MATCHLESS G3 LC

RC regular Stuart Urquhart is entirely familiar with AMC’s roadgoing singles. He’s always liked the look of the firm’s tough trials bikes – and riding a competition 350 more than lived up to expectations…

RC regular Stuart Urquhart is entirely familiar with AMC’s roadgoing singles. He’s always liked the look of the firm’s tough trials bikes – and riding a competition 350 more than lived up to expectations…

Post-war British trials motorcycles are much sought-after, and it is not difficult to appreciate why. Minimalist yet muscular in style, the AMC 350 and 500 trials bikes must be among the most beautifully crafted motorcycles ever to flow from a designer’s pen. I have been a devotee of this particular model ever since watching an LC compete at a trial in the late 1960s at Stewarton near Glasgow. Back then, I loved the model’s all-black paintwork and silver coachlines, and the pretty little two-gallon petrol tank perched high on its damper rubbers – all of which added to the machine’s allure. I still feel the same today, so taking to the road on the Matchless G3LC pictured here was a real treat. But that’s getting ahead of the history…

At the outbreak of WW2, Associated Motor Cycles submitted a girder-forked G3 350 for field evaluation by the War Office. It was quickly adopted by the British forces (principally by the army), and over 80,000 machines were supplied during the seven year conflict. By 1941 AMC patented their famous Teledraulic front fork, making them one of the first big factories to switch to a telescopic front end.

Once hostilities ceased in 1945, AMC were in the enviable position of having a tried and tested field machine ready for civilian production. Thus AMC’s post-war civilian 350 and 500 singles (little more than military machines in black gloss paintwork and chrome trimmings) paved the way for their successful competition models.

Throughout the 1950s, the humble commuter single was stripped of its lights and transformed into a weekend clubman trials machine, so that droves of off-road enthusiasts could take to the fields and test their mettle. Trials became a national obsession and it wasn’t long before Britain’s major manufacturers took notice and began to offer production trials machines – many with removable lighting in order to double as commuter machines.

AMC soon brought the trials-inspired AJS 348cc 16MCS and larger capacity 497cc 18CS to the showrooms, alongside their Matchless equivalents. The smaller capacity AMC model became one of the most successful off-roaders of its time. Offered in rigid frame form initially, competition diehards grew to love them and failed to accept the new rear sprung models when they were introduced – especially as Hugh Viney had won the 1947 Scottish Six Days Trial on his first attempt on a rigid AJS.

Then works rider Gordon Jackson won a string of Scottish Six Days Trial events (1956, 1958, 1960 and 1961) on his swinging arm 350, making the lightweight, fully sprung AJS a highly popular clubman’s machine. Although AMC were struggling financially by the early 1960s, their trials models continued in production until the 350 was dropped in 1964, followed by the 500 just two years later when the official receiver was called in to wind up AMC’s affairs. Norton-Matchless built a few more G85CS Matchless scramblers after that, but by this time emerging twostroke machines from Japan and Europe were already ruling the turf and British four-stroke trials bikes were no longer competitive.

Today AMC’s pedigree mud-sluggers are highly prized and command high premiums, should you be fortunate enough to find one. Our featured LC has a complicated but well catalogued history, as you’re about to discover…