BRITAIN’S ILLUSTRIOUS Métisse motorcycle marque was founded in the ‘50s by brothers Derek and Don Rickman — off-road aces and household names in Britain back then, thanks to BBC-TV showing the Scrambles racing in which they excelled every Saturday afternoon in winter. After achieving dirtbike dominance with their stiff, good-handling frames powered by British twin and single motors, they then did something comparable with road bikes. Rickman went on to briefly become Britain’s largest streetbike manufacturer after the demise of Norton first time around, and before John Bloor resurrected Triumph [see History sidebar].
The Rickmans’ creations not only represented a key stage in the evolution of the modern off-road bike, they also played a role in helping the Japanese manufacturers discover the black art of frame design for their four-cylinder streetbikes, making Hondas that handled and Kawasakis which delivered their impressive horsepower to the ground without trying to chuck the rider off in doing so. It’s fair to say the brothers’ bikes changed the face of modern motorcycling, even if it’s too little appreciated today by exactly how much.
That process began with the creation in March 1966 of the first tarmac-focused Métisse chassis, after the Rickmans were approached by leading road racing sponsor Tom Kirby to design and build frames to accommodate AMC’s Matchless G50 and AJS 7R motors. Bill Ivy took the Kirby Métisse G50 to victory in its very first race at Brands Hatch that spring, the first of exactly 999 such frames in total made for twins and singles, according to the surviving handwritten Rickman factory record book of Métisse frames built throughout the company’s history. A trawl through this reveals many fascinating pieces of trivia, as well as representing a who’s who of motorcycle sport.
The Kirby Métisse road racers’ engines were placed over an inch/25mm further forward in the wheelbase than the
