Hitchcocks Forum

I just spotted this for sale near my home. A 1953 Matchless G80, 500 single. It looks to be in good condition, the advert says it runs OK, £2500. I'm seriously interested. Anybody know anything about Matchless bikes? And where could I get spares?

Jampot spares are well catered for… Good clubs… For example http://www.jampot-spares.com/store/come ... oducts.asp

Mate of mine used to run a 500 AJS, Good bike and very reliable...

Hi guys--------- Very much in the same mould as our Enfields ie}--Long stroke, lazy "thumper"...... The primary chain cover is a steel pressing that can be difficult to get oil-tight...Mag/dyno I think ?? ( Gets the water thrown up from the front wheel )........Great chair pullers !!.........

Got one past an inspection last week, wouldn't pass because the primary was leaking, drain the oil from the primary and clean it all up, no oil in the primary, back for inspection and passed no problems

Where is front mudguard?



This one is from jampot.dk they have some nice bikes.







Jampot.dk

Lovely machines in my experience. I have a friend with a fully iron motored 1950 version with the Girling candle stick rear suspension units. I had a 1952 M16S which is the AJS 350 version which I bought off an old chap in Bristol who had ridden it for 30 years and taken it to every mountain in Great Britain. He sold it to me in order to buy tickets for the Concorde flight to Reykjavik (this was the mid 1980's). I did a bit of tarting up on it and rode it two up all over England. They have a separate Lucas mag and dynamo which are fine. The only really silly bit of design being the dynamo chain running inside the primary chain but despite the potential hazards of this I never had any problems. Good Burman gearbox and a generally well made and tractable machine. Hamrax Motorcycles who were in Ladbroke Grove is where I got all my required bits from. The chap on the desk reminded me of Windsor Davies in It Ain't Half Hot Mum but even if they are no longer extant I'm pretty sure you won't have a problem getting bits. Buy it I say!

Russell Motors in Clapham Junction are good for parts but ring or call, they are still in a pre-Internet age! (I have also got the odd Enfield spares from them, they bought a load of stuff from the underground Factory when it closed, they were interested in the Norton fork bits used on the Mk2 Interceptor.) REgards, Mark

Thanks for chiming in guys. I think I'm going to ring this bloke up and see the bike. Front mudguard missing? Well spotted Scaly.. I hadn't noticed that in my excitement. That's gotta be a few quid off...

Looks like he's bobber cut the back mudguard too. Best get it off him before he does anything else!

...had one of these with a Steib on the side when I was 16. Enough torque to climb a wall. Or so they used to say.