Hudson
Well-known member
"
" - Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez (also known as "The Rat")
You might recall the Matchless Café. Many years ago, Niehart helped me drag it home from a lonely storage locker. A wash, a drink of oil, and three kicks later it gloriously woke from a 30 year nap.
It was the offspring of a 1956 Matchless G80CS, married to a Honda CB400 tank with some amazing, period-correct bits and pieces, including a rare Smith's chrometric tach, steering dampers, Borrani racing rims, and a sweet Amal GP carb with velocity stacks. By no means was this an original concours restoration, but if you were after a period-correct café as the boys in the day would have done, this was the real deal:
Over the years I've owned her, she's covered all of about 250 miles. Why? Mostly because I've been too lazy to replace the pitted roller bearings, but also because riding a vintage 500 single means you're ringing its neck over 55mph unless you regear it, and brakes need to be heated up to properly work (I use "work" in the loose sense that they will slow the bike more than dragging your feet on the ground will).
I love the look and attitude of this bike, but with too many other distractions, I've been recently inspired to either "ride it or sell it." I've already sold off three bikes (including two wonderful low mileage MV Agusta F4's, and very nice vintage Daytona 500 twin with less than 5400 miles). If you're not riding them, they are either art or doorstops.
And anyways, if I am going to own and ride only vintage bike, it has to be this one:
Powered by a rebuilt Triumph 750cc twin set in a nickel-plated, hand welded oil-in-frame design, with right hand shift, kick start only, and vented twin pull brakes, this bad boy is currently being built in the UK to my specs by some cool old-school craftsmen. In what I hope will be 4 or so weeks, it will be crated and shipped to the USA. Where it will get ridden. It's also a bit of a ******* - Metisse means "mongrel" or half-breed in French - but it is built to the precise spec as Bud Ekins and Steve McQueen made in the mid to late 1960s. McQueen owned at least two - a true off-road racer that he reviewed favorably, and a road-going version.
Upon arrival at Casa Hudson, said Metisse Desert Racer will be removed from the crate and replaced with the Matchless, which will be shipped back to the UK, stripped of its frame and tank and reassembled on a Rickman frame with specially made mounts, and live out its life in as one of many bikes gracing the Metisse museum. Lovingly worshipped and perhaps occasionally ridden.
I think this may be my favorite trade ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz5b3C3e0Qo
" - Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez (also known as "The Rat")
You might recall the Matchless Café. Many years ago, Niehart helped me drag it home from a lonely storage locker. A wash, a drink of oil, and three kicks later it gloriously woke from a 30 year nap.
It was the offspring of a 1956 Matchless G80CS, married to a Honda CB400 tank with some amazing, period-correct bits and pieces, including a rare Smith's chrometric tach, steering dampers, Borrani racing rims, and a sweet Amal GP carb with velocity stacks. By no means was this an original concours restoration, but if you were after a period-correct café as the boys in the day would have done, this was the real deal:
Over the years I've owned her, she's covered all of about 250 miles. Why? Mostly because I've been too lazy to replace the pitted roller bearings, but also because riding a vintage 500 single means you're ringing its neck over 55mph unless you regear it, and brakes need to be heated up to properly work (I use "work" in the loose sense that they will slow the bike more than dragging your feet on the ground will).
I love the look and attitude of this bike, but with too many other distractions, I've been recently inspired to either "ride it or sell it." I've already sold off three bikes (including two wonderful low mileage MV Agusta F4's, and very nice vintage Daytona 500 twin with less than 5400 miles). If you're not riding them, they are either art or doorstops.
And anyways, if I am going to own and ride only vintage bike, it has to be this one:
Powered by a rebuilt Triumph 750cc twin set in a nickel-plated, hand welded oil-in-frame design, with right hand shift, kick start only, and vented twin pull brakes, this bad boy is currently being built in the UK to my specs by some cool old-school craftsmen. In what I hope will be 4 or so weeks, it will be crated and shipped to the USA. Where it will get ridden. It's also a bit of a ******* - Metisse means "mongrel" or half-breed in French - but it is built to the precise spec as Bud Ekins and Steve McQueen made in the mid to late 1960s. McQueen owned at least two - a true off-road racer that he reviewed favorably, and a road-going version.
Upon arrival at Casa Hudson, said Metisse Desert Racer will be removed from the crate and replaced with the Matchless, which will be shipped back to the UK, stripped of its frame and tank and reassembled on a Rickman frame with specially made mounts, and live out its life in as one of many bikes gracing the Metisse museum. Lovingly worshipped and perhaps occasionally ridden.
I think this may be my favorite trade ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz5b3C3e0Qo
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