Features

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. The ‘lightweights’ that time forgot There wasn’t much wrong with the handling, as a Motor Cycle…

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Steve Cooper fondly remembers Suzuki’s largest air-cooled two-stroke triple – the excellent but often overlooked GT550 Music to the ears! Suzuki’s GT550 triple The refined (by comparison) Suzuki GT550 poses with its much more berserk rival, Kawasaki’s H1 Mach III. In recent discussion with one of this column’s readers, I was asked why on earth…

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When OBM reader and Adler to Zundapp Club member Bernie alerted us to a long-forgotten Zundapp-Arrow special, it was a simple matter to visit the Mortons Archive and turn up the original report. Agricultural it wasn’t – farmer Jack’s Zundapp-Arrow special Jack Piper explains the technicalities to seated Motor Cycle staffman Peter Fraser. There’s been…

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Concluding the story about motorcycles in his life, Tony Proctor tells how he set up a brand new Yamaha Centre 38 years ago. Here’s a car showroom – turn it into a bike shop! A group of likely lads ogle the selection of new Yamahas during an open day at the former St Neots Yamaha…

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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. Square Four evolution In 1931 Ariel won the Maudes Trophy with an ingenious ‘Sevens’ test devised by the firm’s…

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Eyebrows were raised when Yamaha entered the ‘big single’ market in the 1970s – but it had done its homework thoroughly to put some tired old bogeys to rest, writes Steve Cooper. Yamaha’s XT and SR500 – a singular sort-out A Japanese single – and an excellent one at that. Yamaha took the world by…

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The uncanny flexibility of the Ariel Square Fours, from the 497cc and 597cc ‘cammies’ to the final pushrod-operated 997cc Mk. 2, always amazed those fortunate enough to road test these four-pot classics, as these excerpts from our archive bound volumes show. Testing, testing! How the bike journos of old saw the Squariels There’s a Standard…

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Concluding the story of his endless quest to find a dohc 350cc BSA Fury, Tony Page tells how he ended up with a Triumph Bandit as well – and what the bikes are actually like to ride. Nimble, stylish and a joy to ride – a tale of just what might have been With the…

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Mick Payne looks back at the long history of the Watsonian Squire Palma range of sidecars, which were innovative at the time of their introduction and remain available to this day. The long-running Watsonian Palma range The editor’s Palma sidecar dates back to 1962, and was in good fettle when this photo was taken just…

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