1966 Matchless G3

History of the Bike

The bike was manufactured in 1966 at either the Burrage Grove or Maxey Road factory in Plumstead, London only weeks before AMC was taken over by Norton Villiers who halted production of the G3s and various other bikes. It then was sold to someone, somewhere... can anyone help with this missing info?

Eventually, in the early seventies my Grandad, Stan Hobbs, saw the bike on a garage forecourt near his house where they had taken it as part exchange.

My Grandad, with a family, mortgage etc... despite wanting the bike, sadly could not afford it and eventually it was purchased by Rob Lewis (a close family friend). Rob then used it as his day-to-day bike until he begun dismantling the bike, I presume to refurbish it, in his lounge (allegedly!).

However, the bike wasn't assembled as quickly as perhaps it should have been and Rob eventually sold it to my Grandad in 1982 (1 month before I was born, coincidentally).

My Grandad then rebuilt the bike in his 7ft x 4ft shed and kept it until 1999/2000 when he sadly died and left the bike to me.

NOTE: My Grandad, with the bike, was featured in Issue 33 (Oct/Nov 1989) of "Classic Mechanics" magazine (PDF). You can also read this article on this page here.

Anyway, the bike then spent 8 years or so in my Parents' garage, being turned over every so often, but not started. When the bike became mine (in 1999/2000), I was at University in Bristol and therefore unable to do anything with the bike. I then came back from University and kept saying I was going to do something with it, but never quite got around to it. This is something I am still kicking myself for.

I then hired a van on Mon 28 April 2008 for various reasons, one of which was to collect the motorbike and bring it back to my house in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire where I intend to begin work on restoring it to how it was when my Grandad last saw it. The To Do list of these tasks, as well as my progress can be found on the To Do List.

If anyone has any corrections for this history, or additional information (especially where it went between leaving the factory and arriving at that Garage near my Grandad's house), possibly related to which of the two factories it was actually made in, please Contact Me.

History of Matchless

A brief history of Matchless, AJS and their parent company AMC can be read here: http://www.ajs-matchless.com/History.asp.

A more detailed history of Matchless can be read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matchless.

The remaining Matchless history is by no means complete here on this page, but everything i've found so far that isn't already on a widely-known resource (like Wikipedia etc...) is on here. If you have any further information, or corrections for existing information, please Contact Me.

Matchless Model History

In 1910 Charlie also lapped Brooklands on a 1000 cc J.A.P. engined model at 80.24 mph. The following year saw speed records of 91.37 mph with an all chain drive on this mighty Vee twin which developed all of 24 bhp.

After this, the Colliers decided to concentrate on bread-and-butter machines. They experimented with 3 and 6 speed units that had cycle type epicyclic hub gears and double-pulleyed adjustable vee belt drives.

In 1912 the Matchless Cycle Co. produced their own engine that had an 85.5 mm bore and 85mm stroke. The 500cc 3¹/₂ hp Model.

A Motosacoche Vee twin ohv power unit was tried in 1913, that had the first recorded use of an hemispherical combustion chamber. This was used on the model 8B that had a three speed gear, all chain drive., a kick starter and an internal expanding brake on the front wheel. The rear was the usual caliper rim brake.

A 350 cc sv single was produced after the '14 war, actually in 1923. It was a sturdy, reliable, workhorse. It was tried as an ohc version in 1926, but a conservative public preferred the proven sv version, so it was dropped.

The singles range in 1927 was a 250 side valver, 250 sv, 500 ohv (Model V) sports and a 600 ohv. The multies were the Model H 1000 cc ohv and sv Vee twins.

At this time Harry Collier Snr. died and the business was renamed the Matchless Motorcycle Company. I believe it was at the time that the stylised 'M' began to be used on the fuel tanks instead of the fully spelt name.

1928 saw the introduction of the saddle tank (that went over the top tubes instead of between them, the end of the flat tank era) and twin exhaust pipes on the big singles.

1930 saw the beautiful 400 cc transverse narrow angle (26 degrees) Vee twin 'Silver Arror' that was called the 'Whispering Wonder'. An ultra quiet side valver with a cream pannelled red tank; it also had cantilever rear suspension, and Druid front girder forks astride a deeply valanced mudguard.

An even more sophisticated model was launched for 1931; namely the ohc 600cc narrow angle Vee four 'Silver Hawk'. Unfortunately in those days of economic depression, this superbly hand-crafted masterpiece of engineering was too costly for the public to buy, and so it was dropped, purely for this reason.

Slopers were the fashion in those days, and so, to please the fickle public the 500 cc model CS sloper that was utterly conventional was made. It was a single, had a three-speed Sturmey Archer gearbox, (hand change), Druid girder forks, and a cream panelled red tank, mag/dyno electrics, dry sump lubrication, rigid frame, twin exhaust ports which ended in fishtailed vortex silencers. This was what the public demanded, similar to many others, the Panther, BSA, the LF model Royal Enfield and the Calthorpe, for instance. The 1000 cc Vee twins were redesigned for 1929, and as the Model X continued up to 1939.

