Features

At a time when the café racer was king, the December 1964 issue of Motorcycle Mechanics announced the arrival of a yellow emperor. The machine was described as a Vin-Nor, following the convention of prefixing a hybrid with the engine manufacturer’s name. The garish special combined a 998cc Vincent V-twin with a Norton Featherbed chassis,…

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William A Davidson, Walter Davidson, Arthur Davidson and William S Harley Friends since childhood, William S Harley the designer and Arthur Davidson the fabricator had been nurturing an idea to build an outboard motor, to reach their favourite fishing spots. But two wheels soon prevailed over two reels… In 1903, Arthur’s father erected a 15ft…

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Your vote counts! All of the bikes have received much midnight oil, expertise and tlc from the owners and all are an absolute credit to them.   All seven machines will be on the Mortons stand at the forthcoming 20th Carole Nash Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show at the Stafford County Showground on October 19-20, so…

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During the 1920s, much debate raged about the use of special machines in competition (for example, the TT was originally the Tourist Trophy…) and the fact that the ‘tests’ had ever-littler relevance to the ‘man in the street.’ So the ACU’s riposte was the annual ‘buyers’ event’ that was to become the stock machine trial.…

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So what conclusions were drawn? The machine (“one of the first of its type to be released to the public”) generally met with favourable comment, though the mudguarding was deemed insufficient. “The front guard can only be described as ornamental rather than useful… it is only fair to mention that the Triumph Cycle Co. have…

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Abingdon King Dick Model 78 You can just imagine the ribald comments a present-day rider would get if he or she rode a motorcycle made by a firm called King Dick. And that’s not just me being unduly sensitive or prurient, because when I did a bit of Internet research on the firm I found…

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Jack Hubbard (46) and Brian Stonebridge, formation flying on their Matchlesses Almost his namesake, Bryan, (with a ‘y’) Sharp on a 200cc two-stroke Dot-Villiers, was the victor in the Lightweight event while his brother Triss (‘the younger’ – their father, Triss, was a well-known speedway rider) won the 125cc event on another Dot. Unluckiest man…

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Norton ES2 The Norton ES2 is, for many, the quintessential British single. In the first issue of The Classic MotorCycle (June/July 1981, reprinted with our June 2011 issue), a ‘Mini manual’ was published for the model; here, we illustrate the major changes. 1949 Norton ES2 The ES2 – which had been in the Norton range…

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1949 Triumph Thunderbird The first Thunderbird came in response to the American cry for cubes and proved an immediate hit. It wasn’t all about performance though; in 1952 an SU equipped Thunderbird, ridden at 30mph, achieved a remarkable 155mpg. There were other incarnations, including unit and a co-op effort, while the current Thunderbird (launched 2008)…

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BSA C15 Star BSA’s unit singles were, for many years not in vogue, available for rock bottom prices which reflected their reputation. ‘Hand grenades’ and such terms were attached to them; full of energy, they were supposedly liable to explode… Nowadays, though, that situation has changed with the bigger models in particular developing quite a…

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