Table of contents for RCBE #31 WINTER 2018 in Retrobike

ENGINE Liquid-cooled four-stroke single; SOHC, four valves; 95 x 72mm for 510cc; 11.9:1 comp; Keihin FCR41 carb feeding Aisin AMR300 supercharger; custom manifold and exhaust; digital ignition, total loss; foot-operated clutch and six-speed hand-shift gearbox; chain final drive; 85hp CHASSIS Single-loop main frame in tubular chromoly steel; custom reverse springer forks; rigid rear; single foot brake on transmission; custom hubs; vintage tyres BODYWORK Hand-shaped aluminium fuel and coolant tanks; aluminium mudguard; sprung walnut seat BEST Perfect style, innovative engineering, fun to ride NOT SO GREAT Are you nuts? The man is a genius…

ENGINE Air-cooled inline six-cylinder four-stroke; chain-driven DOHC, four valves per cylinder; 64.5 x 53.4mm for 1047cc; 9.3:1 comp; 6 x 28mm Keihin CV carbs; Mark Tronics ignition; twin 3-into-1 headers with Laser mufflers; Morse chain primary drive to wet clutch and five-speed gearbox; chain final drive; 104rwhp @ 8500rpm (measured) CHASSIS Twin-spar design in chrome-moly tubular steel; 43mm WP inverted forks, 2 x 330mm Nissin rotors with six-piston calipers on 3.5 x 17in cast wheel; chrome-moly swingarm with rising-rate link to WP monoshock, 280mm Nissin rotor and twin-piston caliper on 5.5 x 17in cast wheel; Metzeler Rennsport tyres DIMENSIONS Wheelbase 1535mm; weight 225kg (oil, no fuel); fuel capacity 20 litres BEST Perfect pedigree, magic motor, eye-catching finish NOT SO GREAT Chasing girls in traffic…

ENGINE Air-cooled four-stroke 90-degree V-twin; belt-driven SOHC with four valves per cylinder; 95.25 x 70mm for 999cc; 11.25:1 comp; 2 x 41.5mm Mikuni flat-slides; Dyna S/Raceco CDI; single-plate clutch to five-speed gearbox and shaft final drive CHASSIS Square-section chrome-moly backbone frame with aluminium side plates; Marzocchi M1R forks with fully adjustable external Koni F1 damper, 2 x 300mm Brembo cast-iron rotors with four-spot calipers on 3.5 x 17in Marvic wheel; cantilever-style swingarm and Koni F1 mono-shock, single 230mm Brembo rotor with twin-piston caliper and 5.5 x 17in Marvic wheel DIMENSIONS/PERFORMANCE Wheelbase 1460mm; wet weight (no fuel) 158kg; 115hp @ 9300rpm; top speed 166mph (Daytona, 1989) BEST The most successful Guzzi racer of the last 60 years NOT SO GREAT The street version never really took off…

ENGINE Liquid-cooled inline four; DOHC, two valves per cylinder; 67 x 70mm for 987cc; 10.2:1 comp; Bosch LE Jetronic fuel injection; electronic ignition; custom exhaust; dry single-plate clutch to five-speed gearbox; shaft final drive; 90hp @ 8000rpm (stock) CHASSIS Tubular space frame with engine suspended underneath; modified seat subframe; conventional telescopic forks with 2 x 285mm discs and twin-piston calipers on 2.5 x 18in cast wheel; single-sided swingarm with single 285mm disc and single-piston caliper on 2.75 x 17in cast wheel BODYWORK BMW K75 fuel tank; bikini fairing and seat unit by Cardsharper Customs DIMENSIONS Wheelbase 1516mm; wet weight 239kg (stock; this one would be quite a bit lighter); fuel capacity 21 litres BEST A silk purse made from a sow’s ear NOT SO GREAT We don’t own it…

RANTON GLOVES RANTON is a glove our forefathers probably dreamed about! Constructed from genuine Scottish waxed cotton and reinforced with leather protection on the palms and fingertips and semi rigid knuckle protection. $119.95 linkint.com.au/merlin.html MOTUL PERFECT LEATHER CLEANSES, nourishes, revives and protects all types of leathers. $13.90 linkint.com.au/motul-oils.html LUXE BEARD DUO KIT IF you cultivate the face fluff, then you owe it to yourself to look after it. The Bearded Chap products are Australian made and 100% natural. Ditch the itchiness and beardruff for good! The Duo includes beard wash and oil. $89.95 thebeardedchap.com DRAGGIN JEANS NEXT GEN NO one wants to slide down the tar, but if you do it’s comforting to know you have 75m of slide time built into your jeans!…