1931 was an historic year for another reason too. For then the Matchless Company bought out the magnificent AJS from the bankrupted A.J.Stevens Company of high quality motor cycles.

So many companies were in financial difficulties in those dark days of depression. Perhaps they were too single minded, and failed to diversify to other types of product as other, more successful companies did; as the motorcycling publics ever fickle tastes dictated the success of one company, the ruin of another.

1935 saw the first of the 'G' model range of machines. 350 and 500 cc singles, which became renowned all over the world as rugged dependable workhorses with superbe handling characteristics and utter reliability under all conditions, couple with good, if not outstanding, performance.

The ordinary 'G' model had variations known as the Clubman and Clubman Special. These were trials and scramblers, respectively. They were generally 350 trials and 500 scramblers, and were fitted with 21" front wheels.

In 1938 the company was again renamed, this time to Associated Motor Cycles, as it was by now a consortium - the largest in the world solely devoted to the manufacture of high quality motor cycles (probably a mistake), and had taken over such marques as the Wonderful Sunbeam; the black hand finish of which was superior to all others, including even that of AJS and Matchless, and I am told it was achieved by the use of pure silk polishing cloths.

During the '39 war over 80,000 G3 and G3L models were produced for military use, and I can personally vouch for the reliability and smoothness coupled with fine handling of these delightful machines when they appeared.

After the '39 war, the only models were the G3L and the G80. There were alsol some G3 Clubman trials models with alloy mudguards. These were very successful and a 500 cc G80 Clubman Special was very popular with Moto-cross riders, and very competitive, too!

Modifications Introduced on Post War Heavyweight Singles

Note: The above details are substantially correct. Perhaps other members could make further additions... (can't read the last few words...).

My Grandad's Story

A Reader's Restoration - "Worth waiting for"

Stan Hobbs waited nearly ten years to buy the gleaming Matchless G3 he spotted in a garage. When he did it had been reduced to a box of filthy bits . . . £300 has put it back on the road.

By Peter Dobson

A bike to give hope to all restorers - even Neil Webster. Stan Hobbs' G3 Matchless rebuilt in his tiny garden shed.

STAN Hobbs first saw his G3 Matchless in the early 1970s. It was standing on a garage forecourt near his home where they had taken it in part exchange. He fell in love with it but as a married man with a mortgage, three children, a dog and a car, he couldn't justify the cost. Modest as it seems today, £80 was then a fair amount of money.

The Matchless found a home of sorts with a local lad [This is Rob Lewis, mentioned above by the way] who didn't treat it kindly. To him it was a ride-to-work-as-fast-as-possible machine but always sounded lovely as it blasted past Stan's Huntingdon home each morning. Stan asked the lad for 'first refusal' should he ever wish to sell. Eventually the lad got Married and moved to York and nothing more was heard until 1981 when he telephoned to say he'd bought a Silk and would Stan like the bike for £40?

[I'd just like to add, at this point, that I don't believe Rob treated the bike quite as badly as the magazine article makes out, but nevertheless, we all enjoy annoying Rob about how "badly" he treated the bike when he had it! :-)]

The price reflected its condition. Everything except the wheels and frame was packed away in cardboard boxes or plastic bags. Nothing had been cleaned and Stan wondered if the bike would ever run again. He bought it anyway - against his better judgement. It was something to look forward to; a satisfying retirement project.

As a technician employed by the Department of the Environment Stan has an engineering background. He used to own a 600cc 'sloper' Panther and he rode it as a solo. That was followed by a Triumph 3TA and a couple of CZs. When he bought the Matchless he already had a Honda.

When he retired in 1983 his mates presented him with several sets of spanners and he started to restore the Matchless. "I didn't really want it to be better than brand new," he says. "It was meant to be a bike to ride. Not one for putting on a trailer and taking round to shows. Polishing is secondary as far as I'm concerned."

BENEATH the filth and grime he found the bike in good condition, mechanically at least, which says a lot for Plumstead's workmanship. It had been built in 1966, only weeks before AMC was taken over by Norton Villiers who terminated the production of G3s and all other roadster singles.

Gearbox was intact and full of oil. A new gearchange return spring was fitted.

AMC themselves had taken over Norton back in 1953 which made little difference to the buyers of either marque but in 1963 Bracebridge Street was closed and Norton moved to London. From that time on Plumstead used a mixture of Norton, AJS and Matchless parts. The 1966 G3s had Norton forks, brakes and wheels in the AJS and Matchless cradle frame.

They also had the last 350cc engine introduced by AMC in 1964. based on the short stroke scrambler unit it had a bore and stroke of 72 x 85.5mm, a longer stroke than the 74 x 81 design of the 1962 but a great deal shorter than the pre-historic 69 x 93 of the earlier engines. The bottom had the scrambler's steel flywheels, a 1⁵/₁₆in crankpin, and a big-end bearing with ¹/₂in x ¹/₄in rollers in a Dural cage. On the timing side the crankshaft was supported by a roller bearing as well as a plain bearing and the lubrication was looked after by a Norton oil pump.

