Features

1961 Matchless G12 CSR By the late 50s, ‘hot’ twins were the machines that young ‘tearaways’ aspired to. Triumph marketed the Bonneville, BSA the ‘Rocket’ range, Norton the Dominator 650SS, Royal Enfield tried to get involved with their Constellation while AMC – Matchless and AJS – produced the ‘CSR’. Somehow, the CSRs have always looked…

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1953 Norton 40 International Norton’s International was one of the glamour models of the British motorcycle industry, before and after WWII. The overhead camshaft Norton could trace its lineage back to the 1920s, and the Walter Moore-designed CS1. After Moore left Norton for Germany and NSU in 1929, the overhead camshaft model was substantially redesigned…

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1949 Norton ‘Garden Gate’ Race-winning pedigree doesn’t come any more comprehensive than that of the ohc Norton; TT wins, GP triumphs, world championships and of course national and club wins for decade after decade – and still ongoing. There were a host of models, but the pedigree is plain to see in them all. Model…

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This Pilgrim delivery only oil pump is fitted to a New Imperial 250cc Mechanical pumps fall into three groups – feed only, scavenge only and duplex pumps, which serve both roles. Many later total loss engines, often in use during the 1920s and early 1930s, along with some sports engines such as speedway motors, were…

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1965 BSA A65 Lightning Clubman This A65 Lightning Clubman was not only the top of BSA’s range of unit twins in its day, it also topped the wish list of late BSA enthusiast and restorer Dave Smith. Dave died, age 58, at the end of 2007 of an unexpected illness. He had restored a whole…

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1938 Magnat-Debon Poum Ace restorer John Guy is well known on the show circuit, for his collection of vintage and post-vintage machines, six of which are SOS two-strokes. Indeed, John is probably the one of the foremost collectors of the Birmingham-built models anywhere in the world with many of the machines having been displayed at…

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1970 Velocette Venom By the time this Velocette Venom left the Hall Green works in 1970, time was nearly up for the long running, enduringly popular sporting single. In a motorcycling world that was now welcoming four-cylinder overhead camshaft Honda CB750s and screaming two-stroke Kawasaki H1s into its showrooms, the overhead valve Velo, with its…

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The 33rd Carole Nash International Classic MotorCycle Show at Stafford ? View image galleries The International Classic Motorcycle Show is very much a traditional classic show that attracts the best from around the world. There are club stands, trade stands, private entries and a massive autojumble that fills several of the halls and outside field…

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Royal Enfield Continental Road test reports should always do more than simply confirm facts or support existing prejudices, so you hopefully won’t find me saying a Vincent Black Lightning is lightning fast or a Norman Nippy’s designation is close to contravening the Trades Description Act (I’ll admit to indulging in the occasional play on words).…

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Pictured is John Dale, who in the 1950 Senior event was running second until lap 16 (of 20, which made up 100 miles). Luckless Jim’s pushrod Matchless (a machine more associated with scrambling, although of course Les Graham’s ‘Shelby special’ Matchless enjoyed short-circuit UK success) cried ‘enough!’ a little later in the same lap as…

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