It’s not every day that you can say you’ve ridden a bike which is one of four in the whole wide world…and one in the UK. Today is the day I can…

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Today I took my first ride on a classic bike – a 1960s Matchless G50 CSR – which we have on loan from the National Motorcycle Museum – and what a ride it was!

I was rather nervous about it – the gears are on the right hand side and it’s up for first and down for the rest, there’s no tickover, it’s a kickstart and there are no mirrors – not much different than on a modern motorcycle then…

Before I even got on, just the look of the machine had me – it’s in amazing condition and the noise was tremendous.

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Setting off out of the car park, I knew I would be OK as I got going – and I was. My view of the road ahead was panoramic and listening to the engine roar underneath me was a real treat. I was amazed at how smooth it was – given a few more miles, I think I would be able to get used to the gears being on the ‘wrong’ side too.

What a pleasure it was to jump aboard such a unique machine – a big thanks to James Robinson, Editor of The Classic Motorcycle and The National Motorcycle Museum.

Keep your eyes peeled for a feature about it coming up in a future issue of Motorcycle Monthly.

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Tony Carter

Tony has been riding motorcycles for over 35 years and he's been a motorcycle writer for over 25 of those. He's ridden almost every motorcycle you can think of at most places around the world and he's partial to some racing, too. A Taurus, Tony doesn't believe in horoscopes (but then that's exactly what a Taurus would say!) but he does believe in Mandalorians and their right to earn a living.