Classic Bike Guide - Real rides, real riders

One man’s ideal

Chris, of Llandow Classics, in South Wales, offered us a ride on the Citroen Special he’d just acquired from one Geoff Thomas White. Geoff built the bike in the early 1980s, shoe-horning a Citroen Visa 652cc flat twin, with a 2CV gearbox, into a Jawa frame and adding an assortment of parts from other makes to complete the whole. The GTW Citroen Special was his main transport for 20 years until illness ended his riding career.

Among all paperwork is a 1984 letter from South Wales Constabulary, confirming that this ‘Jawa Citroen motorcycle’ had been inspected and found to be properly constructed and engineered. It’s signed by Detective Superintendent Hill of the Serious Crimes Squad – you do wonder what the constabulary thought they might find in this international mechanical alliance to justify sending that lot round eh?
In reality there’s little Jawa left, just the headstock, as Geoff decided to build his own square section tubular chassis.

“When Buell launched in the UK we went to the NEC Show and Geoff was measuring every detail,” recalled Chris. He made the components, the damper was to be in the belly pan, but he took ill before it was finished, so it wears twin shocks.

The seat and tail are Suzuki GSX1100, fuel tank Honda VF500, headlight and nacelle BMW K75, front forks and wheel Honda CX500 and the rear wheel from a CB750. Should GTW stand for ’great tour of wreckers?’

The engine is all alloy, quite attractive when the shrouds and covers have been removed and it’s polished. It now breathes through Amal carburettors and the exhaust ports point back and up, the bike following this theme with the system curving up over the rear wheel to exit either side of the rear number plate. Read said list and you might dismiss this as another mess at which you’d avoid looking, but the GTW has an altogether balanced appearance of a bike built by someone who knew what he wanted. “People walk past it in the shop, thinking it’s BMW, or whatever,” reported Chris, who made a firm promise to its creator that it won’t be messed with.

The most idiosyncratic part of this assemblage is Citroen’s 2CV gearbox, with a hand change to select its four forward speeds or reverse. Reverse gear on a solo? When you try to manoeuvre it, its weight is immediately apparent – that reverse gear is handy!

“It’s flexible, so once into top you hardly need to change,” said Chris, pointing out the extra ignition isolating switch tucked away from the fiddlers that such a creation attracts. Switch that on, then the keys on the left-hand side panel and press the start button. With a little choke, life is instant with a slightly muted off-beat note; blip it and the sound becomes more interesting.

The clutch is light, its hydraulics adapted from car controls, and the conventional gear-knob moves into second gear. “Forget first, you won’t need it,” advised Chris, as I pulled smoothly away in pursuit of photographer Wilko’s car.

Moving through the gears was simply the left handed car habit on the right. As we moved down Welsh back-roads, the GTW pulled strongly from under 2000rpm in top. The first test of its mechanical tolerance was a roundabout that would normally require at least the third of four gears – it went around in top and accelerated gently away without protest. I didn’t establish what the GTW weighs, it’s no lightweight but doesn’t rival some of the gargantuan offerings available today. Wheelbase is a long 59in (that’s shading 1500mm) – not a bike to flick through tight twisties but it sat firmly on the winding road and gave a comfortable ride. When the Tarmac got rough though, so did the GTW, a reflection of its twin shocks having had no exercise for a good while.

Gear changing is slower than a hand-change motorcycle as the lever is moved across the gate; fourth is a long push to the right. Slow town work means moving back and forth between second and third. The bike’s favoured working element is A- and B-roads, where top gear range is from 25mph up to 60mph at 4000rpm; redline is 6000. This is a cruising engine, not a scratcher.

Braking is what you’d expect of twin discs at the front, progressive with a two-finger squeeze and effective with a big handful. When I went off-road to turn around during the riding shots – you’d struggle with a U-turn on a minor road – the front brake was sensitive enough to control speed over grass or the sandy path. Those few moments on the turf confirmed that this is definitely a roadster.

The handlebars are high, dictating an upright stance in a saddle that I never noticed during our couple of hours together, so it must be comfy. That bar shape would not be my choice, but it gave easy leverage for low speed manoeuvring; confirmed when a picturesque spot on the beach at Ogmore-on-Sea caught the search party’s eyes and a rapid stop and left turn on a tight downhill hairpin tested the bike’s low speed handling. No problems, it just did as it was asked by a rider who hadn’t realised how forgiving it could be.

Chris shunted around proving the worth of reverse, flicking the lever back and forth. The wind picked up sand from the beach, gently blasting us. I was glad to get back on the road.

There’s a light on top of the dash that glows different colours as the revs rise and the generator charges. To the right are two small plugs, used by Geoff to power his tent light etc., when camping.

The roads were not the GTW’s natural habitat, winding and narrow in a manner that tested its low speed manners. With Chris’s guidance, post photographs we found a dual carriageway and some A-roads, where the little Citroen engine easily wound up to 4000rpm and 60mph to feel relaxed and comfortable. That was the riding sweet spot, a harmony of machine mechanics and rider comfort, with just a little twist of the wrist needed to take it easily over any climb.

Back at the shop I couldn’t resist letting it trickle along in first gear, clutch fully engaged, at what felt like walking pace. I followed that by selecting reverse and trying a gentle feet-down backwards move; this is actually a motorcycle you could reverse into a parking spot on the mirrors. You’d get a round of applause from watching truck drivers, but you’d fail the MoT if the tester asked why the reversing light didn’t work.

What an intriguing bike this is. Baz Cooper summed it up well: “The sum of the constituent parts is greater than the individual pieces.” I agree. It’s not for sale, it became Chris’s property on the understanding that he will keep it as it is and use it, and that’s what he’ll do out of respect for one enthusiast’s idea turned into reality.

I couldn’t live with this as my only bike, because I’d miss the ability of less exotic products of busy factories to cope with everything from hurrying down a main road to picking a path up the sort of steep track labelled ’Unsuitable for Motor Vehicles’: I like the versatility of an ordinary motorcycle, but if a chance to ride the unique GTW crops up again, the answer will be a grin and ”Yes please!”

Words by Jim Reynolds  Photographs by John Wilkinson