Job done

If most enthusiasts were asked to name a British 500cc twin, they’d probably mention BSA, Triumph or Norton before they even thought about Ariel, Royal Enfield or Matchless/AJS. And that’s quite strange when you think that Ariel was a stablemate of Triumph and BSA, and the other two were arguably more advanced – and certainly more original – than any of the others. Take the Matchless G9 featured here. Introduced in late 1948 (along with the near-clone AJS Model 20) it closely followed Enfield’s lead in having swinging fork rear suspension from the start, several years before the others finally had to admit that rigid rear ends belonged in the ark, and that up-dating them with plungers or sprung hubs was a technological dead-end.

But that’s not all the G9 had to offer. While the other twins (even including Royal Enfield’s slightly idiosyncratic offerings)