Sam Hewitt

It’s not often one is allowed to get too close to a prototype. They’re usually tantalisingly out of reach behind ropes or on an elevated and rotating platform in the middle of a show hall; to stand over one, touch it or sit on it is a rare privilege, to start one up and ride…

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This little James has never left the area in which it was bought when new, serving several owners, just a few miles apart, well. In 1958 the hula-hoop was invented, rock star Elvis Presley topped the charts with ‘Jailhouse Rock,’ Wolves won English football’s first division and in the UK the price of an average…

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With this cleverly modified Meriden-made Bonneville twin, what you see is not what you are really seeing… The illusionists’ art has been in the news recently, when well-known magician David Copperfield was taken to court after one of the punters at his show chosen from the audience to participate in a disappearing/reappearing trick, fell and…

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On my way to examine Adrian Coole’s unmolested-looking Bianchi Gardena 75, I once again ask myself a question that always stumps me when I go and report on a sub-125cc motorcycle from the past. What is it that’s changed so much over the decades that small capacity, lightweight motorcycles have so dropped out of favour…

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Not all Nortons are deserving of the famous phrase, but this one is. To say Norton’s designation of its various models was rather obscure is a bit like suggesting Geoff Duke was quite a good racer – true, but a gross understatement. As well as the occasional use of letters, Norton coined names for the…

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This track-day Gold Star has been built up with many goodies from specialist Phil Pearson, including a 604cc conversion. But don’t worry, owner Barry Winter’s got a stock Goldie as well! Barry Winter is a lucky man, but it’s the kind of luck that comes out of sustained effort. With a successful career as a skilled…

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