Old Bike Mart

Mick Payne looks back fondly to the marathon round-Britain sidecar journey that he and partner Kate made to raise funds for research into Alzheimer’s disease, and wonder how one of the new 350cc overhead-camshaft Jawas, coupled to a much-improved Velorex Sports sidecar, would fare. It’s three years since Kate and I started our ‘trip of…

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Nobody needs an excuse to go to the Isle of Man, especially during the first week in June, but Dave Manning knows that there’s a place away from the Mountain Circuit that is a hidden gem. Many folk will know of Murray’s Motorcycle Museum from when it was located at the Bungalow, nestled into the…

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Mick Payne reflects on the late Ray Doran’s cleverly modified BMW/Watsonian GP Sport combination. Last month, our editor Pete gave a tantalising glimpse of the sadly deceased Ray Doran’s lovely BMW outfit, and this got me thinking. Many years ago, I wrote a regular sidecar feature for Motorcycle Sport magazine and was lucky enough to…

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In the last of his features about Japanese trail bikes, Steve Cooper takes a close look at Honda’s XL250 that was first revealed 46 years ago in 1972. By the end of the 1960s, Honda’s drive to be all-powerful on both two and four wheels had created some significant market sector gaps. As we’ve previously…

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Colin House brings more evocative images of the Sixties as he describes the accident that resulted in him rebuilding his Norton Dominator as a café racer, and some of the cafes, coffee bars and pie stalls he and his mates frequented. I thoroughly agree with Gerry Allen’s interesting letter headed ‘Café racers just aren’t what…

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Now in his seventies and still riding a Suzuki SV650, Leslie Wye looks back fondly at the magical motorcycling years of the 1960s. During the now-far-away 1960s, motorbikes played a much more important role in our society. They were our only affordable means of transport and were a respectable addiction, playing a major role in…

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Former local police motorcycle patrolman Derek Marrable recalls the night when he was launched into dark space on an LE Velocette Riding along the alleyway that runs between the back gardens of Haws Lane, the back of Haws Down School and the railway line, in the dead of night at around 25mph, headlamp just about…

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