Matchless trials

The only confirmation was that the motor number stamped on the crankcases was that of a model G3C Matchless. Mick Andrews has been asked many times what he did for a living and simply answers that he commenced a motor mechanic apprenticeship with Kennings when he left school in his home town of Buxton in Derbyshire, but quickly earned a place in the AJS factory trials team riding their works prepared cc 16C model, registered as BLB at seventeen years of age in late Viney had sent a letter to Andrews, which was the way it was done back then, offering him an AJS.

I came home from work one day and my Dad said that I had better have a look in the garage and there stood a gleaming AJS sent up by Hugh Viney for me to ride. Andrews first appearance on the factory AJS was at the national St. Andrews went on to not only win many national trials on BLB, but it also established him as a force to be reckoned with in the sport.

I said how do you know me? I never met the guy before, but he made sure the motorcycle was well prepared each week for me to ride. The long stroke motor looks to have stayed with BLB and having examined the engine number it is that of a G3C Matchless and is in keeping with known serial numbers. The factory did not usually build special factory bikes from scratch, they normally chose one or two from the production line and used these to register them for road use.

So what happened to BLB after its time as a works machine expired? It is still a bit of a mystery, apart from the obvious, that it was exported from the UK to Australia. Motorcycles change hands and sometimes many hands at that. What is known is that this AJS, or Matchless as it was registered with the authorities is concerned, was sold off, through a main dealer is most likely as many ex-factory AMC machines were disposed of in this manner.

From photos taken in during Rob Edwards and Mick Andrews trip to Australia, one notices that the bottom frame rails had been removed and replaced by a plated assembly which gave a flush area to mount an alloy sump-shield in an attempt to loose some weight.

This was not a factory modification as AMC believed in making the factory machines look exactly like the standard production competition models. Having said that, the late model factory trials machines all sported the lowered rear subframe and short, but kicked up rear mudguard fixing loop. This allowed shorter rear suspension units to be deployed while maintaining the same rear wheel movement.

The tank appears to have been changed over the years. Initially it had an alloy competition tank finished in blue and gold lining. This was achieved by a single telephone call to the factory competitions department of AMCs in OLH had past through the capable hands of Fred Hickman, Gordon Mclaughlan, Bill Lomas and Sid Wicken before ending up with Usher as his last factory supplied machine in , just prior to the Matchless team being disbanded. The machine is still in the Moffat family, but that is a different story.

This is the story of another AMC factory machine that got away. We set about tracking down the story of the registered AJS 16C with the index number WJJ, one of a batch of similar machines used by the factory. Built as a long-stroke , it eventually became a cc variant which the factory wanted to try as a bigger bore machine.

These special motors ranged between — capacity. The discovery of WJJ opened a veritable pandoras box of information. With Trials Guru on the case, we find that there were three such machines made available to riders around the same time period. The competitions department at AMC had been experimenting with competition short-stroke motors as early as , these were issued to their factory supported riders replacing their long stroke units.

Production short-stroke trials models would not be available until six years later, and a full year after Comerfords asked for Jackson replicas to be built, following his SSDT win.

In September , AMC trials models brought with them the bespoke trials frame with a much lighter and slimmer rear subframe, and a swinging arm taken from the lightweight road machines of the era. The previous competition models had the wide set rear subframe accepting firstly the Jampot rear suspension, and then latterly Girling suspension units with bottom clevis mounts.

This was the main reason why they simply replaced the machine between the number plates on more than one occassion. It also utilised the heavy full width alloy rear hub, but the style 5.

The fuel tank was blue with gold lining and the AJS monogram. The new rear 5. Probably the most famous AJS trials machine of all time is that which was used by Gordon Jackson to win the Scottish Six Days, losing a solitary one mark, the lowest ever recorded score.

