Features

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 we hadn’t done a feature on probably the most overlooked Japanese classic of the 1970s – and the guy had a point, for…

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There wasn’t much wrong with the handling, as a Motor Cycle staffman in more appropriate riding gear demonstrates. By the time Associated Motor Cycles launched its apparently unit-construction 250cc overhead-valve Matchless G2 and AJS 14 models in May 1958, Ducati was already marketing a range of brilliant overhead-camshaft singles in capacities ranging from 100 to…

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David Angel works on a sidecar chassis. Last month I tried to give an insight into the various alignments necessary to keep a sidecar outfit handling as well as possible. This month the experts have their say, and what experts they are – Watsonian Squire, Jim D’Arcy and Velorex/Ural expert, David Angel, all have their…

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After vowing never to ride a bike again, Tony took part in off-road competition on a 325cc Bultaco Sherpa, and soon found himself managing the Yamaha centre at St Neot’s. More about this in the second part of his story next month. Emulating the scrambling we watched on TV, my friends and I built ‘dirt…

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The Laverda’s beefy motor was enlarged to 600, 650, 688 and finally 750cc. Classic motorcycles from Italy tend to polarise opinion perhaps more widely than just about any other country of origin. The oft-spouted negatives are that they are woefully unreliable, desperately uncomfortable, electrically cursed, have rock-hard suspension and are fragile beyond measure. The positives…

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The Continental’s dropped handlebars allowed for a more tucked-in riding style When Royal Enfield launched the unit-construction 250cc Crusader in 1956, followed by the tasty Crusader Sports a couple of years later, the Redditch concern was onto a winner. By 1963 a five-speed, close-ratio gearbox had become the icing on the cake as two very…

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Paul Goff with an HRD from his British bike collection. It can’t have escaped your notice that car lights are getting brighter. Not a bad thing, perhaps, but it does mean that the less efficient lighting systems of older motorcycles struggle to be seen in the sea of brightness. There’s not a lot you can…

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It’s all done with lights and mirrors, you know! Note the green rosette on this fabulously bedecked Lamby at last year’s event, attended by more than 600 riders. A little preserved steam railway in Bedfordshire, all 2ft gauge of it, researched its history by interviewing retired employees from the days when it was an industrial…

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The launch of Honda’s CB450 ‘Black Bomber’ sent shock waves through Britain’s big bike manufacturers, but its high price, curious engine capacity and unimpressive handling prevented it from being the absolute success it might have been. However its successor, the CB500T (sadly, we couldn’t find a photograph) was a whole lot worse. Someone once opined…

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With a Silver City Airways Bristol Freighter in the background, Edward Marshall of Horsham sets off on a journey to Australia When the internet was a far-distant dream (or nightmare, according to your point of view) and relatively few people had a telephone, the quickest way to send a message was by Post Office telegram.…

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