CCM is back on the trail...
By TMX Archives on 22nd Feb 13
AS you can see on this very page to your left CCM, that most British of companies, is on the verge of re-inventing itself with the launch of a high-end Adventure model.
CCM – the company launched by Alan Clews and which reached legendary status with its gutsy GP campaigns with BSA-based pushrod singles – has undergone many guises since those heady days chasing World Championship glory.
It branched out into trials and won British Championships wth Steve Saunders, on Hiro engined machines.
Then it went road racing and scooped British Championship successes with Rotax twin-cylinder two-stroke power.
A return to motocross with big air-cooled Rotax four-stroke singles was more in keeping with its roots and Alan's son Austin had success himself on the self-built big bangers.
CCM even became Armstrong for a while, before the canny Alan Clews bought his company back again and so kept the company line.
Never one to let the grass grow or let an opportunity slip, Clews branched out into supplying motorcycles to the military, produced Suzuki and Chinese powered trailbikes of various capacities – and then bounced back into motocross in 2007 with a high-profile team headed by none other than British hero and multi World Champ Dave Thorpe.
These machines featured Yamaha four-stroke power and unique forged aluminium chassis that were ‘glued' together.
These were campaigned at the highest level – CCM never did anything by halves.
And although there was the promise of a limited ‘production run' of hand-built replicas featuring absolute top spec ancilliaries,either to ride or of interest to the inveterate band of CCM collectors around the world, this never actually happened.
When the factory MX effort ceased at the end of 2011 it was thought that that was the end of it.
Wrong again.
What CCM has been doing is looking at ways of capitalising on all that development work and this could be a master-stroke.
As Austin says, there is a huge swell of interest in Adventure style bikes, mostly weighing a ton, and of huge cubic capacity.
A good-looking, quality, lighweight, poky 450cc four-stroke model that is fun to ride and frugal on the juice could very easily be just what the world is looking for – and this could just be exactly the right time to launch it.
CCM never did do conventional for conventionl's sake, it always ploughed its own furrow based on sound gut feeling.
Perhaps it's time to break out the old Union Jack once again...
