Old Bike Australasia - June 03, 2018

OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA: 33

that around one thousand of the standard boxers
were produced – alongside a 250cc single – and I’m
told that although you sometimes see one turn up at
a classic meeting in Switzerland Gareth’s model B50
with its unusual petrol tank and plunger rear suspen-
sion is now very rare.
During the summers of 1997 and ‘98 our test bike
was used on several local classic bike runs but some
trouble with the clutch saw it taken off the road and
laid up for the best part of seventeen years until Jim’s
son Gareth recommissioned it and got the big twin
running sweetly again; Gareth takes up the story.
“When dad bought the bike he was aware that the
clutch was a bit ‘tired’ and although he did several
hundred miles during the first two years it eventually
gave up the ghost and as we had other bikes to use
the Universal was put into storage until we had time
to attend to the slipping clutch. Little did I think at
the time that the bike would be standing in our
workshop until 2017 until we got it mobile again?
Originally all of the engine parts were made in the
Swiss factory and I soon discovered that although it
looks just like a BMW twin none were compatible so
I had to fabricate my own clutch and pressure plate.”
For most people this would be a formidable task
but Gareth – who in his day job sees him restoring
and fabricating wood bodywork on classic cars –
soon had this in hand.
“With the engine removed from the frame I
discovered that a clutch plate from a Hillman car
was the same size as that on the bike so after
getting it relined by Friction Services in Bristol I then
just needed to turn down a solid piece of billet➢

UNIVERSAL B50 METEOR

Andy Westlake puts the

B50 through its paces

on the West Country

back roads.

Swiss take on the

flat-twin theory.