PARALLEL UNIVERSE
Essex restorer Glenn Campbell dares us to look beyond the obvious for a different parallel-twin experience
Bored with Bonnies? Try an Enfield Interceptor or Ariel Huntmaster
Think about British twins and Triumph, BSA or Norton will probably spring to mind. In many ways it’s a simple numbers game. Triumph, BSA and Norton were the biggest manufacturers for years – and they made the parallel twin the default setting for bikes from middleweights upwards for years.
They’re great, too – but parallel twins aren’t the sole preserve of Armoury Road, Meriden and Bracebridge Street. There are other Brit twins that are more than worth a look. Essex restorer Glenn Campbell should know – he owns two of them: a 1957 Ariel Huntmaster and a 1967 Royal Enfield Interceptor. “I’ve had Triumphs and BSAS,” says Glenn. “But I’ve always liked Ariels and Royal Enfields. To be fair, the Huntmaster is essentially a BSA A10 engine mated to a Burman gearbox and installed in an Ariel frame, but it’s still a little different. I’ve owned mine for 40 years – though it spent 30 of those in the shed under a sheet. It’s the usual story; I had bikes when I was young, but dropped out of the scene when I got married and had a family. But I never got rid of the old Ariel. I bought it in 1972 for £35 and rode it for about five years before parking it up in the shed.”
The Ariel might still be in there, if it hadn’t been for a chance event on holiday in 2007. “My wife and I went to Goa,” Glenn explains. “We went to have a look round a local market and there was a Royal Enfield display in the middle of it. I picked up a brochure and it all came flooding back. The next day, I snuck back to the market and bought a Bullet on my credit card. It cost the equivalent of £1300 and around £500 to have it shipped to the UK. With the VAT it worked out at about £2000 all in – about half what they cost in the UK.”
Blatting about on that Bullet – which he still owns – reminded Glenn what he’d been missing. “I thought ‘I’ve got a better bike than that in the shed’, so I hauled it out,” Glenn says. “I’d fitted alloy guards and a café racer-style seat when I was riding it back in the early ’70s, but I decided to restore it back to catalogue condition. I moved it back into the garage from the shed and made a start.” Glenn has always worked on his own bikes and a spell as a commercial vehicle fitter honed his workshop skills further, so a complete stripdown of the Ariel held no fears. “It was a proper nut and bolt job,” Glenn confirms.
“I’d already researched the spares situation and realised I could get just about anything I’d need through either the Ariel Owners Club (arielownersmcc.co.uk) or Draganfly Motorcycles (draganfly.co.uk). I took the frame, swingarm and all the paintwork to Maldon Shot Blasting and Powder Coating (ctc-powdercoating.co.uk) although the frame is actually painted in two-pack like the tinware, rather than powder-coated. Ford Garnet Red turned out to be a brilliant match for Ariel Deep Claret!”
Amazingly, after 40 years in the shed the engine still turned over, but the drive-side crank splines were badly worn. “Through the AOC I discovered a member in Clay Cross was breaking a Huntmaster and had nearly-new crank, exhausts and carburettor for sale, so I bought the lot,” Glenn recalls. “I replaced all the bearings and seals and treated the barrels to a rebore with new pistons and rings.
“The only difference between the Huntmaster engine and a BSA A10 are slight differences to the rockerbox and timing covers and the simplex primary drive chain to the Ariel dry clutch and Burman gearbox. I got the crankcases, head, barrels and gearbox casings vapour-blasted before polishing them myself. It’s a messy job, but rewarding.”
Glenn confesses that he threw the original mudguards and other tinware away in the ’70s. “I wish I hadn’t,” he says. “The AOC has the original factory press tool for the rear mudguard, so I bought one of their replicas. But I had to get Draganfly to fabricate a front guard and final-drive chaincase. They also made me a
sidestand, as the original was missing because the bike originally had a chair fitted. “The tank had rusted through under the rubber kneepads, but a local welder sorted that for me. I got the magneto and dynamo rebuilt by another AOC member (Merv’s Magnetos – 01582 601555) and bought a new wiring loom from Sheffield British Motorcycles. It took time – and money – but the bike was back on the road in 2010 after all those years in the shed.”
Having finished his first resto, Glenn realised just how much he’d enjoyed it: “I wanted to do another almost as soon as I’d finished the Ariel. I’d retired in the meantime, too, so I could give it a bit more time. I fancied an Enfield and spotted this one for sale at The Triples Workshop in Wakefield. Neil Mccallum, who owns the firm, is a great guy and brings in a few bikes – not just triples – from the States.” The bike Glenn bought is a 1967 MKIA that came from Detroit and had been stripped for parts by the previous owner. The MKIA Interceptor was a stepping stone between the original 1962 MKI, which used what was essentially a Constellation engine stretched to 736cc though with a new, cast nodular iron crankshaft. Glenn’s 1967 model is one of around 700 so-called MKIAS fitted with coil ignition (instead of the magneto of the earlier Interceptors), Amal Concentric carburettors, twin exhausts plus a small, two-gallon tank (even for the home market). The following year Enfield revamped the model completely with wet sump lubrication, Norton forks and front wheel (Norton Villiers had taken over the Enfield Cycle Company in March 1967).
