News

  • Pete’s Prattle

    Pete’s Prattle

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    There are two reasons to reflect this month, as I devote this month’s ‘Prattle’ to two of my Old Bike Mart predecessors. One of them was my great friend and work colleague Malcolm Wheeler, who was given a rousing send-off at his retirement do at our Horncastle offices on Wednesday, December 14. Always happy to…

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  • Don’t delay, book today for a fabulous Isle of Man Festival

    Don’t delay, book today for a fabulous Isle of Man Festival

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    One New Year resolution worth making right now is to visit next year’s Isle of Man Festival of Motorcycling from Saturday, August 19 until Sunday, September 3. With the VMCC playing a huge part in ensuring its success, it has all the ingredients of a truly unmissable event – so what are you waiting for?…

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  • D’you know how to make toffee apples, love?

    D’you know how to make toffee apples, love?

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    After seeing the Dot utility tricycle pictured at the Manchester factory’s open day in last month’s Old Bike Mart, Paul Weeks of Sittingbourne, Kent, couldn’t resist telling us about his own two rare commercial three-wheelers which, in restoration, have been carrying out the tasks for which they were designed. I’ve always enjoyed restoring motorcycles as…

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  • Series-A Rapide falls just short of world record bid

    Series-A Rapide falls just short of world record bid

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    A 1938 Vincent-HRD Series-A Rapide, CUP 660, was sold for £267,696 at H&H Classics’ Donington Park Sale on November 15, just £7304 short of the existing world record price bid for such a machine. As a non-runner in need of restoration in 1988, it was purchased by long-term Vincent enthusiast and former Series-A Meteor owner…

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  • First prize for David as he joins the Rotary club

    First prize for David as he joins the Rotary club

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    David Schofield from County Durham became the lucky owner of the 1990 588cc Norton F1 Rotary motorcycle that was first prize in the National Motorcycle Museum’s 2016 summer raffle when the winning ticket was drawn by road racing legends Carl Fogarty, John McGuinness and Ian Hutchinson at the NMM’s ‘Museum Live’ open day on Saturday,…

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  • Bonneville family covers every lifestyle choice

    Bonneville family covers every lifestyle choice

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    Triumph has launched a comprehensive new range of 900cc liquid-cooled eight-valve Bonneville variants to suit every preference, from the straight T100 and T100 Black to the Bobber, Street Cup and Scrambler, each designed to suit the customers’ particular lifestyle choices yet all sharing the same sound basic engineering principles. Styled on café racer lines, the…

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  • The ‘Flying Vicar’ is at it again!

    The ‘Flying Vicar’ is at it again!

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    In the June issue of OBM, we published a letter from Malcolm Walter telling of a bright yellow off-road BSA Bantam built by a clubmate of his called Richard. Well, Richard has been at it again, this time trying three wheels for a change, and regulars at the Goodwood Revival might well have encountered him,…

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  • Tritons, TriBSAs and much more besides…

    Tritons, TriBSAs and much more besides…

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    Mention the words ‘café racer’ and many of us will go all bleary-eyed as we remember the Tritons and TriBSAs of old, gleaming in the sunshine with their race-style alloy tanks, clip-ons and rear-sets, alloy rims, swept-back pipes, humped seats et al, and packed into the gardens of hotels and guest houses all the way up…

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  • Claude Mackenzie – an unsung Highland hero

    Claude Mackenzie – an unsung Highland hero

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    I was delighted to see the photo and article from Arran Marshall about his Ariel ‘racer’. During the 1980s the bike was owned by a good friend of mine, Claude Mackenzie, who lived at Tornagrain, near Inverness and sadly died about 10 years ago. He was a brilliant self-taught engineer with a penchant for challenging…

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  • A ‘dogfight’ with a difference!

    A ‘dogfight’ with a difference!

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    One of the finest descriptions of fast riding ever written was T E Lawrence’s essay, ‘The Road’, describing an impromptu ‘race’ between Boanerges, his beloved Brough Superior 100SS, and a Bristol Fighter in Lincolnshire. It appeared in the December 27, 1962 issue of The Motor Cycle after first being published in a book entitled The…

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