ADDING LIGHTNESS
Frank’s various WD G3LS can all trace their lineage back to 1937 when a new engine was introduced, one which remained in AMC’S range for the next 30 years. This handsome hunk of metal featured an extensively-finned cylinder head made from a single casting, and a rockerbox which completely enclosed the valves and their springs, and benefitted from positive lubrication to those delicate moving parts. The bottom end was also updated with beefed up bearings, new crankcases and improved oiling, all of which added up to around 16bhp.
This, then, was the powerplant which would do its patriotic duty in WW2, and it remained pretty much unchanged until 1947. Matchless boasted of its ‘unusual mechanical silence with high power output and prolonged maintenance of tune’ and claimed that many aspects of the new singles’ specification ‘should appeal to the practical man,’ from the four-speed positivestop Burman gearbox to the Lo-ex alloy piston, to the locked-link girder forks with adjustable duplex dampers and steering damper, to the adjustable brake shoes made of hardened steel ‘to reduce frequency of adjustment and enable maximum life to be obtained from the brake linings.’
That motor went into service in the G3 WO model, equipped with girder forks, as seen here. Yet although it received glowing praise from the press at the time, this well engineered workhorse was swiftly superseded by the ‘new’ G3L. The army specification demanded a much lighter bike – which AMC achieved by hacking off any item which wasn’t of immediate utility (sidecar lugs, hefty mudguarding, rear lifting handle, footrest rubbers) and quite a few things which were (engine fins, exhaust clamp, front stand, sidestand, toolbox, steering damper, etc) in a bid to hit the 275lb target.
Introduced for 1941, the G3L also pioneered the use of hydraulically damped telescopic forks on mass-produced British motorcycles. This modern suspension made the machine easier for a novice squaddie to manage, and the telescopic forks of the G3L provided over six inches of travel compared to half that offered by the girders. Trail could be reduced to improve steering and the tele forked bikes are undoubtedly easier to master than the previous incarnation.
AMC tweaked various other aspects of the G3L, including raising the saddle height to avoid bouncing on the regulator. The prototype G3L was some 56lb lighter than the G3 it replaced, although that new-fangled tele fork front end was 2lb heavier than the girder version. And many of the weight-saving wheezes were immediately undone when the bikes were prepped for actual service…
Statistics tell us that around 18,500 G3s were built for military duty, a number dwarfed by the 55,000 G3LS which left Plumstead between 1941 and ’45. After the war, many G3s were upgraded with Teledraulic front ends, so finding a girderforked G3 is a reasonably rare occurrence these days. But the G3L remains one of the most affordable and easy to live with classic Britbikes – and it doesn’t even need to be painted green!