Features

The golden years of DMW

by

Sam Hewitt

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12th September 2016

Well-built and innovative, the West Midlands-manufactured DMW motorcycles were among the most sought-after lightweights of their day, as these Mortons Archive photos show. Despite DMW’s relatively brief period in serious motorcycle production, the firm that was founded in Wolverhampton by Leslie Dawson in 1940 was innovative and dabbled in everything from trials, scrambles and road…
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Holding on for a hero

by

Sam Hewitt

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8th August 2016

Alan Turner tells of a very special reunion at Stafford when, thanks to Holland’s Ferry Brouwer, Des Heckle was reunited with his record-breaking 250cc Yamaha TD1C sprint bike of 46 years ago. While much was taking place at April’s Carole Nash Classic MotorCycle Show at Stafford, away from the crowds a very low-profile meeting finally…
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Inconspicuous, reliable and beautifully engineered – Steve’s electric-start solution for classic BSA twins

by

Sam Hewitt

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8th August 2016

Electric starter? What electric starter? Pete Kelly visits Steve McFarlane, of SRM Engineering fame, in Cardiff to fully appreciate the huge amount of skill and dedication that went into his patented design for an electric starter for swinging-arm A7 and A10 BSA twins. Once Steve McFarlane had set his heart on manufacturing an electric-start mechanism…
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Dot Motorcycles – the end of an era at Ellesmere Street

by

Sam Hewitt

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8th August 2016

An association with Manchester spanning over 100 years will come to an end this September when Dot Motorcycles Ltd ceases trading from its 1912 premises in Ellesmere Street. We delve into Mortons’ Archive to give some idea of the surprising variety of road and sporting machinery – all quite Devoid of Trouble – that the…
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A Norman conquest

by

Sam Hewitt

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8th August 2016

Piers Kurrein from Harrogate, who had a lovely Norman B2CS trials bike on show at The Girder Fork & Classic Motorcycle Club’s Big Bike Sunday at Skipton on June 26, tells OBM about its history and long restoration. While studying industrial design at Leeds Polytechnic in 1974, I discovered a Norman B2CS trials bike in…
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Never built – the 500cc V-twin Morini sports that everyone really wanted

by

Sam Hewitt

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8th August 2016

With quality, performance and excellent design apparent in every detail, the 350cc Morini V-twins bore comparison with any Japanese motorcycle – but when the Italian firm upped the capacity to 500cc, it never quite managed to produce the right machine, writes Steve Cooper. Sometimes you jump on a bike, ride it all day and then…
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The ‘lightweights’ that time forgot

by

Sam Hewitt

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13th July 2016

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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Music to the ears! Suzuki’s GT550 triple

by

Sam Hewitt

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13th July 2016

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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Agricultural it wasn’t – farmer Jack’s Zundapp-Arrow special

by

Sam Hewitt

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13th July 2016

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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Here’s a car showroom – turn it into a bike shop!

by

Sam Hewitt

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13th July 2016

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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