News

  • Featherbed cafe racer: Trad Triton

    Featherbed cafe racer: Trad Triton

    by

      Modern technology offers many different ways to build a cracking café racer, but it’s hard to beat the original combination of a Meriden motor and Featherbed frame… WORDS & PHOTOS BY Stuart Urquhart Dave can’t quite recall when he first clapped eyes on a Triton, and never in his wildest dreams did he ever…

    Continue reading »

  • HARDLY A HARLEY

    HARDLY A HARLEY

    by

    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 a motorbike as the XLCR does. It’s like riding a wild beast. It’s nothing to do with what the engine’s…

    Continue reading »

  • Top honours

    Top honours

    by

    Triumph took three gold medals and the team trophy in the 1948 ISDT, and launched a legend WORDS BY Frank Melling: PHOTOS BY Carol Melling WHEN THIS TR5 was built in 1956, a visitor to Triumph’s Meriden works would have found the highest-paid workers in the Coventry area, with boundless pride in the machines they…

    Continue reading »

  • Belting along

    Belting along

    by

    When Fabio Taglioni ditched Ducati’s bevel drive, he took a big risk. Four decades later, it’s still paying dividends WORDS & PHOTOS BY Richard Jones “LOOK ON MY WORKS, Ye Mighty Motorcyclists, and Marvel!” is a phrase that might, conceivably, have occurred to Fabio Taglioni as he contemplated the machine he’d designed and which was…

    Continue reading »

  • Self starter

    Self starter

    by

    Gentlemen, start your engines! In your own time. Any day now… PHOTOS BY Chris Dickinson AS WE NEVER tire of telling you, the Norton Commando was awarded the UK’s ‘Machine of the Year’ accolade five times on the trot, from 1968 to 1972. Which was great news for the beleaguered British bike industry, but it…

    Continue reading »

  • Showing off

    Showing off

    by

    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 rained a lot. I can reveal that my new Bering jacket and less new Held overpants do not leak. Yet.…

    Continue reading »

  • ARTS & CRAFTS

    ARTS & CRAFTS

    by

    THE ART OF THE MOTORCYCLE returns to London Olympia on October 29/30 in the form of the Kickback Motorcycle Show, an exhibition dedicated to the promotion of motorcycling engineering excellence. Kickback is the definitive platform for professional and enthusiast designers, builders and customisers to show off their two-wheeled meisterwerks alongside some of the UK’s most…

    Continue reading »

  • Best of British

    Best of British

    by

    REMEMBER, REMEMBER the fifth of November – but don’t bother blowing up the Houses of Parliament. Instead, head for the National Motorcycles Museum in Birmingham to make the most of the NMM’s massive ‘Live’ open day. The NMM’s extensive collection of British bikes – the biggest in the world – has been extensively reconfigured so…

    Continue reading »

  • Stars at Stafford

    Stars at Stafford

    by

    FOUR OF THE racing celebrities who starred in the iconic film On Any Sunday will be reunited at the Carole Nash Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show on October 15-16. Nominated for an Oscar, the documentary portrayed the riding lives of hotshot motorcycle racers of the early 1970s. Directed by Bruce Brown, it was produced by Steve…

    Continue reading »

  • Vincent Motorcycles:  The Untold Story since 1946

    Vincent Motorcycles: The Untold Story since 1946

    by

    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 pages, is the most comprehensive volume currently available. It discusses why and how the brand declined into bankruptcy, and why…

    Continue reading »