ON THE TRAIL OF TRIALS HEROES
The ISDT was always motorcycling’s Olympics, a six-day endurance event that presented competitors with all kinds of off-road (and sometime on-road) challenges. The issue has taken on something of an ISDT theme, thanks largely to Sammy Miller’s recent acquisition of the Ken Heanes 500cc Cheney Triumph. Sammy is planning a special ISDT area in his superb museum down in New Milton, so we asked him to allow us to ride the Heanes bike, while featuring some of other really special ISDT bikes he already has in the collection.
Rick P got in on the act, too, with his project 3TA, which was always intended as a street scrambler – but now it’s nearly finished, it could easily be mistaken for an ISDT replica. Just see how closely Rick’s work resembles Triumph’s original promotional advertising for the 5TA.
It’s not all off-road stuff in this issue. John Westlake pinned down Ajs/matchless Chairman Roy Bellet for a chat over lunch about the club’s 70th Anniversary and its well-appointed HQ , which hosts the club’s spares shop.
We’ve also got a track test of a Tickle Manx – the very last single cylinder machine to keep the British flag flying in the 500cc class. We also have Philip Tooth’s story about the AJS Big Port – another classic British single. And there’s a Redditch Enfield Bullet buying guide.
But it’s not all British content. We’ve covered the reincarnation of the Austrian mountain-top museum after fire decimated it; there’s a fantastic new Guzzi book which we’ve reviewed and there’s a bonkers 10-cylinder special from the Czech Republic. I’ll not say too much about the bike here, except that it’s based on a classic Jawa two-stroke single – but you’d never think that if you look at the photographs!