RealClassic

Have you ever ridden a real, genuine, internationally successful competition Matchless? Frank Westworth has ridden several, strangely… It is all true. Despite an entire lifetime spent studiously avoiding anything to do with ‘competition’ in most of its sweaty, athletic forms, from time to time I have been forced to ride about on pukka competition machinery. I have no idea why…

Maligned by many, AJS and Matchless lightweights can be a lot of fun. Frank Westworth, no lightweight, tries to convince himself… My second bike was my first AJS. It was a 1948 Model 18 of fond memory, and although I have recaptured a Matchless G80 of similar scruffiness which has restored those fond memories to a large extent, I have…

Riding old bikes produces many wonderful moments. Frank Westworth dredges through his memory for some memorable AJS and Matchless rides… I accept at once that you ride your old motorcycle (perhaps it’s an AJS, or Matchless; no-one is entirely perfect) all over the place and at every available opportunity. In those distant days when the sun always shone, politicians told…

How do we define ourselves? By our jobs, the way we dress, or the music we like? By the bikes we ride or lust after? Episode two from Trevor Oz Brooks… In my younger days (sigh) I had a clear picture of who I was. I was Big Twin man, not Step-Thru boy, despite cutting my teeth on one of…

There came a point when both Panther and Ariel stopped building their traditional four-stroke motorcycles and switched over to two-stroke production. David Bullivant has a theory which explains why… In recent issues of the magazine, we enjoyed looking at a nice Villiers-powered Panther (in RC36) but it was not said why Panther went over to making two-strokes painted maroon in…

Do you prefer cappuccino, or is builder’s tea more your style? Rowena Hoseason wonders if there’s still room for all sorts in classic biking… Agent Orange, Frank’s foremost feline friend, doesn’t particularly appreciate me using this expression but I will risk catty wrath by saying it nonetheless: there are indeed many different ways to skin a cat. Take bike shops.…