Matchless D80 Wanted

Do you have a Matchless D80 that you’d consider parting with?

Featuring an inclined, overhead-valve engine like many of its contemporaries, the single-cylinder D80 ‘Sports 500’ was introduced in 1933 just as the fashion for ‘sloper’ models was beginning to wane. The result was a production run of only three seasons, and today the handsome D80 is one of the rarer of 1930s Matchless motorcycles.

I already have two post war Matchless motorcycles and would like to experience one from the thirties. I’m not keen on hand change and I like something with a little bit of power behind it, so am looking for a Matchless D80 or D90 Sport from the mid 1930s.

Here’s a picture of a truly mint D80 in the Finnish Motorcycle Museum in Lahti; the photo is shared from Wikimedia Commons.

The last one I can find sold at auction in 2009, by Bonhams as a ‘basket case’ but with many parts already restored. It sold for £2,645 and I assume is now on the road. Others have changed hands since then. I do know where there is one that the owner will eventually sell, but it may be a few years before that happens and it needs restoring.

I’ll consider any bike, there aren’t too many around, but I’d prefer one in reasonable or better condition. It would need to be pretty much complete and with no ‘unobtainium’ parts missing. I’m looking for a bike to keep, not to sell on. I’ve had my G3LS since 1976 and my G12 since 2021.

A fully restored and ready to go bike would be ideal of course. I do maintain and importantly ride my bikes. Can you help?