The Classic MotorCycle

Motorcycle couriers atop new Douglases, delivering press photographs and doing it in style. Words: Adam Rear Photograph: MORTONS MEDIA ARCHIVE This intriguing picture, captured during the 1948 London Olympics, epitomises modernity and a brave new world, with the seamlessly stylish, beautiful looking Douglas twins, not forgetting the equally slick looking gents riding them, posed alongside…

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From September 1959, a royal experience of motorcycling. Photograph:MORTONS ARCHIVE Prince Michael of Kent, then aged 17, poses on a ‘…sleek and shiny motorcycle belonging to his friend Duke Amedeo Di Savoia Aosta, who sits on the bonnet of a small car looking.’ So explains the official statement on the reverse of the photograph, though…

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Flywheel magnetos can be a boon – but they also reduce sane adults to tears. While poor set-up and condition will reduce their efficiency, so too other factors including flywheel speed, limited coil and condenser size, heat and magnetism… Words and photographs: RICHARD ROSENTHAL Although an electrical engineer named Marcus was probably the first to…

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Your queries resolved with Richard Rosenthal Vale-Onslow scrambles barrel and Herman Meier While clearing a late uncle’s workshop and sheds of predominantly car parts, we found a few motorcycle engines and their spares, including an unused cylinder barrel described on its original box as a ‘Vale-Onslow 250cc Conversion Kit.’ We’ve given it to a friend…

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Your queries resolved with Richard Rosenthal Setting the record straight You may recall some years ago a correspondence about the Royal Enfield endurance machine AFO 81D and its owner/rider Billy Mills. This machine has recently been acquired by Hitchcocks Motorcycles and, interestingly, its engine number follows on in sequence from the two ISDT (International Six…

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