Features

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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R S Moore here, on his 492cc Sunbeam Classes were for 650cc (“No reason has been proffered by the promoters why the extraordinary limit of 650cc was fixed…” – that man again) and unlimited, while the races were handicap events too. Machines were not subject to regulations on silencing or equipment, so mudguards and the…

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Overseas 3.5hp In the veteran period, many motorcycles had their idiosyncrasies for the rider to deal with, and a set formula was yet to be decided upon with regard to the layout of the machine controls. Throttles switched sides, gears worked various ways round and could be on either side, clutches varied from hand control…

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1960 Ducati 125 Sport Ducati’s simple but reliable auxiliary unit, the Cucciolo (pup) may have been no threat to ‘real’ motorcycle companies like Gilera, Benelli or Moto Guzzi, but although sounding like one, the power unit from Bologna was by no means a dog. Weighing a mere 8kg, the little four-stroke motor was much in…

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1942 Harley-Davidson WLC Tony moved west from Birmingham in search of a better quality of life. He has built a business making electronic components for tattoo machines and wanted a bike that would reflect the slower pace of life in a rural neighbourhood. “I’ve owned several Harleys since I began riding in 1977,” he tells…

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1938 Harley-Davidson Model ULH Imagine, if you can, that you are a novice rider who has just been hoisted into the saddle of a horse. And I mean a proper horse, too. Not a cute little Shetland pony, not a staid old dray horse, but a fast and powerful hunter. Now imagine (bear with me,…

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1968 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide One hundred years of continuous manufacture and over 3,000,000 motorcycles later, Harley-Davidson is still going strong. The company started slowly, building only three machines in their first year, suffered lean periods during the Thirties and again dropped to under 10,000 models in 1963. They struggled with quality control during the AMF…

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Indian Standard A man walks into an agricultural workshop and says: “Can you make me a compressor from this engine please?” It should be a joke and it should have a punch line but instead of it being a couple of lines, it turned into a tale of epic proportions. Mark Williams was just a…

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