Road Tests

1939 Norton International Model 30 Years ago, I happened to see the famous actress Marlene Dietrich getting into a taxi in London, and to be absolutely frank, she looked to me like a rather plain and elderly little lady. I was obviously in a distinct minority, however, because the rapt expressions of the awestruck fans…

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Brough Superior 11.50 outfit George Brough was no shrinking violet when it came to the publicity game and regularly reminded the world his motorcycles were built from parts made exclusively to his design and special requirements, ensuring his machines were capable of covering huge mileages at high speed, easy to maintain and durable. Usually, our…

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Velocette 250 MOV At 2007’s Festival of 1000 Bikes, I had a session-long dice with a chap mounted on a rigid framed bike with a distinctive fishtail exhaust. The machine’s features indicated that it was an elderly Velocette (Sherlock Holmes has nothing on me!) but it certainly wasn’t being ridden with the respect usually reserved…

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BMW R12 A casual glance at David Kemp’s booking form for my group trip to Coupes Moto Légende 2005 revealed he was making the trip on a BMW twin. Not that there was anything unusual in that as, over the last 80-odd years, the venerable boxer has earned an enviable reputation for its capabilities as…

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BSA M24 Gold Star What has a new girlfriend, the Fire Service, marriage, WWII, Uncle Frank, the Civil Defence Corps, economies, a collapsed shed, the tome Speed From Your Motorcycle, The Blitz, Maurice Cann… and… got to do with this BSA M24? Well, in fact, everything. In June 1951, young Roger Barlow proudly escorted his…

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Indian Model 741 The question of originality has proved to be a thorny subject over the years, attracting almost as many letters to The Classic Motorcycle as the ‘What constitutes a classic?’ debate. To my mind, a motorcycle that is ridden regularly may be modified as much as its owner pleases. Whether the result is…

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Norton-Vincent special I bet quite a few Norton and Vincent fans have glanced at the photographs accompanying this article, and felt it was a desecration to amalgamate their favourite marques, no matter how desirable the outcome. Well, in response to that, I can do no better than quote the machine’s original owner, who wrote in…

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1955 BSA C10L 250cc Now, I love little lightweight motorcycles. I always feel much more at home in the saddle of a ‘tiddler’. I think it’s a psychological thing as much as anything; I like to be able to feel fully in control, and being able to put both feet comfortably on the ground also…

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1938 Ariel Square Four Model 4G Ian Munro is a lifelong motorcyclist whose taste for the unusual even shows in his favoured flat twins, where rarities like a Ratier (TCM February 2003) have featured alongside the expected BMWs. During the years his machines have varied much more widely than that, though, starting with a Trojan…

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1923 James Model 10 “It’s a mixture of fate and circumstance,” says Don Hunt, recalling the day in 1978 when he suddenly became the owner of a 1923 James Model 10 combination. “I used to go to auctions with my pal Dan Geary and we’d bid as high as we dared for all sorts of…

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