5 Underrated Classic British Motorcycles

This time we look at 5 great British bikes that we consider underrated when compared to some of their more glamerous counterparts

This time it’s five underrated classic British Motorcycles all too often when the topic of classic British motorcycles comes up people tend to fixate on the same old machines gold star Bonville that kind of thing while these are all very fine Machines of course in its time the British industry made a lot of really

Fine machines so let’s pour a bit of Praise on the bikes that often are overlooked and overshadowed in the rush to look at these socalled or glamorous models the AMC pre-unit singles like so many British singles the G3 dates all the way back to the pre-war era and its military form the

G3l was a very popular dispatch Riders tool of course the machine was available in both AGS and matchless forms with the sporty G80 and G3 being the matchless forms and the model 18 being the ajs and of course were 350 and 500 CC capacities

The engine was a 498 ccs and had a born stroke of 82.5 by 93 in its earliest forms this would later to be changed to 86x 85.5 following the practice of the more sporty CS models in the early days to differentiate between the AGS and the matchless the magdo is carried in a

Different position being carried behind the cylinders on a matchless and before the cylinders on an AGS later on this be UniFi between the two machines however in 1957 there was a move towards a Lucas alternator and coil ignition and at the same time the introduction of a much

Less leak prone primary drive cover the machine was famous for its use of hydraulic front forks a first on a British bike of the era other early postwar models do feature rigid rear ends but AMC were early adopters of spring rear suspension and their early single down tube swinging arm frame

Would last until 1960 when a twin down tube frame replaced it and later still the engine would feature Cas in push rod tubes but here in lies essential problem with these machines most British companies have moved onto unit construction singles by the mid6 s but AMC continued to produce and evolve

Their preunit big fumpers to an Ever decreasing market and even though AMC themselves would develop a much lighter weight 350 the big fumpers would remain in the range right until The Bitter End in 1966 now of course while this is not good news for AMC it’s very good used

For the perspective buyer today there are lots of these machines around and they’re available at fairly modest prices but despite this they are very fine examples of the breed so if you’re on the market for a big single fper AMC’s range could be just the ticket for you the aerial

Arrow aiel was a company based in Celio Birmingham and were founded by James Starley the man who had patented the spoked wheel in Britain and incidentally his nephew also named Starley would paint in the safety bicycle and so not surprised like so many bicycle manufacturers they would move into

Motorcycles in the turn of the century and there’s no doubt that during the lifetime area were renowned for being great innovators of the art from the sporting red Hunters to of course the square 4 perhaps none more so than the aerial leader and arrow machines and

These bikes were the final works of one Valentine pagee a man who had cut his teeth designing bikes and Engineering at Brooklyn’s during the 1920s but the leader was something very different here was a fully enclosed machine with a two-stroke parallel to an engine of 247

CC’s with a BN stroke of 54x 54 which made use of a press steel frame which afforded the bike excellent handling with its all around weather protection the leader was seen very much as a touring motorcycle and could be available specked out with built-in paniers and indicators to boot but while

Its 17 horsepower was respectable for 250 the period it wasn’t exactly SP 40 while the machine was not quite the success hoped for neither was it a failure that many other people will tell you with aiel selling over 25,000 of the leaders alone but the company did find

Themselves with a little spare capacity so burn and Knight was tasked with the job of producing a slightly more conventional looking machine so he set to work removing much of the leader’s Bodywork and saving around 20 kilos in the process to produce the aerial Arrow a machine that was faster simply by

Virtue of its lighter weight because because it still used a 177 horsepower standard motor at that point but aiel quickly realized it was potential for a slightly higher performing machine and so to that end in 1961 Ariel announced the arrow sport often called the Golden Arrow because of its paint Scheme and

The engine on the new machine was slightly tuned over the previous model with a raiseed compression ratio to 10:1 and a larger carburetor and the result of this tuning was around 20 horsepower at 6,500 RPM which gave the machine a top speed as tested of 81 mph unfortunately the time of the bikes

Introduction could not have been worse because sales of motorcycles in the UK went into sharp decline after 1960 and the American importers were not keen at all on a press steel frame bike and as if a tubula steel framed version could be produced and another major bloke was that Burman who manufactured

The bike’s gearbox for getting out of the bike transmission business A’s ping company BSA did consider recasting the engine cases to accommodate a BSA gearbox but in the end they decided to focus attention on their own fourstroke singles but in retrospect considering the development potential of the

Parallel twin two stroke you have to wonder if this was a wise decision because today the area represents a machine with good performance for 250 and with excellent handling which feels extremely modern the Royal Enfield meteor minor Roy enfield’s first parallel twin the imaginatively named 500 twin arrived in

