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The
Castambul Collection
South
Australian treasure trove has a remarkable
background and big plans
November 5, 2025 – owner Ciaran
Carruthers with Guy 'Guido' Allen
Above: owner Ciaran with a modest section of his extraordinary fleet
I’ve been on bikes and around
bikes all my life. I have a 1945 BSA M20 (above),
ex-Irish Army. My dad back home in Ireland found
it and we had restored back to full army specs. It
was from the same unit as my grandfather rode with
in WWII.
He was in an Irish unit in the Signal Corps. The
Commandant who trained them all was the then
internationally famous racer Stanley Woods. He was
a TT legend from Dublin. (See his
Wikipedia profile.)
Stanley taught my grand-dad, who
taught my dad (above), who taught me so I like to
think there’s a bit of Stanley in there somewhere
– though I’m no TT racer!
Bikes have been part of the family. When I turned
16 I got one and did my time on a provisional
license on Honda CB250N Super Dreams and stuff
like that.
There was no thought of getting a car, because the
cost of buying one and insuring it wasn’t an
option. And I just love the bikes. I didn’t start
driving cars until I was in my 20s.
***
Ed’s note: the collection
is in the throes of reshaping, and so several
of its existing machines are now up for auction.
I spent lots of time – about 30
years – in Asia and always had a bike. So I got to
ride in the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia,
Japan, Macau and Hong Kong. It was just brilliant.
About 20 years ago we ended up being based in
Australia with me going back and forward for work.
You start coming into a few quid and, rather than
having a bike as transport through necessity, you
start to think “I always wanted a CB750”. You see
one for sale and get one. Then you come across a
Z900 and you get one of those.
I have a shocking memory but I
have this clear vision of riding through the
Phoenix Park in Dublin on my 250 Super Dream and
seeing this beast, this monster, coming towards
me. The noise and the sight of it! It was a
CBX1000 and it blew past me coming the opposite
way. I was thinking, one day I’ll get one of
those. (Ed: We spotted two in the shed.)
So I just started adding bits and
pieces to the collection as I came across them.
Then there were 10 bikes, then there 30 of them,
and I started thinking of selling one or two –
then thought I don’t have to, so why do it? It
started getting out of control and then it moved
on to new bikes. The first was a 2005 Triumph
Rocket 3 (above). I bought that and just loved it.
Then the Rocket X came out – the 10-year
anniversary – and I got one of those.
There have since been more new Triumphs, Indians,
Ducatis and the like. Mike Hampton down at
Adelaide Motorcycle Centre has been a good mate of
mine for years, but also flogged me just about
everything Ducati, Indian and Victory. There was a
time when if it was a limited edition and had
number on it, I wanted it for the collection. I’m
moving away from that.
Really I’m trying to focus on the classics from
the 1970s, 80s and 90s – more 70s as that was the
time I was growing up and saw the bikes I lusted
after.
I have seen a Honda CB250N I want
and the owner has a small collection himself. He’s
thinking about selling it.
Do I have any favourites? I’ll put aside the M20
because of the link to my grand-dad. I have a real
passion for the Rocket 3 because it was my first
new bike and I just love them. I have a collection
of the original 3s and now the 2.5lt models.
An FJ1100 up there was the first bike I bought
when I came to Australia. It cost me three grand
and I had to borrow $1000 off a mate of mine to do
it. It was to knock around on. The colors were
black and gold and I think done with a
house-painting brush. When I found myself in a
position to do so, I sent it to the lads at Yamaha
World (Adelaide) and they did a full restoration
on it. It’s been bored out to 1260 and it’s just a
cracking bike. It’s there for the memories.
I also love Honda CB1100s – it’s hard to go wrong
with them – and the Katanas for their styling. But
it’s hard to pick a favorite.
There is a set of the Japanese factory turbo bikes
(Honda CX500/650, Suzuki XN85, Yamaha XJ650T and
Kawasaki GPz750T). The XN85 is my favorite-looking
of them and the CX650 is my favorite to ride.
I like my adventure tourers. One
of the first big trips I did in Asia was on a
Honda Africa Twin 650 in Thailand – I now have
that and the 750. The 650 is still one of my
favorites to ride through the hills. You’re not
breaking any speed records and it’s just a lot of
fun.
And the Indian bagger racer? I’m going to blame
Mike Hampton and Tessa, my beautiful wife, for
this one. When Tyler O’Hara (who ran race number
29) won the first King of the Baggers series in
the USA, Indian decided to build 29 exact replicas
of the race bike. Two came to Australia.
One of the things I like about the
collection is I get to ride all of it – but this
is track-only, which makes it more difficult. Mike
rang me about it and I said no. Fast forward six
months and I’m in Melbourne for our wedding
anniversary. Mike calls again and says the bike at
the Indian warehouse, do you just want to go and
have a look at it?
I said I’m not going to buy it, but my wife fell
in love with it! So there it is, now signed by
Australian Troy Herfoss – who won the 2024 USA
bagger title.
I love bike racing, particularly road racing, and
am involved with the Irish-based The Roadhouse
Macau team – named after a pub we have owned in
Macau for 15 years. It’s a blues, bikes and
rock-themed bar that’s heavily-linked to the Macau
Grand Prix and motorcycling in general. We’ve been
sponsoring a couple of riders out of Ireland for a
few years, such as Brian McCormack and Derek
Shiels. We even had John McGuinness for a year,
back in about 2010.
The mix of bikes is fairly eclectic – I just like what I like. It runs from a 1927 McEvoy (above) through to the new Ducatis or Triumphs.
Above: workshop crew Graeme Hilton,
Nathan Leane and Jordan Pfeiffer.
There are around 150 bikes in the
collection, and it’s not set up as a museum at
this stage. We’ve started offering full workshop
service on Mondays and Tuesdays and will then
build it up. The ultimate goal is to get a bigger
space. I don’t like having to stack the bikes
three high because you can’t appreciate the ones
on the top deck.
Ideally we expand to twice the size and use the
theme from The
Roadhouse Macau for a cafe that combines
food, beverage and hospitality, with the
motorcycle collection and service.
In the meantime I’m going to keep bringing in new and more interesting bikes that people will travel to come and see…
See the collection on Facebook
***
Ed’s note: the collection
is in the throes of reshaping, and so several
of its existing machines are now up for auction.
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