ENGINE TYPE Liquid-cooled SOHC eight-valve parallel twin with offset 270-degree crank POWER/TORQUE 76hp @ 6100rpm; 106Nm @ 4000rpm CAPACITY 97.6 x 80mm for 1200cc COMPRESSION RATIO 10.0:1 INDUCTION Sequential EFI; dual 44mm throttle bodies CLUTCH Wet, multi-plate, with torque assist GEARBOX Six-speed FINAL DRIVE Chain CHASSIS Tubular-steel twin-cradle main frame with cantilever swingarm UP FRONT 41mm conventional fork, nonadjustable, 90mm travel; twin 310 rotors with Brembo twin-sliding-piston calipers; 2.5 x 16in laced alloy rim with 130/90 Avon Cobra tyre DOWN BACK KYB monoshock adjustable for preload, 73mm travel; single 255mm rotor with Nissin single-piston caliper; 3.5 x 16in laced alloy rim with 150/80 Avon Cobra tyre SEAT HEIGHT 705mm DRY WEIGHT 245kg FUEL CAPACITY 12 litres WARRANTY Two years, unlimited km PRICE $21,500 ride away CONTACT triumphmotorcycles.com.au…

TRAVELLERS on the long overland route across Australia were amazed to see a girl, travelling alone on a high-powered motor cycle, flash past them with a cheery wave,” reported People magazine in April 1951. “The lone rider was Winifred Wells, of Derby Road, Shinton Park, spending three weeks' holiday by travelling 5505 miles from her home city of Perth to Sydney and back.” Setting her sights on an unimaginable journey across the Nullarbor Plain, Winifred was well and truly prepared, defying the many naysayers who told the 21-year-old she couldn’t do it. Winifred was 11 years old when she decided that she wanted a motorbike. Her parents laughed at the idea and only commented, “later dear”. But she was determined and when old enough she gained her motorcycle licence and…

HOLLAND’S Nico Bakker is the couturier of chassis builders, the welding wizard who’s the man to consult when you want a high-class piece of hardware to wrap around a motor to create a unique bike that handles well and looks the business. So when one of his countrymen who prefers to remain nameless — we’ll call him Dutchy — decided he wanted to combine his passion for Honda CBXs and modern-day streetfighters, there was only one man to turn to. “My love affair for the six-cylinder Honda started when I was 10 years old,” says Dutchy, now in his early 40s. “I was walking with my mum in town and I saw a CBX at a traffi c light with the engine burbling away on idle. It had a six-into-one…

PAUL Smart and Bruno Spaggiari were two of four riders contracted by Ducati to race an untried F750 racer in the 1972 Imola 200. The race bikes were based on the new 750 GT road bike but fitted with desmodromic valve-trains and tuned to suit. “They built 10 of them — two each for all four riders — plus two spares,” Smart says, along with a special glass-sided bus to transport them in. “That’s when I realised this was a very serious venture, by a company that was determined to win.” The brand-new bikes were rockets. Smart and Spaggiari qualified fastest, ahead of Giacomo Agostini on a works 750cc MV Agusta. The MV was quick but all over the track, while the Ducatis handled like they were on rails. Smart…

POLLOCK is a big fan of the modern Hinckley Triumphs too, in particular the carburetted 790cc and 865cc twins made between 2001 and 2007. There are a million of them out there, with plenty of good ones around for sensible prices. The later fuel-injected versions with in-tank fuel pumps tend to limit the options for customisation. “In my little world of building street trackers, Triumphs are a good bike because they come in at a good price point, they’re a lot lighter and cheaper than Sportsters and will make almost as much power,” he told motorcyclecruiser.com. “Most importantly, everything you throw at them makes them lighter, faster and handle better. They absorb every modification you can throw at them. So when you throw a pair of shocks or bars or…

1903 William S Harley and Arthur Davidson build their first bike. Arthur’s brother Walter joins soon after 1907 William A Davidson (brother to Arthur and Walter) joins the party and the Harley-Davidson Motor Co is incorporated 1911 The game-changing inlet-over-exhaust F-head engine is introduced 1920 The factory produces over 28,000 bikes to make it the biggest motorcycle manufacturer in the world 1929 Harley’s first side-valve engine appears in the short-lived 750cc Model D 1933 Annual sales fall to 3700 units in the Great Depression 1936 The first overhead-valve engine is released in the 61EL model, initially as a 1000 and later as a 1200. It would eventually become known as the Knucklehead 1948 The OHV Panhead engine, so named for its rocker covers, replaces the Knucklehead 1949 Telescopic front forks…

