Yes Emily

Yes Emily, girls can ride motorcycles!


Sunday, February 3, 2013


“Tour de Garages” - Post 3: The Matchless - They've come a long way ... baby!
 
 
 
Ken bought this motorcycle as a basket case with about half the parts in 1978. This project of love and perseverance started around 2001 and is today 100% restored. No wonder it's the pick of the litter.
 
 
Bob – you were very, very close. (And now I know what a compression lever is too!) According to Ken,“Matchless and AJS were essentially the same bike (like Chev/Pontiac or Plymouth/Dodge)," but, he says, "there was an essential difference between a 1950 Matchless and the same year AJS."
 
Ken’s Pick of the litter is a 1950 (British made) Matchless G80S - the "S" stands for rear suspension. Early bikes had no shocks but this one did (second thing I learned on this part of the tour - there are twin and mono shock styles of modern bikes.) Even with the addition of these new shocks this one must have been a rough ride with the "candle stick" design (notice how thin it is and how straight up and down.) The Matchless also had springs under the seat ... I expect they left them on to add comfort to the ride while the engineers figured out the bugs with the new shock design. They've come a long way ... baby!
 
 
 
 
Matchless mass produced these bikes post WWII as an afordable form of "family" transportation - just add a side car for Mom and the kids.
For Ken, it's his pick - for sentimental reasons.
Ken's tip (if you're planning to start a restoration project): "My friend Ron gave me the best advice before I started putting it together, he said, put the whole bike together in any way with all the old stuff you can find, then you can see the whole bike assembled and you can figure out what you need.”
 
And parking is a little tight ... but here's the next challenge .
 
You're kidding me ... this thing is how many CC's?
 

13 comments:

  1. Karen:

    My friend had a single cylinder XT500 and it had a compression release lever. You had to "kick" the starter slowly to bring the piston to TDC:Top Dead Center. There was a sight glass with a white mark on it. You had to align the white mark with the lever pulled in, then you released the lever and Kick down on the kickstart and hoped that it would start . . .

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast

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  2. Ah, ha - you had seen one before! I may be wrong (as I often am) but the compression lever on the Matchless seemed far less complicated - pull it in to make starting easier, almost impossible to start without (or so I hear.) ... but you didn't venture a guess on the next one, brand is fairly obvious so you gotta know it's a tricky one.

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    1. Karen:

      I know less about modern stuff but I was thinking of that classic RC50 or RC46

      bob
      Riding the Wet Coast

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    2. Bob, you guessed the first one, I'm still impressed.

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  3. All I can garner from the pic is Honda CBR - no guess on cc's or year.

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  4. I'm struggling with this one.....I think it's older than that Richard.

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    1. Coop - it's an '88 - it does look rather forward in design though doesn't it?

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  5. Karen:

    Sorry, my RC50 is a typo, it should read RC51. 1,000cc of pure racing power


    thanks
    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast

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    1. Bob, when I saw this bike up close and personal and Ken told me it was a 250 I called him a liar. It looked huge - then I saw the writing on the 'wall' 250! It's fast though, just like it's larger siblings!(Apparently my VStar has less horsepower and more torque ... I'm learning!)

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  6. This is a unique bike. Honda CBR I think we need more information on this motorcycle. Nice pictures.

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