By the time Associated Motor Cycles launched its apparently unit-construction 250cc overhead-valve Matchless G2 and AJS 14 models in May 1958, Ducati was already marketing a range of brilliant overhead-camshaft singles in capacities ranging from 100 to 200cc… and 250cc versions wouldn’t be long in coming.
So why would AMC want to plump for a rather overweight and, in some ways imperfect, push-rod design, and then market the new models under the badge-engineered guises of two of the most revered names in British motorcycle history?
Read more in May’s edition of OBM
