Not all great motorcycles were destined for success. Some were simply too bold for the time. The Matchless Silver Hawk was on such machine – a refined, four-cylinder statement of ambition, launched into a world that could scarcely afford it.
Words: Rich Orriss
Photos: Steve Mordue
The 1930s did not arrive in Britain with optimism. Industry faltered, unemployment bit hard, and the long shadow of the Great Depression settled over the country with a grim persistence. It was, by any measure, a difficult time to be building anything, let alone motorcycles.
And yet, the British motorcycle industry had never been one to retreat quietly.
Forged in the ferocious, competitive years of the early 20th century, manufacturers had grown used to adversity. Survival demanded innovation, and in 1931, at the hallowed halls of Olympia London, that spirit was laid bare for all to see. Against the economic tide, two manufacturers unveiled machines that seemed almost defiant in their ambition.
From Ariel came the now-legendary Ariel Square Four. And from Matchless, something altogether more unusual: the Silver Hawk. Both were four-cylinder, high-end sporting tourers aimed squarely at the top of the market. Both were bold. But their stories would diverge sharply.
Where most four-cylinder machines of the era leaned toward the long, cumbersome inline format, Matchless chose a different path. The Silver Hawk’s 592cc engine (effectively two Silver Arrow units paired side-by-side) was arranged in a compact V4 configuration.
The Silver Arrow – the Hawk cut in half
It was an inspired piece of engineering.
By avoiding the stretched proportions of an inline four, the V4 allowed for a shorter wheelbase and a more balanced machine. The crankshaft sat across the frame, and all four cylinders were cast as a single unit – a tidy design that spoke of careful but complex thought.
The specification only deepened the intrigue. Gone was the side-valve layout of its predecessor, replaced by an overhead camshaft driven by a single shaft – simpler in execution than the twin-shaft arrangement seen in the Square Four, yet no less ambitious. Fuel came via a single Amal carburettor, while power was channelled through a four-speed Sturmey-Archer gearbox, a dependable choice in an otherwise forward-thinking package.
The result? Around 26 horsepower and a top speed in the region of 85 mph – figures that placed the Silver Hawk firmly in the upper tier of early-1930s performance.
If the engineering spoke of ambition, the aesthetics confirmed it.
The chromium-plated tank gave the Silver Hawk a presence that was both luxurious and sporting. It was a machine designed not just to perform, but to impress – to signal a certain confidence at a time when confidence was in short supply.
This was very much in keeping with the vision of the Collier family, the driving force behind Matchless. The Silver Hawk was not intended to be a mass-market machine. At £78 and 10 shillings, it sat firmly in the realm of the aspirational – a motorcycle for those who could still afford such things, even in lean times.
But ambition alone does not guarantee success.
While the Square Four would go on to carve out a lasting legacy, the Silver Hawk’s time was brief. Complexity, cost, and the harsh economic climate all conspired against it. The market for such a machine was, perhaps unsurprisingly, limited.
And yet, to measure the Silver Hawk purely by its commercial outcome is to miss the point. Because in many ways, it was a stepping stone.
The lessons learned – mechanical, technical, and conceptual – fed directly into later developments, most notably the V4 machines that would emerge under the AJS banner in the years that followed. In that sense, the Silver Hawk was less a failure and more an experiment conducted in public view.
Some motorcycles fade quietly into obscurity. Others linger, waiting for the right moment to be rediscovered.
The Silver Hawk featured here belongs to Steve Mordue in New South Wales, and its story feels almost too neat to be coincidence. In 1988, at just 19 years old, Steve picked up a copy of Australian Classic Bike magazine. Inside was an article on a Silver Hawk – an image that, by his own admission, stayed with him.
Years passed. Decades in fact!
And then, improbably, the opportunity arose to purchase that very same machine, the exact bike that had first caught his attention all those years before. It is the sort of story that tempts one to use the word “fate,” and perhaps, just this once, it fits.
The Silver Hawk stands today as a reminder of something easily forgotten: that even in the darkest economic climates, there are those willing to push forward, to experiment, and to build something remarkable simply because they can.
It may not have achieved the enduring fame of its contemporaries, but it represents a moment – a flash of ingenuity and optimism in an otherwise uncertain age.
And that, in many ways, is exactly what The Girder Club is all about.
an article by The Girder Club
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