AJS 350cc 1957

The story so far.

I bought this bike off a local family as the owner had passed away and they didn’t know what to do with it. It is taking a while to restore but I plan to get it back on the road and to use it as the touring bike. This would then allow me to set the Matchless up as a trail/trials bike.

Suzuki – DR350 441cc

I owned a DR350 that had been tricked out with a few mods. The major mod was a conversion to 441cc this gave the bike a fair bit more power. It also had Showa upsidedown forks, the rear shock had a stiffer spring and it had been raised.

The bike was too tall for me so I used to struggle when it came to tricky stuff because I was constantly worried about touching the ground. Also because of the extra power the gearbox had become too short for regular use, I was constantly having to change gear. I did try changing the rear sprocket but that just made it hard to ride the bike slowly in first gear.

Then I had an accident on my road bike, which messed my right leg up so I stayed away from off-road stuff for a while. So the bike got sold as it was just in the corner not being used.

Kawasaki KLR650 A1

Originally bought as a spares bike for the Moose it turned out to be a brilliant bike with good oil consumption (for a KLR) and handled a dream.

KLR650 Tengai Moose

I bought this bike from a friend after I had my XT350 stolen wile I was living in Cornwall. This bike was stolen weeks after the XT350 had been found.

I am not a fan of Rat bikes and I feel it was a shame to hide the original paint job just because you felt like it.

Yamaha XT350

After passing my motorcycle test I was allowed to ride a motorcycle over 125cc as long as it was under 33bhp (23kw) so I eyed up the XT350 that my dad had been using for Trials events. I ended up with the bike after some nice person decided to steal the DT125LC and the RD125LC which later we recovered just down the road in Shepton Mallet. The XT did me proud as I did the odd LDT on it, used it for college and back then used it while living in Cornwall for trips to college and back and the 160mile ride home. Sadly stolen after a weekend marshalling a Horse Cross County Event. Only to return once the bike was sold to another person and he went to register it with the DVLA. I then rode it in the Cambrian rally as the KLR650 Moose had been stolen to get back at me for the return of the XT.

Yamaha DT125LC

The good old DT125LC, nice bike and did me well on one or two Time Trials and Long Distance Trials.