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1966 Matchless G85CS Scrambler - 4-Page Vintage Motorcycle Road Test Article
Original, vintage magazine articlePage Size: Approx: 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm)Condition: Good
Superbox, Son of MatchboxOne cannot apply the same set of standards to a com-petition machine that one applies to a street scrambler.In some areas, one is tougher. In other areas, one may bemore forgiving. Thus, to clear up any misunderstanding,it should be known at the outset that the .MatchlessG85CS 500cc single is “strictly for serious.” Otherwise,at SI.400. it would have to be considered the most ex-pensive play bike in production . . . and one of the worst.Play bikes are for carefree fun, and a good one doesn'trequire much fiddling. By way of contrast, the G85 issomewhat of a thoroughbred and needs a lot of combingthrough to keep her happy.For perspective, we should harken back to the previ-ous Matchless dirt single, the G80CS, which, for the dash-ing (and not too particular) amateur-go-a-racing. wasready to romp off-the-floor. Take off the lights and awayyou’d go at the drop of a smokebomb. Or. if you were inEurope, it was at the twang of the starting gate. We knowone American chap who used his G80CS for 6,000 milesof reliable continental touring before he stripped for asummer of international motocross, where he acquittedhimself with honor if not with laurel. His only complaintabout the bike was that it was “awfully heavy” (360 oddpounds stripped) and he theorized that it had acquiredthis rather anvil-like quality because the makers had ahabit of adding three more pounds of metal to whateverpart of the frame broke, until finally it stopped breaking.All this brings us back to the new 500, which weighs arelatively feather-like 318 pounds with about half a tankof gas. In other words, Matchless, in the face of the suc-cessful onslaught of lightweight 500cc class machinery,has decided to fight fire with fire.It takes a lot of slenderizing to bring a long-strokesingle like the Matchless down to such svelte dimensionsand still have a structure that resists the destructive effectsof dirt racing. To do so, the makers took what has becomethe standard route these days by beginning with a framemade of mild steel tubing. Of conventional design, thisframe is an improvement over its predecessor in that themain unit, consisting of double down tubes and cradle andsingle top tube, is of all-weld construction rather thanbeing bolted in several spots as was that of the G80CS.The robust-appearing rear section is pieced together inlike fashion so there should be no question that the set-upoffers a great deal of rigidity.Also lighter are the new Matchless forks, which, un-fortunately, are springy in a way they were never intendedto be — laterally. While this will not be noticeable onimproved tracks, it will be a problem in rough scrambles,where sideways tweaking forces are in considerable abun-...
13272-AL-67rta-08
