Continental Report
CONTINENTAL REPORT
B. R. NICHOLLS
IT is NOT all that long ago that the British thought the end of the world had come when beaten at soccer by the United States. Motorcyclists, however, smugly surveyed their own sporting scene safe in the thought none could beat their trials riders. Now that dream too has been shattered, so it is hats off to the brilliant young Gustav Franke of Western Germany who riding a 250 Zundapp two-stroke won the St. Cucufa trial held on the outskirts of Paris. He tied with Sammy Miller (497 Ariel) on marks lost but gained the premier award by virtue of having cleaned more sections. Third place man, one point behind, was Don Smith (250 Greeves), the reigning European trials champion.
Miller found his best form for the British Experts trial a couple of weeks later to run out winner by five marks. This was his third win so he joins the only other two riders, Jeff Smith and Gordon Jackson, to have won the title three times. Big surprise was runner-up Gordon Adsett (250 Greeves) who had his best ever ride while the Triumph works team of Roy Peplow. Scott Ellis and Ray Sayer filled the next three places. Sixth man was Peter Gaunt (246 Royal Enfield) who will not be long hitting the headlines with a major win if he continues his present form. Ron Langston and Doug Cooper kept their stranglehold on the sidecar class, winning by eight marks from Ken and Des Kendall. Last year’s solo winner Jeff Smith, the world moto-cross champion, was right out of form; he finished 18th with a loss of 90 marks, three times that of Miller’s winning score of thirty.
The end of the Experts has closed an era. Miller, long regarded as a staunch big bike man. has now opted to ride the beautiful little Bultaco Sherpa 250cc twostroke trials machine. Miller spent some time at the Spanish factory having modifications made and ensuring that the machine was just as he wanted it. With Miller out it looked as if only the AJS works team was left to continue the tradition of the bigger banger in trials, but then came the announcement that they too have stopped production of the bigger models so the only current production four-strokes in this field of competition are the little Triumphs. We mourn the passing of the man's machine but it seems that the move to smaller bikes may encourage others to take up this branch of the sport. The trend is probably most marked in your own market in the U.S.A. with trial bikes quite a feature of the advertising in this magazine. It may be a few more years yet before it is so apparent in Europe generally, and particularly Britain, but the evidence was surely there for all to see at the Earls Court Show.
To old timers and those who look back to the days of an annual show instead of one every two years as is now the case, the 1964 event was disappointing. It was housed wholly on the ground floor instead of using the balcony for accessory stands and attendance figures were over 47,000. down on those for 1962, the actual totals being 1962 - 177,224 and 1964 - 129,331. CYCLE WORLD’S own show figures must surely compare favorably with these?
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However export orders were reported to be a record as was the number of overseas visitors.
Of the machinery to be seen perhaps the most eye-catching was the D.M.W. Deemster Hardtop, a covered two-wheeler complete with safety glass screen and windscreen wiper. The model on show was built with the police in mind, complete with flashing blue light, but it is also intended to be available to the public costing, I imagine, something like $1,000 or more. BSA had on show the new 441 cc moto-cross production machine designated Victor, which is a replica of the Jeff Smith world championship-winning model, a photo of which appeared in last month’s issue. Another newcomer to the BSA range, an economy roadster, was the 175cc Bantam Super de Luxe. Always popular, the big unit construction twins had among them two fitted for the American market, and the A652L twin carburetor model with upswept exhaust and cross country specifications was a real beauty. The A.M.C. group comprising AJS, Matchless, Norton, James and Francis Barnett were offering the home market the big 750cc Atlas twins already well known to Americans and the competition corner, like so many other manufacturers, had a mud-covered gold medal winning Six Days Trial model or show. But with no road raceware to be seen, a lot of interest focused on the police machines which are still a popular line throughout thé world.
Royal Enfield are pursuing the sporting side and offer a production racer with an Enfield engine which features a Herman Meier designed head and barrel, Reynolds front fork, five-speed Albion gearbox and comes complete with Avon fairing. Also on the Enfield stand was the new Continental G.T. model. This is a five-speed, four-stroke 250 of super sporting gait which will certainly appeal to the coffee bar cowboys, especially the learners who are restricted to the 250cc capacity range anyway. The photo tells the full story.
