From The Archive

Triumph model Q I suppose it's the historian's who determine whether one man's name should be remembered when another's forgotten, sadly for Siegfried Bettmann and his partner Mauritz Schulte, only the knowledgeable now recall that they were the brains behind the Triumph Cycle Company of Coventry; the saviours of the British motorcycle industry in the…

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Scott moves to Birmingham Only 600 post war models had been made and even the construction of a prototype plunger rear suspension model had shown little promise. Fortunately, not all was lost. Matt Holder, a lifelong Scott enthusiast, came to the rescue before the end of the year was out. He acquired the company and…

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Douglas racer When permission was given after World War 2 to resume the manufacture of motorcycles for civilian use, Douglas received this news with some confidence. When William Douglas had disposed of his shares during late 1931 he divided the proceeds of the sale amongst his family. It was his way of resolving constant family…

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Around the world Douglas Sometimes the urge to travel far and wide presents itself quite spontaneously, as was the case when Robert Edison Fulton Junior came to the end of a year's study at the University of Vienna's School of Architecture in 1932. As his name suggests, he was a young American graduate, whose parents…

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Sunbeam S7 Sunbeam was yet another British manufacturer late to enter the burgeoning motorcycle industry, in 1912. Already renowned for the high quality bicycles they made in their Wolverhampton factory, their founder, John Marston, decided to manufacture a motorcycle of similar quality. To get the project started he took on John Greenwood, who previously had…

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MV Agusta 750 four superbike Anyone involved with the international road racing scene in the 50s felt very privileged to see at close quarters the fabulous Italian road racing fours either in the pits or as they came to the start line before a race. At that time the only British-made four was the Ariel,…

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Brough Superior National heroes rarely have any associations with motorcycles, but this could not be said of Lawrence of Arabia. Exactly how he became associated with the Brough Superior marque is no longer very clear, but whatever the reason he had owned seven of them and had an eighth on order at the time of…

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When 1930 dawned, Veloce Limited still had nothing available in their range to bridge the gap between eir moderately priced 250cc two stroke and their more expensive 350cc overhead camshaft models. Their GTP two stroke had superseded the earlier overhung crankshaft models on which they had built their reputation, and represented a considerable step forward…

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Royal Enfield prototype Overhead camshaft engines have been with us for a long while, much longer than many would think. In terms of motorcycle engines Peugeot, to quote just one example, had a double overhead camshaft racing engine in use well before the 1914-18 war. Harry Bashall, winner of the 1912 Junior TT on a…

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Sprite competition bike This story begins in the 1960s, at a time when the two stroke had already begun to show it could offer a serious challenge to its four stroke counterparts in trials and scrambles. The Villiers two stroke engine had come a long way since it was regarded as little more than a…

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