Old Bike Mart

What happened to my once-beloved ’Schmitt?

by

Sam Hewitt

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27th May 2017

My heart skipped a beat and I spluttered an expletive when I saw the photo of the Messerschmitt bubble car RTK 873 on page 40 of OBM (April) because I was once the proud owner of that very machine, a KR200, back in 1968/9 when I was 17 or 18 years old and lived in…
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Cleckheaton Über Alles!

by

Sam Hewitt

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27th May 2017

Last month Mick Payne told about Bill Moore’s abiding love affair with Yorkshire-built Panther motorcycles and here he continues the story. According to popular reason, “Panthers have got that enormous cylinder because they have such a long stroke.” True, but not true, if you know what I mean! Certainly they do have a stroke/bore ratio…
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Face to face

by

Sam Hewitt

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27th May 2017

All Brit bikes leak oil… but they don’t have to, writes Tim Britton. There is no real reason why an old motorcycle should leak oil. Lots of them do, though, and perhaps a run through the possible causes and what to do about it isn’t such a bad idea. Yes, I know there will be…
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South Yorkshire Sidecar Club plans diamond occasion

by

Sam Hewitt

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27th May 2017

With a history stretching back to 1958, when the roads swarmed with sidecar outfits, the South Yorkshire Sidecar Club has clung to its existence through good times and bad for 59 years. John Askham tells the story. The South Yorkshire Sidecar Club was formed in February 1958 by six people who met at 25 Stanhope…
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FROM OUR ARCHIVES: Square Four evolution

by

Sam Hewitt

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23rd May 2017

While little cannot already have been written about the Ariel Square Four, it takes only a brief look through the Mortons Archive to reignite the intrigue this distinguished British design has always generated, writes Pete Kelly. To say that the public unveiling of the overhead-camshaft 500cc Ariel Square Four in the autumn of 1930 caused…
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ON THE UP…AND UP! Taking on the Red Marley challenge

by

Sam Hewitt

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20th May 2017

Ian Kerr reports from a historic hill climb in Worcestershire that’s been going great guns since it was revived 17 years ago. Since the beginning of this century, the place for all classic bike enthusiasts to be on Easter Monday has been the Red Marley Hill Climb in Worcestershire. Here can be seen an eclectic…
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Spirit of the Pioneer lives on

by

Sam Hewitt

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20th May 2017

Considering that every machine taking part in the Sunbeam Motor Cycle Club’s annual Pioneer Run from Epsom to Brighton on Sunday, March 19, was well over 100 years old, there was an amazingly low attrition rate along the way. This year’s 78th Pioneer Run from Tattenham Corner to Brighton, organised by The Sunbeam Motor Cycle…
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Lovely artwork – but who really lived there?

by

Sam Hewitt

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20th May 2017

I refer to Douglas Orchard’s letter entitled ‘Another twist on Norton history’ about a hoarding in Hampton Hill, Middlesex, advertising a development ‘on the site of the house in which the Norton family once lived’. As a local resident and long-time Norton owner I was intrigued, because to the best of my knowledge James Landsdowne…
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More two-strokes that Royal Enfield built

by

Sam Hewitt

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20th May 2017

There were some sad omissions from the interesting article about Royal Enfield two-strokes (OBM April) because, between the 1920s and 30s, the firm made several other such machines using their own engines. Then in the mid-1960s Royal Enfield produced the GP5 two-stroke racer with an engine designed by Hermann Meier and a Ken Sprayson frame.…
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‘How can I possibly de-coke my James Comet when you keep selling me oversize piston rings?’

by

Sam Hewitt

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20th May 2017

Learning from his two bike-mad brothers, Ken Partington from Manchester knew everything about motorcycles by the time he bought his first bike, a 98cc James Comet, at the age of 16 – or so he thought – until an embarrassing confrontation with a dealer in a bike shop taught him otherwise. At various times during…
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