Scorpion were at the Show for the first time announcing that there will be three models for sale in 1965. The first, a scrambles special, is Starmaker powered but for the other two, Scorpion are using their own design of 246cc. One of these is a moto-cross model termed Avenger 250MX4 and will not be available until 1965 with the handout stating the machine is not recommended for sale to any rider who has not reached expert status. It will have a ground clearance of 9Vi inches and weigh about 220 pounds. Pride of the range is the Racer 250GP5 with Scorpion designed 246cc two-stroke engine, 66mm bore x 72mm stroke, with radially finned cylinder head. There is no front downtube, the frame being of large diameter tubular backbone construction for which great rigidity is claimed. A choice of coil or, magneto ignition is offered. Success is what sells a model and although the makers claim that they will have top class riders for both road race and moto-cross next year none have yet been named.
Two brothers have proved machines in competition and because of their successes the Rickmans found that everyone wanted to see the Metisse-framed specials they had on show. Immaculate is the only way to describe the Matchless and Triumphengined models displayed, but prettiest of all was the 250cc Bultaco-engined Petite Metisse. Also on the stand was the 250cc Bultaco Sherpa trials model which is obviously set for a great future with Sammy Miller now riding the first to appear in England.
Greeves had a stand-full of competition machinery, the accent naturally being on the Challenger engined trials, scrambles and road racers, but they also make road going bikes and showed an export-only model designed for the U.S.A. powered by a Villiers twin. This is similar in some respects to a special police model now being used by the City of London police.
Lightweights under lOOcc were to be found aplenty compared with previous exhibitions and the first to catch my eye was the fan-cooled Garelli cross country model. Actual capacity is 94.25cc and the two-stroke engine produces 5V2 bhp at 6,500 revs. The four-speed gearbox is twistgrip controlled. The machine was made specially for the American market but with its light weight, 155 pounds, 58 mph top speed and 115 miles to the imperial gallon could well catch on in the U.K. Garelli have been making cycles now longer than fifty years and have held over two hundred world records. The 60cc Puch is a smaller capacity machine built for the dual purpose of cross country or normal road work. It develops AV2 bhp at 7,200 and like the Garelli has a fan-cooled engine. It is virtually square with 42mm bore by 43mm stroke to give a capacity of 59.6 cc. Clutch, primary drive and gearbox all run in the same oilbath and final chain drive is totally enclosed. Weight with a full tank is 147 pounds.
Catering for an entirely different market, Peugeot have produced a fully automatic moped designed to carry two people. It has fully automatic clutch and gear change and starting is by use of the pedals. With a consumption figure around 140 miles to the imperial gallon and a speed of 40 mph two-up. this seems to be just the machine for students in a university town.
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But the lightweight that really attracted me was the only Japanese trials model on show - the 80cc Suzuki KIlT. It has a bore and stroke of 45 x 50mm. is a twostroke of 79cc giving a maximum of 7.3 bhp at 7,000 rpm. Supplied with fully en closed final drive and complete with light ing. dual seat and pillion footrests. it is just the machine for the rider who likes to leave the highways and explore the unsur faced tracks. Suzuki road racing star Frank Perris is keeping fit in the winter by rid ing one in trials. Suzuki. like others, show ed successful raceware including Hugh Anderson's championship winning 50cc machine, Yamaha had Phil Read's 250.
BMW had George Meier's 1939 Isle of Man T.T. winning supercharged 500cc model on show and the man who finished second to him on a similar machine. Jock West. was present to answer questions on the current ranee of machinery.
Derek Minter won the 1964 A-CU. 250cc Gold Star on a Cotton road racer and that concern showed the first road going bike to be powered by a Starmaker engine. Speeds in excess of 80 mph are claimed for this machine. Also available, of course, are trials and scrambles models and intensive research is being carried out during the winter to strengthen the bottom half of the engine for the production road racer.
