Features

Inspiration is everywhere, but taking the plunge and actually committing yourself to your first hands-on project can be daunting. The process normally starts when you find yourself transfixed by someone else’s special. It’d be perfect, if only that was a drum brake up front. If only the frame was matt, not gloss. If only the…

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A sense of purpose, from every angle IT DIDN’T TAKE too long after the launch of the 790cc Bonnie in 2001 for the first customised café racers and street scramblers to come rolling out of backstreet workshops. The slightly surprising thing is that it took Hinckley a further five years to build a factory Scrambler…

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For many the black and gold Velo is some sort of ultimate big Brit single ‘FIRST CLASS PERFORMANCE without fuss’ promised Veloce when it reintroduced its 500 ohv single in 1954. That’s not too far off the mark today, which is why the MSS is one of those much sought-after traditional British singles that ranks…

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The 750 weighs over 500lb before you add fuel, and unhelpfully carries much of that mass up high MV AGUSTA WAS never an ordinary motorcycle manufacturer, and the 750 Sport is no ordinary motorcycle. For a start, Meccanica Verghera Agusta didn’t set out to build bikes. Initially an aircraft builder, things were not well with…

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Apart from the US market bling, there’s little to suggest that this is in fact a high performance machine rather than another boulevard brave IF THE 1960s were the decade when ordinary people did extraordinary things, BSA certainly did their bit for Britain. The giant of Small Heath exported a significant proportion of its production…

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What it’s all about, BSA’s impossibly legendary street racer BSA’S CLUBMAN GOLD STAR DBD34 (a whole £270 in 1956) was the last, and many say the best, of the Gold Star range. But like a thoroughbred horse, it was highly strung, and could be a pig to get going – so you got two animals…

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Ugly duck or beautiful swan? Your choice Reputation is a curious thing. A great reputation – for anything – is hard to achieve and easy to lose in this cynical age, whereas a poor reputation is easy to acquire and almost impossible to lose. In this particular case, we’ve been pondering the strange case of…

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The pudding and the proof. Our man Melling gets down to a little toe-scraping Triumph are aiming for the new T120 to be the biggest seller in the Bonneville range which, in turn, will account for anywhere between 25% and 30% of all motorcycles sold by the Hinckley factory. Fifty engineers – a huge number…

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Of course this is a notable classic, a BMW R90S. Even if it doesn’t look like one … it is IN 1973, BMW’S R90S was nothing less than a sensation. The company had to compete with other European speedsters from Moto Guzzi, Ducati and Laverda, as well as an increasing number of Japanese multis. Moving…

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At first glance, of course you wondered ‘Why’s that Rocket 3 got Triumph badges?’ Then ‘Why’s the Rocket 3 got a T160 engine?’ Then ‘My goodness me…’ or something similar BY THE TIME this prototype four-cylinder Trident- based machine superbike sneaked out of the experimental department at Kitts Green the British motorcycle industry had had…

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