Features

Velocette LE-Valiant Special Owner and builder Ian Munro admits that when people learn he’s fitted a Velocette LE engine into a Velocette Valiant frame they tend to ask, “Why?” rather than exclaim, “Wow!” On the face of it, that’s understandable. The Valiant’s greatest perceived failing was that merely crafting overhead valves onto Velocette’s flat twin…

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1930 Ariel Square Four The big Ariel started life as a lithe sportster in an era when big sidecar machines were commonplace, it finished up as one of those self-same heavyweight sidecar tugs in a period when fast solos had become the norm. To help the transformation, its capacity was doubled along the way –…

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Hesketh 1200cc Vulcan “We should have thrown the whole motorcycle and engine away, and started again,” sighs Mick Broom, as he recalls post-production problems that tarnished the Hesketh V1000’s image as ‘the finest motorcycle in the world’. “It definitely needed more money and development time. I was an engineer, but suddenly I found myself involved…

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Jimmy Shaw leads in the Ulster GP Third Norton teamster, Joe Craig, made fastest time of the day in winning the 600cc class and coming in first ‘on the road’. But under the handicapping system used to determine the premier award winner, Shaw’s 2h 53m 25s, as opposed to Craig’s 2h 50m 44s, was enough…

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BMW 60 years motorcycle production celebration article (pdf) The BMW story actually starts in Munich in March 1916 when Karl Rapp and Max Friz founded the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG to design and manufacture aero, engines for the fast expanding German air force. As is obvious from Richthofen's letter they were successful from the start. Soon…

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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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