Honda had a very impressive display of all cycles available to the public and, ever aware of publicity value, had the four cylinder road racer on view and this went straight from Earls Court to Manchester in connection with a `~Teens and Twenties" exhibition where Honda machines were on display but, regrettably, no British bikes were to be seen. Velocette machines attract the enthusi ast and can boast that they are still the only 500cc to have averaged one hundred miles over twenty-four hours; they also secured the twelve-hour record with an average of 104.66 mph. Pride of place on the stand was given to the new Venom Thruxton 500cc model which is a virtual replica of that which won the 500cc class of the 1964 Thruxton Five Hundred mile race.
Triumph were also Thruxton conscious offering a Bonneville T120 in production race form. A real mile eater this, for it comes with performance cams, close ra tio gears. twin carbs, dropped bars, rear mounted pegs. reversed gear lever and twin speedo and rev counter. At the other end of the scale is the 100cc Tina scooter, the only fully automatic British model of its kind.
But the Show has far more to offer than just machines which the public can buy. All aspects of the trade are represented from tire companies to plug manufacturers and all have experts present t'o answer every conceivable query the enthusiast may ask. Firms like D. Lewis offered a complete selection of clothing~ the Army had an exhibition designed to pull in re cruits and the Royal Automobile Club put on a display of vintage machines that had the young teenager wide eyed in won der. The Daily Mail sponsored the Show and part of their stand was given over to testing riders' reaction times. Also among machines exhibited by them was the Wooller horizontally opposed flat four built in 1 952. but regrettably never put in to production. Standardization meant that all work on it could be done with one double-ended spanner. On different maga zine stands could be seen the Drag-Waye. Emmott-Matchless Speedway bike, Hagon Sprint Special and back-to-front Petty 350 Norton.
The Milk Marketing Board. Isle of Man Tourist Board. Schofield Records and Brands Hatch Circuit all had attractions for the public and Castrol Oil gave con tinual film shows. But the novelty was without doubt the Filtrate Oil stand which had been laid out as a miniature trials course complete with earth and rocks; this could be attempted on a battery-driven BSA or James trials machine and success ful riders gained a certificate for a fault less round.
To the newcomer it was quite a show but to the old hand there were signs of the unmistakable trend that no longer is the motorcycle a necessary form of transport to anyone. A higher standard of living means that touring motorcycles are for the enthusiast, a very small minority, and the sporting rider who will put his on a trailer or in a van to go from one meeting to the next. One wonders what the 1966 Show will bring.
One feature of the Show is that annual awards are often presented during the week. World moto-cross chan~pion Jeff Smith received the Motor Cycle News "Man of the Year" award while the Pin hard Prize for the most outstanding achievements by a motorcyclist under the age of twenty-one was awarded to Derek Adsett, younger brother of Gordon, who finished runner-up in the Experts trial. Given for the first time this year was the Turbo Visor Trophy to be awarded annually for the best performance in adverse weather conditions in a world championship road race. No other rider won two classics in one day in the pouring rain as did Phil Read at the Ulster Grand Prix, and he was duly declared the winner for 1964. The donors of this award must be the only people who do not want perfect weather for all the meetings in 1965.
On the moto-cross front there have been two important meetings. The first was at Chard, the meeting mentioned briefly by the Editor in last month’s issue. With wet' weather kits specially purchased the previous day at the Show for Joe Parkhurst, Kim Kimball and Dan Gurney we were assured of a fine day, both sport and weatherwise. It was positively embarrassing to find that Joe knew so much about the ancient site of Stonehenge that we visited on the way down, so I kept quiet and learned a lot from the visiting guide. Nor was that the only shock, for to find a four-wheel racer from over the pond that really appreciated motorcycles was something I could hardly believe, but when I found out that Dan had finished twenty-first in a Big Bear run then I knew all four of us were real enthusiasts.
