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The settling in process: Building a bike is only the first stage, you’ve to make it work after that.
Hopefully many of you will recall the Can-Am project we did in these pages a few years back. I made no secret of it at the time that it impressed me in several ways, not
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AJS and Matchless, Post-War Singles and Twins, The Complete Story
After the Second World War, Associated Motor Cycles’ range of AJS and Matchless models helped put the British worker back on the road. With 350cc and 500cc AJS and Matchless-badged singles based on the military
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HARDLY A HARLEY
I’VE OWNED MY XLCR since 1991. Wanted one when I was kid, bought one in the States and shipped it back. I doubt there are many bikes that create the same intense feeling of riding
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Book Reviews: The Flying Penguin:
More stories of a freelance motorcycling journalist IN THIS SECOND part of his autobiography, Frank Melling continues telling the ripping yarns which he started in A Penguin In A Sparrow’s Nest. The Flying Penguin takes
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Showing off
I’ve just rattled back from a show. Any excuse to slope out of the office while the magazine’s in the final few days of production. Rode up to Shropshire from Cornwall on the Saturday. It
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Letter: A Manx With History
Dear Malc The Mortons Archive photo (Classic Racer issue 181) of Rod Coleman on Douglas Quay shows my bike, which I have owned since 1995. Rod Coleman is shown being helped by fellow Kiwi NZ
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Honda 125 Series: A level playing field
Photographs: Mortons Archive and Russ Lee At the beginning of the 1977 road racing season, an all new championship was added to the road racing calendar – the Honda 125cc series. Phil Wain reflects on a
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1971 revisited: The first ever Anglo-American match races
Words: Bruce Cox – Pictures: Mortons Archive and Bruce Cox Collection In more than a decade and a half of racing, the Transatlantic Trophy Series introduced no fewer than seven American World Champions to British fans.
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And now for something completely different: The Eldee Velocette
Words and photographs Chris Swallow Eagle-eyed observers visiting the Honda museum in Motegi, Japan, will notice soon after paying their yen there is a racing motorcycle devoid of the familiar winged Honda vector. The emblem
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The 1974 500cc Italian Grand Prix: A gamble that didn’t pay off
Words and photographs: Jan Burgers A calculated gamble by Yamaha failed at the Italian Grand Prix. The mistake was in the estimation of the fuel consumption of the 500cc Yamaha four. Jan Burgers continues his
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Honda 125 Series: A level playing field
Photographs: Mortons Archive and Russ Lee At the beginning of the 1977 road racing season, an all new championship was added to the road racing calendar – the Honda 125cc series. Phil Wain reflects on a
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1971 revisited: The first ever Anglo-American match races
Words: Bruce Cox – Pictures: Mortons Archive and Bruce Cox Collection In more than a decade and a half of racing, the Transatlantic Trophy Series introduced no fewer than seven American World Champions to British fans.
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And now for something completely different: The Eldee Velocette
Words and photographs Chris Swallow Eagle-eyed observers visiting the Honda museum in Motegi, Japan, will notice soon after paying their yen there is a racing motorcycle devoid of the familiar winged Honda vector. The emblem
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The 1974 500cc Italian Grand Prix: A gamble that didn’t pay off
Words and photographs: Jan Burgers A calculated gamble by Yamaha failed at the Italian Grand Prix. The mistake was in the estimation of the fuel consumption of the 500cc Yamaha four. Jan Burgers continues his
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Letter: A Manx With History
Dear Malc The Mortons Archive photo (Classic Racer issue 181) of Rod Coleman on Douglas Quay shows my bike, which I have owned since 1995. Rod Coleman is shown being helped by fellow Kiwi NZ
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Brilliant Brackley
Words: Bruce Cox Photograph: Roger Cooper The Brackley Festival of Motorcycling is a genuinely unique event in that it is the only town on the British mainland that is closed off to allow racing motorcycles
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Irish Classic Scene
When Killilane, traditionally the last race of the Irish season, was suddenly cancelled amid clouds of rancour and accusation, it fell to Armoy to provide a suitable finale to what has otherwise been an excellent
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The Classic TT: Isle of Man (August 27-29)
Words: John Watterson – Photographs: John Watterson, Peter Faragher, Louis Porter, Richard Radcliffe and Mike Quayle. John McGuinness won his first Classic TT after four years of trying, the day after he had his maiden fall on
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Show Us Yours: Mick’s Kawasaki Z900 Hybrid
In this edition of Show Us Yours, take a look at Mick’s Kawasaki Z900 Hybrid. Want to see your pride and joy in our magazine, on our website and on our social media pages, fill
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Show Us Yours: John’s Yamaha Chappy
In this edition of Show Us Yours, take a look at John Gough’s Yamaha Chappy. Want to see your pride and joy in our magazine, on our website and on our social media pages, fill
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Show Us Yours: Steve Howarth’s Yamaha TZR125
On this edition of Show Us Yours, take a look at Steve’s Yamaha TZR125. Want to see your pride and joy in our magazine, on our website and on our social media pages? If so,
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Show Us Yours: Graham Garner and Tony’s collection
In this edition of Show Us Yours, take a look at Graham Garner and Tony’s collection. Want to see your pride and joy in our magazine, on our website and on our social media pages?
