Classic Dirt Bike

In the days when I was still riding modern trials and changing my bike on a regular basis, there was little sentiment involved as last year’s model was replaced by the latest from Spain. As the proprietor of our local trials shop was a regular compet

Well, what a year and a bit it has been! This pandemic has certainly made its mark on the sporting and show world but, thankfully there are signs of normality returning and as events start to happen so do shows. The big news for CDB is the Classic Di

In our world so much is about tradition... and 'usually' the International Classic MotorCycle Show is held at Stafford in April. But like so many other events the Covid pandemic altered this, so instead of April (when the country was in lockdown) the

Galloway club is certainly embracing the removal of restrictions by hosting as many events as possible, and on a fabulous piece of ground near Lockerbie members are planning a weekend of off-road sport with a scramble, trial and grass track – with ca

Leaping into engine tuning isn’t a good idea, it’s okay the bloke down the pub saying ‘what you want is…’ He may be correct, but when we spoke to Norrie Pattie – engine builder on quite a number of rapid MXers featured in these pages recently – he pl

The Westmorland Motor Club is pulling out the stops in efforts to make the CCM Jubilee Scramble on June 26-27 a truly great spectacle. Austin Clews is using all his contacts to try and entice the nation's favourite riders, and alongside the club memb

Galloway MCC is teaming up with armed forces charity Poppy Scotland to prove members don’t just do it in the dirt but on tarmac as well! A series of superb road runs for classic and modern bikes is being held to raise money for the charity. To ride t

Since relaunching what was once one of the largest and all-encompassing motorclubs in Scotland, the dedicated team has made bigger and better plans for the club to grow in both the scene and its local area. Now the Covid pandemic is abating and a ret

Cumbria Twinshock will be hosting the annual King of the Castle MX at the world-famous Farleigh Castle track on July 10/11 and its already a sell out event, with nearly 400 riders from all corners of the UK. It is a week later than normal due to a vi

Round two of the shortened six round Toughsheet National Twinshock MX Championships takes place on Sunday, May 30, at the popular Bevercotes circuit hosted by the Nottingham Twinshock Club. Entries are still available in all Twinshock, Evo, Super Evo

Sealey has just announced its biggest ever tool catalogue and it is available from May 1. The new edition includes over 11,900 products designed for use in the trade. Inside you will find improved and extended ranges with over 2800 new products,

Got a soft spot for Bultaco? Well how about a poster made up from the covers of owners' manuals or riders' handbooks of Bultaco models? Interested? I bet you are, and this poster is available from the UK Bultaco Club and will cost you £13.85 includin

There are a bewildering amount of letters and numbers ascribed to BSA’s Gold Star models and they all mean a different specification of engine and gearbox. A small box-out in a feature can only give the briefest guide to what they all mean so forgive

For CDB issue 31 we had a chat with Dave Flintoff, the Gold Star specialist, for our series ‘Iconic Engines’. We wanted to know how to make a Goldie work to its best ability and hold together under the heat of competition. Dave went through a load of

…the Gold Star gained its model name thanks to Wal Handley’s exploits at Brooklands race circuit in 1937. BSA had had its performance fingers burnt in 1921 when fielding six motorcycles in the Senior TT. Despite promising practice times and performan

We’ve all experienced the trepidation of lifting the head and barrel off an engine, wondering what we’re going to find… At first all seemed well, then closer inspection showed a bit had come off the piston and rattled about a bit. Mark managed to sou

…James Brown at www.retrotrials.com for considerable help in this feature. James has actually interviewed the lads behind Mecatecno in the day. This particular era coincides with my wilderness years in trials when I rode infrequently and lost touch a

Ever heard the phrase ‘everyone knows...’? Yes, I dare bet most people have, usually used when people who really should know better want to be seen as knowledgeable. So, suspension on trials bikes? Haha, everyone knows a trials bike has to be rigid o

Once again, those who knew, had confidently predicted neither a foreign bike nor a two-stroke would win such an event as the SSDT, and when Sammy Miller wheeled his Bultaco to the scrutineering ramps on weigh-in day of the 1965 Scottish, he was, if n

In contrast to 1965, as the last SSDT of the Sixties loomed, the questions on everyone’s lips were would Miller manage a 6th win and would his main opposition be from other foreign machines? With the British industry all but finished there were so fe

…picked many more ‘firsts’ and ‘lasts’ for this bit of the feature, such as last big bike win – Miller’s 1964 Ariel win – or the last traditional win before helmets were compulsory – Malcolm Rathmell’s 1973 win or the first of the new era – Mick Andr

For many years, trials riding was a peculiarly British sport, not exclusively though and there have always been foreign riders in the Six Days, just the sport was more dominant in the UK. Pundits were remarkably quiet on the subject of a foreign nati

Throughout this build Albert acknowledges the help and assistance he’s had from friends and contacts ranging from Gerry Minshall at the start, through Terry Weedy at Avery products, Electrexworld, REH, Surrey Cycles and lots more besides – but this i

Albert Bergada initially founded his workshop in the mid-Eighties, but his story goes further back to the early Seventies when he began working on the Spanish competition motorcycles of the day. In 1977 Albert started work with a Triumph dealer in Lo

