Archive photograph 6 Classic Off-road and racing show 8 News 11 Letters 17 ISDT Royal Enfield Bullet 20 Ken Howe collection 28 Zundapp Bella 36 Seen from the saddle 42 Norton Dominator 99 50 In the spotlight – Triumph Ricardo 58 Mick Dawes 63 Straight from the plate – Eppynt 1953 64 OK-Bradshaw 68 Technical feature 74 You were asking 80 Florio Monti 84 Subscribe and save 88 Buyers Guide – Part 114 92 Talmag Trophy Tail 108 Next month 111 Diary 112 Classic camera 114

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The great innovators...

As happened last month, when we had a bit of a ‘theme’ in the form of specials, this time we’ve also managed to have a couple of articles linked together – Roy Poynting’s roadtest of the Sammy Miller Museum’s OK with its Granville Bradshaw designed engine, plus Bradshaw is the subject of the ‘bigger question’ in Richard Rosenthal’s You Were Asking.

A fascinating character, Bradshaw was capable of brilliance but also of presiding over, well, disasters. For a more detailed account of his life and times, it’s worth searching out a copy of the book Flawed Genius, which is, I believe, advertised in this issue by Panther Publishing.

Bradshaw operated largely in what, to many of us, is the most fascinating period of motorcycle history – the 21 years between the two world wars. There were plenty of others about too, Harry Ricardo springs to mind and coincidentally an example of his work is also featured in this issue. Ricardo’s Triumph boasted a four-valve head and in the next few years models from Rudge, Ariel and Royal Enfield, among others, were similarly equipped. It puts it all into perspective when post WWII, AMC’s three-valve version of the 7R was considered exotic; 20-odd years earlier at least three makers had models for sale to the public with one valve more than that.

During the 1930s, some companies became more conservative, while post WWII innovation seemed to be replaced by necessity and then as the good time returned, somehow the great innovators never really reappeared in the British industry.

One man whose career spanned most of those periods was Graham Walker. Originally as a road racer and team manager, Walker worked at Norton, Sunbeam and Rudge and then was editor of Motor Cycling. During WWII Walker started a series of articles, Seen from the saddle, reflecting on his own experiences. These brilliant pieces offer a wonderful insight into the period and we intend to republish them as an occasional series, the first of which is in this issue. It offers a rare first person insight into the exciting era in which Walker lived and operated – we hope you enjoy it.

JAMES ROBINSON, EDITOR