In house relations were not working well though. Disagreements with the board saw Austin leave and Alan demoted to a one day a week role. All this not being evident to the public the new CCM Road only bike entered the arena named the 640R. This CCM Supermoto bike came at the right time with dual sport and supermoto market sectors growing fast. The plus side was that it was one of the first supermotos in Britain at the time.

The plan to offer up market CCM up market bikes seemed to be going well with customer waiting lists growing. Writing about a CCM bike in MCN, Rob McDowell used the bike for commuting and loved it as a CCM Trails bike. Austin began CCM ride outs and CCM Green Laning where groups all went out on a CCM trail blazing day. This proved positive as many people bought bikes off the back of these CCM experience days. It was a good promotional tool for the company and worked well.

The company rebirth had attracted a lot of press attention and the current CCM 604E Bike did well and became a fully road legal bike. In Trail Bike Monthly the CCM was shown alongside supermotos. The idea was that it could be used for work or leisure on the road but with quick tyre change could hit the trails at weekend.

This didn’t sit well with Alan and Austin who’s life’s work was their qualification.

They realised the couldn’t compete with the big names in the industry but with CCM marketed as a specialised premium product they could make gains on their own ground. But, they still had to massively increase production, another world away from the garage run CCM Spare Parts business.

Clews was put in touch with some venture capitalists, Peter Swift and Richard Robson, two people with great experience and track record. CCM was put into receivership and taken over by investors who Swift and Robson had got in touch with. MCN headline was that “CCM Motorcycles were in the fast lane”.