judged Best Ducati and voted as the People’s Choice. What at first glance looked like a clean stock bike was anything but up close, with a highly detailed engine fed by flatslide carburettors on custom manifolds amongst many subtle touches. Exotica was well represented with matching pairs of 750cc MV Agustas, four-cylinder Rickmans and tiny 125cc Motobis, a stunning NCR 900SS Ducati and a sexy stripped-down Bimota SB2. The Japanese ranks were dominated by a strong showing of Honda 750 Fours, although I found my favourite on the ISSUE #20

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LAVERDA CONCOURS 2015

VJMC stand in the form of a six-piped replica of a 1966 Honda RC166 racer. Very cool. Japanese bikes also dominated the Custom, Cafe Racer and Street Special classes, with Harley-Davidson the only other brand to get a look in. Of the Cafe Racers, we had a lot of time for Jace Hamilton’s XV750/1100 Yamaha and Paul Rigney’s big-bore Hondapowered Rickman which shared the minor placings behind Tim Boughan’s 400 Four. David Woods’s wild ’87-model GSX-R1100 was also too good for the Harleys in Best Custom. Complementing the official entrants was a great selection of modifieds from Brisbane’s Sovereignty Smoked Motorcycles, including the amazing fully-enclosed Bronco. The Vincent Owners Club had a good display of bikes, including an immaculate Series C Black Shadow, about as droolworthy as a British bike gets. Norton

“THE SHOW IS A BIG DEAL AND THE CLUB DOES IT ALL FOR CHARITY, RAISING MORE THAN $50,000” Commandos new and old were there in numbers, including Eryn Moore’s 1974 850 Roadster which won Best British, as were Triumphs with Andrew Rowan’s ’47 500 holding off a posse of very early Indians and Harry Daw’s 1949 Matchless for Best Classic. Music was by the Dave Ritter Band who dished up a day-long smorgasbord of great tunes from Joe Walsh to the Black Keys. The Concours is a big deal to put on and 38

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the 50-member club do it all for charity, having raised more than $50,000 over the years for the Make a Wish Foundation. The show is sponsored by Penrite Oils with much additional support from the Brisbane bike industry, including Motorcycle Mad Mechanical & Dyno Centre who ran the dyno. The whole day has a great relaxed vibe about it and we’ll see you all there next year, third Sunday in July.

TOP LEFT David Woods’ ’87 radical custom GSX-R1100 is a slabbie no more TOP RIGHT Sovereignty Smoked Motorcycles’ Bronco features handbeaten aluminium bodywork MIDDLE LEFT Ian Rennie’s 1200cc 1929 Indian Four ABOVE CENTRE Hard to believe the Bimota SB2 was released nearly 40 years ago ABOVE RIGHT Series C Black Shadow and Series B Rapide on the Vincent Owners Club stand LEFT Paul Rigney’s big-bore Honda-powered Rickman was as cool as cafe racers got when it was ﬁrst built in 1977 OPPOSITE PAGE Elton West was chuffed when his just-completed 1988 750 Sport was judged Best Ducati and voted as the People's Choice

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Customs

HMW IRONHEAD

Max Hazan’s sublime Ironhead is a work of performance art WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOGRAPHY ALASTAIR RITCHIE

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Customs

HMW IRONHEAD

N RESEARCHING this story, I came across a YouTube clip on another Hazan Motorworks custom, in which the narrator describes art as the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. One glance at this Sportster shows Maxwell Hazan is an artist. He aims to build just a few bikes per year — initially in New York, now in California — and follows his own muse. He starts with an idea that pleases his eye, then works out how to make it work, and work his art does as the photos attest. Max was an interior designer when he was laid up for many months after a serious dirt bike accident. Recovering, he amused himself by ﬁtting a small 200cc engine in a Schwinn bicycle chassis, then building his own frame to house a 350cc Honda generator engine with an auto gearbox from a golf buggy. It was good, he says, for 80mph on its bicycle tyres and scared the life out of him.

Clearly there wasn’t a lot of future in that, so he turned his attention to proper motorcycles, eventually establishing HMW with his first ground-up build, a radical cafe racer based around an Indian Enfield 500 engine and a carved timber seat, which found its way onto Pipeburn and gave his fledging business a big boost. This Sportster is the fourth off the HMW line. “Every part of this bike was made from a piece of steel or aluminium by hand,” Max says. “Apart from the main parts of the engine, this bike was made 100 per cent from scratch. I wanted to make something very minimal and I like tight lines and clearances. Making all of this work without leaking, rubbing, misting oil, et cetera, was on its own a month-long process of revisions.” Total build time was six months. Unlike most of us, who are best advised to have a very clear picture of what we want in mind before we turn a spanner, Max does the reverse. “I start with a motor I find aesthetically pleasing, put it on the table and

This Sporty Life THE Harley-Davidson Sportster has been in continuous production since 1957, when the factory upgraded the unit-construction sidevalve KH Model to overhead valves and renamed it the XL Sportster. The KH engine was itself a development of the famous WWII-era WL, so the lineage can be traced back to the 1930s. Even though many manufacturers were moving to alloy heads in the 50s, H-D stuck with cast-iron for the new Sportster. The original XLs were 883cc and made around 40hp, and were subsequently bored out to 997cc from 1972. The Sporty formed the basis of Harley’s XR750 ﬂat-tracker, which dominated AMA racing for decades, and in 1970 powered Cal Rayborn’s streamliner to a world land speed record of 265mph. Apart from shifting the gear lever from the right 42

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to the left-hand side in 1975, what later became known as the Ironhead motor remained largely unchanged until the release of the much revised Evolution engines in 1986, initially in 883 and 1100cc capacities, and later 1200cc. Performance was boosted by a five-speed gearbox, but the main benefit was infinitely better reliability. In 2004, a new frame was introduced with rubber engine mounts to reduce the impact of vibration, and the carburettor made way for fuel injection in ’07. Compared with Evos, the old Ironheads require a significant ongoing mechanical commitment to give their best, which is reflected in their modest prices. But they are rewarding bikes to ride. The engines rattle, whirr and shake like nothing else, and despite a looser feel, they handle pretty well and will run with any classic pack.

“IT’S REALLY TRICKY BECAUSE YOU’RE TRYING TO CREATE SOMETHING YOU’VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE” build the rest around it,” Max told BIKE Exif on its debut. “The Ironhead had been on my list for a while, and when I also came across some car tyres from the 1920s, I got the idea for this bike.” The HMW 40-spoke rims are 24 inches front and 23 inches at the rear, although the rear tyre is larger and taller so that the rolling diameter of both is 30.5 inches. The tyres are of course vintage reproductions. The bike is a lot bigger than it looks in the photos and more than eight feet long! Max is a tall guy, six feet two, who jokes his bikes seem to

shrink 15 per cent when he takes them oﬀ the building bench; the huge tyres allowed him to get the proportions right — seat placement is a good example — without him looking “like a clown” when he was riding it. He admitted to Pipeburn that the style evolved during the process of the build. “I originally had a plan to build some really sleek thing, with the back wheel completely covered like an old Packard car, but when I put the front tyre on it I liked the look so much I decided that it had to have one on the back as well.”

He credits his father for what he calls his “handy gene” and a well-equipped home workshop where Max developed his woodworking and metalworking skills. Learning how to weld was the key, he says. Once he could do that, he could build whatever he wanted. “It’s really tricky because you’re trying to create something you’ve never seen before,” he says. “I don’t sit down and say I’m going to create the nastiest chopper I’ve ever seen. I try and keep my mind open at all times, waiting for the ideas to kind of pour in. “With motorcycles, I have all the elements to perfectly express my creative vision, but at the same time I have a mechanical mind. I have to do it in a functional way where each piece has to do a certain purpose. It’s like painting and every brushstroke has to interlock with the next brushstroke and they all have to function together.” ISSUE #20

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Customs

HMW IRONHEAD

“IT’S LIKE PAINTING; EVERY BRUSHSTROKE HAS TO INTERLOCK WITH THE NEXT AND THEY ALL HAVE TO FUNCTION TOGETHER”

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On this occasion he has fabricated a simple and elegant nickel-plated oilbearing rigid frame in 7/8th and one-inch tubing with his own innovative girdercum-springer front end which features dual springs under the tank and a damper behind the headlight. True to form, “with every bike I try to make a suspension set-up that I have never seen before,” he says, “and this front end is pretty out there!” The stripped-down electric-start XLCH1000 engine looks equally radical, especially the reversed rear cylinder head which to our eyes gives it the look of an XR750 flat-tracker crossed with a Vincent Black Lightning. “I bought an ’83 Sportster with the idea of running two front heads and dual carbs,” he says. “I was ready to really get my hands dirty on this one, but after getting into the motor I realised it wasn’t that difficult at all.” Studs, oil passageways and reliefs in the piston crowns all lined up. Similar conversions on other engines often involve tricky custommade camshafts but the Sportster design of four gear-driven single-lobe camshafts (one for each valve) made the job a simpler one of substitution and timing. “The only invasive work was to cut off the stock

intake and exhaust ports, and reposition them so that the carbs and pipes cleared each other,” he says. Amal concentric carbs fitted with polished ram-tubes perfectly suit the style, as do the one-off straightthrough exhausts. “Like most Ironheads, it sounds faster than it goes,” he says, which is possibly just as well. With the clutch lever attached to the hand-shift gear lever, there’s already plenty happening in its natural inner-city habitat, although with a wet weight of only 140kg performance off the lights is as brisk as it is loud. The enormous rolling diameter of the tyres and a sprung seat aid its road manners, although it’s not like you’ll ever be testing the range of the sixlitre fuel tank. But the bike does function, surprisingly well, and Max wouldn’t have it any other way. “While every bike I build is for sale, with this one I am somewhat torn,” he says. “I wouldn’t be heartbroken if it stayed with me. It’s the full sensory experience, you don’t have to do anything other than ride it to get the feeling. Something about the mechanical nature of the bike, the way you sit on it and operate it, just rubs me the right way.”