“Neil had bought some parts, including a tank and forks, with the intention of restoring it, but never got round to it,” Glenn continues. “It was a real wreck. Still, I like a challenge.” The engine was full of rain water, a nondescript set of Japanese forks had been bodged on and it was missing both mudguards, the exhaust, headlight, both stands, handlebars, the alloy outer primary chaincase and a host of other parts. But help was at hand.
“The great thing about Enfields is the parts supply,” says Glenn. “Even for a relatively rare
‘THE BURMAN GEARBOX REQUIRES A “TAKE YOUR TIME” APPROACH’
variant, almost everything is available. Between Hitchcocks (hitchcocksmotorcycles.com) and Burton Bike Bits (burtonbikebits.net) I got just about everything I needed. I rebuilt the engine with new bearings, seals, pistons, rings and cams and fitted a belt primary drive conversion from Hitchcocks.” Glenn used Maldon Shot Blasting and Powder Coating again for the frame and sourced the other missing bits. “The hardest part to track down was the missing primary drive cover,” he reveals. “I tried everyone over here, but eventually my daughter Lisa found one via ebay at Baxter Cycles in the USA. It cost $100, which I thought was reasonable. I think the replica mudguards came from Burton Bike Bits and the seat, wiring loom, points and so on were from Hitchcocks. It all came together pretty quickly, really – I had it finished in a year.”
After putting in a few miles round the local Essex lanes to shake everything down, Glenn decided on a run out to the Royal Enfield Owners Club (REOC) Interceptor Rally – and his bike won best Interceptor. Next up was the REOC International Rally where his MKIA scooped another award, this time Best Twin. Seems I’m not the only one who admires Glenn’s work, then.
So how better to enjoy two (perhaps underappreciated) Brit twins than with a good run out in the Essex countryside? With Glenn acting as my guide aboard the Interceptor, I follow him on the gleaming Huntmaster as we head out of town on a route he often uses for shakedown runs after any major work on his bikes. Within minutes we’re on some fast A-roads, before turning off onto a warren of minor roads with a surprisingly rural feel. It’s hard to believe we’re just 20 minutes down the A13 from the bustle of East London.
If you like the traditional virtues of a ’50s Brit twin, then you’ll really enjoy the Huntmaster experience. The BSA engine is a gem, with a solid, unburstable feel as it burbles away beneath me with 60mph showing on the Smiths Chronometric speedometer. The Burman gearbox needs a ‘take your time’ approach, but it changes positively and suits the lazy nature of the A10-based engine perfectly.
Surprisingly, considering its claimed weight is 5lb less than the big Royal Enfield, the Huntmaster actually feels heavier to me. Perhaps that’s an illusion created by the depth of the (exceedingly comfortable) seat and the big 4½-gallon fuel tank and that expanse of Deep Claret tinware, but even though it gives away more than 70cc to the Interceptor it’s capable of holding its own in a straight line unless the chips are really down.
When it comes to the twisty bits, though, the limited ground clearance, plush suspension and single seven-inch front stopper means it has to play second fiddle to the Enfield. That’s not a criticism, just an observation, as the Huntmaster was never touted as café racer material. What it does superbly, though, is waft me serenely and comfortably through the countryside at a more than adequate rate of knots. It would make a great bike for a long, leisurely ride on a day like today.
Unfortunately I haven’t got all day, and switching to the Interceptor reveals an altogether different machine. The Enfield immediately feels more lively, with massive torque available from the long-stroke 736cc engine – that’s no real surprise, since the bigger twin kicks out an extra 17.5bhp. The belt primary drive conversion gives the clutch something of a hair-trigger feel, and again the Burman gearbox can’t be rushed – but what an engine this is.
Blasting along the Tilbury Docks approach road at 70mph reveals just how capable it is. The Interceptor dispatches a line of lumbering lorries with ease, the fruity bark from the upswept silencers rattling back off the concrete walls of an underpass and alerting the drivers to my presence. The slim chassis heels through roundabouts with minimal input, while a swift twist of the wrist liberates the impressive grunt from the 52.5bhp engine to fire me down the short straight to the next one without troubling the gearbox.
The riding position is great in town, with just the slightly forward-set footrests slightly spoiling the party. But the high, braced ’bars and slim chrome tank with that racy red
‘IT ALL CAME TOGETHER PRETTY QUICKLY. I HAD IT FINISHED IN A YEAR’