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Show Us Yours: Colin Jay’s 1977 Yamaha YB100
In this edition of Show Us Yours, take a look at Colin’s 1977 Yamaha YB100. Want to see your pride and joy in our magazine, on our website and on our social media pages? If
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Show Us Yours: Paul O’Neill’s 1979 Honda CB250N Superdream
In this edition of Show Us Yours, take a look at Paul’s 1979 Honda CB250N Superdream. Want to see your pride and joy in our magazine, on our website and on our social media pages,
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Show Us Yours – Steve Conneely’s Kawasaki H2B 750
In this edition of Show Us Yours, take a look at Steve Conneely’s Kawasaki H2B 750. Want to see your pride and joy in our magazine, on our website and on our social media pages,
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Show Us Yours: Graeme Bland’s Suzuki T500
Have a look at Graeme’s Suzuki T500. Want to see your pride and joy in our magazine, on our website and on our social media pages? If so, fill in the form here>>
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Show Us Yours: Simon Friend’s 1986 Kawasaki GPz900R A2
Have a look at Simon’s 1986 Kawasaki GPz900R A2. Want to see your pride and joy in our magazine, on our website and on our social media pages? If so, fill in the form here>>
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Show Us Yours: Paul Williams’ 1980 Suzuki GSX750ET
In this edition of Show Us Yours, take a look at Paul Williams’ 1980 Suzuki GSX750ET. Want to see your pride and joy in our magazine, on our website and on our social media pages?
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Show Us Yours: Jim Tracey’s collection
In this edition of Show Us Yours, have a glance at Jim’s collection including the 1998 BMW R1100RT and the Honda CBR600FY. Want to see your pride and joy in our magazine, on our website and
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Show Us Yours: 1976 Yamaha FS1-E DX
In this edition of Show Us Yours, take a look at Shaun Cass’ 1976 Yamaha FS1-E DX. Want to see your pride and joy in our magazine, on our website and on our social media
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Show Us Yours: Lawrence Murphy’s 1967 Honda CL90
In this edition of Show Us Yours, take a look at Lawrence’s 1967 Honda CL90. Want to see your pride and joy in our magazine, on our website and on our social media pages? If
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Debut of a King
The location is San Carlos in Venezuela and it would be an inauspicious start to their 500 campaign as a mechanical issue side-lined rider Kenny Roberts and reigning champ Barry Sheene would win. It wasn’t
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1989 Honda CBR1000F-K scuffed cover
Q: I have a 1989 Honda CBR1000F-K and its looks are spoiled by a scuffed round right-hand engine cover. It appears not to have a part number that I can find anywhere, even my Haynes
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Chain tension and sidestands
Q: In a world of no centrestands do you measure chain tension on the sidestand when travelling? Anon A: The obvious answer here is that if the bike was sold when new with only a
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1979 Suzuki GS850G fuel meter wiring
Q: I have recently got my 1979 Suzuki GS850G fuel meter to work but the wiring is incorrect. I cannot as yet find the live feed from the meter to the tank gauge (due to
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Moto Morini Corsarino
Q: I’m a long-time reader of your excellent mag and I also suffer from petrol addiction! I have a Moto Morini Corsarino 50cc four-stroke that has started to develop a running issue. After a couple
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1984 Yamaha TY250 yellowed tank
Q: Having recently acquired a 1984 TY250 trials for restoration but I find myself with a plastic fuel tank that has a nice yellowy tinge to it. Is there any way of returning this it
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1981 Yamaha TR1 popping exhaust
Q: Hi, great article in a recent mag on the TR1. I own a 1981 model which I rebuilt from a basket case. It’s a lovely bike and as John Nutting says the torque is
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Suzuki GSX1300 Katana
It arrived in 1980 in a background of gasps – the public didn’t quite know what to make of the fastest the Suzuki ever.