TO LOOK at, Suzuki’s new SV650X isn’t the most in-your-face cafe racer on the market, but it impressed from the moment we fired it up. The clip-ons are in exactly the right place relative to the solo-style seat and slightly rear-set footpegs, and you sit low behind the tank. The bike is physically small and light and the engine has the correct number of cylinders. And as we soon found out, it also handles well, steers even better and goes like the clappers. This was my first ride on an SV650, which has been around in one form or another for most of the last 20 years. Maybe I should get out more. The engine is a liquid-cooled 90-degree V-twin with chain-driven DOHC and four valves per cylinder. It is,…

THE KTM was commissioned by Robert Haas for the Haas Moto Museum in Dallas, Texas. A former investment banker, the 70-year-old born-again biker has put together one of the most impressive motorcycle collections in the US in less than four years. Haas’s timing and passion for custom bikes was perfect for Max Hazan. “Bobby is the man who kept the doors open when I was literally one day away from going back to a full-time job three years ago,” Max told Bike Exif. Currently the Moto Museum owns five Hazans, the others being the Musket, a supercharged Ironhead Sportster, a BSA streamliner and Max’s very first custom that he built in his dad’s shed around a Honda generator motor in a pushbike frame. The Haas collection now totals around 150…

NICO Bakker set up his ‘bakery’ in 1976 to makes frames for TZ250/350 Yamahas. Early customers included Franco Uncini, Johnny Cecotto, Will Hartog and Takazumi Katayama, who rode his to the World 350GP Championship in 1977. “I was the first to fit monoshock rear suspension, which gave a big improvement in chassis behaviour, together with the better weight distribution and extra stiffness my frames had compared to the Japanese ones,” says Nico. He then turned his attention to the 500s, initially with RG500 Suzuki engines and later Honda RS500s. Katayama, by then a Honda factory rider, was allowed to run a Bakker frame after track testing proved its superiority. “The next version of the RS500 had the same geometry, same construction, same everything as my design,” Nico says. “But I…

LAKE Gairdner is roughly equidistant between Sydney and Perth, and 230km north-west of Port Augusta in SA. The last 160km is dirt. Facilities at the popular lakeside Salt Bush Camp are primitive albeit cheap at $7 a night, and there is a canteen serving hot meals and cold beer. Access to the lake is $30 for the week, and you can drive or ride onto it and park in dedicated spectator areas near the start line and pits. You’ll need a tarp on which to park your vehicle. Other requisites are sunscreen, a proper hat, powerful insect repellant and as much water as you can carry. Prospective competitors will find the DLRA Rule Book at www.dlra.org.au. Section 7 covers motorcycles with classes and records listed in Section 8. All bikes…

ENGINE Air-cooled four-stroke 90-degree V-twin; custom-profile SOHC driven by bevel gears; two valves per cylinder; custom one-piece plain-bearing crank, connecting rods and pistons; wet sump; 92mm x 80mm for 1063cc; 14:1 comp; 2 x 42mm Malossi carbs; Sachse ignition; two-into-one exhaust; straight-cut gear primary to five- or six-speed gearbox; chain final drive; 110hp CHASSIS Tubular steel frame with engine stressed; Ceriani forks with internal cartridge; Öhlins rear shocks; replica 18-inch Borrani rims; AP Lockheed front calipers; drum rear brake; Avon tyres DIMENSIONS Wheelbase 1500mm; weight 160kg (wet); fuel capacity, nine litres MORE INFO Go to www.bevelrubber.com.au or see Bevel Rubber on Facebook BEST Amazing hand-built motorcycle; eats Honda Fours for breakfast NOT SO GREAT Not cheap…

ENGINE Air-cooled four-stroke vertical twin; single camshaft, OHV, two per cylinder; 76 x 82mm for 744cc; 7.9:1 comp (stock); 2 x 34mm smoothbore Mikunis; electronic ignition; custom exhaust by Mark McDade; chain primary drive to wet clutch and five-speed gearbox; chain final drive CHASSIS Panther Racing flat-track chassis with modified seat loop; 43mm Buell conventional forks with Triumph brake on laced 19in wheel; braced Panther swingarm with Hagon shocks and single Brembo disc brake on laced 19in wheel; Goldentyre flat-track hoops BODYWORK Repro XR750 fuel tank from Storz Performance; seat by Ron Wood Racing and Saddlemen; Sportster headlight; LED rear light; paint by SBK Paint BEST Racing, posing, scratching NOT SO GREAT Not cheap; long waiting list…

A PROTOTYPE for a street-going replica of the Dr John race bike appeared at the Milan Show at the end of 1989, but the factory wasn’t able to get it into production until early 1992. By that time, Ducati had become a serial winner of the World Superbike Championship with its 888 desmoquattro and was selling spin-off street models by the container load. Consequently, the Moto Guzzi Daytona 1000 never received the acclaim it deserved. Just 486 examples were built in the model’s debut year, with numbers declining to 283 bikes in 1993, 155 in 1994, and just 100 motorcycles in 1995. In 1996 the greatly revamped Daytona RS was launched, but many Guzzi customers by now preferred the less-costly pushrod 1100 Sport model of near-comparable performance. Just 113 examples…

