David's 55-Year Love Affair with AJS and Matchless Motorcycles
David's 55-Year Love Affair with AJS and Matchless Motorcycles
David's passion for motorcycles spans an incredible 55 years, and for nearly 50 of those years, his heart has belonged to AJS and Matchless bikes. His shed, a testament to this devotion, is a veritable treasure trove of parts and projects. We sat down with David to hear about his lifelong journey with these classic British machines.
Ross: Hi David, how long have you been riding?
David: I've been riding for 55 years, and I've been riding AJS and Matchless bikes for almost 50 years now. I just love them. They just seem to never let me down. If you look around my shed, you'll find that I've only got AJS and Matchless parts.
It all started with Jack Graham Motorcycles down at Arncliffe. He was known for buying ex-police bikes, doing them up, and selling them. He had this Matchless 650 there, and I thought, "Yes, I can afford that!" It was in good mechanical condition, but it had a horrible paint job. That's why it was so cheap. Well, I ended up buying the 650 in 1968, and I only sold it earlier this year. So, I owned that bike all those years.
Ross: What is the connection between AJS and Matchless?
David: The AJS company and the Matchless company were competitors back in the early 1900s. They coined the name AJS from the initials of Albert Jack Stevens. They prided themselves on racing bikes, making the famous 7R, the "Boy Racer." I think of all the British motorcycle companies, they held the most world records because they raced on the continent, all through Europe, and of course, on the Isle of Man.
The Stevens brothers did sold the factory and the AJS rights to the Matchless company because Matchless was doing much better. Matchless was based in London, while the AJS was based in Birmingham. From about 1931, all the Matchless and AJS bikes were built back in the London factory, coming off the same production line, just badge engineered. Some had an AJS badge, and some had a Matchless badge.
Ross: Sounds like the company has an interesting history. Tell me about your latest restoration?
David: This bike here is quite rare. It's a 600 twin, but it's got a few factory extras. The CS version of the 600 twin was a record breaker. The CS stands for "Competition Sprung Model." Very few of the CS versions were actually made. There were plenty of the 600 road bikes, but the CS was quite different. You could order it the way you wanted it. It had a different frame, different wheels, a different petrol tank, different exhaust, and different front forks and suspension. It was designed for trials and competition work. These bikes were favoured by the Scottish Six-Day Trial guys, and in America, they were really popular for the desert races. The yanks, of course, used to strip them all down. The CS model has a detachable headlight and a special wiring harness. They used to take the headlight and battery off, strip them right down. This one is done up to the American specification. It's got the 21-inch front wheel, knobby tires, the detachable headlight, and it's done up in Arctic White, which was the only colour reserved for the American market.
When I got it, it was missing a lot of bits and pieces, having been stored for quite a while. All the spokes were rusty, the tank was missing. It was a bike that needed total restoration. Over time, I've been able to find all the missing bits, all the special bits that made this CS a unique bike. So, it's been a good 20-year love affair just getting all the right bits together. That was the hardest part. Then it took me the best part of maybe three years to put it all together, have all the chrome plating done, the powder coating, the polishing, the tank lining. To build a bike like this takes me about a three-year period because I work at my own pace.
Ross: If someone was thinking of taking on a restoration would you recommend they join a motorcycle club?
David: I think it's most important to join one, if not two or three clubs, depending on what you want to do. The AJS and Matchless Owners Club is Australia-wide, so we can't offer historic registration, so you need to join another club that actually does historic registration, like the Classic Club of NSW. Between the two clubs, you can find all the machinists, painters, all the advice, all the literature, and all the help you need. It's all there. You've just got to get out and do it. It's great fun, and you've got to have patience. It's not going to happen overnight.
Ross: That's great advice, so what's going to be your next project?
David: I've got a couple of restoration projects which I've started, but the one that's most interesting, which has taken me the longest to research, is a little motorbike called a Stevens. When the AJS company went into liquidation, they sold off the rights to the name AJ's, but they kept on making these bikes called Stevens. They made them in 250, 350, and 500cc capacities.
I was scrolling through the Sydney Morning Herald one Saturday afternoon, and there was a guy who said he had an AJS for sale. I went out there, and there was this little bike. It had the engine, gearbox, wheels, and frame, but it wasn't a runner. The guy said it was an AJ's, but it had no markings on it. All it had was an engine number. I ended up buying the bike out of curiosity because I didn't know what it was, but I couldn't identify it as an AJS because it didn't look like one.
I wrote a letter to Bob Curry, who was the editor of the Classic Motorcycle magazine in the UK, and Bob identified the bike as being a 250 Stevens motorcycle made in 1935. It is, once again, a long-term sort of project, but the Stevens is a very interesting bike. When AJS was sold off, and the Stevens brothers kept making the bikes, they used the same big-port technology. This little 250 engine I've got has a 2-inch exhaust pipe and only, I think, a 7/8-inch carburettor. I don't know how it's going to run, but back in the day, they evidently ran very well with the 2-inch exhaust pipe.
Ross: Good luck with that project, let me know when it is completed, I would love to see it. Last question, what do you love about classic motorcycles?
David: Modern bikes are more like a fad, they come and go. But with a classic bike, especially if you take the time to look after them, restore them, and maintain them, they're an everlasting icon. They're a head-turner. I suppose I'm a bit of a poser. I like to have a bike that looks good, but then again, I don't mind a bike that's original, that shows the scars, the stone chips, where you've worn the paint off the petrol tank. All of my bikes I build so that they can be ridden. I like that in a few years, this bike is going to have stone chips, and it's going to have a little bit of rust on the spokes. It'll probably have mud in the back of the gearbox. I don't mind that. They're there to be ridden, and I love riding them.
Ross: Thanks David.
Head over to YouTube by clicking the link below to see David's beautiful AJS CS 600 in action.