Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) The glory days of british motorbikes...

My very first ride on a motorcycle was on a Vincent, as a pillion as I was only 16. Until then my best was my Lambretta so quite a shock. I was a passenger in a mini when it had problems, we were in a small convoy and the only space was the pillion seat of the Vincent 1,000. I was totally unaware what it was….. I jumped on wearing my Parka and no helmet, no helmet law back then.

We headed up the Heads of the Valley road in Wales and a Bonneville pulled alongside rider almost laying on the tank. The guy who owned the Vincent was sat bolt upright and we were side by side around 90 when he started drumming his fingers on the tank, shook his head, kicked it into top and left the Bonny in his wake.

3 weeks later I part exchanged the Lambretta for a Honda 250.

BR
Colin

Here's my Norvin mocked up a while back. We've got almost everything where we want it to be and the engine has now gone off to be rebuilt.

Because I wanted a sports tourer rather than the more usual café racer I've caused myself no end of extra work. I've tried to keep the appearance as "period" as possible, hence no disc brakes. It does have an electric start though to make it more practical.

A Honda CB72? My second and third road bikes were Honda CB72 250 cc bikes.
I was at the Sydney distributors one day to buy some parts and discovered a section at the back of the catalogue that had all the "Club Racer" parts: clipons, rearsets, engine parts, curburettor jets, megaphones, and seat. I ordered nearly everything except parts not useful for road use and the close ratio gearbox. The only thing that did not arrive was the seat. I did not remove the lights and my excuse when pulled up for the noise was that the baffles had blown out and I had to fit new ones

Except for standard seat and the lights it was similar the one below. It would happily top the ton and could keep up with Triumph 650s when I was solo. The next model, the CB 250 did not handle anywhere near as well. CB72 and CB77 bikes are now much sort after for classic racing.


"The engine and various kit parts, which have part numbers starting with "CYB" and were delivered as a genuine Honda race kit to CB72, were mounted inside of the engine itself, the vehicle body, the underbody etc. of the vehicle. It was called "CYB72" and had shown stunning performances in the Clubman Races and the endurance races."
https://bhauction.com/en/result/suzuka-8-hourse-auction/lots/1964-honda-dream-super-sports-cyb72

My next bike after that was a rather special Ducati and I have stuck with Italian bikes ever since: Ducati, then Moto Guzzi and Gilera.

Lovely. My mate had a Yamaha RD350 with drum brakes & a bendy frame.

I had a Laverda 750SF2 for a number of years. Beautifully built, and the engine very much resembled the Honda CB72. Like a lot of bikes I’ve owned, I now wish I’d kept it.

Mine didn’t look as lovely as your bike. It was a low mileage 1967/8 model. It started me on the road of Honda ownership and within 6 years I moved on to a CB450 then a CB750 until I hit a truck head on and spent the next year in hospital being put back together and learning to walk again.

After my mother banned motorbikes I started rallying and that lasted until I bought the first Harley as a 40th present to myself 😂.

BR
Colin

Oh. I forgot the Benelli Sei and the 2 Laverdas triples, an RGS and an RGA Jota SFC replica.




I tried a Laverda 750 SF but I did not like the way it felt, sort of heavy and wooden.



Oh! And how could I forget the Moto Morini 500 Spert. A copy of the ducktail decal lives on the bonnet of the Plus 4.

Lucky people. A mate had a Benelli Sei when he lived in Swansea which I drove around the Gower area &loved.
I always lusted after their 4 cylinder bikes as well as the Moto Morini twins that to me just looked right . I lusted after Laverda Jotas as well.but kids stopped play time & all were beyond my price range till I was in my late 30s when I got a Guzzi Le Mans MkIII in Holland. A great bike.

Of all the bikes I would have loved to have owned a Benelli Sei would have been top of my list, so much charisma in a beautiful executed design, so much nicer in execution to the equally enthralling Honda CBX.

Thread drift as is ever the way on TM... Started out as British and covered the world...

Try this vid for some truly rare and wonderful early racers....

https://youtu.be/yY4pywypYAY