Retro Specs ENGINE Air-cooled four-stroke OHV 45-degree V-twin; 81 x 96.8mm for 997cc; 9.0:1 comp; unit construction, dry sump; reversed rear cylinder head (second front head); reversed rear piston on stock conrod; stock cams, rearranged; points ignition; 2 x Amal concentric carburettors with velocity stacks on owner-built manifolds; HMW dual exhausts; four-speed transmission, handshift; chain ﬁnal drive; 55hp @ 5800rpm (est) CHASSIS HMW rigid chassis in 7/8 and oneinch tubing; nickel-plated; HMW ‘custom linkage’ sprung forks with remote damper unit; HMW 24-inch 40-spoke spool front wheel, Coker 30.5-inch tyre, no brake; HMW 23-inch 40-spoke rear wheel, Coker 30.5-inch tyre, Harley brake rotor with KTM caliper DIMENSIONS Fuel capacity six litres; wet weight 140kg WEBSITE hazanmotorworks.com BEST FOR Inner-city streets, art galleries ISSUE #20

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Restos

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1983 HONDA CB1100RD

The CB1100R was built to win on Sunday, sell on Monday WORDS GEOFF SEDDON PHOTOGRAPHY JOHN FRETTEN

HE 1970s and early 80s were the golden era of production racing and there was no greater production race in the world than the Castrol 6 Hour. Held at Amaroo Park, a narrow rockwalled 1.9km track north-west of Sydney, the event attracted our best racers, large crowds and widespread television coverage. It was the ultimate test of bikes anyone could buy new in the showroom and was an immensely prestigious race to win. Kawasaki dominated the early years with five straight wins from 1972 to 1976, the last four with the Z1. BMW, Yamaha and Suzuki then had their turns in the sun, but poor old Honda couldn’t win a trick. After taking out the second Castrol 6 Hour with the CB750 in 1971, the best they could manage over the next eight years was second place in 1972 and a third with the CBX1000 in 1978. It was kind of embarrassing for the world’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer renowned for performance and innovation. And so Honda responded toward the end of 1980 with the world’s first ‘homologation special’, an expensive purpose-built factory race bike built in just enough numbers to qualify for production racing in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and South Africa. Based on the twincam 16-valve CB900 Bol d’Or but sharing relatively few parts, just over 1000 CB1100Rs and CB1100RBs were hand-assembled in that first year, one of the first immediately ending Honda’s Castrol 6 Hour drought in the hands of Andrew Johnson and an up-andcoming Wayne Gardner. The Australia-only R model was so fresh off the line that it didn’t have the half-fairing fitted to the RB models which debuted soon after in other markets. The Wollongong Wiz won again in 1982 on a CB1100RC with Wayne Clark, ahead of three other Hondas. It was a controversial machine, so dominant that nothing else had a chance and seen by some — including the Willoughby District Motorcycle Club whose race the 6 Hour was — as being outside the spirit of production racing. From the outset, the organisers argued that the R could not carry a passenger and so couldn’t be regarded as a touring bike under the rules, but the club had never had a problem with earlier solo-seat Ducatis. The new bike was allowed to race and duly led from from start to finish, also taking third with Dennis Neill and Roger Heyes. Not to be deterred, the 6 Hour rules were changed in 1981 to outlaw solo-seat motorcycles forcing Honda to sit the race out, although CB1100RBs continued to dominate ISSUE #20

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Restos

1983 HONDA CB1100RD

production racing overseas, including winning all eight rounds of the prestigious MCN Streetbike series in the UK. Honda added a pillion seat under a ﬁbreglass cowl (and lots more) to the CB1100RC in 1982 to totally dominate that year’s 6 Hour and the British Streetbike series, but it would prove to be a Pyrrhic victory when production regulations worldwide were changed in 1983 to limit capacity to 1000cc. There was nothing subtle about the capacity decision, just as there was nothing subtle about the CB1100R or its purpose in life. The ﬁrst model was developed and tested in Japan with input from crack Honda Australia racer Dennis Neill and built by Honda’s Racing Services Centre, which later morphed into Honda Racing Corporation. Everything was designed for endurance racing from the long-range 26-litre fuel tank to the beveled magnesium lower engine covers of the 115hp motor, up 20hp on the 900 and good for 233km/h out of the crate. A solid cylinder block was specially cast to take a 70mm bore for 1062cc on the 900’s 69mm crank. Pistons were now forged on larger wrist pins. Compression was raised from 8.8 to 10:1 (a lot in 1980) and matched to camshafts with 20 degrees more duration and higher lift. Reciprocating parts were lightened for engine response while

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“IT WAS A CONTROVERSIAL MACHINE, SO DOMINANT THAT NOTHING ELSE STOOD A CHANCE” bearings, conrods, primary drive and clutch springs were beefed up to make it as reliable as it was fast. The black fourinto-two exhaust was outwardly similar to the 900’s chrome set but freer flowing and tucked in tighter for improved cornering clearance. The frame was also based on the Bol d’Or with some important differences in materials and construction to make it lighter and stronger. The 900 had a bolton downtube to facilitate engine removal but this was welded on the 1100R. The engine was also solidly mounted to the frame, trading off vibration for increased rigidity. 38mm forks (up 3mm on the 900) featured linked air adjustment, while the brakes boasted twin-piston floating calipers on 262mm rotors. The swingarm and twin rear shocks were initially similar to the CB900, as was the 19/18in wheel combo although the rims were wider at 2.5 and 2.75in respectively. Wheelbase was 27mm shorter at 1488mm.

The factory added a carbon-reinforced fibreglass full fairing to the CB1100RC in 1982, along with the pillion seat, pillion pegs and a host of other improvements. These included larger 33mm Keihin carburettors, new wheels, ventilated discs, mechanical anti-dive on beefier 39mm front forks and compression and rebound damping adjustment on the shocks. Front wheel diameter was brought back an inch to 18in, with corresponding changes to rake and trail, and rear rim width increased to a full three inches to take advantage of the latest production racing tyres. Honda released one more model, the CB1100RD, in 1983. The main diﬀerences were a restyled fairing, rectangular-section swingarm, fatter tyres and much improved standard of paint and ﬁnish. While the CB1100R was fast and handled very well, it was neither small nor light by today’s standards, an imposing monster of a bike that weighed in at 235kg dry —

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Restos

1983 HONDA CB1100RD

“IT’S A HEAVY MOTORBIKE, BUT NOT MANY WEREN’T IN THOSE DAYS” similar to the Bol d’Or — and over 265kg fuelled up on the grid. As an endurance racer, it had a comfortable seat and riding position which made it a fantastic highspeed grand tourer in the classic European sense, which added to its exotic raceproven allure. Just 4050 examples were built over three years which means they’ve always been hard to ﬁnd and expensive when you do; like a Vincent Black Shadow, Velocette Thruxton or an early Ducati Super Sport, if you don’t already own one it’s probably too late. John Fretten got in early, purchasing this CB1100RD in 1985. “I was running a mechanical and tyre workshop in Blacktown, and a customer had one,” he says. “I told him if he ever wanted to sell it, to let me know first.” It was only a couple of years old and in good shape, albeit with some scratches on the fairing and tar spots on the swing arm. “I tidied it up, repainted the fairing and swing arm, and replaced one side of the exhaust which was damaged. I then used it as my road bike; I haven’t touched the engine apart from servicing. “It has a really nice motor, very torquey,” 50

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John says. “It’s comfortable and the fairing is quite good to tuck behind. It has a big alloy tank and you can go a fair distance. It’s a heavy motorbike, there’s no doubting that, but not many weren’t in those days. The brakes and suspension are adequate (by today’s standards). “I wanted one as I had been involved with them in the 6 Hour, crewing for Dennis Neill and Ron Haslam. I remember having a meeting after the race with factory officials, who asked us how they could improve it. We suggested things like a different swing arm — the first one flexed a bit — and changing the fuel taps for more flow and the spacers in the hubs so we could change wheels quicker. I was also in the pit crew for Andrew Johnson’s superbike, which won a lot of races.” John has since restored another CB1100RD, sourced from Austria and sold very recently to an enthusiast in Queensland. “I sold it within 24 hours of finishing it!” he says. He also has enough bits to build a trick 1100R retromod with modern running gear, which we’ll bring you some other 60 seconds. “It’s still a couple of projects away, that one.”

Retro Specs ENGINE Inline air-cooled four-cylnder fourstroke; chain-driven DOHC, four valves per cylinder; 70 x 69mm for 1062cc; 10:1 comp; 4 x 33mm Keihin CV carburettors; chain primary drive to wet clutch and ﬁve-speed gearbox; chain ﬁnal drive CHASSIS Twin tubular-steel cradle; 39mm conventional forks with TRACS anti-dive and individual air adjustment; 18 x 2.5in front wheel with 2 x 262mm ventilated discs and twin-piston calipers; twin shock rear, adjustable for spring preload, rebound and compression damping; 18 x 3in rear wheel with 262mm disc and twin-piston caliper DIMENSIONS Wheelbase 1488mm; fuel capacity 26 litres; dry weight 235kg BEST FOR Going faster for longer

Good Times

Frank Sultana and the Sinister Kids serve up some dirty blues

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THROTTLE ROLL 2015

Motorcycles and music go hand-in-hand at Sydneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biggest custom bike show WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY GEOFF SEDDON

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Good Times

THROTTLE ROLL 2015

HROTTLE Roll is a hoot, a massive morning group ride from Sydney to Wollongong, then back to an iconic innercity pub for an afternoon and night of live music, good times and custom bikes stacked three high on the walls. There is nothing else like it in the country. By my reckoning, around 500 motorbikes assembled early Saturday morning on the Princes Highway at Tempe for the run through the Royal National Park to Stanwell Tops, where the mob regrouped before heading further south over the spectacular Sea Cliff Bridge. Then it was back up the hill at Bulli, cafe racers to the fore, before heading back to the Vic Hotel in Enmore for the main festivities. The ride attracted a broad cross-section of riders, not just the usual hip crowd, with plenty of restored classics, Harleys, modern sports bikes and even scooters

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joining in on the fun. It’s hard to describe the feeling of riding with so many people, except that it’s all good. On a couple of occasions, I pulled over to take some photos, and the procession never seemed to stop. Truly magical stuff. Not all made their way back to the Vic for the bike show and party, but many did. An estimated 7000 people — mostly young and cool but sprinkled liberally with the young at heart — flowed through the pub car park over the rest of the day, checking out a great selection of modified bikes stacked high on three walls. There were even more customs parked outside, filling surrounding streets with noise and chrome. Live bands were a highlight, covering all kinds of loud music. We especially enjoyed an energetic set from local legends Bonez and the laid-back bottleneck blues of Frank Sultana & the Sinister Kids. For those wishing to make a weekend of it, Sunday was then given

“500 MOTORBIKES ASSEMBLED EARLY MORNING FOR THE RUN THROUGH THE ROYAL NATIONAL PARK TO STANWELL TOPS”

Tomi Gray fronting underground crew Bonez

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Good Times

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THROTTLE ROLL 2015

“THE VIBE WAS INVARIABLY FRIENDLY, REFLECTING THE POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY THAT LIES AT THE HEART OF SYDNEY’S CUSTOM BIKE CULTURE”

Throttle Roll organiser Mark Hawwa says thanks for coming

over to a recovery day at the same venue, complete with a screening of the new On Any Sunday movie. Despite cramped conditions, the vibe was invariably friendly, reflecting the positive philosophy that lies at the heart of Sydney’s custom bike culture. Throttle Roll is the product of Mark Hawwa, the same bloke behind Sydney Cafe Racers and the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride. In just a few years, SCR has spawned similar groups all over the country — most notably, this issue at least, in Perth and Canberra — and provided the example for other social media-based groups like Ducatista and the Throttle Dolls. Meanwhile, the DGR has exploded

internationally, with more than 20,000 riders in 57 countries participating last year, raising literally millions of dollars for charity. Not that Mark does it on his own, with a willing band of happy helpers and a growing list of sponsors, including Ducati, Yamaha, Victory, Motorcycle Accessories Supermarket, Deus Ex Machina and Shannons. Throttle Roll is only going to get bigger, with plans afoot to work more closely with the council to close off nearby streets. Expect also to see the concept spring up in other cities, so keep an eye out on Facebook. We had a ball, loved everything about it, and can’t wait for the next one.

