It was all Juliette’s* fault, things had been going swimmingly between us for a while but then one weekend she just ‘ghosted’ me – and this was the early nineties before ‘ghosted’ had even been invented. Anyway, she finally contacted me, one night the following week to tell me she had got together with her gym instructor and I was yesterdays news – ouch!
Like any bloke feeling hurt and rejected I went out and spent some money on something stupid. In my case it was a metallic green AJS Model 18S, a 500cc single from 1951 with swinging arm suspension. When I went to view it, it seemed to start easily and the seller rode it up and down his driveway and it all seemed good.
When I brought it home it wouldn’t fit easily within my over-stuffed small shed, so I parked it in the hallway of my house, it was quite cool to get up in the morning and walk past it on my way to the bathroom.
Over time it proved to be not the most reliable bike to start, at times I had to get my dad to help me, this was way before I was an incompetent mechanic, in these days I was totally clueless! It was fantastic that my dad was a fitter and turner and a total ‘Mr fixit’ of anything and everything – he also had great knowledge of British bikes from his youth as well as his recent motorbike experiences. I probably tried his patience a bit, but managed to pick up some fundamental tips.
I can’t remember exactly what the issue was, but once the bike was going it was good for a ride and didn’t have issues until the next time you tried to start it. Starting it was fun also, I found I could stand on the kickstart with all my weight before kicking my leg out to ‘try’ and start it. I did hear stories of guys breaking their ankles or getting thrown off the bike with a kick-back but I seemed to avoid this. I’m not sure if perhaps it didn’t have a decompression lever or we didn’t use it – and I never start a single cylinder bike like this now.
The bike possessed some non-standard features like the ‘console’ type thing that stood out from the back of the headlamp shell. This contained a sixties Smiths speedo and a key which turned the lights on – and sometimes they even worked! Then there was the metallic green paint with gold pinstripes and the black painted exhaust, I suspect the exhaust was quite rusty, hence the black paint. It also had a weird non-standard dual-seat, which I replaced with a single saddle, very cool.
Regardless of these drawbacks, when out riding the bike was great fun, it was very torquey and I loved to crack the throttle open going up a hill and hear the bark out of the pipe as it thumped it’s way to the top. The handling on these bikes is also quite good for the era, AJS and Matchless motorcycles were some of the first to introduce swinging arm suspension to their bikes. In 1949-1950 they started with the ‘candlesticks’ and then the famous ‘jampots’ that mine had – you can see the green part at the top of the suspension arm resembles a jampot.
Not wanting to travel too far, I usually cruised around the city and visited friends and family. One day I visited my (new) girlfriends sister Madge*, I chatted with her and her flatmate for a while before the flatmate suddenly said, ‘You should be going out with Madge, not her sister’. Not knowing what the correct response should be and being somewhat shocked I remained silent. Very soon after I left before things got any more weird, luckily the ajay started promptly and I was out of there.
After owning the bike I couple of years I toured the UK on my Sunbeam and sent it home, I then decided I didn’t need two bikes and sold the AJS. When the buyer picked it up, they decided to ride it home and as he lived quite some distance away I always wondered if he made it home.
‘*’ – Names have been changed.
Journey's with British Motorcycles 