News

New TCM’s out! • Editor's intro • Archive photograph    • News    • Diary     • Matchless G9/AJS Model 20 super profile    • NEC Classic show    • Letters    • Ariel SG31    • Triumph Tiger    • Straight from the plate – • Southern Scott Scramble, 1925   • Reader’s restoration – BMW R50S   • Triumph Brooklands racer    •…

Continue reading »

Held in the ground floor of one of the racecourse grandstands, the show had a wide variety of machinery, ranging from a rare Wassell 175cc trials bike to the Landspeed racing 600cc Indian Scout of Chris Ireland and the increasing interest in American flat-track racing was evident by a stand packed with colourful examples of…

Continue reading »

Rotax engine Matchless G80 January 1989 Angry British motorcycle maker Les Harris refuted claims his Newton Abbot factory, which makes the Rotax-powered Matchless single cylinder machine, is about to close and end production of the famous marque, which began 90 years ago at Plumstead, south east London. Matchless was initially the brand of cycle maker…

Continue reading »

1971 BMW F750 Butler & Smith factory racer First, is the ex-1973 Daytona 200 1972 Butler & Smith BMW F750, is one of only two factory-supplied, purpose-built machines modified by tuner Udo Geitl of Butler & Smith – the BMW importers for America. The surprisingly fast and powerful R75/5s that Geitl uprated for Team Butler…

Continue reading »

Jack Thompson runner-up Colin Mote eases his 500 Ariel down one of the many banks on the Sidcup club’s ground at Canada Heights, Swanley A score of one made Paul Randall/Richard Webb (Triumph) the best of the sidecar entry. Among the older machines, Arthur Frearson (350 AJS) topped the girder fork/rigid class while Stan Metcalf,…

Continue reading »

• The Classic MotorCycle Featuring 12 period archive images, this spiral bound calendar is available for £8.49 (including UK postage) by calling 01507 529529 or by visiting www.classicmagazines.co.uk Each image is captioned and the pictures span the timescale covered by the magazine, so from the ‘Pioneer’ days to the 1960s, with one even depicting the…

Continue reading »

Now firmly established as one of the premier events in the world of the older models, the show takes place on the weekend of February 8-9. Visitors can expect to feast their eyes upon an array of stunning classic machinery as well as a fantastic mix of trade stalls, dealers and autojumble plots that provide…

Continue reading »

The machine, a 1923 model, left the factory on October 7, 1922, sold to a Mr B S Allen of Croydon. The machine was left to the VMCC in 2011 by a long standing VMCC member, the late David Blanchard from Bexhill on Sea. David had owned the machine since the early 1960s when he…

Continue reading »

The forks in the pictures are almost a ‘byproduct’, or a kind of ‘spin off’ and are priced at £1100. These were designed and built in-house using laser cut lugs and an all welded fabrication to keep the cost low. They will be an off-the-shelf item with spares back up and different stem diameters to…

Continue reading »