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Retro Reboot: Yamaha FS-1E Fizzy
What if Yamaha gave the Fizzy a real kick up the retro pants and morphed it into a modern-day machine?
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Retro Reboot: Suzuki TL1000R
If a new V-twin sportsbike appeared via Japan, we can only hope it’ll come from Suzuki, as they created a monster back in the 1990s.
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Five Minute Fix – disc valve covers
Words/Picture by Steve Cooper Many 60s, 70s and 80s strokers run disc-valve induction systems with the carburettor sitting at the end of the crank. With this type of intake system it’s vital that the chamber
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Suzuki RV90 weak lights
Q: My new bike is a Suzuki RV90 running 6v magneto electrics. Needless to say the lights are feeble, the stop lamp glows dismally and indicators don’t. Apart from making sure all connectors and earth
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Advice on nuts and bolts
Q: Can you tell me how to tell if a nut or bolt is usable or not. I think I over-torqued a bolt/acorn nut combination due to using a cheap torque wrench which didn’t click.
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Five Minute Fix – finding small parts
Words/Pictures by Steve Cooper Dropping a fixing into a bike is a pain with ages spent crawling around to no avail. Rather than waste time stand back, take a deep breath and then put something
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Your Tips – paint your wagon
In the October 2015 edition of CMM a chap called Rob Neal wrote about high-temperature paint for his CX500 well, I have a similar vintage CBX1000 and have used VHT silver spray paint to good
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Suzuki GS850G crash damage
Q: My bike was involved in a crash and came down on the right hand (timing cover) side. All the electronic ignition pick-ups have been replaced by a previous owner with parts from a GS1000. I
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Five Minute Fix – remove paint from threads
Words/Pictures by Steve Cooper We’ve all been there; the painter or powdercoater forget to mask a thread. Taps and dies are good on smaller threads but what about larger ones? What if you’ve already fitted
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1984 Kawasaki ZX750 GPz A12 torque settings
Q: Hello! My son is living in the USA and he is in the middle of fixing up his 1984 ZX750 GPz A12 American spec. He wants to know the torque setting for the bolts holding
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Kawasaki W650 Special racing exhaust
Q: I have installed a racing exhaust on my W650, which is pretty much a set of empty pipes/silencers, but did not re-jet (I wasn’t interested in the supposedly four extra bhp it was said
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Your Tips – TY250 yellowing tank
In an earlier edition of Q&A Lee was asking how to restore the yellowing plastic of the petrol tank on his TY250. I had a similar issue with the expansion tank on my CX500 restoration.
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Five Minute Fix – fragile fixings
Words/Pictures by Steve Cooper Once in a while there’s a need to tight a nut or bolt on something that’s small, fragile or mounted on a surface that’s easily damaged. If you’re not careful the
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Book Review: Giacomo Agostini – A Life in Pictures
Book reviewed by Jonathan Hill Giacomo Agostini is, still, Italy’s most successful and most glamorous motorcycle road racer and, some would argue, the greatest riders of all time. They would have good reason too, when you
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Good vibrations
STROLLING THROUGH the magazine section at ASDA, I was stopped in my tracks. I must have stepped through a black hole because I was suddenly 17 years old again. That’s some feat for a magazine.
