From The Archive

BSA Bantam D10 Sports Made from 1948 until 1971, there were over 400,000 Bantams built, with many riders taking their first two-wheeled outings on the little BSA. That’s one of the reasons why it has remained so well loved, when allied to its general ruggedness and cheeky charm. Still a great starter classic, for club…

Continue reading »

1927 SOS launch model The reason was however simple – the firm was based in Hallow, Worcester and proprietor Len Vale-Onslow didn’t have access to mains gas. So welded it had to be. It was also special in that SOS became an acronym for several things; it started off as Super Onslow Special, was Success…

Continue reading »

Which BSA unit twin to buy Though a fair bit lighter than what had gone before, the new duo looked somewhat more bulky than the earlier machines, which led to criticism from some quarters. In their introductory state, the new engines shared a stroke (74mm) and even a compression ratio (7.5:1) with the bores (65.5mm…

Continue reading »

1939 Triumph Tiger 100 The Tiger 100 was more blatantly aimed at ‘sporting’ motorcyclists though like the machine which spawned it, it was an immediate hit. Its combination of docility and high performance was a motorcycling watershed moment; a Tiger 100 was easy to start, flexible to ride but still capable of near-100mph performance. The…

Continue reading »

1929 Super Onslow Special classic motorcycle A regular prize winner on the vintage and classic scene, show and rally regular John Guy has restored countless machines over the years, though it is his stable of SOS machinery for which he is best known. Len Vale-Onslow began SOS production in 1927, in Hallow, nr Worcester, producing…

Continue reading »

Triumph Ricardo four valve engine Nobody could ever accuse the early-vintage Triumph of being anything, other than trusty- and 30,000-odd dispatch riders of World War One would swear to that. Yet it must be said that the Coventry firm were not exactly in the fore­front of technical development. They had never built a sporty overhead-valve…

Continue reading »

Norton Navigator Malmesbury-based Terry Brock has an ongoing, enduring love affair with Norton’s lightweight twins, an affair that to many may seem unfathomable, but Terry is not for turning. While over the years the little lightweight twins have had their knockers, they have gradually become more popular, thanks in part due to the fact that…

Continue reading »

1954 Matchless G45 One of the more curious purpose-built race machines to emerge in the early 1950s was the Matchless G45. Why curious? Well, Associated Motor Cycles (AMC) already had the 350cc AJS 7R Boy Racer in their line up and a success it had proved too. So if they wanted to make a Senior…

Continue reading »

BSA A65 Spitfire MKIV Though the Spitfire moniker doesn’t carry the same evocative connotations as say Bonneville or Black Shadow in motorcycling arenas, it is surely one of the great model names, whether it’s on a Rolls Royce-engined WWII fighter plane, a Triumph sports car or a rorty BSA twin. BSA first used the Spitfire…

Continue reading »