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Classic Racers

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HORNER BROS RAPIDE

Aussie-built Vincent employs V8 Supercar technology with spectacular results WORDS ALAN CATHCART | PHOTOGRAPHY STEPHEN PIPER

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Classic Racers

HORNER BROS RAPIDE

ICTORIAN brothers Ken and Barry Horner are the can-do kids of Australian road racing. Well known for the astonishing success of their Irving Vincent race bikes – created from scratch in their Hallam machine shop – the opportunity to compete at the world’s premier historic race presented a fresh challenge. The Goodwood Revival is Lord March’s annual re-creation of the Way It Was, attracting star riders to compete in front of 85,000 spectators on externally authentic machines. The bikes get just two races. Since 2008, the cut-off date has alternated between pre-1954 and pre-1967, the latter’s 500cc limit making it the preserve of short-stroke Manx Nortons, Matchless G50s and MV Agustas. The earlier period has a 1000cc limit, literally tailor-made for Vincent twins, but reliability and handling problems had always thwarted best-laid plans. Enter the Horners, who own a precision engineering business making components for mining, fuel exploration and V8 Supercars. The brothers’ Vincent ties run deep, having struck up a friendship with Vincent designer Phil Irving after Irving moved back to Australia, when Ken raced a Vincent sidecar. They developed their modern Irving Vincents in tribute to the legendary engineer and tasted international success in 2008 when Craig McMartin won the Daytona Pro Twins race against a gaggle of 1198 Ducatis. “We’d been over to Goodwood for the Festival of Speed hillclimb, and the Revival was something we’d wanted to do for a while,” says Ken Horner. “The problem was sourcing a genuine period Vincent, which don’t exactly grow on trees. We were led to

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believe that the bike had to be an original one – until we got there and saw all the brand new Manx Norton replicas! So instead of building one ourselves, we were out looking for a Vincent to turn into a racer.” They got onto Bob Williams, who at 80 years of age was reluctantly selling the 1948 Series B Rapide he’d owned since 1991. “We paid him what he was asking for it,” Ken says. “It hadn’t run for years, but we knew what we wanted to do with the motor, while holding firm to the spirit and rules of the class.” This entailed retaining the Rapide’s capacity and dimensions while using knowledge gained from their own engines to improve gas flow and lubrication. “Phil Irving used to say the Vincent’s internal lubrication was so poor – and he took the blame for it – that if you could see inside when it was running, you’d see sparks coming from the cam lobes!” says Ken. “We had to completely redesign the oil system to produce any kind of power reliably.” They also sourced new semi-finished replica Vincent cylinder head castings from Don Godden in the UK, then machined the combustion chambers and valve guides using the lessons they’ve learnt from V8 Supercars. “They’re just pushrod two-valve motors like the Vincent,” says Ken, “so they have a lot in common.” While retaining the original crankcases, the Horners made their own roller-bearing crankshaft one kilo lighter than stock at 12.25kg. Similarly, the stock cylinders have been re-sleeved and contain Carrillo rods and CP pistons for 12.5:1 compression, as high as they could go on the specified 100-octane fuel and 1 3/16-inch Amal Monobloc carbs.

ABOVE The Rapide at Broadford where Sir Al cut some hot laps at the Bike Bonanza last Easter TOP RIGHT Beau Beaton and Craig McMartin wear the laurels of success at Goodwood BOTTOM LEFT Lord March's private racetrack attracts the world's best classic racers to Goodwood

“Vincents were always over-valved, especially with the small carbs,” says Ken. “The exhaust valves were a mile too big, so we pulled them back. Going small gets the gas speed up, and the engine runs beautifully smooth. At Goodwood we had two half-hour races, so we were more concerned with getting home than chasing extra horsepower. “In terms of cam profiles and combustion chamber design, we just treat it as one quarter of a V8 Supercar motor. That way we can plug into the acquired knowledge of all the people we know who work on those engines.” The Rapide immediately delivered 96bhp at the crank at 6500rpm and 86ft-lb at 5000rpm, twice as much power as standard. “When we saw we had more than we’d hoped for, right away, we thought that makes a change! So we left it at that, and started on the handling.”

“THE PROBLEM WAS SOURCING A GENUINE PERIOD VINCENT, WHICH DON’T EXACTLY GROW ON TREES” The original spine frame is retained along with the fuel tank, handlebar and Girdraulic blade forks, albeit with a modified lower link and damped by a custom adjustable monoshock. The twin Öhlins rear shocks have rebound damping in the left one and compression in the right, but with no adjustment for either. Crucially, they’re 50mm longer than the original dampers, which with the modified link has radically sharpened the steering geometry from 30º to 25º. These mods had former Vincent apprentice and racer John Surtees clapping his hands when he visited the Horner pit at Goodwood. “I told Phil Vincent and Phil Irving they needed to modify the steering geometry exactly as the Horners have now done,” says John. “But they had already manufactured dozens of forgings for the incorrect lower link,

so they refused to change it!” The result is a far sweeter package, as Beau Beaton discovered when he ran the bike in at Broadford and smashed the class lap record! “Basically, we were trying to fix up the massive variation of trail under compression,” says Barry Horner. “We managed to get it from being absolutely awful to something that’s similar to our Period 5 racer fitted with telescopics. With the original setup, they stand up on you on the brakes, but this one doesn't.” Beaton’s encouraging shakedown revealed one major handicap; the trio of seven-inch single-leading-shoe drum brakes were woefully inadequate to stop a motorcycle weighing 177kg dry and good for 128mph at the Revival, 12mph faster than the next quickest bike. But with just one hard stop per ISSUE #20

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HORNER BROS RAPIDE

lap on the fast 3.86km Goodwood circuit, they took their chances and shipped it to the UK. There Craig McMartin rode it for the first time in the single qualifying session, in which teammate Beaton put the Rapide on pole, just 0.1sec ahead of ex-GP ace Jeremy McWilliams sharing a replica longstroke Manx Norton with Duncan Fitchett. The first race saw McWilliams take an immediate lead from the Le Mans start, pursued by Beaton who took the lead on lap two, before McWilliams crashed on lap four, fortunately without injury. After the rider changeover, McMartin sped up as he became familiar with the bike, eventually winning by 18sec. The McWilliams/Fitchett Norton was too badly damaged to repair, so for the second race, the duo were permitted to substitute a more powerful 60s-style short-stroke Manx just for the spectacle, without being eligible to figure in the final points. The result was a thrilling race-long battle between the two bikes, with Fitchett and McMartin swapping the lead through to the rider change. Thereafter McWilliams and Beaton turned up the wick, with the Irishman using the Norton’s infinitely better brakes to grab the lead on the final lap exiting the

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chicane on the run to the chequered flag. But just as he approached the line a few lengths behind, Beaton’s Vincent locked its back wheel! Fortunately it was in a straight line, as the transmission had seized and pulling the clutch in was no help. Beau kept the bike upright and smoked across the finish line for the overall win. “We had no idea what had gone wrong – we just stuck it in the crate and went off to celebrate,” says Ken. “Back in Melbourne, we discovered the triplex primary chain had snapped. You used to be able to get racing chains like that, but not anymore, so that’s just industrial chain which obviously can’t cope with the torque!” Nevertheless, it was mission accomplished – they’d gone racing overseas for a second time, and again come home with the winner’s laurels. I rode the repaired bike at the Penrite Broadford Bike Bonanza, north of Melbourne. As circuits go, this couldn’t be more different to Goodwood, with its short 2.16km length containing three hard stops per lap, two from high speed. The brakes began to fade after just four laps, howling like a wolf but with almost zero bite. Thank goodness for engine braking!

What made matters worse was the superb performance of the motor, which not only has phenomenal power but is also amazingly smooth for a narrow-angle V-twin. The engine pulls hard from 3500rpm, with the lightened crank delivering zestful acceleration to 6500rpm, after which it runs out of breath. It carburates really well low down, driving out of slower turns from as few as 2000 revs. Steering is much sharper than stock, with more weight on the front tyre for extra grip entering turns – handy when you’ve got no brakes! You sit very high on the barelypadded plank of a seat, with the footrests located high and set well back, leading you to adopt a semi-inclined stance, with your knees fairly bent and a lot of body weight on your arms and wrists. The handling is also on a different planet, to the extent that I could forget about it wearing Girdraulic forks. Instead it behaved

like a conventional tele-forked bike under braking, and the more constant steering geometry, coupled with the improved damping from the modern shocks, was noticeably beneficial in handling the bumps. Kudos to Ken and Barry for having done what many have tried to do, but failed – make a Vincent handle properly without resorting to telescopic forks! “I reckon this is the last time this old girl will take to the track,” says Ken after my ride. “We’ll tuck her up nicely in the museum alongside the Daytona winner, and build a new bike for next year’s Revival if we’re invited back. We definitely need better brakes – any brakes would be good – so we’ll see what the regulations allow. And we have a fix for the primary chain without going to belt drives which are forbidden. We don’t need any more power, so we’ll just make it handle better and maybe put some more padding on the seat.”

LEFT Beaton leads McWilliams in Race 2 MIDDLE LEFT To the victors, the spoils BOTTOM LEFT Previous owner Bob Williams on the same bike BELOW Cathcart giving it the berries at Broadford

Retro Specs ENGINE Air-cooled OHV four-stroke 50-degree V-twin; dry sump; 84 x 90mm for 998cc; 12.5:1 comp; 2 x 1 3/16th Amal Monobloc carbs; V8 Supercar-spec combustion chambers, ported by Nathan Higgins; 12 volt, coil ignition; triplex primary drive to four-speed gearbox and chain ﬁnal drive; 96hp at 6500rpm; 86ft-lb at 5000rpm CHASSIS Stock Vincent chassis; Girdraulic forks with modiﬁed lower link and custom adjustable damper; Akront 19 x 2.15in laced front rim with 2 x 7in SLS drum brakes and 90/90-19 Avon AM22 tyre; cantilever rear swingarm with Ohlins shocks; Akront 19 x 2.15in laced rear rim with single 7in SLS drum brakes and 100/90-19 Avon AM 23 tyre DIMENSIONS Wheelbase 1435mm; dry weight 177kg, split 52/48; head angle 25 degrees CONTACT www.irvingvincent.com BEST FOR Winning the Ashes

“IN TERMS OF CAMSHAFT AND COMBUSTION CHAMBER DESIGN, IT’S ONE QUARTER OF A V8 SUPERCAR”

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Homebuilt

WHITTAKE KER SPECI IALS WHITTAKER SPECIALS

A stellar collection of small Hondas suggests might is not always right WORDS BILLY DECATT | PHOTOGRAPHY JASON WEBER

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HITTAKER Specials. Sounds like a shop but it’s not; it’s just a Facebook page and a sticker that Simon Whittaker puts on all his bikes. The Canberra bus driver is a prolific custom bike builder, turning out a couple of highly creative and detailed specials each year, every one of them a Honda. “I seem to be always thinking about the next project when I’m driving around in the bus,” he says. “I picture

the finished bike, the paint scheme and all the little details and parts in my head. I try for a different style each time and then set about making it a reality. “These smaller twins are perfect for me as I’m into vintage bike rallies and shows; most of the VVCMCC and Canberra Café Racers runs are shorter rides. I like the 70s look, parts are pretty easy to source and you can do plenty of different styles using the same bike.” In true custom style, all of Simon’s bikes have names.

