Classic Bike Guide
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The Chiefs from Redditch
Too often overlooked in classic curiosity corner, Indian’s last Chiefs were excellent – and unique – motorcycles WORDS AND PHOTOS BY PHIL MATHER Isolated on our little island, we had no reason to concern ourselves with the last sad days of a once great American motorcycle manufacturer. Yet responsibility for that downfall had, in many…
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Mashing it up
Two new, French-designed retros prove that Chinese bikes are coming of age WORDS BY MARK WILLIAMS Having already proved that they could up the stakes in the Chinese import game, Mash Motorcycles have added two new models which will likely further undermine the cheap ’n’ cheerful image that damns with faint praise our view of…
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Featherbed cafe racer: Trad Triton
Modern technology offers many different ways to build a cracking café racer, but it’s hard to beat the original combination of a Meriden motor and Featherbed frame… WORDS & PHOTOS BY Stuart Urquhart Dave can’t quite recall when he first clapped eyes on a Triton, and never in his wildest dreams did he ever…
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HARDLY A HARLEY
I’VE OWNED MY XLCR since 1991. Wanted one when I was kid, bought one in the States and shipped it back. I doubt there are many bikes that create the same intense feeling of riding a motorbike as the XLCR does. It’s like riding a wild beast. It’s nothing to do with what the engine’s…
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Top honours
Triumph took three gold medals and the team trophy in the 1948 ISDT, and launched a legend WORDS BY Frank Melling: PHOTOS BY Carol Melling WHEN THIS TR5 was built in 1956, a visitor to Triumph’s Meriden works would have found the highest-paid workers in the Coventry area, with boundless pride in the machines they…
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Belting along
When Fabio Taglioni ditched Ducati’s bevel drive, he took a big risk. Four decades later, it’s still paying dividends WORDS & PHOTOS BY Richard Jones “LOOK ON MY WORKS, Ye Mighty Motorcyclists, and Marvel!” is a phrase that might, conceivably, have occurred to Fabio Taglioni as he contemplated the machine he’d designed and which was…
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Self starter
Gentlemen, start your engines! In your own time. Any day now… PHOTOS BY Chris Dickinson AS WE NEVER tire of telling you, the Norton Commando was awarded the UK’s ‘Machine of the Year’ accolade five times on the trot, from 1968 to 1972. Which was great news for the beleaguered British bike industry, but it…
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Showing off
I’ve just rattled back from a show. Any excuse to slope out of the office while the magazine’s in the final few days of production. Rode up to Shropshire from Cornwall on the Saturday. It rained a lot. I can reveal that my new Bering jacket and less new Held overpants do not leak. Yet.…
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ARTS & CRAFTS
THE ART OF THE MOTORCYCLE returns to London Olympia on October 29/30 in the form of the Kickback Motorcycle Show, an exhibition dedicated to the promotion of motorcycling engineering excellence. Kickback is the definitive platform for professional and enthusiast designers, builders and customisers to show off their two-wheeled meisterwerks alongside some of the UK’s most…
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Best of British
REMEMBER, REMEMBER the fifth of November – but don’t bother blowing up the Houses of Parliament. Instead, head for the National Motorcycles Museum in Birmingham to make the most of the NMM’s massive ‘Live’ open day. The NMM’s extensive collection of British bikes – the biggest in the world – has been extensively reconfigured so…
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