Features

1938 Rudge Ulster You’d expect a design and technology teacher to appreciate the finer points of engineering, and John Crispin traces his interest in things mechanical back to a specific machine that fired his youthful imagination, in 1967. “I remember well, I was in my teens looking at my first Rudge Ulster, with its brazed…

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Triumph classic 500cc group test (pdf) "Come on, come on!" I muttered as staff writer Dennis Frost struggled to kick some life into a seemingly recalcitrant 1956 Triumph Twin. Dennis, Richard Rosenthal and I were having the time of our lives riding three Edward Turner designed ground breaking Speed Twins and I wanted to be…

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Velocette 250 and 350 service notes (pdf) The gearboxes used for the 249 cc MOV and the 349 cc civilian MAC and the MAF Services version were virtually identical. In fact they bore considerable resemblance to that of the GTP and also to the bigger models in the 'K' range. The clutch, the only item…

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This 1932 meeting (organised by the Middlesbrough Club) was held in brilliant sunshine, and The Motor Cycle commented: “The course really was at Saltburn and not a mile or two up the coast at Marske, as it has been on occasion.” Much of the crowd had come to see how local hero Ron Parkinson would…

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Triumph Tiger T110 The Goodwood Revival meeting, held annually in September has become nothing less than a phenomenon. Scores of historic cars from the 1920s (and earlier) through to the 1970s do battle on the racetrack, which is contained within the estate owned by the Earl of March. Participating drivers and mechanics are encouraged to…

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Les Smith gets ready In the course of its 10 miles the pass rises about 4060ft, and until the Jeep came into being, was passable only by mule. In a Jeep, it was reckoned that the climb took four hours – on a good day. The gradient could be gauged by the fact that at…

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A remarkable engineering feat… In the days before there were motorways (or, for that matter, an overall 70mph speed limit) the Great North Road was one of the relatively few stretches of British highway on which high speeds could be attained in relative safety. Particularly was that so in the vicinity of Doncaster and York,…

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Norton ES2 490cc pushrod single cylinder classic motorcycle By the time Tony East’s ES2 rolled out of Bracebridge Street in 1955, the model had been around for over a quarter of a century or, to put it another way, for half the average British man’s working life. And just like a sound, time-served employee, the…

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1953 Ariel KHA A prototype was out and about on the roads as early as autumn 1946 (appearing, in a spectating capacity, at a Brands Hatch grasstrack meeting) though it was not until late 1947 it was officially launched. When it came, there was nothing particularly revolutionary about it – the man responsible was Val…

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Triumph Thunderbird 6T It required virtually no restoration and would have been relatively unremarkable, even for having been registered in the year after production ceased, but for the fact that it was 100 per cent original and in exceptional condition. It also came with a full history from the date of sale in 1967, by…

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