To many of us the name Rickman will conjure an image of a Honda CX500 with a white base coat fairing the size of a huge barn door. But at this 1973 Rickman Honda CR750 proves, they did much more than provide the Shoreditch cafe racer scene with even more to remove.
Brothers Derek and Don Rickman started out making bespoke frames for trials and scramblers born from their passion for the smell of mud on exhaust pipe. But they also liked road bikes, starting out with a Triumph twin in a BSA frame, which became known as the Metisse (Loosely translated as ‘mongrel’ from French!). Throughout the 1960s they produced frame kits for Triumph, BSA, Matchless and AJS machines. Other developments included large diameter telescopic forks, oil carried in frame tubes, and an eight-valve cylinder head conversion to take Triumph twins up to 700cc. The closure of the Royal Enfield factory led to 137 Rickman Interceptors to be built.
When the tsunami of larger Japanese sportsbikes hit UK shores, the Rickman’s had something else to focus on. They took the good bits from bikes like the Kawasaki Z1/Z900, Z1000 and Suzuki GS1000, and created their own take on how a superbike should look and handle. They also created bikes like this from the Honda CB750, using disc brakes both front and rear.
This particular 1973 Rickman Honda CR750 was up for auction at Brooklands alongside the Moto2 and BSB bikes we’ve previously covered. Due to the elegant looks and light weight, examples don’t turn up for sale often, and chassis number 6756G was estimated to sell for between 拢7-拢9,000. It eventually went to a new owner for 拢9,856, which is still a good price for something so lovely and unusual, and which should command a lot of respect amongst the 70’s cafe racer revivalists.
And the Rickman story continues, unlike a lot of frame and bike specialists from the 1960s British era. The Metisse name continues to be used by Metisse Motorcycles in Carswell, England, whilst enthusiast Adrian Moss was able to secure Rickman Motorcycles Limited for his own business in Stroud after the brothers gave him first refusal on their stock of parts and spares in the mid-1980s.
And the best news is that neither of the existing companies seems to offer a massive fairing for the plastic maggot, for which we can all be thankful…
I traded in my almost new XS750 Yam for a Rickman Z1 back in 1978.The man at Read Titan (Leytonstone) was a bit concerned about my Yams bald back tyre 馃檪 Unfortunately my Rickman was the touring version without fairing & with the standard 4 into 4 exhausts (how much are THEY worth now lol ??) Wasn’t impressed when my mate Cliff did a little wheelie on it & one of the forks
snapped !!! Bloody Betor Spanish rubbish !! I’d just been doing 120 on it (private road ociffer :)) so a bit sobering.Eventually I converted it to cafe racer spec with ace bars, 4 into1 & a mural sprayed tank cover & solo seat purchased from local loony Arthur. It was never a patch on my mate Micky Dee’s genuine built new CR though.