Features

Last month, Steve Cooper showed us that Suzuki’s TM400 dirt bike was something of a loose cannon and, ultimately, doomed to ignominy in the archives of motocross history. Now he tells us what happened next… It’s highly unlikely that the negative feedback on the TM400 didn’t get back to Japan, yet that didn’t prevent the…

Continue reading »

Given the asymmetrical nature of motorcycle sidecar combinations, handling is always going to be a little interesting, and Mick Payne takes a closer look at how it can be improved. The telescopic motorcycle fork has been with us for a very long time. Well over a century, in fact. It was 1908 when Alfred Angus…

Continue reading »

This year marks the diamond jubilee of Honda’s first appearance at the Isle of Man TT in 1959, and there hasn’t been a single year since without the successful participation of racing machines built by the Japanese factory. Pete Kelly looks back over the first nine eventful years, from Honda’s first 125cc foray on to…

Continue reading »

Was Suzuki’s big TM the final frontier? Steve Cooper goes where no man has gone before to reveal the truth. In late 1969 or early 1970 someone at Suzuki’s Hamamatsu HQ came up with the bright idea of creating a big-bore scrambler that could beat the likes of Yamaha and Kawasaki on the dirt. Moto-X…

Continue reading »

The sidecar has become more of a leisure item in recent years although, as Mick Payne knows, there are still plenty of enthusiasts using them on a daily basis. In the past, sidecar outfits were often considered a workhorse with the bike, frequently a side-valve single, hitched to a family-sized saloon or a utility box.…

Continue reading »

Words: John Nutting Photography: Gary D Chapman, John Nutting Every month our sister title Classic Motorcycle Mechanics features brilliant bikes like this one – Yamaha’s 500cc V4 two-stroke. You want more loveliness like this piece of 1984 utter joy? Then check out the box on the opposite page. It’ll be the best treat you give…

Continue reading »

If there’s one thing that classic motorcycling canteach us, it’s that the passage of time does not always equate with developments and improvements, as Chris Coote tells us. I own a 60-year-old Venom, which I built up from a number of large lumps and is known as my ‘Christmas Velo’ because it was completed and…

Continue reading »

Any of us who have been around motorcycles for any period of time will have some tales to tell of our fellow riders, and Ralph Ridley is certainly no exception… One of the benefits of owning a motorcycle is the way it can open a door to friendships and social activity. An interest in an…

Continue reading »

Pete Kelly raids the Mortons’ Archive once again to discover how the weekly motorcycling press reacted to a brace of 250cc Japanese twins in the early 1960s – Honda’s overhead-camshaft C72 Dream in 1961 and Suzuki’s 246cc T10 two-stroke in 1963. Sixty years ago, the attitude towards Japanese motorcycles – indeed anything Japanese – among…

Continue reading »