Road Tests

BSA Super Rocket Bob Hall’s Super Rocket came from an impeccable source – a CBG Small Ad. “I saw the ad, called the chap and he said it was a really good one,” he remembers. “It was expensive though, but I went down to see it and took cash – got it for £500 less…

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Tri-umph engine and Nor-ton frame equals Triton, and this one’s immaculate Everybody has a dream bike – the machine they’ve always wanted to own. Maybe it’s the bike they aspired to when they first got into motorcycling, the star of an Earl’s Court Show or a high street dealer’s window display, theirs for a price…

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Tri-umph engine and Nor-ton frame equals Triton, and this one’s immaculate Everybody has a dream bike – the machine they’ve always wanted to own. Maybe it’s the bike they aspired to when they first got into motorcycling, the star of an Earl’s Court Show or a high street dealer’s window display, theirs for a price…

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Harris Matchless G80 Some of us have some funny ideas in this old motorcycle world we inhabit but few are more likely to generate an increase in temperature beneath the collar than the subject of brand loyalty. For example, some reckon real Nortons only came from Bracebridge Street and rotary Nortons aren’t Nortons at all.…

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Matchless 250 G2CSR I am prejudiced. I have a deep affection for the majority of motorcycles, but don’t like BSA C10s, the Norman Nippy, Clubman’s Goldies and AJS and Matchless so-called lightweight singles; I have a prejudice against them, every one. Love the traditional Plumstead singles and had a heavyweight Matchless G80S that went all…

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1950 Royal Enfield J2 The company was the first to offer what we recognise as conventional swinging arm rear suspension on its production models. And when the very competitive world of one-day trials was supported by the big factories in the early 50s, it was Royal Enfield who swam against the stream of convention and…

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1950 Triumph Trophy We were lucky with the weather. A gap in the chilly rains of late January made a test of this lovely 1950 Triumph Trophy trials bike practical. Never mind the cold, the Trophy sat there looking gorgeous, slim and minimalist in the way of machines born of competition use. I don’t mind…

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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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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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