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Homebuild

WHITTAKER SPECIALS

Pick of the litter is TT Racer, built from a 1973 CB350

His ﬁrst Honda build was ‘The Tourist’, a GB400TT he picked up from the local bike shop in 2006. “First thing I did was the tank, with help from my mates Craig Crawford and Frog,” he says. “Craig owns C&D Sheetmetal in Queanbeyan, and I’ve spent many days there having the use of all his equipment. He gave me a hand to weld up the original centre fuel filler and we made the pipe to mount the Monza cap. I made a strap from stainless using the hole punch machine and drilled a few holes in the chain and sprocket guard; it must have saved 45 grams!” EPT Chrome, also in Queanbeyan, looked after the shiny stuff, Fred Senger bent up a custom exhaust and Paul Campbell of Redback Race Paint added

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“I TRY FOR A DIFFERENT STYLE EACH TIME AND THEN SET ABOUT MAKING IT A REALITY” Simon’s ﬁrst Honda build was this 1987 GB400TT

the colour. “It still looks as good now as it did when it was done in 2007,” he says. Totally changing tack, Simon’s next build was a tracker built around a 1975 CB360 he calls ‘Cherry Bomb’. “I’d seen an article in a vintage bike magazine on Mark Brelesford’s Harley XR flat-track racer which gave me the idea,” he says. Simon realised it with plenty of attention to detail, including handmade faded

number plates, high-mounted custom exhaust with BUB silencers, wide bars, detachable headlight, XR seat pan, Dunlop K180 tyres laced to polished dirt bike rims, YSS racing shocks, nickel-plated swingarm and a custom fork brace. He even went to the trouble of removing the standard flipup fuel cap and modifying the opening to accept a twist cap and overflow breather. ‘Gold Digger’ came next. “I placed an ad on Allclassifieds, wanting to buy old CB Hondas,” Simon says. “Some guy emailed me about his ’72 beater CB350; paint was all faded, rust everywhere, but it ran like a top. “I wondered how it might look with a different-size front rim. I tried an alloy 21-inch motocross wheel and it looked ridiculous so naturally I went with that!” A high-profile Firestone tyre with similar rolling diameter was sourced to balance the rear. Painted in metallic gold with added gold metalflake, it’s not hard to figure out where Simon got the name. He had the bars and headlight painted to match by Grant at Edwards Spray while Johnno Watkins modified the seat. Other custom touches include copper plating of various parts and blacked-out hubs and rims with thick stainless spokes. A non-running 1973 CB450 found on eBay in Casterton, Victoria was next on the block. After fitting a new coil, Simon rode it stock for a year while he mulled over its future. “An idea came to do a bike with a WWII bomber theme,” he says. “I pictured how it would look lowered with tank art, distressed silver paint and black wheels.” The result is ‘Distressed to Kill’. The paint job was nailed by Justin & Jason at Southside Bodyworks

‘Cherry Bomb’ and cut down the original 450 front guard. The finish on all the guards is satin nickel, which looks like brushed stainless. The seat was another Johnno Watkins effort with shaved foam and grey vinyl with a distressed look. Our favourite amongst Simon’s collection followed, a gorgeous silver 1973 CB350 evoking the spirit of early Isle of Man race bikes and now dubbed ‘TT Racer’. “I’d tried the 21-inch front wheel on ‘Gold Digger’ so I wanted to see how it would look with a 21 on the rear,” he says. “I also set out to make this one as light as possible. “I started off with a 1970 tank, a Moto Tumbi fibreglass seat and a fairing off a Bultaco that actually raced on the Isle of Man, donated by John from the VVCMCC. I modified the frame and made brackets for a small battery under the seat which was covered in suede by Daniel at Bitchin’ Stitchin’. “I took a spare 350 engine up to Col & Mark at Campbells Classics in Sydney for a full rebuild and vapour blasting. Paul at Redback Race Paint did the paint. I made the splash guard for the rear tyre, cleaned the frame up, did a lot of polishing and had the other parts nickel or chrome-plated. “The mufflers are Dunstall replicas, the polished alloy rims are from Italy and there’s a lot of small bolt-on custom machined parts too.” After that it was time to go green, Simon figured. Army green. “My mate Rich had a 1975 CB750 taking up space in his garage so I took it off his hands cheap. It came with some alloy side-covers that I had covered to look like satchel bags by an old-time leather worker, Geoff, from the VVCMCC. He also made the

in Tuggeranong by first painting it with red oxide primer, then metallic silver before rubbing it back. Mobile Fabrications powder-coated the frame in metallic silver and the rims and hubs in gloss black. Darryl at Moose Racing then made and laced up some thicker stainless-steel spokes. Simon fabbed a new rear splash guard from an old alloy front one, modified the old rear guard from

Retro Rollcall Gold Digger Yellow Peril TT Racer Distressed To Kill Cherry Bomb Heavy Artillery El Diablo The Tourist

1972 1973 1973 1973 1975 1975 1977 1987 ISSUE #20

CB350 CB350 CB350 CB450 CB360 CB750 CJ360 GB400TT

retrobike

Homebuild

WHITTAKER SPECIALS

1977 CJ360, El Diablo, is hot with the kids

Lest We Forget SIMON has also sold a few bikes to fund subsequent builds. They include a neat 1969 Suzuki Hustler with a custom tank and seat hump, rear-sets and blacked-out wheels; a police-themed 1981 CB900 he called ‘Mr Meaner’, complete with siren & ﬂashing lights; and a little 1970 CB250 café racer named ‘Brown Sugar’ on account of its brown metallic and gold ﬂake paint. All had the same attention to detail as our featured bikes, he says.

Heavy Artillery in the form of a 1975 CB750 Four

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Yellow Peril CB350 was built from leftover parts

bullet belt that sits on the tank strap. “Meanwhile, I made the dash panel, tail hoop and an alloy plate that sits behind the motor to hide the battery. The guards and some engine covers were stripped and scuffed with Scotchbrite before being clear powder-coated.” The exhaust on ‘Heavy Artillery’ is a Tailgunner from the US, the tip of which spins around in operation. Rear-sets are Tarozzi, tyres are Dunlop K180s and Craig at Choice Signs did the decals. The seat cover was made from an old army canvas duffel bag picked up at a surplus store. Simon then had a look around his shed and realised he had enough leftover bits from other projects to build another complete CB350, a lowered and fattyred café racer he calls ‘Yellow Peril’ on account of its retina-burning paint. All the usual suspects were involved in this five-month build, with Simon taking care of fabrication, polishing and assembly. The engine is the original motor from ‘TT Racer’. Features include fat four-inch Dunlop tyres on blackedout SM Pro rims, custom front headlight plate, under-slung Dime City Cycles exhausts, modified SR400 seat and rearsets sourced in Thailand. “I’m very happy with the end result,”

No-one’s gonna mess with this bomber-themed DOHC 450 twin

“SIMON SAYS HIS COLLECTION IS ALMOST COMPLETE, NOT THAT ANYONE BELIEVES HIM” Simon says. “It has a quite a comfortable riding position … if your ride only lasts for 30 minutes!” Which brings us to Simon’s latest build, ‘El Diablo’, built from a 1977 CJ360 in brat style complete with matching pimpedout skateboard. “It’s very popular with the kids,” he says. “My mate Ray got this off a classifieds site and had intended to do it as a café racer. Unfortunately he didn’t have the time so I ended up with it after some gentle persuasion. “The motor needed gaskets and new camchain slippers. I fabbed the hoop, seat pan, handlebars and skateboard rack, relocated the ignition switch, smoothed the frame and painted it along with the motor in gloss black enamel. Dan Hennessy did the metalflake paint on the tank and Bitchin’ Stitchin’ trimmed the seat.”

Simon reckons his collection is almost complete, not that anyone believes him. “I only have a couple of bikes left to do,” he says. “I have a 1973 ‘swampfind’ CB350 – it looks like it was dragged out of one – which when completed will be a real throwback to the 70s with wild purple metalflake paint and plenty of other ideas. It’ll be ‘Purple Haze’. “I also have a 1976 CB 250T I bought for $150 with the motor in bits. Fortunately I had a spare engine I’d bought for $50 ages ago, so I put that in and it runs fine. I’ll black it out, no chrome at all, and build it café style. I’m going to call it ‘Black, No Sugar’.”

MANY thanks to Jason Weber for the pics. You can check out more of his work at jswphoto.com.au.

What was once a rusty ’72 CB350 is now a Gold Digger

ISSUE #20

retrobike

LIFE’S TOO SHORT HOWALL SPECIAL

McIlwraith WITH JAMIE McILWRAITH

AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT

OU never really know what life is going to dish up some days, even when you’re fairly sure you do know what’s in store. Recently, while I was downing some liquid heart-starter for breakfast, the email pinged and the message said my three-day work gig was postponed for a week. Start next Monday, not this one, sorry. Then the weatherman on the radio said “three days of perfect weather ahead, sunny, 24 degrees … ” And so there I was, at 7am certain I was going to be earning money but bored out of my brain that day, and by 10am I was on my Guzzi heading north, getting away from the city for a while. It was like I’d found a $50 note lying on the footpath — I just had to blow it on some fun. My idea of fun was to head north from Sydney to Nabiac, just south of Taree, to ﬁnally visit the Australian National Motorcycle Museum. It had been on my “must do sometime” list for far too long. The Guzzi hummed along like a happy dog let oﬀ its city leash for a good country run, and I had a fair idea of what was in store up ahead at the museum — dunger heaven — 600 or so bikes: Nortons, Triumphs, Beezas, Vincents, Ajays, Harleys, Indians, Beemers, Dukes, Bultacos, CZs, Jawas, Bridgestones, Mach III/ IV Kwakas … the united nations of desirable old motorcycles. The thing I like about travel in general is not so much seeing the things I expect to see; what I love about travel is coming across something totally unexpected. And that’s what happened

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at the museum. I met an old bike I knew and remembered fondly, and was reminded of its original owner, the guy who built it himself. Now the bike in question is as pure a Retrobike special as you could hope for, and for this, my ﬁrst column for my old friend from Two Wheels and Streetbike days, Seddo, I thought I’d start oﬀ with a top quality custom special based on a Suzuki GS750. The bike is the Howall. The name is a straight mash-up of its builder’s name, Howard Wallace. As soon as I saw it from a distance I

