The History of CCM
How one family created a legend. And then went through the process again. And again…
IN THE LATE 1960s Alan Clews, a handy scrambles rider, wanted to buy a works BSA 500 motocrosser, but the factory wouldn’t sell him one. Undaunted, he built his own. Before he had a chance to race it someone offered to buy it. So he built another and the same thing happened. That was the start of Clews Competition Machines. And when BSA closed down their competition shop Clews swooped in to buy essential parts. In the mid-seventies, when motocross was dominated by two-strokes, CCM fought an amazing rearguard action with their BSA based four-strokes of 500, 580 and 600cc. The mix of usable power and quality chassis components meant that, in the hands of good riders, they could bloody the nose of the two-strokes. In 1981 the Armstrong group, who made car parts, invested in CCM. Using two-stroke power units Armstrong badged bikes built at the CCM factory, won the British trials championship in 1984 and ’85, the Lightweight TT in 1981 and the 250cc and 350cc British road race championship in 1985 with Niall Mackenzie. Management change at Armstrong ended the investment and Clews bought back the company in 1987. Four years later the factory was gutted by fire and production ended. A steady revival led to a move to a new factory in Blackburn, and then investment by venture capital in 1998. Production of Rotax and then Suzuki powered trail bikes and supermotos increased but Austin and Alan Clews were sidelined. It ended badly. In 2004 the company went into liquidation and the Clews family once again bought back the remains and revived it. The company returned to an industrial unit on the site of the old Bolton factory. Suzuki-powered trail bikes, flattrackers and supermotos were produced before CCM returned to motocross with a Yamaha powered 450 featuring a bonded ally frame in 2008. This technology was also used on the GP450 adventure bike introduced in 2014. The Spitfire was unveiled at the London Motorcycle Show in 2017.