Gordon’s ‘One Dab’ AJS forms part of the trials collection in Sammy Miller’s museum in New Milton, Hampshire. There is an excellent website www.sammymiller.co.ukwith opening times detailed. The museum address is Sammy Miller Museum, Bashley Cross Roa

Due to the number of events cancelled thanks to another Covid lockdown and the resulting mileage not travelled, this column is a nostalgic look back to a couple of trips enjoyed back in the mid-1990s. Back then I used to regularly read – all right, I

John Dickinson has been in, on and around the off-road scene for years. Trained as a mechanic, he spent some time in the motorcycle industry before finding his way into journalism. Thanks to his editorship of a certain weekly paper, he’s well known i

1 Kristian Marshall (380cc CZ), 2 Kris Winder (250cc Elsinore Honda) 3 Allen Waring (380cc CZ) 1 Keith Best (250cc CZ) 2 Aaron Graves (500cc Faber BSA) 3 Mitch Harris (350cc Woods BSA) 1 Ricky Pedder (650cc Triumph Metisse) 2 Lewis Bell (580cc Jawa M

With a background of leatherwork and off-road motorcycling, Mike spotted a need for a few bits and pieces of motorcycling wear. His stock range covers the bar pads introduced when handlebar crossbars were brought in to strengthen alloy bars, associat

What an excellent read CDB issue 58 Spring 2021 was for me. Well, every issue is, just ‘58’ had so much to look at and absorb. The patina and character of those two trials irons BSA and Greeves just took me back many years to my ‘drooling’ stage... t

Editor: Tim Britton cdbeditor@mortons.co.uk 07739 615605 Columnist: John Dickinson Contributors: Alan Telford Media Photographers: Fiona Watson, Gary Chapman, Bill McKeown. Nick Nicholls Collection at Mortons Archive Production editor: Sarah Wilk

The simple fact CZ’s 360 was 140cc smaller than the opposition in the 500 class wasn’t lost on people. So, in order to redress the balance there was a 420 after-market kit available which brought the capacity up to within a whisker of the BSA Victors

Galloway MCC member Kenny Harper began his motorcycle sporting career in the trials game and had four years of trying to keep his feet up in all sorts of terrain before the scrambling bug bit. “I fancied a go at MX in 1979 and I did two seasons of tw

Renowned as the quiet man of the motorcycle business, Stuart Miller nevertheless made his own mark on not only the two-wheeled industry but also on the track as a competitor in MX. His working career in the industry began as a salesman at the famous

In the days when I was still riding modern trials and changing my bike on a regular basis, there was little sentiment involved as last year’s model was replaced by the latest from Spain. As the proprietor of our local trials shop was a regular compet

Well, what a year and a bit it has been! This pandemic has certainly made its mark on the sporting and show world but, thankfully there are signs of normality returning and as events start to happen so do shows. The big news for CDB is the Classic Di

In our world so much is about tradition... and 'usually' the International Classic MotorCycle Show is held at Stafford in April. But like so many other events the Covid pandemic altered this, so instead of April (when the country was in lockdown) the

Galloway club is certainly embracing the removal of restrictions by hosting as many events as possible, and on a fabulous piece of ground near Lockerbie members are planning a weekend of off-road sport with a scramble, trial and grass track – with ca

Leaping into engine tuning isn’t a good idea, it’s okay the bloke down the pub saying ‘what you want is…’ He may be correct, but when we spoke to Norrie Pattie – engine builder on quite a number of rapid MXers featured in these pages recently – he pl

The Westmorland Motor Club is pulling out the stops in efforts to make the CCM Jubilee Scramble on June 26-27 a truly great spectacle. Austin Clews is using all his contacts to try and entice the nation's favourite riders, and alongside the club memb

Galloway MCC is teaming up with armed forces charity Poppy Scotland to prove members don’t just do it in the dirt but on tarmac as well! A series of superb road runs for classic and modern bikes is being held to raise money for the charity. To ride t

Since relaunching what was once one of the largest and all-encompassing motorclubs in Scotland, the dedicated team has made bigger and better plans for the club to grow in both the scene and its local area. Now the Covid pandemic is abating and a ret

Cumbria Twinshock will be hosting the annual King of the Castle MX at the world-famous Farleigh Castle track on July 10/11 and its already a sell out event, with nearly 400 riders from all corners of the UK. It is a week later than normal due to a vi

Round two of the shortened six round Toughsheet National Twinshock MX Championships takes place on Sunday, May 30, at the popular Bevercotes circuit hosted by the Nottingham Twinshock Club. Entries are still available in all Twinshock, Evo, Super Evo

Sealey has just announced its biggest ever tool catalogue and it is available from May 1. The new edition includes over 11,900 products designed for use in the trade. Inside you will find improved and extended ranges with over 2800 new products, all

Got a soft spot for Bultaco? Well how about a poster made up from the covers of owners' manuals or riders' handbooks of Bultaco models? Interested? I bet you are, and this poster is available from the UK Bultaco Club and will cost you £13.85 includin

