Features

1982 Hesketh V1000 Thomas Alexander Fermor-Hesketh, the third Baron Hesketh, inherited a fortune at an early age and spent it with notable enthusiasm. A lover of motorsport, in his mid-20s he bankrolled a private Formula One team that won a race during its third season in 1975 and finished fourth in the World Constructor’s Championship.…

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Many have dreamt of building their perfect motorcycle. Triton, NorBSA, TriBSA, Norvin, Grumph, Tri–Greeves, Honton and many others have been the result of our fertile, or at times over fertile, minds. While many were or are beautifully crafted specials, a minority were true mongrels fit only for unveiling after dark. The skill is not only…

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BSA Cyclemotor (pdf) A 35cc cyclemotor, to be called the Winged Wheel, is to be marketed by BSA. Designed to replace the rear wheel of a normal bicycle, the unit embodies gear drive transmission through a three-plate clutch, a 9½in-diameter in­ternal expanding brake and a heavy duty free-wheel of the locking roller type. Complete with…

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Mercury (pdf) It was the hair cut which put Rex Light on the trail of the 596cc Mercury he has been campaigning in Midland vintage events this recent summer. Nor is it any old common-or-garden Mercury, for AMG 108 was the fifth and last-built of the small batch to emerge from the little factory at…

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Grindlay-Peerless 500 (pdf) "Huh", he snorted. "That's not the old Bill Lacey bike!" Which was just a bit too much for Wal Phillips, who was standing nearby. "Some­thing well is!", he replied. "And I ought to know, because I used to have the job of clean­ing the something thing!" In fact Wal, back around 1928,…

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Mrs M C Cooke poses with a twin-cylinder Douglas By 1911, Mrs Cooke was being employed by The Motor Cycle to give her impressions on various new ‘ladies’ models – as well as the Douglas, she sampled the new single-cylinder Royal Enfield and the lightweight Humber, among several others. But Mrs Cooke’s primary love was…

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View original article (pdf) Introduced in 1954, the Amal Monobloc carburettor has been steadily developed into the ultra-reliable instrument today fitted to the majority of British motor cycles. Variations on the well-known larger Monobloc are designed for smaller machines, but whatever the external appearance the working principle is the same. Apart from cleaning, your Monobloc…

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Honda CB400F (pdf) When it comes to discussing Honda’s CB400F, the iconic four cylinder sports bike made from 1975 to 1977, the world is divided into two opposed groups. There are those who dismiss the machine as an overrated and gutless aberration that was markedly inferior to its larger siblings. Others admire it as a…

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Harley-Davidson SS350 The popular image of Harley-Davidson as being a manufacturer solely of large-capacity 45 degree V-twins with ‘potato-potato’(TM) exhaust notes is wide of the mark. Although aficionados are keen to celebrate the firm’s 2003 centenary, some might prefer to develop selective amnesia about the past. The company’s previous offerings include such utilitarian delights as…

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998cc Watsonian-JAP Visitors to the National Motorcycle Museum may well stare in disbelief at the name on the tank (and, for that matter, engraved on the valve covers) of a beauti­ful, pale-green vee-twin. "Watsonian?", they may echo; "But they're sidecar makers, not bike builders!" True enough so far as it goes — yet Watsonian did indeed…

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