The late Pete Sole, who owned this Triumph Thunderbird for over 20 years, was well-respected as a pragmatic restorer with a taste for vintage machinery. The Thunderbird was his first post-war heavyweight and he used it regularly, as a workhorse and tourer...
Never likely to set the pulses racing and often dismissed as ‘grey porridge’ and heaved onto the scrap man’s wagon, this BSA C10L – so representative of an era – is now a rarity. And that’s a real shame, because it has a charm which was overlooked when originally on sale. James Robinson explains...
Velocette’s strangely futuristic glass-fibre clad Vogue was never the great success its makers hoped for and, in truth, it never stood a chance...
A brave attempt to update and reintroduce the Ariel Square Four in the early 1970s led to an undeniably handsome and interesting machine...
Abingdon King Dick, or the company's safer internet search name AKD, were early pioneers of the tricycle, motorcycle and took an active lead in the development of its own range of engines, which was unusually forward looking and gained the company a lot of respect...
When Norton unveiled its Commando at the end of 1967 the firm took a brave and bold step; it dropped the world famous Featherbed frame, which for more than a decade and a half kept Norton apart from the ‘opposition’...
A record crowd of 4000 congregated at Isipingo, near Durban, South Africa, on Sunday, November 21, 1965, to watch British scramblers Derek Rickman and Jerry Scott completely dominate the local opposition when they competed in the second meeting of their South African tour...
Never a maker famous for 350s, Triumphs, unlike some – think AJS and Velocette – never really put much effort into the class...
The Ariel KH perhaps lacked the glamour of some of the other 500cc twins available in the 1950s, but it had a lot going for it. It’s possible to get too hung up on the colours of classic bikes, you know. Roy Poynting tells the tale...
This A65L, the last of the line as far as BSA twins were concerned, makes a good case for being the firm’s best ever model...
Current Issue: Issue 40-06 - June 2013
• 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
Issue 40-06 - June 2013
Where legends come to life...
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