Letters

I enjoyed your piece on the project Triumph, well actually the whole magazine, as always. You mentioned the newly refurbished Triumph engine had ‘locked up’. This is something that is quite common on rebuilt engines that are left to stand for a time. I come from the automotive trade and what you experienced is something…

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I have been following your Triumph project for a while in The Classic Motorcycle as well as CDB, as the 3TA origins interest me, having owed my own 3TA since I was 17, in 1982. I always fancied building an ISDT/E style Triumph such as those ridden by Roy Peplow among others. Currently I have…

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Not sure if you recall, but we met about a dozen years ago here in the States at Riding into History, you used some of my photos in your subsequent Classic Bike Guide article. Since then I have pretty much dedicated my time to restoring and collecting Bultacos. Having done a number of street oriented…

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Having read the letter about Tommy Reynolds in the last CDB, I wanted to let you know he is alive and well and a mate of Austin Fraser, among others. Dave Younghusband knows him well as they both rode for DOT. Tommy is still involved with motorcycles and has contacted Ossy at Audit for some…

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When my brother Brian died last year, we found a number of photographs which he took at scrambles he attended in the Fifties. There are some pretty well-known names amongst the riders. Our family (at least the boys) have all got/had the two-wheel bug, due largely to Brian’s influence over the years. It seems such…

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I started scrambling in 1956 with a Royal Enfield 350 comp Bullet, after a teenage period of cycle speedway. The head inlet port was widened to 1 1/16in and inlet valve changed to 1 9/16in at Joe Potts of Bellshill, where I had a somewhat brief conversation with Bob McIntyre. He was not the most…

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Situated in what most East and West Coast Americans refer to as ‘Fly-Over Country’ discreetly behind the door of a former bakery in south St Louis, Missouri is a wonderful collection of truly classic dirt bikes. Dave Mungenast was one of the premier competition riders to ever emerge from the US midwestern region, excelling in…

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I’m looking for information on reworking a 1953 G80 Matchless to be more of a trail and greenlane capable machine. What I’m looking at is the front and rear suspension improvements and a few things to make it slightly easier to ride. This won’t be a full-on trials project, just something to cope with riding…

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I have finally got round to getting myself a trials iron to hit the twinshock scene again after a 38-year hiatus from my last ride on my 1975 325 Bultaco. I’ve bought myself a nice, easy bike to ride, an SWM 350 Jumbo – by all accounts they make a 340 Bult feel underpowered. Once…

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On ‘You need…’ page 16/17 in issue 52, Cecil Pearson says he doesn’t know what the hub fitted to his JAP is, only that it was available and looks right. I can confirm it is a front hub from one of the Sprite models Frank Hipkin built in the Sixties and Seventies, so is a…

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