THE BMW K100 was the surprise release of 1983: the first large-capacity BMW production motorcycle that wasn’t powered by a boxer twin, and the first to boast four cylinders, overhead cams, fuel injection and liquid cooling. But rather than mounting the engine upright or close to upright, with the crankshaft running transversely across the frame (as was the norm with four-cylinder Japanese bikes of the time), the DOHC eight-valve straight-four engine lay on its side with the crankshaft running in line with the frame on the right-hand side and the cylinder head on the left. This layout facilitated the use of shaft final drive and kept the centre of gravity low, as on BMW’s traditional air-cooled OHV twins. It also allowed the engineers to borrow from BMW’s car division —…

PERIOD 1 Veteran, built before 1919; all but extinct on the race track PERIOD 2 Vintage, built between 1920 and 1945; some quick replica side-valves here PERIOD 3 Classic, from 1946 to 1962; includes all the usual British suspects PERIOD 4 Post Classic, from 1963 to 1972; Commandos, Honda Fours, air-cooled Japanese two-strokes PERIOD 5 Forgotten Era, from 1973 to 1982; Japanese and Italian air-cooled muscle bikes; liquid-cooled TZs and LCs PERIOD 6 New Era, from 1983 to 1990; Japanese liquid-cooled muscle bikes; early eight-valve Ducatis…

ENGINE Air-cooled four-stroke 45-degree V-twin; overhead inlet valve, side exhaust valve (IOE); 89 x 84mm for 989cc; single Schebler carburettor; magneto ignition; single speed with chain primary and final drives; clutch in rear hub; 8hp CHASSIS Single downtube rigid frame in tubular steel; dual-spring fork; rear coaster-style brake; sprung seat; 28 x 2.5in tyres DIMENSIONS Wheelbase 56.5in (1435mm); weight 142kg; fuel capacity 9.5 litres BEST From little things, big things grow NOT SO GREAT Could be a handful in modern traffic…

ENGINE TYPE Liquid-cooled four-stroke 90-degree V-twin; DOHC, four valves per cylinder; wet sump POWER/TORQUE 75hp @ 8500rpm; 64Nm @ 8100rpm CAPACITY 81 x 62.6mm for 645cc COMPRESSION RATIO 11.2:1 INDUCTION EFI, 39mm throttle-bodies TRANSMISSION Six-speed gearbox, chain final drive CHASSIS Tubular steel trellis frame UP FRONT 41mm conventional forks, adjustable for spring preload; 2 x twin-sliding-piston calipers on 290mm rotors; 3.5 x 17in cast wheel; ABS DOWN BACK Mono-shock rear, adjustable for spring preload; single-piston caliper on 240mm rotor; 5 x 17in cast wheel; ABS TYRES Dunlop Roadsmart III, 120/70 front and 160/60 rear WHEELBASE 1445mm CURB WEIGHT 198kg FUEL 14.5 litres WARRANTY Two years, unlimited km PRICE $9490 plus orc CONTACT suzukimotorcycles.com.au…

THIS feature is an edited extract from Fast Women, Pioneering Australian Motorcyclists by Sally-Anne Fowles. It covers the stories of a bunch of inspiring female enthusiasts, from travelling country music teacher Miss Jane Queain on her 2.75hp Douglas in 1913 to modern-day heroines including world land speed record holder Kim Krebs and international motocross champ Meghan ‘Mad Meg’ Rutledge. Some, like Winifred Wells, June Parker in the late 1940s and Linda Bootherstone-Bick from the 1960s on, were fearless adventurers. Others such as Evelyn Roberts in the 1920s and June Murray in the 1950s took on the boys in reliability trials, while Peggy Hyde smashed the gender barriers of road racing in the 1960s and '70s. None was short of courage and persistence in overcoming the hurdles of the times to…

RESTO MOD HOLY absolute shizzballs! That is one amazing build on the cover! Mike Wierobieg TONY Da Silva’s Honda CB750K4 brought back lots of memories, good and bad. I had a K2 with the 810 kit through it. It was a lovely ride until I centre-punched a car turning in front of me. Glen Jones TRUE COLOURS THANKS for the copy of Retrobike. As per your request, here are some photos of me with the bike and the magazine. I purchased the bike from Kris at Deep Creek Cycle Works last year at the London Bike Shed Show, and imported it into the UK (I live in Scotland). The bike gets nothing but compliments wherever I go. James Rollo MR SMITH I MET Peter Smith in 1992 or 1993 at…