Features

Bryan Wade (No 6), seen in a tense battle for the lead with Fred Mayes (No 8) during an exciting 250cc Grandstand Trophy race many years ago, will be one of the special guests at the Telford show. Mortons Archive Photo. Despite its title, the Hagon Shocks-sponsored Classic Dirt Bike Show at Telford — which…

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This charming picture from days gone by shows the local postman’s mail delivery sidecar outfit at Wareham, Dorset, with Rex on guard in 1939. The following year the outfit was replaced by a van. We visited several local museums on our recent trip, and a seemingly recurring exhibit was the sidecar as a workhorse. At…

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With bikes sprinkled among the marquees and small tents, this is another overall view of the 1964 Dragon Rally site. During the evening there was a spectacular headlight parade down from the ‘castle’. After passing my riding test on a Royal Enfield Crusader in 1963, at last I was as free as a bird and…

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It had looks to kill, but Yamaha’s smooth-running and beautifully-styled TX750 harboured problematical technical issues. Those who believe that Yamaha was late to join the four-stroke party have probably, and understandably, missed some of the earlier machinery. For many classic enthusiasts, Yamaha’s all-time great, aka the XS650, is little more than a poppet-valved aberration sitting…

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Evoking the days when TT riders had their racing numbers stitched to the back of their leathers, a swarm of enthusiastic VMCC members prepares to set off down the Glencrutchery Road. With the Manx Rally, the Isle of Man Section of the Vintage Motor Cycle Club hosts arguably the most popular event in Britain for…

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Ivan Rhodes rides an AJS past the replica motorcycle shop that was helped by the BMCT at the Black Country Living Museum. Formed originally to facilitate the building of the National Motorcycle Museum at Bickenhill, near Solihull, West Midlands, the British Motorcycle Charitable Trust has been an entirely separate organisation since 1995 – a grant-making…

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Motor Cycling’s Bernal Osborne rides the Bullet along a quiet village street in the spring of 1960 – how different it all was then! Right, you’ve got the deposit together (or at least have an old bike to trade in) and fancy a brand new 500cc Royal Enfield – but which one do you prefer,…

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Another take on the theme of the 550 Four, this time with a four-into-two exhaust. No review of classic 1970s middleweights would be complete without due coverage of the Honda CB500. Today the bike is overlooked and, amazingly, regularly ignored and even marginalised. To perpetrate any of these actions is near heresy — but why…

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It was a 12-day return voyage from Southampton to New York on Cunard’s RMS Queen Mary that started Geoffrey’s bike-storage adventures. I used to be in the British Merchant Navy, and once, while I was on the Cunard liner Queen Mary, I forgot to arrange to get my BSA twin, PAA 515, put away for…

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With a standing-start quarter-mile dash in 12.4sec, and 111.6mph, the 500cc Mach III was a stunning performer. If there’s one motorcycle that defined the change in attitude towards the world of two-wheeled transport, then it has to be the Kawasaki 500 triple. Yes, the CB750 is the world’s first Superbike and proved to be a…

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