In ‘76 CCM in England ‘accidently’ let slip about their ultra-secret new and revolutionary ‘5-stroke’ engine for motocross. Husqvarna’s Reubin Helmin raised an eye at this wonder engine, and as I was going over to bury my mum and a friend had broken the ‘unbreakable’ 3-speed gearbox on his CCM, I was asked by a journalist from Sweden’s top bike mag to cable and ask to visit the factory with the broken bits and explain why it had broken, maybe getting an interview when there, and keep my eyes open for this wonder-engine. “5-stroke’s are impossible,” I’d been briefed, “But we think we know what he’s on about. Doesn’t work. Some Austrian guy is already racing something similar. The response seems ok, but the power isn’t impressive as the charge from the crankcase gets hellish hot.

So I was at the CCM factory and saw the 5-stroke. It was just like your engine, just like the Austrian’s engine. The ‘5th’ stroke wasn’t, it just described the charge being pushed up the pipe to the head. I had already bawled-out the guy who made the frames, Eatough (?) in a small factory just up the road, as the frames cracked around the tiny oil-filler hole by the steeringhead. “That’s impossible, our frames NEVER crack, this is the strongest frame ever made, it’s never happened before!” didn’t bite, I had the photos to prove it. So I was wired and ready for Clews! Clews had heard me coming, and was wary, begrudgingly eyeing the broken gearbox. I began pushing him, vying for an article. Despite me waving an introductory letter from the top Swedish motorbike magazine editor under his nose Clews wasn’t keen on the idea, but I was was in the mood to be ‘persuasive’! So I eventually found out he’d used-up all the genuine crankcases machined by BSA’s supplier and had farmed-out the machining of the casting he had left to some cowboy (my description) and thus all the shaft holes were out of true, none of the gear-shafts ran parallel, the strain on the gear teeth now far beyond the design parameters. Big bang. Measuring-up an old 4-speed case SKF machined the cases and bushed them, curing the problem. But who was going to pay for the new gearbox, expensive, I probed? Despite he realising he was risking CCM’s name being slagged in the press he didn’t offer even a percentage. “Racing bikes break. He must have done something wrong, didn’t service the bike properly.”

Mmmm. As the chap concerned had a degree in civil engineering, and had helped in the design of, and personally handmade and race-tested, the first prototype HVA 360cc motocross engine (his was actually a 380) based on the new mag-engined 250, that HVA then developed into the bike Heikki Mikkola won a World Championship on, and was a up and coming development ‘whiz-kid’ at Volvo during the day, I somehow doubted that. But Clews didn’t bite. I was pomposely refused to take any photos of the ‘5-stroke’ it being secret. But the press already know about it? He ‘had to protect his investment as the patents weren’t approved yet.’

And never would be, the Austrian had already taken-out a patent!

Nice try, Ellwood, beats looking at TV or getting rat-arsed down the pub, but ‘no-go’ I’m afraid. Don’t give up your day job.