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Vincent Motorcycles: The Untold Story since 1946
GIVEN THE VINCENT’S reputation as one of the most remarkable motorcycles ever manufactured, any book which attempts to cover the subject needs to be similarly accomplished. This massive hardback, which runs to 400 fact-packed, full-colour
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Vic Eastwood
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Gregg Hansford
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Vic Eastwood
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Gregg Hansford
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Three wheeled advocate
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Sheene and Roberts do battle at Spa
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Three wheeled advocate
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Sheene and Roberts do battle at Spa
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The golden years of DMW
Well-built and innovative, the West Midlands-manufactured DMW motorcycles were among the most sought-after lightweights of their day, as these Mortons Archive photos show
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Conquering heroes on three wheels!
Nigel Darken tells the story of the ‘Tour de Lard’ – a madcap idea involving two motorcycle combinations and three very secondhand Reliant three-wheelers that raised no less than £27,000 for charity.
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Letter: Follow that coach – on a 88c James Comet!
The letter in OBM (June) about bike shop tours of Liverpool rekindled memories of 1958-59 and my first bikes as a 16-year-old apprentice mechanic on £3 per week.
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Unrestored 1966 Velocette Thruxton sold
An unrestored 1966 Velocette Thruxton was sold by H&H Classics at its Donington Park Auction on July 28, for £20,000, twice the pre-sale estimate, and a new world record for an unrestored bike of this type.
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Bluebell Railway vintage rally welcomes scores of classics
Long-established as a bastion of transport preservation, the Bluebell Railway in Sussex offers even more of the same on the occasion of its annual vintage weekend, which this year was on August 13-14.
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Ramsgate Rev-Up!
In spite of the spectacular success of the ‘Ramsgate Revival’ sprint last year, months of uncertainty led to the final abandonment of a repeat sprint demonstration this year.
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Top award at 100 Bikes goes to main attraction
Russel Taschner’s magnificent 1913 Clyno motorcycle, which was billed as the main attraction at the recent 1000 Bikes Show at Germiston High School, took the top award at the South African event too.
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Oozing with nostalgia – Mallory Park’s 60th birthday bonanza
Just too late to include in our last issue, but oozing with road racing nostalgia, the Mallory Bike Bonanza over the weekend of July 30/31 also celebrated 60 years of the famous Leicestershire circuit, and Old Bike Mart is indebted to Tony Page for these photos.
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Sun shines for Graham Walker Memorial
With an entry of 100 riders, this year’s Graham Walker Memorial Run around Beaulieu, Hants, on Sunday, August 7, was one of the best in the area to be organised by the Sunbeam Motor Cycle Club, writes Ian McGill.
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50th anniversary Founder’s Day does Taverners’ Section proud
Although the Vintage Motor Cycle Club was founded by 38 enthusiasts who assembled at the Lounge Cafe, Hog’s Back, Guildford, Surrey, C E ‘Titch’ Allen has become known as the ‘founder’ in recent years, writes Ian Kerr.
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NSU – pride of Neckarsulm
Rosie Canning tells the story of the NSU Owners’ Club, which becomes a new listing on our ‘Club Call’ page this month, and the many advantages that membership can bring.
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1961 Ulster Grand Prix – Bob McIntyre on the factory 350cc Bianchi twin
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Pete Sole
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1961 Ulster Grand Prix – Bob McIntyre on the factory 350cc Bianchi twin
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The Cunliffe Brough
At the Stalybridge Speed Trials, Jack Cunliffe launches his Brough-Superior
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Cafe society
The label ‘classic’ is applied to all sorts of things from music to architecture through films and furniture – the Gold Star is a motorcycle for which the word could have been invented.
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Ron Langston
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1968 Norton Commando
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Lake District
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Ron Langston
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1968 Norton Commando
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Lake District
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Watsonian Sidecar Rally
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Mike Hailwood at the 1965 TT
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Woodman’s cottage
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Watsonian Sidecar Rally
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Mike Hailwood at the 1965 TT
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Woodman’s cottage
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1971 BSA A65 Firebird Scrambler
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Stopped for a rest
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Max Duebel and Emil Hoemer head for sidecar victory in the 1965 TT
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1971 BSA A65 Firebird Scrambler
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Stopped for a rest
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Max Duebel and Emil Hoemer head for sidecar victory in the 1965 TT
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