Cambridge 1974
1963 AJS Model 31 650
I had moved to Hamilton in 1973 and met a chap called Ian who had also moved north from Christchurch. He owned a motorcycle but due to a car accident he had been unable to use it for some time.
Some of his "friends" had used it and it was in very poor condition when he decided to sell it. Fortunately I heard of this and bought it for the princeley sum of $150. It looked like this..
At the time I was learning a great deal about engine reconditioning from my friend and landlord Chris Bowden, and together we undertook a complete rebuild of the powerplant.
I ditched the original headlight and fitted a separate chrome headlamp and universal type speedo.
I was at the same time working with a painter of some repute, and he was assigned the task of updating the paintwork. End result was this..
I lived in a house with 5 occupants and 6 bikes - a good ratio.
We hung out with like-minded folks and were at the forefront of forming the Hamilton chapter of the "Norton Owners Club", as there were quite a few Nortons amongst the clan and a bigger chapter in Auckland with whom we did combined runs. Other Brit and European bikes were welcome too.
This was our inaugural run meetup in Hamilton's main drag.
As I learned to handle the bike I also began to modify it in the "cafe" style that was favoured at the time by those of us who could not afford a more "sporty" machine.
While the clipons may have embraced the preferred look of the day, I remember that they used to vibrate something wicked, and more so as the revs increased, so I seldom saw more than 70mph in normal use.
Clipon bars, chrome headlamp and separate speedo - albeit a Japanese universal type - all heading in the direction of the type of motorcyle we wished to own.
Final stage was to begin replacing the heavily valanced 'guards with smaller alloy units.
While these bikes were nothing too radical at the time, they would be extremely rare today. Unfortunately, the after-market parts used in their metamorphosis would also be, so they are just an echo of the time.
Looking at the bike in the above pic, I think that with a rear mudguard similar to the Commando next to it, I would still have found it to be pleasing to look at today.
I guess I was on the right track.!
We had a lot of fun on these machines, be it daytime squirts or longer runs with the club, and they were easy to start, handle and maintain.
Except mine, which used to break down in all manner of interesting places. I kept having trouble with the distributor which it had, and for one trip to the far north I borrowed a magneto from a mate's 500 twin. Unfortunately the mag lost a cylinder north of Auckland so I left it at a nearby property and continued in the back of an ex-police Mk4 Zephyr.
We picked it up on the way back a few days later, and Steve towed me with his Triumph 650 Trophy. My girlfriend took the pic out the back window of the Z-car as we approached Auckland.
As we entered Auckland a cop appeared and stopped us, saying that we could not tow a bike with a bike. There was a girl travelling with us in a Mk1 Cortina, so we moved the towrope to that and drove/rode on to Huntly.
When we got to Huntly another cop - possibly warned in advance - pulled us over and said that we could not tow a bike with a car. I asked him to show me the law that stated such.
While he dicked about with his radio trying to unravel the ransom note, the boys all leered about for the sake of the camera..
Another cop pulled up on a bike, but despite their best attempts to lash up a ticket, they could not, so they just told us to piss off.
Which we were happy to do.
Being towed by a car was a bit like water skiing, as I weaved to and fro, mostly because the slipstreams from either side of the car managed to co-incide right where I was, and despite being well North in NZ terms, it was bloody freezing, more so than it would have been just riding the bike. There had been no problem with that or the handling while towing with a bike.
I left Hamilton late 1976 after selling the AJS as a going concern. I had gotten hold of a good used distributor and it was running AOK, so I trust it gave good service.