Massiveengineplatesholdeverythinginplaceat
therear andtheswingingarm pivotsthroughittoo.
FeedingfuelintotheengineisthismassiveAmal.
Atank hadtobesourcedastheboxofbits didn’t
containone–thiswasaroughex-RedRocketone.
Belowright:TheMaicorear hub.
Theseatwasalsomissingandhadtobecreated.
80 |AUTUMN 2019
Also locallysourced wasa
modified YZ125Yamaha seatwith
logo cover–averynicejob.
Whatdid provetobemoreofa
problemwasatank, as there was
little knowledge of whatitactually
wasoriginally but,bylookingat
pictures,aRed Rocket Hondatank
wassettledon as being acceptable
to start from.
Areallyrough onewas
found andhanded to
AlanGardener,who
cutthe bottomout
and removedall
the dentsbefore
welding it up and
polishing it
to standard.
The mudguards
areproprietary MX
onesthat look correct
for the erawhile the
handlebars arefromRenthal
and wear easilyavailablecontr ols.
We askedwhether Rogermade
up things such as cables andthe
required length fasteners? “Not
exactly,”hesaid. “A lotofthe
fastenerswere offthe shelflengths,
thoug hIdo have alathe which Ican
use to makesuchthings and the
cables came fromafriend,whois
sadly no longeraround.”
With thebulk of thework done
and only afew bitsand pieces such
as thefootrests to source ,again,
nothing fancyjust proprietaryand
locallyavailableones, itwastime to
fire up the beast.
Rogersaid: “Wetopped up the
oil withsemi-syntheticandput a
splashof Avgasinthe tank and
itfiredup.”Ofcourse it did,
it’saHonda!
Rogertold us that
the bike hadbeen
prettyreliable fora
highlytunedrace
machine, except
for the daywesaw
him atNorthampton
whentherewere
runningprobl ems that
gotworse as themorning
went on. All sortsofthings
were thoughtabout, butwhenthe
bikewasbackinthe workshopthe
problemwas traced in seconds
to the nutthatwas holding the
ignitionunit on.It had become slack
and onceitwas tightenedthe bike
started up straightawayand then
ranperfectly.
Whenyourbrotherisatopscramblerthentheimpetus
foryoutohaveagoistheretoo.“Iwasokay,”admits
Roger,“butneverasfastasDave.”Notunnaturally,Roger
hasracedmorethantheoddMatchlessbutalsoaTriBSA
ortwo.LikehiselderbrotherDave,Roger’sbackground
isinfarmingfollowedbythetransportbusiness.Now,
at 83 ,headmitstobeingsomeonewhovanishestothe
shedandworksonbikes.“BestjobI’vehad,”hegrins.
ROGERCURTIS
RogerCurtisisresponsibleforthebuildofthisCurtisHonda.
RogerandBrianCurtis–themanufacturer–arenotrelated,
thoughRogeristhebrotherofMatchlessstarDaveCurtis.
