Features

SOS DW SOS surely has the most pleasing symmetry of all the motorcycle makers who ever traded under a set of initials. The letters changed their meaning during the commercial life of the trademark, although their shapeliness remained encapsulated in the monogram of a rotating wheel right through to the final models. The SOS manufacturing…

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1938 Ariel NG De Luxe The owner and restorer of this Ariel, Mike Lymn, is a man who gets things done. Whether it be house building, gun remanufacturing, artwork restoration or bringing old motorcycles back to life, Mike relishes a challenge, and for his first restoration he didn’t pick a particularly easy project, one for…

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1955 Vincent Black Prince Effective armour and high speed rarely combine in nature, save in those instances where man has defied evolution. Such combinations are usually memorable, as when Edward of Woodstock carried a weight of protection into battle on his powerful charger during the 14th century, or when British Railways standard class 9F locomotive…

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1939 Triumph Tiger 100 The Tiger 100 was more blatantly aimed at ‘sporting’ motorcyclists though like the machine which spawned it, it was an immediate hit. Its combination of docility and high performance was a motorcycling watershed moment; a Tiger 100 was easy to start, flexible to ride but still capable of near-100mph performance. The…

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The imperious winner Handley walks in; the 350cc Blackburne engine in his Rex-Acme took an unmerciful flogging as he raced to victory First man home was Wal Handley, the 22-year-old Birmingham rider who raced his Blackburne-engined Rex-Acme over the six laps at an average speed of 65.02mph, meaning he covered the race distance in just…

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Still not even 21, the young Japanese had secured one of leading BMW Rennsport privateer Ernst Hiller’s ‘last year’ racers with the help of a BMW dealer in Japan. It wasn’t even Ito’s first foray abroad; that had come in 1958 when he’d raced a Yamaha to an impressive sixth place in the Catalina GP,…

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Help us to help you and you could win a cash prize! Which bits are your favourite and which bits would you like tio change? Perhaps there are things you’d like to see more of – readers’ reviews, maintenance advice, technical advice, competitions, etc? Maybe there are things you’d like to see less of, or…

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1939 Norton International Model 30 Years ago, I happened to see the famous actress Marlene Dietrich getting into a taxi in London, and to be absolutely frank, she looked to me like a rather plain and elderly little lady. I was obviously in a distinct minority, however, because the rapt expressions of the awestruck fans…

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1929 Super Onslow Special classic motorcycle A regular prize winner on the vintage and classic scene, show and rally regular John Guy has restored countless machines over the years, though it is his stable of SOS machinery for which he is best known. Len Vale-Onslow began SOS production in 1927, in Hallow, nr Worcester, producing…

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Triumph Ricardo four valve engine Nobody could ever accuse the early-vintage Triumph of being anything, other than trusty- and 30,000-odd dispatch riders of World War One would swear to that. Yet it must be said that the Coventry firm were not exactly in the fore­front of technical development. They had never built a sporty overhead-valve…

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