Unholy Rollers
UNHOLY ROLLERS
Cycle World’s fourth-annual Rolling Concours—to finish first, first you must finish
MARK HOYER
WHAT TO DO IF YOUR 1922 MATADOR SEMI-Sports Deluxe chucks the con-rod out of its 80-year-old engine cases? Maybe call your loan broker, your metallurgist and your Psychic Britbike Parts Finder Friends. But for sure you don’t win at Cycle World's Rolling Concours, where the only way to get a trophy is to first make a 50mile ride through some of the most fun and beautiful roads in the world.
Thankfully, there were no such catastrophic mishaps during our fourth-annual gathering of road-worthy classics at Sears Point Raceway-the Matador (below) putt-putted its way through Sonoma wine country without a hitch. Sure, there was the odd BSA or Norton or 1914 Rudge TT at roadside for some hands-on healing, but most of the 104 entrants and their bikes made the trip from the track to the Hess Winery on Mt. Veeder and back as though they had been built yesterday. Which some of them probably were, knowing how finishing restorations often seems to coincide with bike shows!
One bike for which that was definitely not the case was the unrestored-but-lovely Rudge TT. And thank goodness for that, because its breakdown was as classic as the bike itself: It snapped its metal-buckled final-drive belt midway through the loop. And while we were all worrying about how to get chase truck and Rudge on the same cosmic coordinates, the bike’s resourceful owner/rider Pete Young went cross-country on foot to a nearby farmhouse, borrowed a hand drill and fixed it right up. That’s the Rolling Concours spirit, in a nutcase.. .uh, nutshell. Such roadside repairs could actually help your score at our antiques roadshow, and a bit of oil mist, some bug guts and
stone chips are badges of honor any vintage bike, be it beautifully restored or barn-fresh, should be proud to show. It was another stunning event, thanks to our brave-and ever more numerous-participants. Four years ago, nobody imagined we’d get more than 100 people in the show corral. But there they were, spilling out of our allotted space in the paddock. And judging was once again incredibly difficult due to the sheer number of bikes in the popular classes. In fact, Classic was so over subscribed last year it was decided this time around to break into two eras: Classic I for 19311959 models and Classic II covering 1960-1975. And it was still really tough thanks to so many high-quality rolling restorations that showed up.
Maybe the event is becoming so popular because of our choice of trophies. Not your average amorphous blob of Taiwanese plastichrome pinned atop a gen-yew-ine woodgrain Formica base, but elegantly etched bottles of locally vinted red wine of varying sizes-the bigger the prize, the larger your hangover!
In fact, the Best of Show bottle way outdisplaces a Gold Wing motor, so it was a good thing winner Mark Christofferson was riding a sidecar-equipped 1954 Nimbus; it’s the only way he could carry the 3-liter monster mega-magnum (technically, it’s a jéroboam). Something most of us are accustomed to seeing only in museums, his charming burgundy 750cc inline-Four-powered rig comes from Denmark. Of Danish decent himself, Southern California resident Christofferson was a long-time lover of the Nimbus marque, and bought this example, one of several he now owns, sans sidecar from his cousin in the old country about 20 years ago. After shipping it here, he rode it some, then restored it 10 years ago. Fate and some old-fashioned horse-trading led him to Pasadena and the ultra-rare Danish-made Bender-Florin sidecar (one of 75 of this type Mr. Bender built before a heart attack took him). “I sold this big biker guy some old Indian brochures from Denmark at a swapmeet, gave him a good deal, and the guy said, ‘Now you have to come buy something from me.’ But he wouldn’t tell me what it was,” says Christofferson. What it was, was a brand-new, made-in-’53 chair just waiting for its Nimbus to come along. At Sonoma, this gorgeous piece of Danish engineering was too, too good, and to the victor went the jéroboam.
Class winners got a fair bit of vino themselves, in the form of a full magnum of the local juice. Perhaps none were more deserving than Peter Foster and his 1922 Matador Semi-Sports Deluxe. Despite the Spanish-sounding name, the bike is British, and it is indeed a rare piece-only five are known to exist.
