Original and unrestored
We’ve not had an original and unrestored bike in CDB for a few issues and we’d thought the supply had dried up, then, on a chance call to Charles Preston at Husqvarna Vintage, up pops this 400 Cross from 1970.
Just to remind you, the theme at Stafford in October for the Carole Nash
Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show was the all- time classic motorcycle movie On Any Sunday. Husqvarnas featured quite a lot in the film and star Steve Mcqueen was filmed riding a 400 Cross.
Charles had a 1970 machine we could borrow and it turned out to be completely original and unrestored. By a quirk of fate, Will Bennett decided at the last minute to bring along his fully restored 1970 400 Cross and the opportunity to have them both together in one feature was too good to miss. Only problem being not much is known about the history of the bike, other than it is a genuine UK machine and an early version of the model range. Husqvarna, it seems, updated their bikes through
the season so specification altered a little as the season wore on.
What is clear from a close inspection of the bike, is it’s likely never to have been raced. Charles told CDB he got hold of the bike at a farm sale and once back at his place with the carb cleaned out, some fresh oil in the engine and the bore lubed a bit, he persuaded the bike into life. The reason for it having been laid up was soon clear… the main bearings were rumbling. The best guess is it had been used for some practice, the bearings started to fail and it was put to one side to be dealt with later and ‘later’ never arrived.
“It’s a great indicator of the era,” says Charles, “the worst damage is scuff marks whereas harder- used bikes will have dings and dents everywhere, maybe replacement bars and levers, this one is exactly as it would have been.”
With a bike in such a remarkably well preserved condition, there is the dilemma of should it be restored or should it be gently recommissioned and left with its patina of age. Personally, my thoughts are gentle recommissioning and retaining the patina of age but others may have a different idea.
With little real interest in MX from a management more concerned with volume sales, it was up to the riders themselves to modify existing machines into workable competition bikes.
This led to a cottage industry growing up around the base bikes and it was certainly possible to buy frames, forks, rear suspension, barrels of various capacities and better carburettors to make the original 175cc three- speed Silverpilen into a creditable race bike.
This didn’t mean the factory were unaware of what was needed, or even that they wouldn’t develop things, they did, and the factory riders had full 250cc engines for 1958. However, a downturn in sales in general led to the factory deciding motorcycles were not viable and ceased production of the Silverpilen.
Problem was, the successes of the factory riders had created a demand, albeit small, for replicas of the team bikes. A plan to produce moped engines in the region of 70,000 a year fell through, a factory facility built to accommodate this production was turned over to chainsaw and sewing machine manufacture, but there was room for MX engine production. A plan was put together to make 100 machines for sale to prominent riders, the board were convinced only because the plan used stockpiled Silverpilen parts.
It turned out that the bike they built and the limited backup from the factory, was enough to allow Torsten Hallman to eventually become the first 250cc world MX champion. Did the factory rush to embrace this success? No. But they did sanction the 100 models proposed and set the stall for future development.
Eventually, this led to the works machineinspired 250 and 360cc models of 1968. Though excellent machines, the 360 was still underpowered for open class racing and a bigger engine was needed. Initially this was a 420, but vibration and power problems meant it wasn’t as good as envisaged. A drop of capacity to 400cc with different bore and stroke ratios produced a machine to take on the world – the 400 Cross.