To many, the BSA Bantam is familiar and often overlooked – though it still makes an excellent, enjoyable, value for money classic, as explained...
Mike Dixon's rare, tuned example of the BSA B30-4, denoted by a small star red star stamped onto the crankcase, was described to him as being similar to the machine campaigned in competitive trials by Marjorie Cottle during 1930...
This Velocette Special takes the engine from the LE and slots it into the rolling chassis of the Valiant, creating a tidy little lightweight...
In a world of uniform single and parallel twin cylinder machinery, the Ariel Square Four was wilfully different, a machine which refused to conform to the norms of accepted, standardised design practice for nearly 30 years...
The Hesketh V1000 was conceived from an aristocrat’s ambition to produce ‘the finest motorcycles in the world’, yet the glamorous debutant lacked sufficient pedigree to impress motorcycling society...
We’ve all spent idle hours dreaming up our ideal motorcycle but only a tiny percentage convert their imaginings into metal. One of the few is Irishman Tom Healion who spent six years conceiving and building his 250cc NSU ‘Sportymax’ racer...
Quick and Quickly puns apart, the NSU Quick 50, based on a proven design, became one of the forerunners of the renowned sports 50s of the 1970s, though the diminutive NSUs are now rare...
The 'Ton for an hour' Bill Lacey Grindlay-Peerless comes back to life. But there’s always one know-it-all sourpuss hanging around, don't you find? Like the one at the Brooklands Reunion Day gathering who, after studying Gerry Belton's restored 500cc flyer, just had to say his piece...
When Triumph launched its Thunderbird in 1949, little could it have realised that over 60 years later, a company named ‘Triumph’ would still be making a motorcycle called a ‘Thunderbird'...
• Joan Westbrook interview
• Jerry Thurston column
• Archive photograph
• Which model? (Norton 500cc twins)
• BSA M20 super profile
• Moto Guzzi Bicilindrica – history and test
• Reader’s restoration – Triumph Tiger 100
• Straight from the plate – 1963 Thruxton 500 miler
• Ted Mellors’ reflections
• Bantam engine build
• Restoration guide - Triumph 3T
Where legends come to life...
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