Features

During the 90th anniversary year of the Royal Signals’ White Helmets motorcycle display team, Pete Kelly relives every moment of a day he spent training with them at Catterick, North Yorkshire, during the summer of 1971. Sounding like a tortured lawnmower, a penny-farthing, complete with Cyclemaster engine in the rear wheel, spluttered into view. Did…

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Bridgestone built some of the most advanced two-stroke bikes in the world, so why pull the plug 45 years ago? Steve Cooper explains. When the classic scene got going and folk finally realised there were other high end marques beyond Broughs and Vincents, the nascent scene was occasionally enlivened by the appearance of the odd…

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Some considerable time ago, Tim Britton delved into a 3TA Triumph engine that had been lying around the place for years… and following a casual comment from editor Pete Kelly recently, Tim has kindly agreed to pick up where he left off. Photos by Fiona Watson. Some readers might recall seeing a few of the…

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Pete Kelly looks back fondly on an idyllic sidecar tour of Ireland with his late wife Liz, on a Kawasaki 1000/Squire combination, when the Troubles were at their height 37 years ago. The first time I ever took Liz on the pillion of my Kawasaki Z650, I made the gross mistake of doing the ‘ton’. After that,…

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Mick Payne looks back to his first meeting with Keith Wash, the founder of Unit Sidecars whose Hedingham models were keenly sought-after. I was running late, but my MZ ETZ250 and Squire Dart outfit wasn’t really capable of making up much time. Not only that, but I was on my way to my first-ever interview…

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One of the finest descriptions of fast riding ever written was T E Lawrence’s essay, ‘The Road’, describing an impromptu ‘race’ between Boanerges, his beloved Brough Superior 100SS, and a Bristol Fighter in Lincolnshire. It appeared in the December 27, 1962 issue of The Motor Cycle after first being published in a book entitled The…

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Ian Kerr visits an up-and-coming motorcycle concours event in Tacoma, USA, to prove the point that beautifully-restored classics are equally impressive no matter where in the world they are shown. Each year America’s Car Museum at Tacoma, just south of the port of Seattle, in Washington State, hosts a motorcycle concours event that’s fast becoming…

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Steve Cooper appraises a significant two-stroke twin from Suzuki’s Hamamatsu factory that lifted customers’ expectations in the sub 250cc category onto a completely different plane. Anyone who’s familiar with the earlier Japanese motorcycles will know just how significant the Suzuki T20 was. In one package, here was the bike that pretty much cemented the blueprint…

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John McCrink tells of the acquisition and rebuilding of his beautiful 1956 500 ZB34 BSA Gold Star scrambler that is now road-legal for green lane riding and events such as the Beamish Trophy Trial. I bought my ‘Goldie’ about three years ago from a fellow club member who’d enjoyed racing with the Scottish Classic Scrambles…

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Richard Thomasson describes the evolution of the Ariel Owners’ Motor Cycle Club, which was formed at London’s Ace Cafe in 1951 and is still going strong. At a time when Ariel was busily producing its distinctive range of four-stroke motorcycles at its long-established home in Selly Oak, Birmingham, the Ariel Owners’ Motor Cycle Club was…

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