About the Can-Am and our Involvement
It's hardly surprising that there are Can-Ams in the UK since the Can-Am Military Model was used in the thousands by the UK Armed Forces and many of them have survived their service life and are now in private ownership. We have found that private ownership covers a wide range of interests, from the military collector through off-road riders to the guys who simply want a robust, easily maintained and anonymous motorcycle to ride to work. In fact, it was as the latter that got us into these fantastic and underrated machines.
The books tell us that the UK Armed Forces had some 5,000 of the Military Model with dates into service between 1978 and 1980. We fondly call the two versions Mk1 and Mk2 for no other reason than that it avoids the model codes allocated by Can-Am! Generally parts are interchangeable between the models with little or no modification. There were a small number of formal modifications introduced whilst the machines were in service and we can help identify if they were carried out on your machine or supply information should you want to implement them yourself.
The parent company to the now defunct Can-Am was the global 'Bombardier' (pronounced - bom-BAR'-de-ay), well known worldwide nowadays for aviation and rail business but in their stable is of course the Austrian engine manufacturer Rotax. Interestingly, Bombardier is today the largest rail manufacturer in the world and the third largest aircraft manufacturer so if anyone thinks they are only known for the snowmobiles and these motorcycles then think again. In the UK, you'll often see white vans on the road with the distinctive circular logo and the company name. The Military Model is often mistakenly known as the Can-Am 'bombardier', a logical but incorrect reference to the Army soldier in the artillery (the pronunciation - bom·bar·deer !).
The Military Model was very heavily based on the mid '70s TNT model (Track 'n' Trail) although it was of course available in only one fetching shade of green! It also shares many parts with the TNT and the early MX models. That means that we can often help with parts for those models also. Bear with us though as cross-referencing takes a while even though we have the parts books for many of the early non-Military models. From a call that lead us to a cache of dead bikes and new spares that we thought would help us keep our bikes running we have endeavoured to help other owners do the same for more than 9 years.
We carry a few spares for the bigger Armstrong MT500 and Harley Davidson MT350E. Look on the spares pictures page to see some of the items we have for them at this time. Please do not hesitate to ask if you are looking for parts. We have often got an MT500 and an MT350E being dismantled for spares so secondhand parts can sometimes be a cost effective option that we can help with.
We do regularly ship to all of the parts of the UK and to the continents but do please bear in mind the costs of doing so if that is where you are located - we are in the UK and we are principally a mail order business.
So, have a look around here, don't miss seeing the samples of stock to give you a flavour of some of the things we generally keep on the shelf and please contact us if you think that we can help you get or keep that Military Can-Am, MT500 or MT350E of yours mobile.