Bob Thacker’s AJS Model 20

Reader Contribution by Bob Thacker
Published on October 23, 2018
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First of all I would like to thank all concerned for continuing to produce such a great magazine. I look forward to picking up my copy of each new issue as it becomes available. There are always interesting bikes featured, but up until the latest issue (September/October), there was always one missing; namely the AJS Model 20 Spring Twin. I grew up in the midlands region of the U.K. during the 1940s and 1950s. During that time a family’s main form of transportation, motorized that is, was either a motorbike, or a combination, and there were many marques available back then!

After I started work and had saved up a bit of cash I bought my first bike, about a 1948 350cc Royal Enfield. Once confident with handling it I of course wanted a better bike; therefore it was my pleasure to see and read your article on the Model 20 as that was my next, and last bike, a 1951 model I believe. It was a great bike with an exhaust note to match. I have lived in British Columbia for 40 some years now and the Model 20 that I owned back then is the only one that I have ever seen both in the U.K. and in North America; thanks for bringing one to me if only in pictures. I have attached a picture of me on my Model 20 back in the latter part of the 1950s.
— Bob Thacker/British Columbia, Canada

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