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Rare Harley-Davidson XA The horizontally opposed BMW-style 750cc model XA Harley-David­son is a sure-fire attention grabber at any motor cycle gathering—but as is so often the case with rare machines there is a long, long tale a-winding behind this particular Harley; one which led owner Jim Dowdall all the way to Wildcat Ridge in California.…

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Norton’s experimental 800cc dohc The need was pressing, the calendar relent­less. Under Dennis Poore, the Wolverhampton-based Manganese Bronze Holdings company (owners of Villiers Engineering, to name but one) had acquired the wreckage of the collapsed Associated Motor Cycles empire. Now, a determined effort was to be made to salve the Norton name from the Plumstead…

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1939 HRD Vincent Rapide “I believe you guys call it the plumber’s nightmare — round here we simply call it the nightmare”, laughs Stan Gillis, the American restorer who had the job of making the 1939 HRD Rapide on these pages roadworthy after decades of inactivity. The glittering 1000cc V-twin, which left Britain over 20…

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1960 BSA Gold Star/Catalina Scrambler Some nuggets of advice, no matter how well intentioned, are far from encouraging. Robin James is telling me how to make a quick start on his Gold Star scrambler; “You just get your weight well forward, stick it in third gear, wind the revs up and drop the clutch.” It…

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II Mulo Meccanico military three wheeler There’s a subtle irony in the fact that the Triking, a sporty little Morgan-like three-wheeler currently built in Norfolk should utilise the power unit and transmission of the transverse vee-twin Moto Guzzi motor cycle; because in truth that engine – or, more correctly, the progenitor of that engine –…

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Harley-Davdison’s distinctive ohv Knucklehead engine There are those who march towards the sound of gunfire. So it was with the executives of Harley-Davidson. Harley's roots go back to 1900 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Boyhood friends and bicycle enthusiasts William S Harley and Arthur Davidson, both with jobs in engineering, built their own sin­gle cylinder engine and…

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FN four cylinder engine FN's first motor cycle was produced in 1902. A 133cc single, it was successful enough to convince the factory that there was a future in two-wheelers. The following year the capacity was increased to 188cc, and in 1904 to 300cc. In charge of development was a young Belgian engineer, Paul Kelecom,…

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Paul Dunstall Norton Dominator 650 (pdf) How about this for a dream? Two-miles-a-minute  top whack; out-accelerate a Manx Norton; cover a standing-start quarter-mile in sprint time yet easily restart on a 1 in 4 gradient; tick-tock idling at 500 rpm. This dream travels under the name, Dunstall Dominator. On road and track it provided me…

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