Welcome to the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club

Welcome to the VJMC, the UK’s premier club for Japanese bikes fifteen years old and over. The club was founded in 1982 by a small group of like minded enthusiasts..

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Club Information

Find our more about what the club offers.

Club Events

From Section run events to the major shows. All the details here.

Sections

There are VJMC Sections all over the UK and Internationally. Find your local section here.

Regalia

Regalia now available from Flying Colours

Tansha Archive Download

Now available to purchase and download as pdf documents

Book Reviews

Books we've read and enjoyed

Histories

The rise of Japanese motorcycles.

Bikes

See a selection of our members bikes. From tiddlers to the superbikes from the last few decades.

Tansha

Our bi-monthly magazine. View the latest summary here.

Find our full range of services, marque experts.

Buy and sell complete machines and parts.

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Find a huge array of books, manuals, clothing, parts and accessories.

Insurance

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Machine Dating

Let us help with dating your machine from £25

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Much More . . .

Browse the pages on the top menu for much more

So there we were at the back end of February finalising articles
for the  April Tansha when the weather suddenly broke and we had
high teen’s daytime temperatures and hour upon hour of sun. It’s
more than this old boy can cope with so the magazine took a back
seat whilst I got  out on a small stroker and do my best to aid
global warming. Honestly! Can you believe it?

Same time last year The Beast From The East was upon us and I
had to dig my  way to get into the ice cold workshop… how mad is
that? The fickle British  weather being what it is as we moved
into March things were back to their normal seasonal norms and the
bikes once again under covers to await the
arrival of true spring.

So back at the editorial desk we have something of a Kawasaki
festival going on this issue. Apologies if older strokers aren’t
automatically your thing but  Simon Howers’ tale is one many can
relate to. Eschewing the advice we all freely give out Simon takes
on a true basket case to deliver a seriously stunning looking A7
Avenger and then goes on to tell us how it rides and performs.
On the basis that no Samurai or Avenger feature is ever complete
without input from Doug – Disc Valve – Perkins the man that can
has… and recalls his own experiences.

Karl Chadwick has contributed an intriguing workshop feature
retrospectively fitting a drum brake to a machine that originally
was sold with a disc. If you need to ask why then you probably haven’t
ridden a 70’s Honda thus equipped. With all the celebrations going on
for the CB750/4 an interesting piece of information recently popped
up about the final prototypes of the first superbike. All of the
development mules had sported TLS drum brakes but Mr. Honda wanted the
750 to run the then ‘high tech’ front disc… even though everyone
including him knew it was less effective that the drum set up.
Form over function then?

Roger Etcel continues to educate and entertain with his behind scenes
tales at Honda UK. It’s a great read and harks back to arguably better
days when you could actually have a laugh at work and not be accused of
being ‘unprofessional’! Elsewhere Paul Gandy has his J1-T up and running
and it’s obvious he’s really pleased with the end result. Equally chuffed
with his ride is Ken Brooks who sings the praises of small Honda twins
and especiallythe workhorse CD175 that’s now commanding serious money.

We have a book review on W, H & Z series Kawasakis and, personally,
I cannot putit down; some fascinating insights into how the models
developed. And still on a book theme Ian Foster is asking for contributions
into a book on the North West200 Road Races; if you have any pictures
Ian would love to hear from you.

Liberally peppered throughout this issue are numerous events across
the UK. If you needed an excuse for a ride out then here it is.
Please support these happenings which are vital part of what the club is
all about. Worth noting is the fact that we have teamed up with The British
two Stroke Club to relaunch the famous Chiltern 100 event. It’s a grand day
out and the more bikes that participate the better the experience.
It’s in my diary already!!!

Steve Cooper

VJMC Editor