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We’ve all spent idle hours dreaming up our ideal motorcycle but only a tiny percentage convert their imaginings into metal. One of the few is Irishman Tom Healion who spent six years conceiving and building his 250cc NSU ‘Sportymax’ racer

Super Onslow Special and So Obviously Superior were two suggestions what the ‘SOS’ badge stood for. Whatever the terminology, the bike was an appeal to discriminating riders, to try something different in the lightweight utility market…

Norton’s Commando twin was only ever intended as a stop-gap model to put the Norton name back in the public eye, but the ‘stop-gap’ ran for 10 years and is regarded by many as the finest incarnation of the traditional British parallel twin…

Triumph’s Speed Twin was restyled in the late 1950s, its demure appearance suggesting life at a much slower pace…

The Ariel KH perhaps lacked the glamour of some of the other 500cc twins available in the 1950s, but it had a lot going for it…

The TR6SC was ostensibly a single carb version of the TT Bonnie, sharing many of its basic components…

To most classic enthusiasts the hallowed name of BMW is associated with bikes having two cylinders sticking out sideways. Rod Ker puts a different point of view

The keys to a successful marriage may be hanging in the garage, judging by the longevity of this Velocette-inspired union between two kindred spirits

By the mid-1960s the once-great independent Matchless and Norton concerns had been amalgamated, and the two firms – once great rivals – were now producing identical-bar-the-badge machines