“It was like I’d found a $50 note lying on the footpath — I just had to blow it on some fun” thought, “Wow, Howard’s bike is here.” It was a special bike for me, as it won the one and only motorcycle show where I was on the judging panel. The show was in Canberra, about 1985. My mag at the time, REVS, was a sponsor, I was a REVS roadtester and columnist, and so I was roped into being a show judge. There were some great bikes there at the show that day: spiﬃngly restored Brit classics aplenty, so too custom Harleys glittering like Las Vegas showgirls, but Howard’s creation stood out. Cradling the Suzuki GS750 motor, the superbly ﬁnished frame was all his own work, so too much of the suspension front and rear. He even made a VF750 Honda fairing look like it was his own, so nicely did it blend

into the overall look. And so I awarded Howard first prize for Best in Show. It was an easy pick, especially when he was such a pleasant, modest, talented young man into the bargain. Alongside the Howall (one of the first bikes you see as you walk through the door) was an info card on a stand detailing how Howard built the bike. And then the last paragraph hit me like a ton of bricks. Howard had died at the young age of 49 of Motor Neurone Disease (you know, the degenerative condition that affects the famous British physicist Professor Stephen Hawking). I didn’t expect that sad news at all. Life was really dishing out the surprises that week, very good and very bad. The great thing, however, is that Howard built a special out of spare parts for an all up cost of $3500, and now it’s taking pride of place in our National Motorcycle Museum. That’s a hell of a legacy for any customiser to leave behind, and as I rode home a few days later I felt really glad to have gone for that ride, to have discovered Howard’s bike again, and even to have learned of Howard’s sad fate. The one thing that really struck home about what Howard did, and what motorcycle customisers are doing these days, is that the best original creations like his are worthy of eventually making it into museums alongside the classics. And it’s great to see that the owners of the National Motorcycle Museum feel that way. So, if you’re heading north from Sydney or south from Briz-Vegas, stop off at Nabiac. It’s just off the Pacific Highway, but that dreary slab of blacktop isn’t the only way to get there, of course.

RESTOS WORKS IN PROGRESS

Bailey WITH PAUL BAILEY

FINISHING SCHOOL

VER the past year or more, we have covered a great variety of information and restoration tips for a number of different types of restorations. There’s the absolute 100-point, must be all original and look brand-new type of build, which is what most of us think of and aspire to when it comes to restoring a motorcycle. Then there is the compromised restoration where we are trying to keep it as close as possible to the original machine, but never quite get there; perhaps the decals, seat material or tyres can’t be obtained anymore, so you have to go with the next best thing or something close. Finally there is the barn-fresh find that would be almost criminal to restore in the normal sense. You don’t want to strip and redo it as new but keep it as authentic and unmolested as you possibly can. In some ways this can be the hardest of the lot, because of the absolute rule that no reproduction or non-original parts can ever make its way onto such a bike . These are all very interesting and timeconsuming projects whichever way you go, and none of them are easy to complete, but all will give you great satisfaction when they are done. But is this the limit of restoration? Or are there still more options for the restoration of a motorcycle? I think there are. It’s about what you as the restorer want to do, or how you are influenced by other people and your own view of motorcycling history. There is a trend at the moment, for

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ISSUE #20

example, to find those 1960s and 70s customs, often built around a Honda 750 Four with radical seat, chopped frame and long forks. These are starting to appear in our magazines again and at bike shows and events where they are receiving a fantastic response from future builders and enthusiasts. Some would argue that they are as significant a slice of motorcycling history as any other, and so deserve as much attention to detail as the purest barn-fresh find. Others are horrified that customs and restorations even get

“The decision on which bike to restore and how to go about it is yours and no-one else’s” mentioned in the same sentence, but who’s to judge and who gave them the right? Maybe refurbishment is a better term for such bikes and also for later models. There is a school of thought that says a restoration can only be of a bike at least 30 years old, the cutoﬀ point for concessional historic registration in most states. You might have spent lots of time and money returning that 10- or 15-yearold bike of yours to as-new condition but don’t you dare consider all that hard work a resto!

Do you see what I am getting at here? The decision on which bikes to restore and how you go about it lies not with any governing body or club or historian or mate or peer group that you may be involved with. It is totally your choice and no-one else’s. You are the one with a glorious machine in your shed that you want to get going again, to ride and enjoy or even just build and park in your lounge room. You are the one that will commit an enormous amount of time, energy and money to achieve the end result. Which brings me to my own definition of what might properly be called a restored motorcycle, and that is only that it is finished and complete. The style or era is not of any consequence. The key word here is complete. We can all do work on a machine and repair some parts of it and refurbish others, but until there has been a comprehensive and thorough build of the entire machine, I don’t think it can really be regarded as a restoration. We see bikes like this every day when we ride; the rider has done some or a lot of work but it is still a work in progress. Seddo’s Norton is a good example. It’s a great project in its own way, and it’s out there being ridden and enjoyed while the work goes on, but he’s the first to agree it could hardly be considered restored. After all, the greatest part of any restoration is when you finally roll it out of the workshop and say out aloud, “It is finished!”

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FIGHTING WORDS ROADIES RULE

WA L K E R WITH JIMMI WALKER

FREEDOM’S JUST ANOTHER WORD

ENTION the word motorbike to some and it means death and disfigurement, but to others it means the best fun you can have with your clothes on. And of course 100 other things somewhere in between those diametrically opposed viewpoints! I was scanning Faceplant the other day and came across a rant by one of our American cousins that basically stated that bikes were toys, okay for the weekends, and that if one crossed his path he’d pay due care. But heaven forbid that we motorcyclists should have the ordacity to sully his path during the week, in which case we were fair game! It was time we all grew up and bought cars, he reckoned, which by his logic made it our fault if we got skittled. I was pretty reactionary stuff. Personally, I think the geezer's a nut, so I moved on and thanked my stars that I didn’t live anywhere near him! To me my bike has always been my freedom, my way out, since I bought a miniscule 50cc Yamaha at the tender age of 16. Suddenly I was king of my peers and I was hooked. I even rode 175 miles to Birmingham to the bike show at the heady speed of 42mph. Much the same thing happened when I joined my first band and performed on stage

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for the ﬁrst time. To anyone who’s never done those things, it’s almost impossible to explain the feeling. Many scribes far more talented than me have tried to put it into words. But the best explanation I’ve ever heard was, “It’s like ﬂying but still being on the ground.”

“It was time we all grew up and bought cars, he reckoned; it was our fault if we got skittled” With motorcycling, there’s also the sense of being at one with your surroundings – yeah, I know it all sounds a bit hippyfied, but it’s true. The ground rushing past six inches below your feet at wallet-emptying speeds, eyes fixed on the rapidly approaching horizon, then slightly shifting your weight to bring the machine into a diving right hander and through the apex like a legend! The sun shines on the tank, reflecting a face-bursting grin that we all know and love so well. Is it worth the risk that one day you may fall off and hurt yourself? You’re damn right, it is.

Motorcycling is one of the last bastions of freedom in this ever shrinking world of no-go zones and force-fed limitations. I was asked not so long ago which era of human existence I would have liked to have lived in. Truth is I like right now, because I am a bit of a tech freak, but apart from that, I would have donned a flying helmet, climbed into a Spitfire and headed into the sun in search of Adolf Galland’s Me109. Yes, it all sounds a bit romantic and I’m well aware of the terrifying death that so many of those young men suffered in the Battle of Britain during World War II. But I doubt that very few of them wouldn’t do it all again. Okay, so the comparison isn’t the same, you say. Well maybe not, but try spending 12 hours dodging homicidal taxi drivers and suicidal pedestrians on the streets of London every day for years just to earn a living as a motorcycle courier. Or punching through the traffic to get to an accident on an ever so wobbly Honda ST1100 as part of a fast response medical emergency team. Or as I had occasion to do, racing for dear life through the very same streets delivering a heart to a desperate patient who had been waiting years for a second chance. So motorcycles are not mere toys, my confused American friend, but they are fun just the same.

CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE RESTORATIONS ALWAYS THE BEST DISPLAY OF CLASSIC BRITISH BIKES IN AUSTRALIA A SELECTION OF OUR CLASSIC MOTORCYCLES

1950 TRIUMPH 500 SPEED TWIN

1952 ARIEL SQUARE FOUR 1000

This is a beautiful restored example of this wonderful classic motorcycle. The Speed Twin is one of the nicest Triumph models to ride. This motorcycle will turn heads everywhere you go. VIN # 5T.10767N $15,950

1961 TRIUMPH 3TA “21” 350

This is a beautiful restored motorcycle ready to ride and enjoy. Be quick for this, Square Fours are few and far between. This example is superb. VIN # TM483 $24,000

1969 BSA A75 ROCKET 3 750

This is a restored example of this very popular Triumph model. This motorcycle presents beautifully and runs and rides superbly. VIN # 3TA.H24980 $10,950

1962 TRIUMPH TIGER 100SS 500

This is a beautifully low mileage example of this awesome performance model. This bike has done only 4000 miles from new and been in long term storage. We have recommissioned the bike and redone the paintwork. The bike looks stunning from every angle. First one we have had available for a good while. VIN # NC00453.A75R $22,950

1960 ROYAL ENFIELD 700 CONSTELLATION

This is a beautiful restored example of this very hard to find model which came with the half bikini bathtub and the siamese pipes. A rare and interesting motorcycle. VIN # T100SS.H26885 $11,950

1959 VELOCETTE VENOM 500 IN THRUXTON TRIM A fabulous looking motorcycle with Thruxton Tank, Seat, Exhaust System and Rear Sets. Tank painted by Roy Bogner. A rare opportunity to get hold of a unique motorcycle that will turn hears everywhere you go. VIN # VM3711 $22,950

1968 TRIUMPH T120R 650 BONNEVILLE

This is an absolutely stunning restored motorcycle which looks fabulous from every angle. You will love owning this beauty. VIN # SB10535 $14,950

1964 TRIUMPH T120 BONNEVILLE 650 Here we have a very nice example of this great motorcycle. The early 1960 models are very hard to find. This is a matching number example and runs and rides superbly. VIN # T120.DU5909 $15,950

1965 ROYAL ENFIELD CONTINENTAL GT250

This is a very nice machine with matching numbers. The first of the twin leader brake models. Be quick for this. VIN # T120R.DU76824 $14,950

This is an immaculate motorcycle that runs and rides well. This was my dream bike when I was 16. These are hard to find and are rarely available. VIN # 71044 $12,950

1937 BSA EMPIRE STAR 500 This is a beautiful restored example of this very hard to find model. The Empire Star model is very sought after and this is the first one that we have found in many years. A rare motorcycle. VIN # H 23.1113 $22,950

1972 TRIUMPH T100R DAYTONA 500 This is a low mileage example in very fabulous condition. The Daytona is a great bike to ride and is as fast as most 650’s. Be quick for this one. VIN # T100R.GG58248 $10,950

1971 JUPITER 350 TWIN This Russian built motorcycle has been restored and runs and rides really well. These are an amazingly fast motorcycle and great value. VIN # A4589 $3,750

HONDA CL77 305 STREET SCRAMBLER This is a low mileage example that is perfect for an easy restoration or just tidy up and ride. These are a very sought after classic bike and excellent to ride. Be quick for this bargain. VIN # CL77-1047377 $3,950

1961 MATCHLESS G5 350 This is a low mileage bike that needs a good detail. Be quick for this great value Matchless. VIN # 61/G5.3005 $5,950

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TRAVEL MOVING NORTH

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Shaw WITH TOM SHAW

CLIMATE CHANGE

Y THE time you read this, the planet Earth will have moved on from its current position and the southern regions will be a little closer to the sun. At the moment, however, it feels a lot closer to the South Pole; the day started crisp and clear, like you see on Antarctic penguin documentaries. It’s freezing! I looked around outside, and could not find any degrees anywhere, not one. It may well have been in negative degree territory. That’s okay if one is in a nice, warm, cozy shed all rugged up, wearing a thermal beanie and you’ve got the wood burner roaring away in the corner and a shot of rum in the coffee. But it’s not so good when there’s no heat anywhere, everything liquid is frozen and you’re trying to pull a bike out with cold numb fingers. This was in stark contrast to two days previously, being in the tropics, visiting my Asian cousin, Rick Shaw. The upside to riding motorbikes in Southeast Asia is it’s always warm. Even when it rains, it’s warm. The downside is that there is only one road rule – biggest vehicle wins. It is possible to find real motorbikes in Southeast Asia these days, with Triumphs being increasingly common now that they are made in Thailand. These are known as Thaiumphs. And then there’re all those little road-racer replicas that generally have a lot of anodised bits, loud exhausts, extensive crash damage and a maximum of 150cc, as well as hordes of scooters. There were also lots of booters. You get a tank between your legs, the wheel/ tyre sizes are smaller and fatter than a motorbike but bigger than a scooter, there’s no clutch and sometimes not even any gears! A cross between a motorbike and a scooter is, therefore, a booter.

