THE MAGIC OF METISSE
THERE WAS ALWAYS something about the way a Rickman Metisse looked, whether it was a desert sled immortalised by the king of cool Steve Mcqueen or a stripped-for-action road racer, just like the one featured in this issue originally raced by Tony Jefferies. Back in the day, we saw examples of the Rickman Metisse mostly in scrambles events predominantly with Triumph twin engines, or in middleweight road races with Aermacchi singles. The road bikes were a bit of a rarity. I remember going to Elite Motors just to ogle at the line of the Rickman-framed Clymer Enfields surplus stock they had for sale, but don’t recall seeing any kind of Rickman Metisse on the road locally until my mate Rob Underwood shocked us all by buying one with a Honda CB750-4 motor. Now I was never a fan of Japanese multis back then, but his bright orange café racer was an entirely different prospect and I’m sure that I wasn’t the only with motorcycle envy when he rocked up on it for the first time. Not only did it look fantastic – especially when Rob spent hours with the metal polish on that nickel-plated frame – it also handled like a dream, judging by the way he rode the wheels off it. So when Steve Tonkin rang a few months back to say he had three Rickman Metisse-framed street bike builds on the go, we couldn’t wait to get them in the mag – and it was well worth the wait. Not only has Steve built three very different bikes to his normal incredible standards, he also restored the Commando-powered race bike that Tony Jefferies used to impress everyone enough to earn a factory Triumph ride. But you can read all of that inside. The other bike we’ve really been looking forward to featuring is the 1902 Triumph – not just because it coincides with Hinckley Triumph recently announcing its one-millionth Triumph off the production line, but more because Phillip Tooth has unravelled the really early days of the Triumph brand with the tale of first Triumph ever built. A darn good yarn indeed.
Enjoy the issue.