Features

Two silencers but just a single cylinder. Then, as now, style was everything to Italians AT AGE NINE, I was in love with a Ducati Silverstone Super. Forget being a cowboy out on the range or a Spitfire pilot battling the Nazi hoards, I went to bed every night dreaming of riding a Ducati in…

Continue reading »

Bright brittle bling is noticeably absent from this machine. Whether this is good or bad depends on the eye of the beholder WHEN ROYAL ENFIELD launched the Constellation in 1958, it unequivocally aimed its new 692cc superstar – the biggest parallel twin on the market – at the performance end of that market. The Connie’s…

Continue reading »

Combining functional utility with chic design isn’t ever very easy, especially when leavened with retro cool. But British-based custom bike builder Benny Thomas has certainly succeeded in achieving this in creating the Sterling Autocycle for Italian businessman Fabio Cardoni’s Black Douglas Motorcycle Co, based half an hour north of Milan en route to the nearby…

Continue reading »

With an engine that looks to be straight from a 1930s history book, few would believe that the P&M Panther was still in production as late as 1966. Honda were building ohc, electric start, supersports machines, but Panther still soldiered on with a long-stroke single, which had originally been conceived in 1932. It would be…

Continue reading »

TRITONS ARE VERY much like wine. Do you like wine? Wine? What wine? Do you prefer to get hammered on a Calais Booze Superstore Special at £5 a gallon? Or perhaps you prefer to sip a Saint-Émilion Premier Grand Cru from Jacques Thienpont – yours for a highly affordable £1200 a bottle? Similarly, at one…

Continue reading »

I once had a girlfriend just like the Vincent Comet. She was clever, pretty and enthusiastic: you really couldn’t fault her. The problem was that she had a sister who was even brighter, stunningly beautiful and was legendary in her enthusiasm for those activities for which she was ideally suited. Whenever the two ladies were…

Continue reading »

Not many people race a Crusader in the 250 class but maybe if a few more did there’d be more bits available… Even though it isn’t the shiniest of motorcycles, the Crusader MXer parked in the entrance to Royal Enfield specialists Hitchcocks Motorcycles in Solihull, is certainly an eye-catching one. Okay, I admit it, anything…

Continue reading »

Did you need to take a second, closer look? Yep, this is an R80 BMW. The story goes that the frame was modelled closely on Norton’s famous featherbed, and that lineage is clear in this shot SOME BIKES ALMOST BEG to be given a café racer revamp, and if there’s a list of convincing candidates…

Continue reading »

This is the Racer variant on Guzzi’s clever retro theme. Chrome tank, bogus racing numbers and a less comfortable riding position make it tester Frank’s favourite IT’S ENTIRELY POSSIBLE to have very mixed feelings about the whole retro bike scene. There’s an argument that anyone who pays a premium for a pair of torn jeans,…

Continue reading »

They’re great to ride, of course. Every journey brings its own challenges and its own rewards A stinkwheel might make sense on twisty British roads, but America is the home of the heavyweight V-Twin. So why is Kenny Smith so enthralled with his Scott TT Replica? “Harleys and Indians were built for covering big distances over…

Continue reading »