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I caught up with Rick in Burma. Burma used to have all these old British bikes left over from the 1940s, held together with fencing wire and electrical tape. They were the Burmese equivalent of Cuba’s old American cars. And then they have these shitty little Chinese jobs that are cheap to buy but don’t last long. Most prized are old Hondas, especially 125 singles, which are often pressed into service with a ‘si-ca’ (side-car), pushing a two-wheeled carriage from the steering head, or towing a cart full of vegetables, chickens or people. And what about all those foreigners getting around with shiny white bandages all over their knees and elbows, believing that because it’s warm it must also be a

“Oh great, they’re going to have to chop off my fingers from frostbite” good place to learn to ride a motorbike. All the locals do it! How hard can it be? About as hard as asphalt. There was that time with Rick in Cambodia, before it was a popular tourist destination and half the country was still littered with land mines. The trigger mechanism on most land mines is actuated by a spring, so depressing the trigger is not so much a problem as when pressure is released. The elapsed time between the spring-loaded cap returning and triggering the device can, like the ratio between blast radius and the speed of a motorcycle, be measured. The trick,

cousin Rick assured me, was to maintain a consistently high speed so as to ensure that by the time the spring had pushed the cap back to detonating position one had exited the blast radius. That’s clever, when it works. It’s like knowing the range of an AK47 is around 400 metres, as opposed to a Styer F88 (500m) or an M16 (600m), and then trying to guess how far away you are. Puffs of dust less than 50m away are a bad sign, especially if they’re from a Steyr as that usually means you are being shot at by fellow Australians! But I digress. Rick knew all the best spots, the border crossings where everything that was illegal was for sale. You can buy elephant tusks, opium, guns or snow leopard skins, but it’s forbidden to ride a bike over the border. Even border police have their limits. There are few things better than drinking rice whisky at a bamboo bar on a dirt road on the edge of nowhere, the sweat trickling down your back as sloeeyed maidens invite you to come hither. I was remembering this, on the frozen road, trying to distract myself from the disturbing sensation that pain had given way to no feeling at all. ‘Great!’ I thought. ‘They’re going to have to chop off my fingers from frostbite!’ I made it back to the shed, parked the bike, stoked up the big old pot-belly (and put wood on the fire), then drank a few glasses of anti-freeze as I reclined on an old couch admiring the glow of the fire reflected on the polished metal and hard paint. Shaking off the last of the chill, I thought, ‘Might be time to move north for the winter.’

THE NATIONAL MOTOR RACING MUSEUM CONTAINS AN ORIGINAL DISPLAY OF BIKES AND CARS The National Motor Racing Museum contains an original display of bikes and cars that have made their mark not only on Mount Panorama, but across all Australian Motorsport since 1914. The stories of Touring car, Formula, rally,

d Speedway S d i history hi t Motorcycle and racing are told through our many trophies, race suits, leathers, race footage and photographs. For full information visit www.nmrm.com.au or call 02 6332 1872

THE NATIONAL MOTOR RACING MUSEUM Open 9.00am till 4.30pm every day | Phone: 02 6332 1872 Fax: 02 6332 3349 Located beside the track at: 400 Panorama Avenue, Mount Panorama, BATHURST NSW 2795

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NEW BIKES STAR BOLT CAFE

THE GREAT PRETENDER The C-Spec Bolt combines cruiser comfort with cafe racer style WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY GEOFF SEDDON

HE Star Bolt is Yamaha’s take on Harley-Davidson’s cheap and cheerful 883 Sportster, and it immediately found a similar market amongst younger riders. For 2015, Yamaha has released its C-Spec (for Cafe) variant complete with clipons and rear-sets. It sounds daft but works so well I suspect we’ll soon see Harley return the shout with something similar. Other changes are limited to new tank graphics, R-Spec piggyback shocks as standard, fork gaiters and a cool rear solo seat cowl. Although the cowl is removable, there are no pillion pegs so she or he will have to buy their

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ISSUE #20

own bike. Relative to the low seat, the clip-ons are set high and wide, with the reach more akin to a sports tourer than a sports bike. One could say much the same about the placement of foot pegs; I spent the ﬁrst few rides instinctively looking for them further back, but came to like the gentler knee bend of the Cafe’s compromise position as the test continued. It’s more comfortable than it looks and much better suited for touring speeds than its cruiser-specced sibling, aided by a big highmounted headlight which provides some wind protection. Yet there’s enough leverage and control in the bars for city work too.

The engine is an air-cooled 942cc 60-degree V-twin, SOHC with four-valves per cylinder and fuel injected. Maximum horsepower is modest at 52hp, but it makes a mountain of torque from low revs and is spritely enough, especially around town. Gearing feels fairly short, although it’s hard to know without a tacho which wasn’t otherwise missed. Out and about, it’s a lot like riding an old English twin; whack it into top gear at the end of the driveway and leave it there until you stop for fuel. Engine braking is intuitive and it was rare that I had much call for brakes outside of town. It’s a soulful engine for sure, as you’d expect from its speciﬁcations, very smooth and would sound even better with a sportier muﬄer. Engine performance is well-matched to the chassis, brakes and suspension. The Cafe is a weighty bugger at 251kg wet, with a lengthy wheelbase of 1570mm, so stability is its strong suit. Suspension performance is pretty good for the most part; bumps will have it moving about if the pace is too hot, although that long lazy wheelbase tends to keep everything on track. Steering is slow but sweet with a skinny 19-inch tyre up front, and the riding position encourages the rider to have a go in

“IT GAVE ME THE IMPRESSION OF GOING FASTER THAN I ACTUALLY WAS, IN A GOOD WAY”

the twisties, albeit at speeds well below sports bike pace. I had a ball punting it along smooth winding roads, including getting the pegs down in the slower sections which is always a lot of fun. It gave me the impression of going faster than I actually was, in a good way, a feeling riders of older bikes know well. Similarly, it was happiest at speeds around the speed limit out on the open road; the suspension works well and the engine is primed for overtaking grunt. Brakes are not overly powerful which perfectly suits its urban profile, but still way better than most of the classic stuff. The riding position is perfect, just the right amount of wind offsetting the forward lean, and it always feels and looks cool. I even dug up an open-face helmet and an old Brando jacket to complete the picture. The Cafe presents as an upmarket version of the Bolt, and to my eye looks less spindly and more purposeful, as different in appearance as it is to ride. So it’s good value for the extra $700 over the base model. It garnered a lot of interest during the test, including from older riders attracted to its minimalist old-school form, gentle power delivery and the absence of forward controls and high bars. Yet it would

equally make a great canvas for a hip urban custom, should that be your bent. Apart from the absence of engine clatter, the Cafe evokes much of the feeling of riding a classic bike but does it with a ﬁveyear unlimited-kilometre warranty. Likewise, it was refreshing to test a bike that gives its best without having to be ridden to licence-losing speeds.

Retro Specs ENGINE Air-cooled 60-degree four-stroke V-twin; 85 x 83mm for 942cc; SOHC, four valves per cylinder; 9.0:1 comp; fuel injection; five-speed gearbox, belt final drive; 52hp/38kW, 79Nm (rpm not specified) CHASSIS Twin-loop in tubular steel; 41mm conventional forks with 19in 12-spoke cast wheel and twin-piston sliding caliper on 298mm wave rotor; conventional swing arm with twin piggyback shocks, 16in 12-spoke wheel, single-piston caliper on 298mm wave rotor; Michelin Commander II tyres DIMENSIONS Wet weight 251kg; seat height 765mm; wheelbase 1570mm; fuel 12 litres BOTTOM LINE $12,699 plus orc; five-year, unlimited-km warranty

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RIDERS LIKE US LEVI JONES

MONKEY BUSINESS IT’S NOT THE SIZE THAT COUNTS BUT HOW YOU USE IT — WORDS & PHOTOS GEOFF SEDDON

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ISSUE #20

EVI JONES is a 37-year-old motorcycle, car and surfboard enthusiast from the NSW Central Coast who has discovered a newfound passion for the minibikes of his youth. So what are we looking at, Levi? “Honda Z50s. They originally came out with fold-down handlebars and a collapsible tartan seat so they could fit in a car boot. These bikes in stock form can all be registered, believe it or not. The unfinished bike is a 1967 Z50M; the first year they were sold to the public. The other two are early-70s Z50As but modified with the same wheels and forks as the first model.” How did they become known as monkey bikes? “They first appeared in 1961 as a ride at Honda’s Tama Tech amusement park. Because of their size, everyone riding them looked a bit simian and the name stuck.” What got you interested in building customs out of them? “As a kid I learned to ride on these sturdy little bikes and my old man being a keen collector never parted with any of them. So nearly 30 years later I dragged a few out and gave them stock restorations. The

bug hit pretty bad; after I restored all of Dad’s, the search was on for more! As the obsession grew, I started to think about customising them.”

ﬁnancially, so I lean towards the bikes these days, especially the minibikes. They take up minimal space and are a fraction of the cost of restoring a car.”

How many have you built so far? “Probably 20 or so over the last six years.”

How did you get into all this? “My old man, Mick Jones, has been pretty inﬂuential. He’s been building and racing bikes as long as I can remember. Growing up we were always building and modifying our own bikes.”

What do you do with them all? “I usually just build them and move them on; build and sell and build some more. I have a few rare ones that I'll always keep but space is limited. If I get my new shed, the hoarding will resume.”

