From The Archive

While little cannot already have been written about the Ariel Square Four, it takes only a brief look through the Mortons Archive to reignite the intrigue this distinguished British design has always generated, writes Pete Kelly. To say that the public unveiling of the overhead-camshaft 500cc Ariel Square Four in the autumn of 1930 caused…

Continue reading »

Proving that a bike doesn’t have to be big to give lots of pleasure, Ian McGregor introduces readers to the thriving National Autocycle and Cyclemotor Club. The National Autocycle and Cyclemotor Club is the oldest established existing national club dealing solely with autocycles, cyclemotors, mopeds and other low-powered machines. Some 30 regional sections within the…

Continue reading »

Mick Payne returns to Watsonian Squire as he continues to question professional fitters about the important topic of sidecar alignment. I think it was Keith Wash, of Unit Sidecars, who summed up alignment by telling me: “If you feel like you are sitting on one buttock more than the other, then the lean out is…

Continue reading »

Steve Cooper fondly remembers Suzuki’s largest air-cooled two-stroke triple – the excellent but often overlooked GT550. 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 how…

Continue reading »

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. By the time Associated Motor Cycles launched its apparently unit-construction 250cc overhead-valve Matchless G2 and AJS…

Continue reading »

Andrew Kenningley, who’s built up a fine reputation as a skilled Vincent restorer, tells why he’ll be showing off his work atthe forthcoming Stafford Show. In recent years the word ‘iconic’ has been over-used almost to the point of becoming a throw-away cliché, but one motorcycle that truly merits the description is the Vincent. Andrew…

Continue reading »

For more than 60 years P&M, whose well-designed motorcycles became known as Panthers in the early 1920s, provided sensible down-to-earth transport along with a surprising amount of innovation, particularly during the inter-war years. This is their story, with research and photographic material from the Mortons Archive. Renowned for decades for their tireless sidecar-lugging ability, the…

Continue reading »

When you’re setting up a sidecar, the smallest of adjustments can make all the difference to handling. Mick Payne trawls around to get the opinions of today’s specialists in the field. Last month I tried to give an insight into the various alignments necessary to keep a sidecar outfit handling as well as possible. This…

Continue reading »

Stirred by Old Bike Mart’s request for bike shop memories, Tony Proctor recalls his own early motorcycling days, which grew from mimicking his scrambling heroes. Emulating the scrambling we watched on TV, my friends and I built ‘dirt track’ bicycles from all sorts of bits and pieces, and spent many an evening charging about in…

Continue reading »

’Ullo, ’ullo! What’s an Italian motorcycle doing on Steve Cooper’s Japanese pages? It’s all about comparisons and giving praise where it’s due, that’s what – and something the more extreme ‘Jap knockers’ might consider reciprocating once in a while? Classic motorcycles from Italy tend to polarise opinion perhaps more widely than just about any other…

Continue reading »