Unlike most people who have tackled from-the-ground-up restorations Stan does not have a garage! Incredibly, all the work was carried out in a 7ft x 4ft shed, with a small vice bolted to a bench no more than 18 inches wide and 30 inches long. (Shades of our Neil Webster's own 'garden shed' project.)

His first job was to widen the shed door before cleaning the pile of bits; a messy, time-consuming task. Then he started on the engine. This was in one piece so he took the head and barrel off and peered around inside. He checked for play in the big-end and the mains by the bottom end was sound enough. The bore was hardly worn at all and the piston and the piston rings were OK. He decoked the head and piston crown, checked the valves, the valve seats and springs and put it back together.

"The only things I had to buy," he says, "were a gasket set, a new spark plug and two thin tappet spanners."

He stripped and cleaned the carburettor, bought a new main jet and needle and put it back in place.

The bike is used a lot so mirrors and leather panniers are fitted.

Luckily the alternator functioned perfectly when checked. The drive is from the mainshaft and he had to make a Woodruff key and buy new points.

The gearbox had been left intact and full of oil so Stan stripped that out next. Everything was fine so he cleaned out the case and the internals, fitted a new gearchange return spring (as they have a reputation for being fragile) and reassembled it with new gaskets and new oil seals.

With the mechanicals completed he turned to the duplex frame. The paintwork wasn't bad and cleaned up well. There was no play at the swinging arm. He checked out the alignment using two straight edges and finding everything was true, he refitted the forks using the original head races and ball bearings which were as good as new.

"There was no play in the forks so I drained them and refilled each leg with the right amount of oil. I put the rear suspension legs back on. I didn't strip them but couldn't find anything wrong. I did nothing that I didn't have to do. Once you start on things it costs you money!"

The rims were very rusty by Stan cleaned them up and had them re-chromed by a local firm. He cleaned the hubs and painted them, fitted new wheel bearings and had the wheels re-spoked by a fellow member of the AJS and Matchless Owners Club [Was this you? If so, please Contact Me!].

Wheels were re-spoked by a fellow member of the owners' club, rims re-chromed locally.

The front brake linings were unworn but rather glazed, so he roughed them up with emery cloth and fitted new rear linings. The tyres went back on the rims by the back will soon have to be replaced.

Now he had a rolling chassis and could fit the engine and gearbox. The oil tank, toolbox and mudguards had all been polished and were bolted back in place with the original nuts and bolts as with the whole restoration.

He tidied up the wiring loom. The ammeter had been by-passed and had to be rewired. The main feed from the battery to the ignition switch looked as though it might short out inside the headlamp and had to be replaced. The six-volt battery had had its day so Stan bought a new Japanese battery for less than helf the price of the correct equipment.

The handlebars were re-chromed and he bought a whole new set of levers from 'Happy Hamrax' who supplied most of the new parts. The exhaust valve lifter, front brake and speedo got brand new cables and the headlamp a new rim. The rubbers were replaced all round, including the tank.

The tank was badly scratched so Stan had it and the chainguard re-sprayed. The seat was sound but tatty, so he had a cover made with the original type piping and 'popped' it to the seat pan.

All the aluminium on the bike he polished up by hand (to a better-than-new finish despite his remarks about polishing) using Solvol Autosol. The exhaust pipe and the silencer were thick with rust so Stan cleaned them off to the bare metal and - though it isn't instantly apparent - they have yet to be re-chromed.

Retired technician Stan, "I don't want the bike to be brand new, it is meant to be a bike to ride."

WHEN the restoration was complete, the Matchless proved to be a pig to start. "I kicked it for an hour," said Stan, "fiddling with everything I could think of between the bouts of kicking. I had to pack it in eventually and go indoors. I didn't want to kill myself!

"I went out in the morning to find that it had rained all night and I hadn't covered up the bike. I was sure I'd have to strip the engine down again but I gave it one last kick before I got the spanners out. To my astonishment it started, with a cloud of smoke from the exhaust but that soon cleared and went on running. It sounded lovely. Just as I remembered it.

"Apart from that, the only trouble I've had is the oil draining from the tank into the sump if the bike has stood for any length of time. I cured that by fitting a new cone shaped washer in the non return valve in the pump.

"The only other problem was a weep of oil around the kickstart shaft. I've fitted a new 'O' ring but I still have the leak. Does anybody know what's wrong and how it can be cured?"

Bottom end was sound when he bought it. All he had to buy to complete the engine rebuild was a gasket set and spark plug.

As the bike is used a lot Stan has fitted rear view mirrors, winking indicator light and rather old fashioned panniers. The result of all his labours in the tiny garden shed is a comparatively rare machine that is enjoyable to ride and very practical.

Total cost was around £300 and that includes the purchase price. It is amazing what enthusiasm can achieve without elaborate facilities if you choose a bread-and-butter bike that is moderately sound without going overboard about a high degree of finish.

Please remember, the original magazine article can be found in the PDF version.

Publicity/Media

AMC Brochure from 1966 (PDF) showing the Matchless G3 on page 8.

My Grandad with the bike in Issue 33 (Oct/Nov 1989) of "Classic Mechanics" magazine (PDF).