Features

One joy of more modern motorcycles is that it clearly is no sin to cut ‘n’ paste to achieve the style you like. BEFORE YOU BUY your next bike, it really helps if you know exactly what you want. Sounds obvious, eh? But that’s not how a lot of us roll. We’re spontaneous. Risk-takers. Possibly…

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BSA’s racer for the road, the Rocket Gold Star. They truly do perform as well as they look. IF THERE WAS an award for the most widely faked classic motorcycle in the world, then BSA’s Rocket Gold Star would be a strong contender. BSA only made this beautiful sporting twin in 1962 and 1963, and…

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When BSA introduced their redesigned twins, in both 500 (A50) and 650cc (A65) capacities, the motorcycling world was rather less than completely bowled over. The snag was that although the A10 and A7 twins were getting a little long in the tooth, even by the standards of British motorcycle design, they were very popular with…

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Funny things, wars. They can cause human suffering on a massive scale, invariably have consequences on the disastrous end of the unexpected spectrum and often presage an unmanageable ballooning of a nation’s debt. But just occasionally they produce something interesting or amusing. In the latter department there was Dad’s Army – the long-running TV sitcom…

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The Seeley Condor has acquired an almost mystical reputation among classic bike enthusiasts – partly because of the exotic race heritage, but mostly because it is such a rare beast. So you can imagine his surprise when Colin Seeley saw this Condor at a French circuit. The owner didn’t know who I was,” explains Colin,…

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It’s an obvious idea in retrospect: take two twins and gear the cranks together, put them into a common crankcase and slot the whole ensemble into a slim, decently light bicycle WHEN BUYING A typical Brit bike – a big single or one of the many variations on the parallel twin theme – a canny…

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It’s sometimes difficult to remember that when these bikes were new they were bought to be ridden all the time and thrashed off-road too. THE TR6 WAS born for the USA and enjoyed its moment of glory in an American movie. It was the Americans who pressed Triumph for a bigger capacity machine than the…

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IN AN ATTEMPT to be objective, I should say that the Moto Guzzi museum – at Mandello del Lario, on the banks of Lake Como in northern Italy – has relatively few motorcycles on display for a world-class museum. It’s housed in an old building, dating from the 1920s, and the displays are plain and…

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Man, machine, harmony. Perfect FEW EVER ENVISAGED BMW’s brick-shaped four becoming the trendy target for café builders. Then again, the K-series was never easy to figure. Upon its release in 1983 the liquid-cooled, fuel-injected inline carried the very survival of BMW’s motorcycle division. Or so it was thought. A unique approach offering both modernisation and…

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The pre-war way. Big studded tyres may have a tendency to wander at low speeds on asphalt, but they grip well on loose surfaces. In any case, wear in the girder links will induce more wandering than fat studded tyres… FAMOUSLY, THE SINGLE CYLINDER Matchless 350 was one of those motorcycles which made a significant…

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