For the meeting world moto-cross 250 champion Joel Robert had brought along his 360cc C.Z. but this broke a ring in practice so he had to use the 250 for all his races, and this only served to prove how fast and terrific the machine is with the Belgian ace aboard. His riding was superb and the only race he did not win was when he fellon the first hill on the opening lap. Where a lesser man would have retired, Joel hurtled into the fight from the back of the field and, riding like a man possessed, took back place after place to finish second to Jeff Smith. In 1965, Robert will again contest the 250 world crown and when not engaged in that fight will have a go at as many of the 500 title rounds as he can fit in. This gives him a remote chance of winning both world titles in the same season. On paper this seems an impossible task but those that have seen him ride will realize that only he could dream of such a thing.
At the first meeting over the new Brands Match scramble course Derek Rickman (Matchless Metisse) won the big race of the day from Andy Lee, riding a Matchless-engined BSA. Lee spends a lot of time on the continent during the summer and this has greatly improved his skill; he looks set for his best-ever season. Bryan Goss (Greeves) was a runaway winner of the 250 race after Dave Bickers had dropped out, but Bickers in turn provided the sensation of the sidecar race when, on a Greeves Challenger powered outfit passengered by Pete Smith, he harried the 650 Triumph outfits of Rufus Rose and John Turner in a fantastic racelong scrap. Bickers had to settle for third spot only because of the disadvantage the small machine suffered on a couple of ascents. Turner and Rose are two of the top names in sidecar scrambling.
Dick Mann, American Grand National Champion in 1963 and runner-up to Roger Reiman last year, was among the
100 competitors at the Pathfinders and Derby scramble early in December. Which is rather like Mike Hailwood riding in the American Big Bear run, since AMA championships are decided in road, track and speedway type events — no scrambles at all in the series.
Taking that into account, Dick, riding a brand new 250cc Greeves Challenger, did pretty well after losing a footrest in the first race. He took fourth place in a 500cc heat but crashed in the final. However, he did better than another famous road racer who was competing — John Cooper. John was also out on a Challenger but he didn’t look at all happy and was last seen uprooting a row of fence poles — at speed of course!
After the meeting Dick said: “It’s quite a sport — real different from anything that we do in the States. It’s much rougher. I guess that’s due to the type of ground and the weather. But it’s certainly a lot of fun.”
Asked why he had come over, Dick replied, “It’s something I’ve wanted to do ever since I was a boy. I’ll be staying over for a couple of weeks and I hope to race again before I go back.”
The tragic death of Stanislav Malina as the result of a road accident has robbed the Czechoslovakian C.Z. concern of their lone road race star who had his best-ever season in 1964. He won the Overseas Newcomer Award in the Isle of Man for his two fourth places in the 125 and 250 classes and rounded off the season with a fine third place at Monza in the 350 race on a 293cc model. It is impossible to say who will replace him in 1965 for he has been the sole works rider for the past few years.
M.Z. have still not decided who to sign though it seems Derek Woodman or Tommy Robb has best chance. Still an outside chance is Derek Minier, but only if wanted for the whole season. Whoever gets the job looks like having a most intriguing machine to ride for the grapevine says there is a transverse, air-cooled, three in line 125cc racer with Lucas transistorized ignition already being tested at the factory — a two-stroke of course. Mike Hailwood will be having what is becoming a traditional ride on an M.Z. at the East German meeting, but what Mike’s full plans are for 1965 are difficult to discover for he prefers the warmth of Nassau to the cold and fog of England. After last season, though,
I do not think he will tie himself down to just riding a 500cc model in the world
championship for he loves a good dice
when racing.
Last year’s Manx Grand Prix 250 winner Gordon Keith has now signed to ride the 250 Royal Enfield during 1965 and has already started work at the factory. Interesting piece of news from South
Africa is that Ian Burne has been riding Hondas with Jim Redman — could this
be to increase their reserve strength as top liners are few and far between at present? And lastly a piece of scrambles news that surprised the fans was Vic Eastwood's switch from Matchless to BSA. His works Matchless has gone to Mick Andrews, better known as a trials rider, but whether Vic signs as a BSA works man will not be known for a couple of weeks. •
