Features

The start in Sheffield, at 8.30am, drew a huge crowd, which was kept in check by RAC guides and the Sheffield police who, said The Motor Cycle, “were on duty at the start and finish and did their duty nobly”. The motorcycles and sidecars were lined up in the exhibition hall overnight, with no one…

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February 23, 1933, ‘Sartor’ was exploring the premise that for too long the line had been drawn under machines of 250cc and anything less, particularly machines of 150cc and 100cc “had been left to the tender mercies of the average rider for development”. Sartor however argued that the most startling feature of the smaller class…

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So they ‘found’ (invented?) a pair of teenagers, Mike (just 18) and Mary (17) and showed them and the readers how to prepare for a biking holiday on the new Ariel Arrow Mike had bought from Slocombes (£192). The Craven carrier and panniers (£12 19s 6d) were apparently Mary’s brainwave, having struggled through previous biking…

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Vincent V-twin built from spare parts Vincent’s Black Shadow has been reborn. This is nothing to do with a vague outline by a company with no clear claim to use the Vincent name, promising to offer the world a Honda-powered 21st century version of a bike that needs no such travesty to keep its name…

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Editor Clark picked this bike out in the line-up of private entries at April’s Stafford Show and when I said I knew the owner, he asked me to book a ride. It stood there looking very traditionally British in its black paintwork with gold lining, a touch of gravitas among some of its more colourful…

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Show runs over the weekend of January 4-5 Brought to you by the organisers of the hugely successful Stafford and Bristol classic shows, the show is one place you’ll certainly get a warm reception and enjoy the post-Christmas period, as it will be held almost entirely indoors at the Newark Showground! Shake off that Christmas…

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Royal Enfield Constellation Some years ago, while on the Ponthir British Club’s annual Brecon Run, I spotted a very smart Royal Enfield Constellation. This one was handsome but it also carried an Ontario number plate. That’s not a suburb of Cardiff, you know, it’s a province of Canada, home of many big British bikes of…

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The Jan 31 issue was subtitled ‘Architectural, historical and picturesque aspects of little known Somerset’ and what a joy it was to read how different things must have been back then. Much of the two-page feature focuses on Cheddar Gorge – and quite rightly so as it’s one of the most beautiful areas in the…

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­British motorcycle racing success on track and road in the Dutch East Indies – a country now known as Indonesia – was reported in The Motor Cycle on Thursday, December 20, 1923. There was no substance to the text – just a selection of images with short captions. Pic 2 (shown below left) was taken…

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Early Yamaha XS1 The Japanese take on big parallel twins was something of a mixed bag. Despite the successes with two-strokes and air-cooled fours, the lure of the big twin proved too much. Two of the major players developed new versions of the same theme, one carried on with an existing design while the fourth…

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