Bristol Classic Motorcycle Show
The year’s British Classic Bike Show at the Bath & West Showground on February 24-25 was certainly a much-needed tonic after a long winter.
It was the 44th running of the show and, as ever, Mortons Events team pulled out all the stops to provide enthusiasts, club and stall-holders with a cracking social event to kick-start the year.
British Champion James Whitham took to the stage alongside Senior TT winner Steve Plater to share racing stories and banter – as well as joining the live fire up of race bikes.
The Dore & Rees, with over 100 classic and collectors’ motorcycles under the hammer was warmly received, but it was the sheer volume of rare and interesting bikes that grabbed the attention.
Here’s a look at some of the bikes that grabbed our attention…..
Grumph is a 350 Triumph twin engine in a Greeves frame. The owner bought the bike in 2008 as an abandoned project and finished the full restoration in 2017.
Rob Taylor’s clean 1960 Enfield Crusader trials iron
1964 600cc Matchton, owned by Dave Vaughan, has a lightweight Manx frame, Fontana 250mm front brake and Manx rear. Matchless motor now has five-speed box and Bob Newby clutch.
Rare Val Page-designed Triumph. This 250cc single was produced in 1935. Was voted best Pre-War bike in the show.
Pristine 1946 Harley EL 1060 Knucklehead was starring on the Charterhouse Auctioneers & Valuers site.
Georges Martin’s Moto Martin was to France, what Spondon and Harris Performance were to the UK. Martin fabricated lightweight chrome moly frame kits to harness Japanese multi horsepower in the 1970s. This six-cylinder street-fighting Moto Martin CBX was originally built in South Africa then imported to the UK by Cary Knapton of the Super Sport Shed.
Early, unrestored 1957 Honda ME250 ‘Dream’ owned by Andy Smith. This model was built two years before Honda starting exporting bikes to the UK. The four-speed, 13bhp OHC engine has a bore and stroke of 70mm x 64mm. There’s a pressed-steel backbone frame, leading link forks and swing-arm rear end.
Star of the show? 1300cc Panther v-twin café racer was built by Geoff Stray. Starting point though was a 1959 single-cylinder 650cc Model 120 Panther.
Selection of vintage sprinters of the National Sprint Association stand.
John Clarke’s Scott Flying Squirrel is of 1958 origin and therefore one of the ‘Birmingham Scotts’. When Scott went into liquidation the stock was bought by Scott enthusiast Matt Holder’s Aero Jig and Tool Company in Birmingham, who continued to build the same model from Shipley-made spare parts until 1960. Matt’s son David Holder continued to develop and produce one-off Scott motorcycles until 1978.
Another showstopper! John Lee’s Norvin was designed in 2020 by Gianluca Tiepolo of Stile Italiano. It’s a 1955 Vincent Rapide engine of 1140cc with Megacycle cams, Amal carbs, hand-made exhaust to Stile’s design, Bob Newby clutch and primary belt. The Norton Wideline frame is also from 1955, modified by Stile to give a lower centre of gravity. Forks are Ohlins FG9030 sitting in Ducati GT1000 triple clamps. Front brake is Smith Kanrin drum. Swing arm is Norton and the shocks are Ohlins. Alloy rims are 18” x 1.85” front and 18” x 2.50” rear. Voted ‘Best Non-Production’ bike at the show.
The BSA B40 Star was one of a batch purchased by the Home Office for the Civil Defence Corps and Auxiliary Fire Service in 1965, which were disbanded in 1968 and the bikes, which were largely unused, sold to the public at auction in the late 1960s and early 1970s. From 1965, B40F engines had the contact breakers moved from a mushroom-shaped distributor to a side plate.
1956 BSA Gold Star DB34 was exported to the BSA Incorporated in New Jersey, and used as a race bike for the first 50 plus years of its life by the same rider, Ed Sensenig who raced it up to 2010 when he retired in his late 70s. He originally raced it in AMA National events and later used it in the American Historic Motorcycle Association meetings. This bike formed part of an impressive Gold Star Owners Club stand turnout at Bristol.
Peter Dear’s impressive replica of a 1954 BSA A7SS-D Daytona racer built by Nick Simpson. In ’54, according to Don Emde in his excellent book ‘Daytona 200 – the History of America’s Premier Motorcycle Race’, BSA entered five bikes for the 200 miler that was still on the old 4.1mile Beach course, with four A7SS Star Twin models, one with a rigid frame for Hill and three swing-arm frames for Dick Klamfoth, Al Gunter and Kenny Eggers, plus a rigid-framed Gold Star for Tommy McDermott. In a field of 111 starters, BSA swept the first five with Bobby Hill winning the race, from Klamfoth, McDermott, Gunter and Eggars. rigid-framed A7SS.
David Gordon’s 1929 500cc Sunbeam 9/90 was built from an incomplete basket case circa 1991. When the John Greenwood-designed overhead valve Sunbeams appeared in 1924, the new 500 roadster was known as the Model 9 while its race bike counterpart, which could top 90mph, was accordingly designated the Model 90.
Steve Iles 1964 pre-unit 650cc Metisse Triumph is a new build, with the frame fabricated by the talented John Hands Racing (JHR).
Harley-Davidson Riders Club of Great Britain is celebrating its 75th Anniversary this year and put on a great and varied display of bikes at the Bristol Show including this military WLA and a 1942 WLC 750cc side-valve, which was in the hands of one owner for over 50s years, but had been stored for some 20 of them, bricked up in the back of a shed to avoid being a ‘recoverable asset’ in a marriage break-up. The current owner has restored the bike to its former glory but insists it’s still a ‘work-in progress’.
John Guy’s beautifully-restored 250cc Magnat Debon Model Pmuo was built in 1938.
This three-speed, hand-change, side-valve engine has a bore and stroke of 59mm x 90mm and is fed by an Amal carb. Magneto ignition has variable advance and retard. It has a non-cradle, tubular, brazed frame with a front end that features parallelogram type forks with a single compression spring, two adjustable shock absorbers, and a steering damper. Brakes are 130mm drums front and rear and wheel/tyres are 25: x 3”. The bike weighs 88kg and has a top speed potential of 55mph. Magnat-Debon was founded by Joseph Magnat and Louis Debon and originally based in Lyon, France before moving to Grenoble.