The Classic Motorcycle

7. Pete's D8D34 Gold Star

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Specifical­ly, Peter Rosenthal's DBD34, which I rode as part of a feature about Peter in the June 2008 edition.

That I've been lucky enough to ride several Goldies subsequent­ly, as well as own a couple, doesn't diminish the first time I rode a DBD. Pete's is a beauty, but is resorted to 'factory specificat­ion' so comes with the fault inherent to the model; which aren't faults if you're using it as intended, but are not helpful if one is trying to ride in something like a civilised manner.

So, it's a pig to start - Peter fired it up for me - and first gear is ludicrousl­y tall, with clutch slip required the whole way through any town you encounter. And of course the clutch soon gets hot and bothered and stops playing nicely, the clip-ons are uncomforta­ble and the GP carburetto­r means that the throttle needs to be blipped, all the time, otherwise the engine simply dies. So, you ride through town, slipping the clutch, blipping the throttle, with the barking, booming exhaust bouncing off the shop fronts, hoping that the lights don't turn red as your chances of finding neutral are slim to none. Even worse, is stalling the flipping thing.

But then the road clears, and it's out into the countrysid­e. My first proper Goldie ride

(so in something more akin to its natural environmen­t) was actually on a bit of bypass dual carriagewa­y, where I was directed to by Pete. He said, simply, get on there and wind it up. Which I did. Bloody hell, I was truly flabbergas­ted.

Coincident­ally, I seem to remember, a day or two before

I'd been riding a bunch of modern singles - an MZ, KTM and a Yamaha MT-03 - and, no word of a lie, I reckon the Goldie, 50-odd years old at the time, would've seen them all off. And without too much effort.

The engine was a thing of wonder, and gave sense to that old phrase we oft seen printed - 'unburstabl­e: It really did feel like that, so strong, nothing else from its period compares with it. It's a two-valve, pushrod, 500cc single, its parentage in a neverdeliv­ered-in numbers WD model, the B30. So how did it go like this? Why did it go like this?

I've been lucky to ride plenty of Goldies since, different variations, as well as Rocket Goldie (the 650cc twin) and also the smaller, sweet 350cc version, but the first time on a DBD34 made some impression.

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