The Classic MotorCycle
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Honda enthusiasm
I wrote to you last year regarding the Honda CB160 at the Bristol Show and mentioned that at £220 new in 1965 it certainly wasn’t cheap compared to the British capacity equivalent, quite apart from its obvious superiority. I now see in Roy’s excellent piece on the Norton Electra (March 2017) that he also perpetuates…
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Motorcyclist of the year
Test of skill – and nerve – during two-wheeled competition at Brands Hatch, Kent. Photograph: MORTONS ARCHIVE During the August 1963 contest to find RoSPA’s (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) motorcyclist of the year, M Swift balances his 600cc AJS twin on the start-finish straight at Brands Hatch. Alas, Mr Swift wasn’t among…
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The Phillips injector
While there are many rude nicknames for the Wal Phillips injector, they aren’t for the pages of TCM… but a description of the device is because it’s an important part of our history. Words: Richard Rosenthal Photographs: Mortons Archive Born in Tottenham, north London, in 1908, Wal Phillips (d.1998) is today best remembered for his fuel…
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Your were asking: Impulse starters
Your queries resolved with Richard Rosenthal Do you or any of your readers know of any motorcycles fitted with impulse starters? In the 1920s, many engines were fitted with impulse starters including cars, tractors, motorboats and aircraft. The impulse starter works by driving the magneto through a strong clock-like spring. To start, the magneto is…
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FROM OUR ARCHIVES: Pretty special
This attractive 500cc replica of a Production TT winner started life as a 350cc Viper. Words: Andy Westlake Photography: TERRY JOSLIN Bombing along the wide empty roads of the Mendips with my head tucked behind the Velocette’s race screen, it needed little imagination to transport my mind back to 1967 and picture myself on the…
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Flat-tankers on tracks
I and several friends regularly take our flat-tankers to French events such as the Coupes de Moto Legende at Dijon and the Vintage Revival at Montlhery. The opportunities to ride your girder forked motorcycle on a race track in the UK are pretty limited. I have spoken to some UK circuits and it is definitely…
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Side order
Once the only means of family transport available to the working family, sidecars still have a loyal following. Watsonian helps gets Steve Parrish’s back into fine fettle. Words: Tim Britton Photographs: Gary Chapman Given Steve Parrish’s earliest experience of a sidecar, when he was left sitting in one outside a shop while his older brother…
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Men who mattered: Albert Catt
“Catt returned to Northampton for a hero’s welcome, having ridden 2557 miles in six days.” There has been a long history of tough, hardy souls chasing long distance motorcycle records, both in the UK and all around the world, but Albert Catt, from Northampton, was arguably the grandaddy of them all – and the toughest…
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The diminutive Dukes
Mention ‘Ducati’ and we think ‘Multistrada,’ ‘Panigale,’ ‘Monster’, or perhaps 916, 888 or 750SS. Earlier, and our minds conjure up images of Mach 1s and Elites. But Ducati began manufacturing 50cc cyclemotors and for decades built a range of under 100cc models from the superb to the, well, less desirable… Words: Richard Rosenthal Photographs:…
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Getting it wrong… but making it right
When The Classic MotorCycle ran a Restoration Guide on the BSA Bantam D1 (March 2012), it stated BSA never made a plunger-sprung competition version. This error was picked up by reader John Excell, who had bought a brand-new, plunger Competition Bantam in 1951 from Gray’s, a long-defunct dealer in the Medway Towns. He sent a…
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