Features

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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Disputes dogged the show Thing was, the 1956 showpiece nearly didn’t go ahead. A dispute at the Norton works in Birmingham (remember, by now Norton was part of the AMC group, though the move to London was still in the future) had led to ‘industrial unrest’ to such a degree that stand-fitting staff at the…

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1939 OK Supreme G39 Flying Cloud Although ‘Flying Cloud’ sounds like an early Japanese model, Birmingham manufacturer OK Supreme gave the name to a 245cc motorcycle in 1933. The original recipient was a famous sailing clipper of the 1850s, whose graceful lines and lightweight construction are echoed in the single-cylinder machine, built in 1939, which…

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1927 AJS H1 Robin James is a man of exacting standards – so to be offered the opportunity to inspect and sample his own steed, which regularly transports Robin and Yve (Mrs James) to and on events home and abroad, is an opportunity not to be passed up. And what you may ask does a…

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