There are a bewildering amount of letters and numbers ascribed to BSA’s Gold Star models and they all mean a different specification of engine and gearbox. A small box-out in a feature can only give the briefest guide to what they all mean so forgive

For CDB issue 31 we had a chat with Dave Flintoff, the Gold Star specialist, for our series ‘Iconic Engines’. We wanted to know how to make a Goldie work to its best ability and hold together under the heat of competition. Dave went through a load of

…the Gold Star gained its model name thanks to Wal Handley’s exploits at Brooklands race circuit in 1937. BSA had had its performance fingers burnt in 1921 when fielding six motorcycles in the Senior TT. Despite promising practice times and performan

We’ve all experienced the trepidation of lifting the head and barrel off an engine, wondering what we’re going to find… At first all seemed well, then closer inspection showed a bit had come off the piston and rattled about a bit. Mark managed to sou

…James Brown at www.retrotrials.com for considerable help in this feature. James has actually interviewed the lads behind Mecatecno in the day. This particular era coincides with my wilderness years in trials when I rode infrequently and lost touch a

Ever heard the phrase ‘everyone knows...’? Yes, I dare bet most people have, usually used when people who really should know better want to be seen as knowledgeable. So, suspension on trials bikes? Haha, everyone knows a trials bike has to be rigid o

Once again, those who knew, had confidently predicted neither a foreign bike nor a two-stroke would win such an event as the SSDT, and when Sammy Miller wheeled his Bultaco to the scrutineering ramps on weigh-in day of the 1965 Scottish, he was, if n

In contrast to 1965, as the last SSDT of the Sixties loomed, the questions on everyone’s lips were would Miller manage a 6th win and would his main opposition be from other foreign machines? With the British industry all but finished there were so fe

…picked many more ‘firsts’ and ‘lasts’ for this bit of the feature, such as last big bike win – Miller’s 1964 Ariel win – or the last traditional win before helmets were compulsory – Malcolm Rathmell’s 1973 win or the first of the new era – Mick Andr

For many years, trials riding was a peculiarly British sport, not exclusively though and there have always been foreign riders in the Six Days, just the sport was more dominant in the UK. Pundits were remarkably quiet on the subject of a foreign nati

Throughout this build Albert acknowledges the help and assistance he’s had from friends and contacts ranging from Gerry Minshall at the start, through Terry Weedy at Avery products, Electrexworld, REH, Surrey Cycles and lots more besides – but this i

Albert Bergada initially founded his workshop in the mid-Eighties, but his story goes further back to the early Seventies when he began working on the Spanish competition motorcycles of the day. In 1977 Albert started work with a Triumph dealer in Lo

Gordon’s ‘One Dab’ AJS forms part of the trials collection in Sammy Miller’s museum in New Milton, Hampshire. There is an excellent website www.sammymiller.co.ukwith opening times detailed. The museum address is Sammy Miller Museum, Bashley Cross Roa

Due to the number of events cancelled thanks to another Covid lockdown and the resulting mileage not travelled, this column is a nostalgic look back to a couple of trips enjoyed back in the mid-1990s. Back then I used to regularly read – all right, I

John Dickinson has been in, on and around the off-road scene for years. Trained as a mechanic, he spent some time in the motorcycle industry before finding his way into journalism. Thanks to his editorship of a certain weekly paper, he’s well known i

1 Kristian Marshall (380cc CZ), 2 Kris Winder (250cc Elsinore Honda) 3 Allen Waring (380cc CZ) 1 Keith Best (250cc CZ) 2 Aaron Graves (500cc Faber BSA) 3 Mitch Harris (350cc Woods BSA) 1 Ricky Pedder (650cc Triumph Metisse) 2 Lewis Bell (580cc Jawa M

With a background of leatherwork and off-road motorcycling, Mike spotted a need for a few bits and pieces of motorcycling wear. His stock range covers the bar pads introduced when handlebar crossbars were brought in to strengthen alloy bars, associat

What an excellent read CDB issue 58 Spring 2021 was for me. Well, every issue is, just ‘58’ had so much to look at and absorb. The patina and character of those two trials irons BSA and Greeves just took me back many years to my ‘drooling’ stage... t

Editor: Tim Britton cdbeditor@mortons.co.uk 07739 615605 Columnist: John Dickinson Contributors: Alan Telford Media Photographers: Fiona Watson, Gary Chapman, Bill McKeown. Nick Nicholls Collection at Mortons Archive Production editor: Sarah Wilkinso

The simple fact CZ’s 360 was 140cc smaller than the opposition in the 500 class wasn’t lost on people. So, in order to redress the balance there was a 420 after-market kit available which brought the capacity up to within a whisker of the BSA Victors

Galloway MCC member Kenny Harper began his motorcycle sporting career in the trials game and had four years of trying to keep his feet up in all sorts of terrain before the scrambling bug bit. “I fancied a go at MX in 1979 and I did two seasons of tw

Renowned as the quiet man of the motorcycle business, Stuart Miller nevertheless made his own mark on not only the two-wheeled industry but also on the track as a competitor in MX. His working career in the industry began as a salesman at the famous