Still fit for purpose

West Countryman Ron Axon – who’s been motorcycling since 1946 – loves unrestored machines and he needed no second bidding when he was offered a totally original 1953 Francis-Barnett Falcon 58. Still in its original black paintwork, the Coventry-made two-stroke was taken off the road in 1970 and then left in a garage for the next 47 years before being bought by Ron, who is only the third registered owner.

Ron straightaway decided the little Franny-B was much too good to restore and back home in his workshop, following a thorough clean of the carburettor and some new petroil mix in the 2¼ gallon tank, it took just two prods of the kick-start to bring the 197cc single purring into life. The Barnett is now part of Ron’s collection of a dozen or so British and Japanese machines, all of which wear that wonderful patina of faded paintwork along with the dents and scrapes from the 26,000 miles that the bike carrying the registration number of NLJ 543 has