Old Bike Mart

Alpha Bearings lives on!

by

Dave Manning

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2nd November 2018

While the most recent issue of OBM has a feature focussing on the powerplants created by West Midland’s bearing and crank specialists Alpha Bearings, there is a little faux pas in that the company are actually still in operation, and haven’t closed after the sad death of Max Nightingale earlier this year. While Max’s business…
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The Carole Nash Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show

by

Sam Hewitt

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1st November 2018

Having been kicked out of the town’s polytechnic after just a year of a mechanical engineering course, Dave Manning hangs his head in shame as he returns to Stafford, thirty years later. Early October is never going to have predictable weather, and although the second weekend of the month this year was rather clement, it…
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Alpha Bearings, and the birth of the Centuri

by

Sam Hewitt

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1st November 2018

Just a day after last month’s issue of OBM was printed, we heard that Alpha Bearings had been closed, after the sad loss of Max Nightingale in June – since he was sole director of Alpha Bearings, the company also died with him. So, while we wanted to run an obituary, both for Max and…
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Moto Club Indianos Colombres Rally

by

Sam Hewitt

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1st November 2018

The word is now definitely out on the classic world bush telegraph that the annual Moto Club Indianos Colombres Rally is the best in Spain and probably much of Europe, and Ian Kerr MBE wholeheartedly concurs. Described by a Spanish motorcycle publication earlier this year as the ‘Spanish Daytona Bike Week’, it is now firmly…
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The evolution of George Harris’s BINDY

by

Sam Hewitt

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1st November 2018

Rumours of a highly developed racing Bantam have been trickling into the OBM office, and Tony Jones gives us the full insider lowdown In reply to Andy White’s letter in last month’s issue regarding BINDY, he’s correct, it did stand for ‘Britain Is Not Dead Yet’. And on the night with George Hardwick, that he…
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Frozen in time: the bikes and banter of WW1

by

Sam Hewitt

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1st November 2018

Pete Kelly looks through a batch of images from the Mortons Archive illustrating the vital role that motorcycles, their riders and mechanics played during the First World War, which finally ended 100 years ago on November 11, 1918. In moments of relaxation, the banter and tomfoolery would have been much the same as that enjoyed…
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Setting the standard – Honda’s benchmark four-stroke twin

by

Sam Hewitt

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1st November 2018

Solid, reliable and supremely efficient – Steve Cooper reflects on how the K series Honda CB250/350 twins were so important for Honda in 1968 Not every anniversary is, by default, a momentous one. Some can see little or no worth in celebrating anything less than another ‘fastest bike on the planet’ moment. If that’s your…
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Just one more. Just the one…

by

Sam Hewitt

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29th October 2018

You know how it is – you agonise about acquiring a ‘new’ bike (in my case a 1973 Triumph Adventurer TR5T) and eventually succumb and push the ‘Buy it Now’ (or whatever) button, convincing yourself: “That is it; no more. I’ve got everything I’d ever need/desire/covet,” and…the very next day there’s another ‘must have’ morsel…
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Do exactly as I say!

by

Sam Hewitt

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29th October 2018

As a trainee mechanic, Colin Evans was as green as any apprentice, and it was only a matter of time before he was sent for a ‘long weight’, a ‘left-handed screwdriver’ or some ‘tartan paint’… I just love reading your regular ‘Pete’s Prattle’ and often I feel the urge to put pen to paper in…
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Get your motor running, head out on the highway

by

Sam Hewitt

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29th October 2018

For most classic enthusiasts, seeing a standard Brit classic modified to within an inch of its life is sacrilege, but when that bike was only worth a paltry sum when it was bought, is it really such a crime? Roger Loxley stands in the dock. While having a quick skim through the September issue of…
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