“I like the idea of saving money by not paying other people to do stuﬀ ” What’s the appeal? “A large part of my daytime work is vintage surfboard restoration; I love bringing items back to their former glory. I’ve always got something on the go at home, whether it be cars or bikes. I recently completed a 10-year restoration of an HQ Monaro and am most of the way through a VG Valiant hardtop. The cars tend to slow me down time-wise and

Where do you find a monkey bike? “I generally find them locally. Forums are great but they do turn up on the usual auction sites. I’ve been hoarding frames and parts for years and am always on the search for more.” Are parts had to find? “Original parts are, and expensive. These bikes often had a hard life so most of the original road-going parts are generally missing or broken. Jaimie Dodds at Classic Honda 50s Australia has a great range of performance, repro and OEM parts. He is a wealth of information and a top bloke who’s always happy to help out with all things monkey bike. And Webike Japan has a huge range of aftermarket parts. “Jaimie also runs the MonkeyBikeOz forum, which has more than 1500 members, so the ISSUE #20

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Aussie monkey bike community is pretty strong and getting up there internationally.” Do you do all the work yourself? “Yeah, I do everything from engine rebuilds to paint. I like the idea of saving money by not paying other people to do stuff. It means more money for parts and more builds. I’ve kinda got them sussed by now, I’ve worked out what works and what doesn’t, so the builds generally go pretty smoothly.” Tell us about the black bike. “I started this build with just a cracked bare Z50A frame — which originally came with telescopic forks and eight-inch wheels — with the idea to build a drag-themed Z50Mstyle bike with five-inch wheels and 6.5-inch Dunlop go-kart tyres. I shortened the rear axle mounts to suit and fabricated the rigid front end. Guards are custom carbon-fibre Z50M cut down and painted to match the rising-sun theme on the tank. Paint is all base coat and 2K clear. “It has an engine from an Atomic YX160 pit bike; I bought it as an incomplete bike with the intention of using the engine down the track. It was in the corner of a mate’s bike shop and a quick yell to the owner and it was mine for $70. Most of these pit bike engines will bolt straight into Z50 frames and it’s common for guys to run them in street-going Zeds. Front wheel clearance is an issue, but with the rigid forks and smaller wheels, I had just enough.” 82

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We love the ape-hangers on the other custom; how apt for a monkey bike! “The handlebars are super-tall Minimoto items from Webike Japan, running the stocktype internal throttle. This is another latermodel take on the original Z50M: the colour scheme and seat trim are stock for 1967. It has a standard six-volt bottom end running a TB Parts 88cc big-bore kit with a 70cc Honda Dax head, heavy-duty clutch and high-volume oil pump. The exhaust is a custom I knocked up out of an old baseball bat.”

“It’s a potent combo for such a little rigid bike and can be a bit of a handful” And the white bike on the opening page? “It’s actually a rare genuine 1967 Z50M. I purchased it as a wreck and it had too many parts missing to make an original restoration feasible, but it’s mostly stock apart from the engine and low bars. “The frame needed some major surgery, the whole backbone had to be replaced by my good mate BA. The original cases now hold a TB Parts stroker crank and 52mm piston, upping the capacity to 108 and topped oﬀ with a TB race head. It’s a pretty potent combo for such a little rigid bike and can be a bit of a handful.

“It’s been a long-term project, this one. It really needs a nice custom pipe but I haven’t decided on anything yet, so I’ll just wait till my interest gets sparked.” What’s next? “I have a 16-month-old boy so I probably should start thinking about bikes for him. I have an idea for an army-themed sidecar for the missus and little fella, and maybe a bike for camping trips with fat wheels, racks and rod holders. It really is limitless what can be done with them. There’s also an S-series Val and a Chrysler Royal hearse when we get the time.” Apart from reliving your youth, what is it you like most about monkey bikes? “I don’t know where to start, I love all the diﬀerent models and styles, and I love the classic Japanese engineering; they’re really well made. Apart from changing to 12-volt, the engines today are basically the same as the 1967 original. They’re just great little bikes that can be enjoyed by everyone.” And what don’t you like? “You can never just have one! They are very addictive.”

THANKS to Damon Robbins at D&C Motorcycles in Chittaway, NSW, for the use of his workshop for the photos.

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HELMETLOK IT isn’t until you have knocked your helmet off your bike seat or returned to your bike to ﬁnd your helmet missing that you realise how handy this gadget is. Made from aluminum with a zinc alloy locking mechanism that requires a four digit code, the Helmetlok is wide enough ﬁt around the thickest Harley frame (1.5” or 38mm) with ease! Helmetlok $29.95, optional cable $6.95 www.proaccessories.com.au

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PRESTON GLOVES HELD Preston is a classic-style glove made from goatskin. Unlined with an elastic band on the wrist, this glove is perfect for warmer temperatures. $70 www.heldaustralia.com.au

TANGLES' WORKSHOP TOURING PREP

If it’s a bigger trip, treat the old girl to a full service, including fresh oil and ﬁlters

Well-oiled cables lead to smooth operation and less chance of failure

ROAD TRIPPING Older bikes make great tourers provided they are prepared for the task WORDS & PHOTOS STUART 'TANGLES' GARRARD

MOTORCYCLE trip with mates must be one of life’s best experiences. I have done many over the years, experiencing just about all the highs and lows. As I sit here in the workshop, I reflect on how important it is to prepare both bike and rider for such adventures. Some blokes will fill the tank, throw 15kg of gear on the back and blat off into the unknown. They may get away with it, but if not, a ruined trip will surely be the result. A checklist for preparing your bike is a great idea. Modern bikes don’t need as much care as the classics with their fuel injection, belt and shaft drives and so on, but there are still important checks to be made. As I’m currently riding the big old Honda Four, I will set out my preparation and draw parallels to the more recent bikes. We all know how important tyres are. They are probably the most critical feature to be aware of, not only for tripping, but everyday stuff. Tyre condition and tread wear should be constantly monitored. Slick might be good in the dry, but deadly when it rains! Choice of

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tyre brands and styles is huge; I start with the recommendation of the bike manufacturer and take it from there. I just ﬁtted a set of Dunlop StreetSmart Arrowmax to the Honda, after not being able to get an original K81 TT100 in a 17-inch size for the rear. Tyre pressures are set cold to the recommended pressures,

“Riding solo has its place but there is mateship and safety in numbers” remembering that if you are carrying luggage or a pillion, they will change significantly from your everyday settings. As with most things, your owner’s manual is a good place to find the right answers. A thorough bike service is a must. As they say, oil is cheap! If I’m going on a long trip I will actually do an extra service with new oil and filter, and check the brake reservoir levels.

Tangles adds a lead-substitute additive to lubricate the valves and seats

Ditto the radiator when I used to own a watercooled engine. While doing this, I also check for possible leaking master cylinders, hoses and brake lines. I’m a big fan of stone guards to protect the radiators on water-cooled engines. A rock through the cooling ﬁns will bring you to a very quick stop. They aren’t hard to make yourself if you do your biking on a budget. Next up, I lubricate all the moving bits like levers, pedals, stands and cables. There is a great little gadget available called a cable luber; it’s cheap and really works, check it out. If you get your bike serviced at the local bike shop, check that all this is done when you get it back. Drive chain tension should then be checked and adjusted; a rule of thumb is about 25mm of slack. Chain lubrication is a must. Some think that with the introduction of O-ring chains, maintenance is no longer necessary. Wrong. Chain lubrication keeps the O-rings moist and pliable, and also protects the sprockets. There will also be things to check speciﬁc to your machine. Seddo tells me the fairingmounted mirrors on his Ducati have a habit of vibrating loose at touring speeds so he gives them an extra nip before he leaves home. On his Norton, it’s the notorious exhaust lock rings. Finally, we get to the good part, the trip itself. Riding solo has its place but I reckon group riding has so much more going for it.

Drive chain should be lubricated and adjusted to manufacturer’s speciﬁcations

OEM tool kits are just the kit for older bikes; everything you need bar major hiccups

There is mateship and safety in numbers. Incidents will occur sure as eggs, so having someone to share it with and being prepared is the key to a successful time away. A few simple tools and bits will come in handy. Fuses and a roll of electrical tape are a good idea, especially on the older bikes. All bikes should carry a basic tool kit but a few extra special or more substantial tools will also come in useful, the carrying of which can be shared by all riders. No point in having 10 of everything; a simple chat with the mates beforehand can work out who brings what. A ﬂat tyre is always on the cards. Most modern bikes run tubeless tyres and there is a choice of repair kits out there. They basically have a tool for inserting a rubber plug and capsules for putting enough air in, so you’ll also be wanting an accurate tyre gauge. I have some mates who carry a tiny 12v air compressor, a fantastic idea if someone has the room. Tubed tyres are more problematic; if everyone is running laced rims, tyre levers, patches, some spare tubes and a pump could be shared. There is also a range of aerosol puncture stuﬀ for tubed tyres, just make sure you don’t store it near your exhaust as I once did on my Yamaha and had it explode! Same goes for the shared can of chain lube. If the trip is over some days and involves wet

weather, chains will quickly become dry and wear prematurely. We also carry a stick of steel putty; it works a treat in patching leaks. A basic first aid kit makes sense, although I remember once using the tweezers from a Leatherman to extract a bee sting from my face. And make sure someone packs a good selection of cable ties in different sizes. They take up no room and have a thousand uses, from replacing lost bolts to repairing broken luggage racks. There is any number of options for carrying luggage, dependant on how far and how often you travel, and of course the style of bike you ride. Panniers, top boxes and Venturastyle systems all require fitting of specialist subframes, while saddle bags, tank bags and seat bags strap on to pretty much anything. I was joking before about 15kg of luggage; you don’t need anywhere near that much and as I get older, I carry less and less. Now that I’m touring on a classic bike, I go for a Kriega seat bag system; it is simple to attach, neat, big enough and fully waterproof. Talking of rain, I’ve also simplified my wet weather preparation. Oversuits keep you dry but are bulky to carry and can be a bugger to put on. I use an all-weather jacket coated liberally with Scotchguard water repellant and carry just a pair of plastic rain trousers, which seem to work fine most of the time.

If you do your touring solo, seat bags are a great alternative. You don’t need to carry much

A major mechanical breakdown will sadly end the trip but there are still measures that can ease the burden. Some larger groups of riders tour with a support vehicle and trailer while for the rest of us membership of a road service organisation is well worth considering; you’ll only need to use it once to make the cost worthwhile. Lastly, for those who are tech savvy, there are some great safety innovations coming on the market. One is what they call ‘ICE’ stickers for your helmet, which when scanned reveal your personal and medical information. Another is a gadget that, should you fall off, automatically sends a text message for help that includes your GPS coordinates. If that sounds like overkill, there have been many instances when a lone rider has crashed and ended up with his or her bike in the mulga with no-one else the wiser. One recent incident involved a slower rider who crashed trying to catch up; it took a while for the rest of the crew to realise he was missing, and even longer to find him. I’m more of a carburettor and points kinda guy, but at least make sure everyone on the ride has the mobile phone number of every other rider. We also regroup at every turn-off or major intersection, which helps us to keep tabs on one another. And that’s about it. Ride safe until next time.

