Friday bikes

Started out writing about one bike but found there are two companies building similar models!

The story starts with the Matchless G50.

This was a 500cc race bike built by Matchless based on the 350cc AJS 7R between 1958 and 1963. They cost £300, and 180 were built. They were popular with racers at the time due to their good handling, but production ceased when AMC, Matchless and AJS's parent company, ran into financial difficulty.

The tooling and spares were purchased by racer Colin Seeley who continued to build and develop the bikes, and constructed his own frames.

The bikes continued to be very successful and this is where this week's Friday bikes come in.

Basically, Seeley Matchless G50s are still in production by two companies. One is Steve Tonkin Classic Motorcycles, who build the Tonkin Typhoon:

And TGA Ltd, who build the Seeley Condor:

As you can see, both these are road bikes. TGA quote a price of 'from £25,000' , and I would imagine the Typhoon would be similar. As the pound is currently in free fall, I'll not quote prices in other currencies, but sufficient to say that they are very expensive!