history
CCM (Clews Competition Motorcycles) is a British motorcycle manufacturer founded at the beginning of the '70s. The company from Bolton, resulted from the collapse of the BSA competition department in 1971. The man who founded CCM was Alan Clews, a successful trial and scramblers rider in the 1960s.
When BSA went out of business, Clews bought all the parts that were available and started making bikes in his own garage. He used the 500cc engine from the BSA B50 MX and developed a model which almost won the 500cc motocross world championship in the early 70s. Over the 80s and the 90s, CCM started to use Rotax engines and they were able to produce over 3,500 bikes a year.
CCM also exported bikes to North America, but they badged them as Can-Am. In 1984, CCM received a contract from the British Army for building the Armstrong MT-500. More recently, in 1998, the company was bought by the Robson family, who used DR-Z400 engines from Suzuki to make some models. Under the stewardship of Suzuki, CCM didn't do so well and had to close shop. In 2003, Alan Clews comes back, buys the company again and has been working to rebuild it ever since. In 2005 the company launched two new models, the R35 Supermoto and the FT35 flat tracker.
Over the years, CCM won a lot of competitions, starting 1973, when Jack Matthews participated at the British Side-Car trials championship. In 1975, Vic Eastwood achieved the 2nd British Moto-Cross Championship and one year later, Vic Allan, John Banks, Vic Eastwood got 2nd, 4th, 5th British Moto-Cross championship. In 2003, CCM became a star, as long as Angelina Jolie, or Lara Croft in Tomb Raider found the CCM 644 very attractive in the movie.
Trying to forget all the nasty experiences, in 2006 and 2007, CCM participates at the British Shorttrack Champions, where the company snaps some victories.
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