Old British Bikes of mine.

I still have this 1969 Rickman Metisse-Triumph 650


Sold this one last year- 1974 Norton Commando Interstate


Sold this one the year before- 1974 BSA B50MX


Here they are all together


This is NOT mine, I saw it at Sturgis

Lol Mad Max bike! Wonderful bikes you have/had. Wow...

Wow... That takes me back. My father's shop sold all of those.

The shop was the Norton Viller's (i.e. Norton Commandos) top sales on the west coast for seven consecutive years .

Didn't sell Triumph, which was covered by Ted Evans shop in Venice, CA at the time, but sold Metisse with Zundapp, Hodaka, Montesa, DKW and Westlake powerplants.

Shop closed in 72 so I never saw ( or go to ride) the 1974 B50 (Dick Mann Replica ?). ....but I did a lap on a 72 Paul Dunstall (Cafe Racer) edition.

I was also fortunate enough to have ridden all of the above but my favorite was my AJS y4 Stormer pictured here:



Except mine was setup with the Stormers LTD (Morris Malone sponsors) downpipe.

I raced it (The Y4 - a right side shifter), and a DKW 125 (left side shifter) for the better part of two years straight. Try that in back-to-back races.

Dear lord...that Norton Commando is gorgeous.

Being British, I see a lot of these restored things ridden around on Sunday afternoons. You can't help admire the hand finished chrome & all that stuff. BUT: thank the lord for modern Japanese engineering - riding one of these antiques on a daily basis must have been a nightmare!!

I ride a few dual sport rides in SoCalwith a bunch of old "Hotshoes" (slang for fast circle and TT track racers) on vintage bikes.

You cannot belive how fast these old (I'm talking 65-75) dudes go on old Matchless, AJS, Triumphs, Metisse, Cheny (sp ?) Triumphs as well as the 441 Victor type thumpers go across the desert

I can't remember their website but I'll find it and post it up if anyone wants to go, they can.

kbike wrote:

Sold this one last year- 1974 Norton Commando Interstate

What handle bars did you have on that?

I'm still putting my 73 back together, the bars yours had look perfect for mine!
And yours looked very clean without turn signals...

Hater,
As near as I can remember, it's been a long long time, the bars were a Euro style street bar, 2" rise and fairly narrow width. They worked well with the rear-sets. I also made the passenger peg extensions that moved the pegs back and up for better foot clearance. I never liked the turn signals on Nortons and Triumphs, and we didn't need them in Colorado, so off they went.

here in the uk these old bikes keep turning up out of barns and sheds

[url= Very fun bike to bomb around town on!