Features

Reader Perran Newman fondly recalls his regular long-distance travels on a single-cylinder BSA. Although my dad had no interest in mechanical things, I have to thank him for arranging for me to learn some of the basic skills of motorcycle maintenance. A local garage in Bexley supervised me while I repaired a 1949 D1 Bantam,…

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Recalling his days at the BSA Group’s Umberslade research centre, reader David Myers – not, incidentally, the Hairy Biker – reveals some of the things that went on there, and after reading our recent Last Drop Saloon feature, concludes that the group had proved itself perfectly capable of incompetence long before the establishment opened. I…

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You could buy a car for the same price – but would it be as much fun? Mick Payne discusses the choice that’s now available in off-the-shelf combinations. Not so long ago, it was just as easy to buy a ready-made new outfit as it was to buy an off-the-peg suit. In the home town…

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If you actually ride an old Japanese motorcycle rather than simply show it off, there are plenty of good reasons not to keep it absolutely original, writes Steve Cooper. In some areas of the classic world there’s a slavish desire to stick with original equipment manufacturer (OEM) components, and sometimes such a stance is quite…

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Although different in appearance, the 650cc BSA A10 Gold Flash and Ariel Huntmaster FH parallel twins offered identical performance as their engines were the same unit produced at BSA’s Small Heath factory in Birmingham, making them equally proficient at fast two-up touring or lusty sidecar lugging. Pete Kelly explores the Mortons Archive to compare the…

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Last month Mick Payne told about Bill Moore’s abiding love affair with Yorkshire-built Panther motorcycles and here he continues the story. According to popular reason, “Panthers have got that enormous cylinder because they have such a long stroke.” True, but not true, if you know what I mean! Certainly they do have a stroke/bore ratio…

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All Brit bikes leak oil… but they don’t have to, writes Tim Britton. There is no real reason why an old motorcycle should leak oil. Lots of them do, though, and perhaps a run through the possible causes and what to do about it isn’t such a bad idea. Yes, I know there will be…

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With a history stretching back to 1958, when the roads swarmed with sidecar outfits, the South Yorkshire Sidecar Club has clung to its existence through good times and bad for 59 years. John Askham tells the story. The South Yorkshire Sidecar Club was formed in February 1958 by six people who met at 25 Stanhope…

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While little cannot already have been written about the Ariel Square Four, it takes only a brief look through the Mortons Archive to reignite the intrigue this distinguished British design has always generated, writes Pete Kelly. To say that the public unveiling of the overhead-camshaft 500cc Ariel Square Four in the autumn of 1930 caused…

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Learning from his two bike-mad brothers, Ken Partington from Manchester knew everything about motorcycles by the time he bought his first bike, a 98cc James Comet, at the age of 16 – or so he thought – until an embarrassing confrontation with a dealer in a bike shop taught him otherwise. At various times during…

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