News

It is with great sorrow that OBM reports the passing of popular and gifted road racer Dan Hegarty following an incident at the Macau Grand Prix. During his racing career Dan, who rode for Top Gun Racing and came from Bingham, Notts, became one of the elite group of racers to lap the 4.25 Southern…

Continue reading »

The Museum Legends online shop at the National Motorcycle Museum has been updated just in time for Christmas. The museum’s website www.thenmm.co.uk lists hundreds more items than could ever be showcased in a traditional printed version of a mail order catalogue, including lots of classic motorcycling-related items, NMM-branded clothing and a massive online motorcycling bookshop.…

Continue reading »

Fondly known as The Tinware Man at such events as the Stafford shows, the Founder’s Day Rally, Kempton Park and the Netley Marsh autojumbles, Alan Fergus Swainson passed away at the beginning of October with his family at his bedside. Born in 1937 and a talented craftsman, Alan was respected for his exceptional metalwork skills…

Continue reading »

John Newson of Oxney Motorcycles has sent us these first images of his just-finished NorLake Special. More than 20 years ago he bought a 1000cc methanol-burning Weslake V-twin engine from Jim Penfold, who’d raced it in sidecar grass track, and with a compression ratio of 14:1, it delivered 117bhp. When John’s old friend Knuckles died…

Continue reading »

Netherlands motorcyclist Bart Maatje became the lucky winner of the top prize in the National Motorcycle Museum’s Summer 2017 Raffle – a 1960 500cc DBD 34 BSA Gold Star – when his winning ticket No 9001753 was drawn by road racing superstars Freddie Spencer, Peter Hickman and Maria Costello at the Museum Live open day…

Continue reading »

Motorcycle road racing is to return to the anti-clockwise 5¼-mile Eppynt circuit near Sennybridge, in the Brecon Beacons, on August 4-5 next year, with classes including Ultra-Lightweight, Lightweight Supertwin, Supersport and Superstock machines, along with a Zero electric class. In November 2016, the Parliamentary Committee for Transport repealed the Road Traffic Act that made it…

Continue reading »

One of the best motorcycle shows in the country is the Founder’s Day Rally organised by the Taverners section of the Vintage Motor Cycle Club at Stanford Hall, Lutterworth – and each exhibitor is asked to donate a stall item or make a donation to the section’s chosen charity. This year the section is supporting…

Continue reading »

More than 150 supporters and former riders celebrated 90 years of grass track racing at a reunion in a conference suite at the National Motorcycle Museum on Saturday, October 14, writes Rob Lidgate. They included grass stars who competed from the 1950s and those who raced in this year’s Masters Championship, and the evening proved…

Continue reading »

Local sidecar crew Ian Reavley and Colin Goode from Blyth, Northumberland, didn’t even have to leave the county to compete in the 45th Beamish Trophy Trial on September 17 – and on their 1935 Norton combination they beat their fellow sidecar competitors and all the solo riders as well to take home the Richard Hoare…

Continue reading »

Open to motorcycles manufactured until 1979, the ninth Moidart Peninsula Classic Motorcycle Road Run will take place on Thursday, May 3, 2018. Organisers Andrew Johnstone and John McCrink have also announced that the guest of honour will be 1960s’ trials ace Mick Dismore, a Scottish Six Days’ Trial veteran who was a fully supported works…

Continue reading »