I was reminded of CCM's limpet-like grip on solvency at last November's Motorcycle Live show at the NEC, Birmingham (UK, not 'bama). They had a great stand showing some of the companies historic BSA-powered scramblers, Eddie Kidd's jump bikes and good-looking GP450 single adventure bikes. I've got to admit, I thought the Lancashire-based company were 'on a break', Then, last week, the company's boss, Garry Hathern got in touch to see if Sideburn had an photos or footage of when CCM's FT450s used to dominate the early Short Track UK championships with back-to-back titles. We featured their bare alloy tanked framers back in Sideburn 3.
CCM were looking for footage to promote their new concept, the Spitfire, tying it into their legitimate and not too distant flat track history. That's not to say the Spitfire is a flat tracker. What is it? A Far-Eastern 600cc single in a Brit-built T45 chro-mo chassis on 19s. They say they can build 150 if there's the demand. Prices announced soon, www.ccm-motorcycles.com/