Features

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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Putting aside the confusing nomenclature of Suzuki’s model range in the 1960s and 70s, the 90mph X5 200cc two-stroke sports twin and SB200 commuter variant were cracking little bikes that needed to be kept on the boil to get the best out of them, writes Steve Cooper. Assuming that you’ve been following our Japanese 175-200…

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From our 2016 archive Time was slowly running out for Associated Motor Cycles when it launched its new-style 250cc overhead-valve singles in 1958 – but were the sturdy and neat-looking AJS and Matchless models the best they could have offered? asks Pete Kelly. By the time Associated Motor Cycles launched its apparently unit-construction 250cc overhead-valve…

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FROM OUR ARCHIVES For more than 60 years P&M, whose well-designed motorcycles became known as Panthers in the early 1920s, provided sensible down-to-earth transport along with a surprising amount of innovation, particularly during the inter-war years. This is their story, with research and photographic material from the Mortons Archive. Renowned for decades for their tireless…

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After hearing about Triumph specialist Supreme Motorcycles’ sell out to Draganfly Motorcycles in Suffolk, Mick Payne visits the owners of the now vastly-expanded British bikes business to learn about their plans, and is encouraged by what he finds. ‘Le roi est mort, vive le roi’ is said to have originated in 1422 upon the death,…

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Instead of printing a long missive about the life of John Surtees CBE, who sadly passed away on March 10, Old Bike Mart has decided to remember his motorcycle racing career in several outstanding photographs from the Mortons Archive. We suggest instead that readers wishing to pay tribute to one of the true heroes of…

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How did a well-made, nippy, economical and – yes, oiltight – motorcycle made in China come to carry the hallowed AJS name? Pete Kelly asks the questions, and Nick Brown provides the answers. Could you tell OBM readers something about your background in business and motorcycling, and your father, Fluff? Fluff was employed at Cotton…

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Steve Cooper pulls no punches as he looks back on the 1965 UK debut of Honda’s first technically brilliant ‘big twin’, the CB450, and the enlarged 500T that followed.

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From a 200cc Durkopp Diana/Royal scooter combo to a potent Ducati 860GT/Watsonian Palma, Mike Searle has tried just about everything on three wheels. It all began after he broke his neck on a Norton Dominator, and here he regales us with some of his memories… I suppose most Old Bike Mart readers over the age…

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