SUBLIME RIDICULOUS

Frank provoked me into writing for two reasons.

Reason 1. You stimulated my liking for unusual machinery with your Matchless X story including a casual mention of the Lincs countryside (why?), which beamed me back to King’s Motors Sleaford in 1962 where I was collecting a three-year-old 650 AJS. Leaning casually against a wall, was a wellused V-twin, sidevalve, girder fork Matchless which I immediately recognised as the Model X because I had, and still have, FW Neill’s book‘ Matchless’. The price label attached to the bike was £25! (Sigh). No, I did not buy it, because every other hedge held ‘scrap’ bikes and I was about to enjoy my AJS.

Reason 2. Fast forward about 40 years. My ‘little’ brother bought a 1960-something small BSA single which he got going and asked me to ‘finish’ and get it an MoT. I did and rode it home. It was ’orrible. He took it back, rode it once and sold it. Why did he bother? Why did I? Why did you? Why not a B31 or an A7? Brian King

Glad you enjoyed the story. We all share tales from ‘back then’, in my case as I was a country boy almost every farm had several old bikes laying around the place in the way that they have old quads nowadays. The breaker nearest to my parents’ home in Somerset had a special shed for the bikes you could never get parts for – mostly pre-war machines – which he simply sold for scrap as there was no demand for them. He would also strip bronze components from race bikes and Rudges, etc and sell them for better money scrap. Seems odd these days! I mentioned the Lincs countryside because Richard Negus – who rebuilt the engine – lives there. Why did I bother with the B25SS? Because … it was a lot of fun. That’s all. Nothing else. FrankW