Features

Mick Payne concludes his series about getting into sidecar riding by looking at a bargain second-hand outfit with great possibilities. The word serendipity, first coined by Horace Walpole in 1754, is said to be one of the most difficult words in English to put a meaning to, but it sums up the subject of this…

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Steve Cooper explains why there’s never been a better time to buy a middleweight Japanese classic. As he stepped off his Panigale, the guy in the Ducati-logoed leathers said: “That’s a nice wee bike.” He was acknowledging a Yamaha XSR700, a modern retro based around a high-tech twin with all the current electronic gizmos and…

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Pete Kelly looks back to the motorcycle styling practices that led to the ‘bathtub’ era of the late 1950s and early 60s. Putting on my steam railway hat for a brief moment, in Victorian times many express passenger locomotives would have the top portions of their driving wheels hidden behind intricate splashers; safety valves would…

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Mick Payne looks at the pros and cons of ‘chairing up’ a motorcycle you already own rather than buying a whole new outfit in one go. The theme of last month’s column was how to buy a ready-made motorcycle and sidecar – but this isn’t at all the most popular option. “We assemble a lot…

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Chris Dickinson recalls a hectic scramble to get his Suzuki GT185 back on to the road after a little-end bearing disintegrated as he rode home for the weekend from a summer job at RAF Marham. Although he was just 17, dogged determination ensured that he was back at work on the Monday morning. Pete Stevens’…

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Danish Old Bike Mart reader Knud Rasmussen, otherwise known as ‘Velo Knud’, tells of his passion for Velocette motorcycles which began with the sight and sound of a postman’s 1946 MAC. It was our country postman who first aroused my interest in Velocette motorcycles when I was 12 years old in 1950. He came to…

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The words ‘Popular’ and ‘Universal’ were once commonly used to describe a car, motorcycle or bicycle manufacturer’s cheap and cheerful bottom-of-the-range models. In 1962 Excelsior went a step further by offering its three-speed 150cc Universal in a box so that the customer could assemble it himself and thus avoid the payment of purchase tax, writes…

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With the days of bottomless sources of cheap Japanese parts for classic machines now well and truly over, Steve Cooper brings this thought-provoking article. When the classic Japanese scene really took off in the late 1980s, restorers didn’t know just how lucky they were. Pretty much anything they needed for their mouldering project was on…

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When we’re involved in a motorcycle project and research the specifications for use of certain components, do we really understand what their code numbers mean? Take wheel bearings, for instance. Ronnie McLaren, who established Classic Bikes Scotland in 2015, and has been restoring British bikes since he was 15 years old, tells us that customers…

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PART 2: Ted Bemand concludes his story about the Wirral Wobblers’ recent ‘invasion’ of Holland on their mopeds and autocycles. During our big Sunday run in the Netherlands, the narrow 4ft wide Tarmac dyke top strips were also being used by walkers, some with dogs, along with joggers, bike riders and other moped riders too…

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