CLA

SSIC

R

ACER

ICONI

CM

ET

AL

Illustr

ation

by

:Mick Ofield

IN DETAIL:

AT

THEH

EART

Forthis,the secon

dinour ongoing

series

of lineart

drawi

ngsofgreat race bikes, we turn our attention

to the 1963 G50 Metis

se.

This particular mode

lwas an iconic

motorcycle

simply because

this wasthe G50 that wasbanned by

the AMAbecause

the Americanofficaldom

deemedit

was‘notaproduction bike’.

Thatdecisionled Matchlesstostartbuilding both

the road

legal G50 CSR andtobeginselling theG

engines to theRickman

Brothers.

Whilst the Rickman

Brother

swere well into their

swing

off-road-wise they

struggl

ed to sell the frames

they

weremaking to motorcycle manu

facturers.

From thiscame

theirown ‘Meti

sse’bikes.

This motorcycle here

wassolandmark

for

Matchlessthat it gave an imme

diatebirth to the

comi

ng toget

herofcomponen

tparts that gave the

world the 1964 MatchlessRickman

Metisse G50.

The 1963 bikehad a90mm

bore

and 78mm

stroke

and carriedthe compa

ny’s telescopi

cfront fork design.

Good

for aroun

d135mph,

the G50 wasn’t

quiteasquick as theNortoncompetition but theexquisite chassisallowed

talent

ed riders to make

up thedifference.

The G50 used

a496ccsingle-

cylinder

overhead-cam

layou

t

that went from

49bhp

in 1959,

when

it first went

on sale,

to

52bhp in 1962. It stayed aroun

d

that output for 1963.

Matchlesscould

trace its

routes all theway backto1899when

it started out putting

smal

lmotors to bicycl

eframes,

even

tually maki

ng the firm’s

first moto

rcyclein1902.

In 1907 Charles Collier,

son of comp

anyfounder HH

Collier,tookthe win in the firstIsle of ManTT on aMatchlesssingl

e-cylinder machine.That

race

average then

wasjust over

38mp

h. Harry Collier,brother of

Charles,won the event in 1909.

THEN

EXTB

IKEINT

HE

SERIES

IS...

1972 Paul Smar

tDucatiImola

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