AJS Stormer 250cc - Article - Motorcycle Mechanics Feb 1969.

Information on the Stormer 2-stroke machines
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Re: AJS Stormer - Article - Motorcycle Mechanics Feb 1969

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Re: AJS Stormer - Article - Motorcycle Mechanics Feb 1969

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Re: AJS Stormer - Article - Motorcycle Mechanics Feb 1969

Post by tr7dan »

Thanks for that Clifford

Back in the seventies I bought a 410 Stormer but only kept it for a short while before trading it in at Doug Hackings for a brand new Husky 360 to start the season on. Being interested in the older stuff, I always fancied another and I currently don't have a two stroke in my stable (apart from my hedge trimmer, of course :mrgreen: )

What about trail riding one? Or even rallying one in the old guys events like the Hafren or Cambrian? I usually do two or three of these a year on my XR250 but it's just so damn certain that I'm gonna get back to the paddock it maybe lacks a little adventure. Can they be made quiet and tractable enough?

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Re: AJS Stormer - Article - Motorcycle Mechanics Feb 1969

Post by 242017 »

Dear Cliff as I stated you dont know a lot about the G85cs

Designed by Johnny McLaren and Vic Eastwood in the Comp shop in Jan 1963....which makes it a "real Matchless" and pre dates the Rickman mk 3 frame.
Eastwood and Nichols rode this bike for that season.....Horsefield was a works rider for James and he only got Dave Cutis old factory bike...not the new one
Horsfield rode at Namur and broke the frame and replaced it with a Rickman frame..Still riding for James and not much support from the Matchless factory...he began to do well in the tv series and then got the new G85cs to ride in 1964 beating Jeff Smith

As Swedish gearboxes..Rubbish...All the Swedish bikes used the BSA box because of it better ratios...I know both Sten Ludin and the late Ove Lundel and no "swedish gearbox" was ever made for Monark,Lito or Husqavarna.

As towards the rumour...its that and only that....the 600 has a longer stroke and I doubt if it would be any better on a MX track..I have tried both of my bikes and its not very noticable

My Cheney/Matchless is 525cc and my G85cs is around 640cc.....but not a lot of difference on the track

Matchless as did the complete Swedish factory teams only had bikes for their riders and so although they were riding a new bike the public could not buy one

It was introduced to the public in 1964 in Motor Cyling

Again throughout 1965 it was talked about and promises were made to make a series production and the first production bike.....using the same componants as the factory bike was started first in June 1966 to May 1967 ....109 were made

From around 1964 the Matchless company was really going down hill very rapidly and both Eastwood and Nichol went to Bsa to ride...Horsefield went over to CZ I think

So too little too late....But it was a Matchless Scrambler...good in 1963....not so good with the rise of the little two stokes when it was finaly made in 1966
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Re: AJS Stormer - Article - Motorcycle Mechanics Feb 1969

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Re: AJS Stormer - Article - Motorcycle Mechanics Feb 1969

Post by 242017 »

Yes and I am glad that two strokes in modern motocross are a sign of the past....Sten Lundin had a phrase for two stokes which unfortunetely cant be repeated here...
If you believe everything thats writen in books it will lead you in some strange places
Do you remember in a book called "classic british scramblers" by don morley....when he described an AJS 7R left outside the race shop for Bill Nilsson to "borrow" and make up a scrambler....Now thought of as fact....Unfortunatly Bill had to buy his 7R from a road racer in Stockholm.....Thats fact and Don Morleys version is fiction
As with your swedish gearboxes

Seems strange that Vic Eastwood was on the start of the design and then he let his dad cut up the rear....Doesnt sound like the profesionalism of the race shop .....but that again was a quote from a book....another red herring is that the G85cs was a copy of the Metisse.....Not a good copy then.....
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Re: AJS Stormer - Article - Motorcycle Mechanics Feb 1969

Post by 242017 »

If you read " off road giants" vol 2 the vic Eastwood story....his and Chris Horsefields stories dont tally....Chris Horsefield was at the James factory at Street Birmigham...a long way from what was happening in the comp shop at Plumstead
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Re: AJS Stormer - Article - Motorcycle Mechanics Feb 1969

Post by SPRIDDLER »

"Apparently I got flipped off and collided with the fencing",
Yep, fearful stuff: 4' of Roadmenders' rusty iron stakes with the paraffin lamp hook at the top, with rope between posts at throat height. Dodgy corners had chestnut pale fencing - just like the pointed stakes Henry V 's lot planted in the ground to impale the French cavalry horses at Agincourt......
'There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood............'
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Re: AJS Stormer - Article - Motorcycle Mechanics Feb 1969

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Re: AJS Stormer - Article - Motorcycle Mechanics Feb 1969

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