One Year WONDER

IT IS a cliché to say that there’s nothing new under the sun, but so often in motorcycle development that’s all too true. Consider the single-sided swingarm on the 1950 Moto Guzzi Galletto, conceived 30 years before ELF patented such a feature and sold it to Honda. Or the upside-down Dowty fork on the 1948 EMC road racer, developed 35 years before Brad Lackey won the 1982 500cc MX World title using a radical USD fork from Simons. Or the transverse V-twin engine layout of the 1931 AJS Model S3, conceived 36 years before the Moto Guzzi V7 launched in 1967.

The Wolverhampton-based AJS marque, owned by the Stevens family, was once one of Britain’s largest manufacturers, producing upwards of 30,000 bikes annually. It developed its 498cc Model S3 with transverse V-twin engine format as part of its product-led drive to counter the effects of the late-1920s economic downturn, which duly led to the Great Depression. But sales had been in decline since 1926, not helped by the appearance of the attractively priced, mass-produced Austin Seven light car.

The slump accelerated in 1927, and in the face of mounting financial diffi culties, the four Stevens brothers bravely decided