From the Archive Archives

Motorcycles – the end of an era at Ellesmere Street

21st October 2020 Sam Hewitt Features, From the Archive

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

At your service: Fastenings firm that’s holding together well

14th October 2020 Sam Hewitt Features, From the Archive

Mick Payne brings some sound advice about keeping your bike in one piece as he revisits stainless steel nut and bolt manufacturer D Middleton & Son. Until I retired, I worked as an engineering designer,

A Norton Navigator’s tale – the rescuer rescued

7th October 2020 Sam Hewitt Features, From the Archive

Les Orme tells how, many years after the event, he managed to return the favour to a Norton Navigator that had rescued him from a breakdown crisis in France. My motorcycling days started in 1959,

From unexpected funeral guests toparking ticket mayhem in Belfast

29th September 2020 Sam Hewitt Features, From the Archive

Ted Bemand concludes the report on his National Autocycle and Cyclemotor Club branch’s foray into Northern Ireland. Patrick McAlister became a wheelchair user following an accident in his teens, but that didn’t stop him enjoying

Never built – the 500cc V-twin Morini sports that everyone really wanted

22nd September 2020 Sam Hewitt Features, From the Archive

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

Another brilliant Banbury Run – and it’sstill the biggest and best in the world!

8th September 2020 Sam Hewitt Features, From the Archive

Almost 500 riders took part in the Vintage Motor Cycle Club’s 68th Banbury Run, open only to VMCC members on pre-1931 machines, on Sunday, June 19 – down a little on the 600 or so

The long-running Watsonian Palma range

1st September 2020 Sam Hewitt Features, From the Archive

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. I mentioned last time

Testing, testing! How the bike journos of old saw the Squariels

24th August 2020 Sam Hewitt Features, From the Archive

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

Made in Japan: Good try, Ducati – but sushi and pasta just didn’t mix!

17th August 2020 Sam Hewitt Features, From the Archive

Steve Cooper strays from the Japanese path once more as he examines the reasons why Ducati’s controversial ultra-short-stroke parallel twins were never going to succeed amid motorcyclists’ ever-changing expectations of the 1970s. Think of Ducati

Keeping the Vincent spares chain flowing

10th August 2020 Sam Hewitt Features, From the Archive

Old Bike Mart meets Ian Savage, manager of the VOC Spares Company Limited in Kettering, to learn how the imaginative joint venture sources and markets the spare parts, club regalia and even complete second-hand Vincent