1949 with the bike first being shown to the public in November 1948 designed by Ted Paro and Tony Wilson Jones the bike had a lot of similarities with the bullet range which is introduced about the same time the engine feature The Familiar Royal Enfield cast an oil tank and at the top

End The Rocker Box was cast in two and the chassis was essentially the same as the bullet with light modifications and was therefore of course an early swinging arm frame and the four-speed gearbox featured that neat neutral finder this might seem a little bit superflous but believe me when you

Rideing one of these bikes on a hot day in heavy traffic it’s a very useful thing indeed the engine shared its pistons and conrods with a 248cc Model S single so on a boring stroke of 64x 77 making for 496 CC’s and 25 horsepower at 5,500 RPM with its aluminum head the

Engine was a fairly neat design although a better bottom end would have been desirable Unfortunately The Styling was seen as a bit old hat and the performance was fairly modest however in 1958 the 500 T was was replaced by the meteor minor now although the two machines look vaguely similar and you

Could argue that the meteor minor still has fairly stayed styling the design is considerably updated with a beefed up bottom end and while the top end retained its separate aluminium heads the new engine featured over square dimensions of 70x 64.5 so while the capacity remained at 496 CC’s the nature

Of the engine had changed quite a bit it was much more rev happy than the previous model and compression was much higher too Vol Enfield would claim 34 horsepower and a top speed of just over 90 but unfortunately this styling was never quite on point they didn’t make a

Continental GT500 after all and being a relatively small company made their products a little bit more expensive than the bsas and triumphs of this world which is a Pity cuz the metum miner is a capable machine and a match for many of its peers the AMC twins

Designed by Phil Walker the first of AMC’s parallel twins was first demonstrated at the ill Court show in 1948 with the 498cc G9 being the matchless version although in truth the only difference between the two ranges was the badges and the color schemes Walker’s design bristled with individuality the company

Was an early upt of swinging arm suspension and the engine design was individualistic too it shared a 4 and half cam shaft with triumphs engines but it also used separate barrels and heads and valve adjustment was cleverly achieved by the use of a cam at the top

End which was cast in of course to the cylinder head a design later copied by BSA on the singles but of course the most famously distinctive feature of the engine was its unique use of a central bearing at least unique for a British parallel twin that is this was done in

The hope it would provide a tougher bottom end and less vibration in the end however it achieved nether AMC however had great faith in the engine and believe it could form the basis of an over-the-counter racer and to that end they designed the truly beautiful g45 a machine which

Robin Cher wrote to ACC creditable fourth place in the Magus Grand Prix in 1951 although the vibration did nearly shake his fillings out in later Seasons the engine would be smoothed out considerably but back on the road the US market demanded more cubes and to that

End in 1956 they introduced the 592 CCC G11 in its now revised form the engine ran almost square dimensions of 72x 72.8 and while the base touring model made 34 horsepower the CSR it doesn’t mean coffee shop racer incidentally 4y version made 39.5 for top speed of

Around 102 M an hour but it wouldn’t be until 1959 some years after the competitors that the company finally had a 650 twin and this would be the g12 in matchless form unlike its smaller siblings the bike would be available in various forms from the 300 mph tour to

The 110 mph CSR but the bike had a frumpy image and even endurance racing success didn’t improve this and indeed the old man from P image persists today which is good news for the prospective buyer of course the BSA A7 bsa’s A7 was introduced in 1946 and in its original form featured a 495cc engine with a b and of 62 by 82 but given the lowquality pool petrol of the period ran a fairly low compression ratio so made just 26 horsepower for top speed of around 85 mph and there was a

Full-speed gearbox which bolted directly to the back of the engine and the chi had telescopic Forks but a rigid rear end although plunges would arrive as an option later in 1949 ber Hood introduced the 650 A10 and while this was based to some extent on the earlier A7 it

Featured a number of improvements improvements which would be applied to the A7 which would result in a totally revised engine of 497 CC’s with a bing stroke of 66x 72.6 the revised engine would now be capable of 30 horsepower at 5,800 RPM and a top speed of around 90 mph

Although the gearbox for now at least would remain bolted to the back of the engine this would change in 1954 and the introduction of The Swinging arm frame a change which would allow SAA to use a broader range of gear boxes across a parallel twin range from then on the

Bike was available in two forms the stock A7 or the shooting star SS model with its aluminium head either however make excellent road machines top speed is just over 90 mph and the unstress motor is very reliable and produces very little vibration and while not as glamorous as some of its competitors it

Is a great handling and very smooth riding motorcycle with surprisingly good performance given its mod this Power claims what of bikes or collections of bikes would you like to see us cover in a future video maybe you’ve got a bike we can use for a test ride either way

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