Foster acquired the bike from a retired Colonel Gray 10 years ago while still living in England’s Lake District. An interesting note about the good colonel: His late wife’s uncle was the man behind the design of the Matador’s Bradshaw “Oil Boiler” engine (so-called due to its lack of cylinder finning). The 350cc, 3.5-horsepower ohv Single was used in many bikes of the period, and in this case was mated to a Burman three-speed gearbox, also a popular piece at the time.
Restoration was undertaken in 1994 after Foster moved stateside, but it was not an easy task, since he knew almost zero about the thing. After placing a couple of ads in classicbike magazines in England, he was contacted by the Vintage Motor Cycle Club of Burton-on-Trent. They fleshed out the story, and Foster was hooked up with members who provided correct tank/frame decals and other parts and information-but only in trade for being able to use pieces from Foster’s bike for patterns to make copies for a member’s Matador. Now finished to a very high standard, the SemiSports Deluxe is displayed in Foster’s living room at home. While the 49year-old machinist has done some riding of the bike in the past, the
Rolling Concours was a milestone for the old piece. “That’s the farthest that bike’s been ridden since 1953 or so, when it was parked,” he says. Later, the British expatriate was one of three riders of pre-’30 bikes gathered for a discussion only they could have: “I cut a circle of thin grinding wheel,” said Paul D’Orleans, riding this day a beautiful ’28 Sunbeam TT works racer, “and I put that under the spring for the choke lever so it doesn’t move when I use the throttle lever...” and so it went. Throttle lever? Yes, and the Matador has a hand gearshift on the same side. “It sure keeps you busy when you’re riding!” says Foster. Other super-vintage aspects of the Matador are the horn that goes “aaahhooohgaaa! ” and the acetylene-gas lighting system-Prince of Darkness my ass! Kind of cool you get to set your bike on fire (in a controlled way), and it was more than a little ironic that one of the Vintage class prizes was a battery charger from Yuasa-the Matador’s only got a magneto. Luckily, Foster has a couple of BSAs and his Nortonpowered Mongrel (“American Flyers,” CW, May) that can use the occasional juicing up.
While the Vintage entries certainly got their share of attention from spectators, it was the Classic II ranks that took the most attention of judges. There was just too much good stuff. Ultimately, two bikes qualified to win in the class were given top prizes, both 1960s Triumph Bonnevilles. John Viggers’ ’64 took first-in-class. In his case, it was a situation where practice made perfect. Viggers bought the bike in 1992 as a basketcase along with a Daytona 500, and honed his resto skills on the small bike first. Of the 650 Bonnie, he says, “I started with a frame, two wheels, an engine and a credit card,” adding that he’s just now finished restoration on the Visa, too!
Equally stunning was the Best British winner, Tim Gilligan’s fabulous ’66 T120R. Although the award is sponsored by Triumph, it’s open to all Britbikes of any vintage. “I worked at Bud Ekins’ shop when I was young and always loved these things, but I couldn’t afford to buy one,” says the Santa Monica firefighter. Gilligan bought the bike in “pretty good” condition, but it was his work that made it the resplendent-in-white stunner that it is today, right down to the Ekins dealership license-plate frame and hard-to-find white grips.
Past winner Rich Ostrander made his return for another “round,” riding his delightfully unrestored 1930 Indian 101
Scout. I asked him what he’d done with the first trophy, won two years ago: “I drank it!” he exclaimed with a smile. Well, Ostrander got himself another bottle, this time for top honors in American Classic. Ridden hard and fettled on a need-to-fix basis only, the Scout’s got more patina than any motorcycle deserves-even the rebuilt engine was left alone on the outside. If nothing else, it’s a winner by virtue of its sort of persistence of existence. Why no full resto? “It’s just such a good-running, original old bike—and I like ’em funky, anyway. With this one here, I just wipe it down with a rag, the oil keeps it from rusting and down the road I go! The only reason I re-did the tank was because I had to—it leaked like a sieve.” The Rolling Concours spirit. Second-time Japanese Classic winner Ron Mousouris, on a glowingly gorgeous 1976 Honda CB400F, put it best.
“Most people and judges at a concours don’t know or care if the bike’s even got a piston inside it,” the 50-year-old said. “But I think a motorcycle in a show ought to run, and that’s one of the cool things about what Cycle World does at Sonomafest. The other great thing is that it’s just a beautiful ride on great roads. It’s a neat event.”
So, join the party next year-get that restoration rolling! □
