Old Bike Mart

It never rains but it pours!

by

Sam Hewitt

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28th April 2018

Keith Carter from Wiltshire recalls his own experiences of rainy days and broken-down motorcycles. With a nod to Martin Hamer’s tale of his wet and windy Scottish adventure (OBM March, see also page 49 this issue) my take on touring Scotland was somewhat different, leading up to the cop-out decisions I took after several wet-weather…
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Birth of the Bonnie

by

Sam Hewitt

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28th April 2018

Dave Manning tells the story of the Triumph legend, forged on the Bonneville Salt Flats, that became a byword for mile-gobbling performance after production began in September 1958. Sixty years ago the Triumph Bonneville, a motorcycle that would become an icon of its time, first came off the production line in September 1958. The inspired…
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Adventure on a budget – with Royal Enfield’s new Himalayan

by

Sam Hewitt

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28th April 2018

Dave Manning gets the chance to sample Royal Enfield’s long-awaited Himalayan adventure bike around the decidedly non-mountainous territory of Louth, Lincolnshire. Given that the Royal Enfield factories in Chennai – all three of them – have been churning out a rather limited range of machinery for so long, when it was announced that a new…
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Francis-Barnett ‘trail bike’ pre-dated them all!

by

Sam Hewitt

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25th April 2018

After reading the Greeves article in OBM (February), I wonder how readers would classify the Francis-Barnett Overseas Falcon 65? Based on the Falcon 58 road model, it incorporated parts from trials and scrambles machines to cater for markets where a machine was needed for operation under cross-country conditions. I know of only two of these…
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Remember the TWN Cornets?

by

Sam Hewitt

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25th April 2018

Though my passion is for German motorcycles, especially those makes that were available in the UK, I am putting together a register of TWN Cornets and would be grateful if past and present owners could pass on any history, memories or information about the Cornets they might once have owned or still own. The TWN…
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They weren’t called Green Elephants for nothing…

by

Sam Hewitt

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25th April 2018

While agreeing with Bernie, of the Adler to Zundapp Club, about the weight of the Zundapp flat twin pictured in readers’ letters in OBM (February) it wasn’t called the Green Elephant without a reason. Capable of 85mph in their normal sidecar-lugging guise, these machines powered the fastest outfits of the 1950s, and in such use…
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Happy birthday, Fed!

by

Sam Hewitt

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25th April 2018

Mick Payne looks back over 60 years of the Federation of Sidecar Clubs, and sadly records the recent passing of his friend and long-time member, Ray Doran. I’d just started at infant school (as it was then known), my sister had recently been born and we lived in a two-up, two-down terraced house with an…
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When the good trail times rolled for Kawasaki

by

Sam Hewitt

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25th April 2018

Steve Cooper unravels the complex history of Kawasaki’s trail bike models When it comes to trail bikes, Kawasaki never figured largely in the UK until the likes of the KDX and KMX 125/200s of the late 1980s and early 90s arrived. Sure, we’d had the KL250 in the late 1970s, but it was never Kawasaki’s…
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All set for the Engineerium Run

by

Sam Hewitt

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18th April 2018

Open to classic and modern motorcycles, The Engineerium Motorcycle Run organised by the Sussex British Motorcycle Owners’ Club in partnership with Rotary in Brighton and Hove will take place on Sunday, April 22, with proceeds in support of the Kamelia Kids Children’s Centre in Worthing. The start and finish will be at Blatchington Mill School,…
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Great War theme, and room for more participants, in 2018 Golden Era Run

by

Sam Hewitt

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18th April 2018

The 10th Golden Era Run being organised by the North East Section of the Vintage Motor Cycle Club at the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington, near York, on Sunday, July 29 will be themed to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Motorcycles and three-wheelers built before January 1931 will…
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