Classic British brand Matchless has been bought by Franco Malenotti, the Italian responsible for the reinvention of Belstaff apparel.
Malenotti has secured the rights to sell under the Matchless name, and has firm plans in place to build replicas of Matchless classics, the G80, Silver Hawk and Silver Arrow - they will be avaliable in Italy and the UK.
There are also plans for a Matchless-branded range of clothing - not surprising considering the new owner's background.
Matchless is one of the oldest brands in British motorcycling, established in 1899 in Plumstead, London. The brand eventually disappeared in 1966 after a series of mergers by holding company AMC swallowed the Matchless name into obscurity.
Initial plans extend only to low volume production, although the trend for new versions of retro bikes combined with a successful recapturing of Matchless' traditional reputation for comfort, reliablity and relative affordability might be a winning one.
Low-volume replica of a 1930s British bike sounds like a recipe for a steepish price to me. Had a G12 myself once, which gave me one of my major squeaky bum moments when the speedo drive unscrewed itself from the rear hub and locked the back wheel solid at 40mph
From memory, the Silver Hawk was a V4 OHC
Modern materials and internals with higher specs could make this an interesting concept
I look forward to further developments
Oh, and Boris, it's not "always" about raw power and brute force
Sometimes it's nice to have a "soft" and tractable low compression bike to just "pootle" the lanes on
Quite often the term "replica" translates as a euphemism for cheap & nasty copy Sandi
It's not pessimism but healthy cynicism which colours our appraisal
I'm prepared for the worst, hoping for the best and accepting of what comes
Which means that whatever happens, I won't be totally surprised or disappointed
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