Features

Personal choice is a many splendoured thing. Few chose the Sachs life… WORDS & PHOTOS by Grant Ford IT’S A ‘MARMITE BIKE’ and opinions vary, love it or hate it. When I first spied the ugly nose cone protruding from a crate I thought, that’s got Sachs appeal… One of the founding fathers of two-wheeled…

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BSA’s top of the range roadster may have been ‘competition equipped’ but its real role was as a crowd-pleasing road-burner. Fifty years later, its vivid performance still thrills rapid riders WORDS & PHOTOS BY Stuart Urquhart. Additional images from Mortons Archive “! BLAME TATTIE WATT for turning up at our local bike meet on a…

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Words: Oliver Hulme / Photos Hesketh Motorcycles REBORN high-end marque Hesketh Motorcycles has announced its third new model, and it’s among the most powerful road-legal motorcycles in the world. The Valiant SC roadster owes its name to the legendary Vickers V-Force nuclear bomber. It offers 210bhp from its supercharged 2.1 litre V-twin, and inevitably has…

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Triumph’s ohv twins could go very fast. This is a re-creation of a very, very fast Triumph, then… WORDS & PHOTOS BY Nolan Woodbury. Additional images from Mortons Archive RIVALLED IN HISTORY only by Harley-Davidson, the Triumph name grew to become synonymous with motorcycling itself. Internationally cherished, especially in the USA, Triumph was stealing races (and…

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A 40-year-old high-tech twin enjoys a new wave lease of life WORDS AND PHOTOS BY Joe McDonald THIS IS TONY’s Yamaha XS500. We all know the XS650 makes a great flat-tracker. They were even fitted with big-bore kits and raced quite successfully in the States. But Tony was on a tight budget (and we also…

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It’s an icon, sure. But it’s also a great bike WORDS BY Oliver Hulme PHOTOS BY Jason Bryant WHETHER THOUGHT OF as a gentleman’s ride or an engineer’s machine, these days the Velocette Venom 500cc single is always considered to be a high end, sophisticated motorcycle beloved of a particular kind of serious enthusiast. They…

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A prewar package of beauty, economy and efficiency BMW launched ITS first motorcycle in 1923, the shaft-driven R32 494cc sidevalve flat twin, the basis of the now instantly recognisable Boxer engine. The company’s solid, reliable twins have certainly stood the test of time, with a plethora of models and variants in different guises, but BMW’s…

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In the past, this was the future… WORDS AND PHOTOS BY Oliver Hulme WHEN HONDA UNVEILED their CB750 four in 1969, the Superbike was born. In a world where a big bike mostly meant a high capacity pushrod twin, the CB750 was so far ahead of the game that it sent the British motorcycle industry…

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A 650 twin was eventually added to Ariel’s line-up, using most of a BSA engine to power it. They make for interesting rebuilds WORDS BY ROB DAVIES   PHOTOS BY ROB DAVIES AND DOUG WALKER A few weeks ago I had the good fortune to be invited along to one of the oldest established motorcycle clubs…

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Words and photos by Phillip Tooth We have a lot to thank the Yanks for. There’s the Big Mac, the King Size bed, the XXL T-shirt… and the Norton Dominator 99. America is where size matters and big is better. Norton jumped on the vertical twin cavalcade in 1948 with the 500cc Model 7 Dominator,…

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