Sydney Authorised Dealer of

GT CONTINENTAL 95-97 Princes Highway St Peters NSW 2044

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Also: Lewis Leathers, Stagg Leather, Halcyon Goggles, Ace café merch, Rossi Boots, White Silk Scarves etc and MORE! ISSUE #20

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LL CA A W E N E D For your man shed R in 2016 SUBSCRIBE

FEATURES •Model Descriptions •Australian Public Holidays •Australian Pension Dates •Australian School Holidays •18-Month Calendar •Five BONUS Gift Cards

1971

NORTON CAFÉ RACE

FEATHERBED CUSTOM COMMANDO 750CC

This 1971 Norton Café Race, Featherbed Custom Commando 750cc has been hand built by inserting a 750cc Commando competition motor into a “classic” featherbed frame, with a belt drive. Both the motor, frame, brakes and electrics have been extensively modified including an electric start conversion and a GPS speedo. This Norton is registered able to be ridden and sounds amazing when the explosive engine comes to life winding through country roads.

JANUARY MON

TUE

WED

Day After New Year’s day observance (NZ)

THU

FRI

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SUN

New Year’s Day

Day After New Year’s Day (NZ)

Devonport Cup (Tas) (not statewide)

MV Agusta 350 Electronica

January MON

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PHOTOGRAPHY: JP Media The MV Elettronica was a 349cc OHV four-stroke that used the engine as a stressed member of the frame. It was produced from the early 1970s by MV and despite using an older engine that MV had been building for many years, the bike used 12V electrics and had an electronic ignition. It was available in two variations, Sport (shown) or GT. The styling borrowed heavily from MV’s racing heritage with cafe racer style ‘bars, a hard-edged and squared fuel tank, and a racing riding position. The bike had a top speed of 160km/h. The engine produced 27-horsepower at 7600rpm and ran twin 24mm carburettors, a wet sump, ﬁve-speed gearbox and hydraulic suspension front and rear. There is one know 250cc model in existence, owned by a collector in Sydney.

WED

Day After New Year’s day observance (NZ)

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PROJECT BIKES STUART'S HONDA

RETRO SPECS MAKE: Honda MODEL: CB750K7 YEAR: 1978 SPECIAL THANKS: Will Ireland, Shamrock Motorcycles Tom Moss Engine Centre Pud’s Four Parts Old racing mate

If you’ve ever wondered what lies under your rocker cover, this is a Honda Four cylinder head in all its naked much-used glory

OVERHAULIN’ An engine teardown exposes unwanted surprises and prompts a big-bore performance upgrade WORDS & PHOTOS STUART GARRARD

S GOOD as the shakedown trip with JB was, it did highlight that the restoration of the K7 was far from over. What started the ball rolling was excessive use of oil; 1500ml in 2500km, but not a hint of an engine oil leak and no blue smoke. I also had a gut feeling that performance could be a lot better, eventually conﬁrmed when a more accurate compression test showed up really bad results; 125psi in No.1, 85 in No. 2, 105 in No. 3 and 115 in No. 4. So without much persuasion at all, a topend rebuild was planned. An old racing mate recommended Will Ireland from Shamrock

Motorcycles (0423 801 066) in the NSW Southern Highlands to do the work, which would include cylinder honing, new rings, lapping the valves and fitting a new camchain and tensioning gear. Of course the motor had to come out of the frame, a job I also left to Will. Once on the bench, I looked on as the head and barrels came off. Our first observation was that the oil ring in No. 2 was broken, which we guessed solved much of the mystery of the missing oil. And so much for my standard engine; I thought it had never been touched but a piston measurement of 61.5mm indicated second oversize. A professional

The engine is a tight ﬁt in the frame, which is why Stuart farmed the job out after ﬁrst removing carburettors and exhaust at home

This shot shows camshaft and rockers removed. All were in perfectly good shape to reuse

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guess is that the oil ring was broken when the barrels were put back on. The inlet valves were fine. Exhaust valves looked okay but had excessive wear. This is common as exhaust valves run hotter than the inlets. The camshaft showed only a minute amount of wear on one lobe, so was fine to reuse. Back to the drawing board, a new plan was soon hatched after consultation with old racing mate and Pud’s Four Parts in Victoria. A Wiseco forged piston kit would be installed, increasing the capacity to 836cc, along with new exhaust valves and guides in the head. Tom Moss Engine Centre in Goulburn handled the machining and head rebuild, while also bead-blasting the barrels, head and rocker cover. With all this going on, it was time for me to do a bit at home, starting with the carburettors, so kits and jets were duly sourced. The fuel bowls were removed and surprisingly contained very little sediment. What was obvious was that the float heights were all over the place. When I replaced the

Removal of head and barrels exposed a broken oil ring on no 2. Pistons were already second oversize, prompting a big-bore kit

This shot shows cylinder barrels before being sent away for sandblasting and machining

Bore grinding is done in stages to prevent cylinder liners from spinning

The cylinder head, viewed here from underneath, was also despatched for an overhaul

float needles, the levels looked just so much better, which shows that the tension on the float needles can really sag with age. Much research finally gave the correct float height measurement, which was accurately set using a Vernier caliper. The accelerator pump was renewed due to wear, and its associated O-rings replaced due to their absence. The main jets were the correct size, 115, which I replaced with 125s to better feed the bigger engine. Idle screws were replaced and set at 2 1/4 turns out. When all the passageways and bodies were cleaned and checked, the rest of the kit was installed and a fine set of rebuilt carbies the satisfying result. Now for the air box, a highly underrated component. Some think you can just replace it with anything that looks cooler, but there’s a bit more to it than that if you don’t know what you’re doing. The K7 box comprises two chambers running at different air pressures, separated by a rubber gasket which had been reduced here to a gooey mess due to petrol fumes and age. The box was cleaned, a

new air ﬁlter and gasket installed and it was literally as good as new. At this point in time I was reminded that bike restoration is a journey, a process of learning, patience, frustration and joy. I was waiting by the phone for the call from Will saying come and get it, but when he did ring, all was not good. The cut outs in the head gasket were not big enough to go over the four dowel seals. Work ground to a halt until the problem could be solved. Was the gasket wrong? Were the barrels not standard? Online research indicated the Wiseco head gasket was the correct one and engine identiﬁcation numbers matched. The man with the answer was Puds. “Just remove the dowel seals and slap the gasket on,” he said, there would still be enough space for the oil to gravity return. He also advised use of Hylomar gasket spray, and work continued. The big-bore kit also made putting the barrels on a tedious two-man procedure. With the sleeves ending up so thin after boring, a chamfer cannot be done to assist the

rings entering the bore, so it was all down to patience, teamwork and paddle pop sticks to get the job done. Again a call came. Yes, the engine was running but fuel was leaking from the joint tube O-rings in No. 1 and most of the bowl seals. Luckily I had the parts required left over from the carby overhaul. Finally the engine was running to Will’s satisfaction and a test ride proved all is fine. “It actually feels like a brand new bike,” he told me. “A pleasure to ride.” I picked it up and couldn’t believe how sweet the engine sounded, so different to before. Of course the engine needed to be run in and Will wanted the bike back in a few weeks for final checks, and possible re-jetting as he thought it was running a little lean in the mid-range. A few days later a couple of the Bundy lads were heading to the Snowy for an early winter three-day ride. I did a quick 500km, changed the oil and filter, checked over the whole bike and joined them. Luck was on side weatherwise, blue skies the whole way. Temperatures

Original inlet valves were reused after grinding the faces to match the seats

Cylinder head was refurbished by Tom Moss Engines Centre and is shown here ready for reassembly

Resurfacing the cylinder block to ensure a perfect match with the head

Each cylinder was honed for a criss-cross surface so that the rings bed in and make a perfect seal

That’s the barrels done and dusted too. Almost time for reassembly!

Always worth replacing the camchain and tensioner on any OHC engine while it’s in bits

ISSUE #20

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Ooh, shiny! 65mm forged Wiseco pistons feature valve cutouts and take capacity to 836cc

Getting the barrels over the pistons and rings was a chore. Note new camchain tensioner in the middle

Will Ireland then ﬁtted new exhaust valves and reground inlet valves

Original valve springs were tested and reused

On the home straight now! New camchain slips over the original single overhead camshaft …

… followed by the rocker arms, by which the cam lobes open the valves

Meanwhile, Tangles has sourced a kit to refurbish his carburetors at home

Float needles were replaced, and ﬂoat height set accurately on the bench with a vernier caliper

Main jets were bumped up from 115s to 125s (and later 135s) to account for the extra capacity

were chilly with ice on the ground and snow on the hilltops, dialing up plenty of magniﬁcent scenery and challenging riding conditions as we traversed the high country to the coast. By the end of the 1100km trip I was well accustomed to the new performance of the bike, which was an incredible improvement on before. Back in the workshop, we addressed plugs that had a lean look to them and also a hesitation in the mid-range power.

We installed 135 main jets, checked synchronisation and valve clearances, and went for a test run. The mid-range to top end was much more responsive and the idle was sweet, but there was still a hint of hesitation. Will guessed an electrical problem and sure enough, on inspection the No.1 high-tension lead was loose in the plug cap. A quick ﬁx and a big girl was going like a rocket! A plug chop showed it was maybe a whisker rich but very close to the money.

So the journey continues and it seems logical to bring the ﬁnal stage of the restoration to the fore. With all the leads and plug caps looking pretty ordinary, I will proceed to replace them and the coils, and also ditch the points system for a CDI unit. I have enjoyed the year-long journey of restoration that has produced a classic bike for everyday use, and brings back fond memories to many who see her.

Tangles recommends you stick with your standard airbox, rather than be tempted by pods and such

Engine is then reinstalled in the frame. Sounds easy and on many bikes it is, but not CB750s

The fun part is then attaching exhausts, carburettors and all the rest, then hoping she starts ﬁrst stab!

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I RECKON I might own the best condition, most original CX500 in the world. I purchased it as my LAMS bike in 2008 from the original owner who had mothballed it in his lounge room in 1983. It had seen just 18 months of use and clocked up 12,000km; I put on another 10,000km. It is currently on loan to the National Motor Museum in Birdwood, where I took Len, the original owner, up to see it on display. Riding pillion on my Valkyrie, it was his ﬁrst time on a bike in 30 years! He was chuﬀed. Mark Munchenberg

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YELLA TERRA YOUR report on Lake Gairdner Speed Week reﬂected the spirit of the bike scene there with lots of vintage and classic bikes. Oh, and my retro ’69 CB750 Honda that you missed! The noise, speed and good company keep me going back every year. I have also found the best way to deal with the remote camping conditions – beer to wash the ﬂies down. Mark Johnson

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RISKY BUSINESS I LIKED Jimmi Walker’s column and his take on kids today getting cotton-woolled. I’m gratiﬁed our eldest son ticked all Jimmi’s boxes in becoming an able motorcycle engineer while learning to ride bikes skillfully on exactly the same ‘here’s the keys’ basis. His younger brother became an army oﬃcer after turning down a career as a pro rugby player. It’s a real worry that kids today aren’t in general presented with the same challenges. Alan Knight

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