It was registered in December as BLF and is now owned by the Sammy Miller Trust, having been re-discovered in by Miller and positively identified by Jackson. The bike was changed by the factory before I received it and Hugh Viney reckoned because I had ridden the long-stroke Ariel, then a long-stroke AJS would suit me better. It had been universally believed that BLF had been exported to Australia in the s, even Blakeway believed that this was the case.

However, it would not always be ridden as a but as a sometime later. Stone in Birmingham. After 12 months, he sold it to a Mr. Hopkins of Swansea, Wales. One of which was Gordon Mclaughlan who rode it in the Scottish. If this dislike of the over-bored mtor is correct it happened around Apparently, the conversion to cc involves long stroke crankcases and an 74mm bore. So to change from a short-stroke to involves a complete engine change, not just the barrel and head.

Presumably, the change back to a involved the installation of a new engine in which is still in the bike today. I met an ex-AMC competitions shop employee at the Manx Classic a few years ago who remembered some of this. Elektron is a magnesium alloy made by the Magnesium Elektron company for AMC, which it used from the early s.

These componenst were usually retained by the factory when machines were sold to be used on other machines. It had the integral push rod tunnels. It also sported the long down-swept exhaust system with the short silencer.

Steel wheel rims were still being used at this time with the standard 21 inch front and 19 inch rear. I suppose I was just too busy riding them to note down all the important facts and figures about them.

However what I can remember is this. My bikes were always prepared by the works. I used to take whichever bike I was riding to Thornaby railway station and send it to the factory at Plumstead. They would fettle the bike and send it back, wrapped in cardboard and taped up to protect it in transit and I would go and collect it from the station. I remember that the factory gave me a spare fuel tank that was a Matchless one, so that I could enter some trials with the AJS as a Matchless and I would cover over the AJS emblem on the timing cover.

I really liked the long-stroke motor as the sharp motor that Gordon Jackson used was just a bit too quick for my liking. I recall that some of the engines in my bike were as high as cc or at least that is what the factory told me. It was to try and win the cc cup at events on what was an over-bored I did ride WJJ for a year or so, before the factory asked for it back to do some work on it and back came BLL, that would be around late , early I kept it for quite a few years and then sold it as I was too busy to ride it when I was building my business, Gordon Mclaughlan Motors in Guisborough.

January as a Matchless, even although it was built as an AJS and used primarily as such, and as a cc. I enjoyed my time riding for the factory from after a couple of years on my own Norton T.

Hugh Viney was our team manager, he was quite an aloof, reserved character, a rather serious man. Sadly the factory machine BLL issued to Gordon Mclaughlan, was completely destroyed in the fire that destroyed many historic motorcycles at the National Motorcycle Museum at Bickenhill, Solihull on 16th September Martyn Adams, then based in Brighouse, West Yorkshire re-sleeved the barrel and found a new 7R piston for it.

But in his customary style, Dave sent a polite letter with the returned machine in , thanking Hugh Viney and the factory for allowing him to try it over a period of time. The Matchless I got on reasonably well with and quite liked it, winning an event in the process, but it was a bit too tall for me.

In it was the time for the factory to move on the AJS, WJJ, with new stock having been taken from the production line and retained by the competitions department, headed by Wally Wyatt.

This was how it was done by the works: The machines would be selected by dispatch staff from the production line and the frame and engine numbers were all noted in the production ledgers as being retained by Comp Dept. These selected machines would be wheeled away to the Competitions department. The machines would be registered in the company name and then stripped down and modified by the competition staff with lighter components replacing standard parts as required.

One such item was the primary chain-case, the factory had these fashioned from aluminium alloy instead of the standard steel pressing with a separate, detachable clutch dome also fashioned from aluminum alloy. This practice had been carried on from the immediate post-war years.

Around , the practice was to steepen the steering of the standard trials frame by heating up the frame tubes and forcing down the headstock, this also required new engine plates in dural to be made up as the gearbox became closer to the motor and a shorter primary chaincase was also fabricated out of alloy.

The result was a sharpening of the steering which the factory jockeys preferred. Accept Read More. Close Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website.

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