Features

If a radical retro café racer is too compact for comfort, Ducati built a more relaxed SportClassic for two-up touring… WORDS BY Frank Melling   PHOTOS BY Carol Melling UCATI’S FIRST STAB at a mainstream retro machine, the Hailwood replica MH900E was gorgeous but eye-wateringly expensive. It was followed up by the Paul Smart-inspired 1000LE, which…

Continue reading »

PHOTOS BY Chris Dickinson CONTINUING OUR THEME, Triumph’s 750 twins are an obvious choice for anyone contemplating the purchase of a first British classic bike. They don’t cost a fortune compared to the more prestigious earlier classics, so you can try an old Brit bike to see if you enjoy the experience without mortgaging the…

Continue reading »

Too often overlooked in classic curiosity corner, Indian’s last Chiefs were excellent – and unique – motorcycles WORDS AND PHOTOS BY PHIL MATHER Isolated on our little island, we had no reason to concern ourselves with the last sad days of a once great American motorcycle manufacturer. Yet responsibility for that downfall had, in many…

Continue reading »

Two new, French-designed retros prove that Chinese bikes are coming of age WORDS BY MARK WILLIAMS Having already proved that they could up the stakes in the Chinese import game, Mash Motorcycles have added two new models which will likely further undermine the cheap ’n’ cheerful image that damns with faint praise our view of…

Continue reading »

  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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

WORDS BY ROB DAVIES PHOTOS BY BARRY TAYLOR (OLD PRINTS), MODERN PICS FROM BARRY, ROB, AND ROBIN HORTON Fifty-one years and still going strong. The story of one man and his A65… BSA had the canny – you might even say crafty – knack of making many bikes out of one product. Oh, they changed…

Continue reading »