Features

Norton Dominator 99SS “I didn’t realise what a rare model it was until after I’d bought it,” admits Richard Miller, “but it’s the Super Sports version of the 99 Dominator, and Norton only made it for a year or so.” He’s quite right on both counts, and the reason was probably tied up with the…

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1930 Morgan Aero Super Sports and 1935 James Samson Handyvan If you want to see a motorcyclist's eyes glaze over, just mention the phrase, 'three wheeler'. His mind will fill with images of turgid plastic bodied vehicles which only exist because a quirk of British law exempts their owners from pass­ing a motor car driving…

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1956 MV Agusta Modello CS Sport After WWII, a world championship was established for motorcycle racing, with the first season coming in 1949. Almost from the off – 1950 in fact – the name MV Agusta was represented, which was to remain the case for the next 25-plus years. During that quarter of a century,…

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Brough Superior SS80 Special George Bernard Shaw contentiously wrote: “Titles distinguish the mediocre, embarrass the superior and are disgraced by the inferior.” Yet, the title of ‘The Rolls-Royce of motorcycles’, suggested by HD Teague, writing in The Motor Cycle of 12 April, 1923 during a road test of the first production Brough Superior SS80, caused…

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Vincent Comet and LE sidecar Every Vincent Comet/Meteor owner will be fed up with the old chestnut ‘It’s only half a twin.’ Reintroduced for the 1948 season, the stock 499cc Comet pushed out a healthy 28bhp/5800rpm measured at the crankshaft, which compares favourably with 23bhp delivered by the AJS Model 18/Matchless G80, 24.6bhp from an…

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1951 BSA D1 Bantam 125cc I’m always wary when people have dogmatic opinions about motorcycles, and that applies whether they are unreasonably critical of other riders’ mounts, or unquestioningly convinced that the sun shines out of their chosen model’s exhaust pipe. So when someone informs me that BSA Bantams are the best things since sliced…

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1958 DMW Dolomite 11 Retired HGV driver Brian Tilke has a long association with DMWs. Brian explained: “In 1958, I owned this exact model. I was a teenager then and thought it was fab. Mine was in these colours; I had to pay an extra £4-17s-6d for that. I’d passed my test in 1955 and…

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1959 Ariel Leader Hampshireman Neil Redley is (to put it mildly) a Velocette enthusiast, and he needs to explain why I can see a lone Ariel lurking in his collection. “Well, I had a Leader when I was a lad,” he grins, “so when this very complete one became available five years ago, and I…

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1929 Competition Cotton-Blackburne I’ve no idea how modern manufacturers teach their engineering students the rudiments of motorcycle frame design, but if it’s via computer software they are wasting time and money, and they’re also denying their pupils a whole heap of pleasure. Just let them loose on a vintage Cotton, and for evermore they’ll be…

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Amm (Norton) leads McIntyre (AJS, 29), Surtees (Norton, 3), Carter (Norton, 4), Coleman (AJS, 28) and Farrant (AJS, 30) in the 350cc race. Topping the bill was reigning 500cc world champion Geoff Duke and Gilera team-mate Reg Armstrong. They had a ‘four’ apiece. From Associated Motor Cycles came works AJSs (350cc 7R3s and 500cc E95…

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