AJS & Matchless Owners Club

Hi all,

I have just joined the club and this is my first post.

I have tried to get to the bottom of the background of a bike I am looking at with a view to purchasing. I am ideally looking for a G9 1951-59 but have seen a nice looking 1960 G12 for sale.

I have paid for a £10 search via the club dating service and with Engine no X3094 frame no. 74315 the results tell me that it is a 1952 frame - 52/20 with hidden engine number.

So, from this feedback, the frame is actually an AJS Model 20 from 1952 with Matchless trim and G12 engine. The seller tells me that he has the Buff log book and this has the given frame number and is sure of the provenance.

Could both be right? Could the club search be wrong?

I would be grateful for some feedback and comments on this please.

Hi Paul and welcome to the club. Currently you are not logged in as a member and as you are looking for a bike this needs sorting out. As a guest you will only be able to see adverts about 3 weeks after they appear in the paper magazine, by this time they could have been seen by logged in members for up to 6 weeks or so depending on when the ad was placed. send an email with your details to webmaster@jampot.com to get it sorted out.
A 1952 frame would have a single downtube at the front of the frame. The G12 engine was introduced in 1959 but by 1960 the front downtube was duplex. so if it is correct for a 1960 G12 it will have the duplex frame. Easy check.
The old log books can often be a bit iffy if one of my bikes has anything to tell you, they were hand written and issued locally. I would certainly rely more on the factory records as used by the club, especially since the go to reference book Roy Bacon's AJS and Matchless The postwar models suggests that the frame number starting from September 51 was 74100.

This is the red and cream bike on ebay at £5,300.00 well over priced in my opinion.


(When entering your frame number, make sure you use the full reference number including any letters before or above the numbers. The location of the frame number is indicated in the diagrams at the bottom of this page.)

it would appear you have missed the first letter of the frame number.

I made the same mistake when dating my 1960 G12 and the information came back with the "wrong" frame
I think there was letter before the number.

Jim

Over many years frame numbers were repeated, sometimes with a prefix or suffix letter. Even if the frame number given is spot on, It could prove wrong, so would need an expert eye cast over it. The most recent frames being WD and early post war, Numbers were repeated during those two era's without a prefix or suffix letter added. Even for some 1960's models, numbers were repeated. They could come up as early postwar or a light weight.

Hi Paul
Its a simple job to put a Matchless engine in an AJS frame. Loads of year made engines go in loads of year made frames. If you blew up an engine, you just found another AJS/ Matchless engine, stuffed it in the frame and inform DVLA. Loads of bikes are out their like that. It make a big difference to the price.
If you are new to AJS/ Matchless, get a friend to come and have a look with you. If it is the one on EBAY like Roy suggests, it does sound very expensive, but then Ebay usually is

looks in good nick but it has a dynamo engine didn't they change to alternators in '58 ? there are a couple more on there for around the same price & one just starting off @ £100 I am only going to ask 4k for my g12csr when I sell it

1959 standard models had coil ignition and alternator while Delux and CSR kept magneto and dynamo, by 1960 I believe all touring models went to coil igniton/alternator with only the CSR retaining the mag/dynamo up to 63 when they to changed to mag/alternator.

not quite right Rob the 1960 650 dl had mag and dynamo
Tony

My '62 CSR has mag and alternator.

Rob C