Those of us who lived in the glorious years of the 1950s and 60s, callow, impecunious youth could only dream of owning one of the new bikes rolling out onto the roads. My passion for AMC bikes can be blamed on Vic Willoughby and his 100 miles in 60 minutes at the MIRA circuit on a Matchless G11 CSR in April 1958. To a 17 year-old this was a magical achievement which made headlines in the press.
This was followed two years later by Ron Langston and Don Chapman on a G12 CSR taking first place at the 1960 Thruxton 500 miler, finally breaking the Triumph / Norton domination of this race. I was sold – I had to have a CSR. That it took a further 60 years for one to come my way is a story familiar to many of us…
Finally, I was sharing reminiscences with a friend visiting from Vancouver Island about bikes once owned, fun on two wheels and (inevitably) the bikes we would
