The Classic MotorCycle

Words: Richard Rosenthal Photographs: Mortons Archive With the British motorcycle industry struggling, the Labour Government appeared hell-bent on finishing it off. Due to an ailing economy, purchase tax rates were sky high, then Westminster hiked minimum HP deposits from 10% to 40% as motorcycles, including commuter mopeds, lightweights and scooters were reckoned ‘luxury items’. Still,…

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Photographs: MORTONS ARCHIVE George Brown and Reg Gilbert put up new times on the seafront. Taking place at the end of September 1961, the Ramsgate sprint attracted most of the big names of British sprinting, with George Brown top of the bill, who had his 1000cc Vincent V-twin special and 250cc Ariel two-stroke twin both…

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Words and photographs: Mark Stone All early Indians were big V-twins, right? Not so, as this unusual single (truly half a V-twin) proves. Time spent in the company of Richard Lancaster highlights this agricultural engineer’s interest in classic motorcycles has far exceeded that of a passion. Besides the tools of his trade – namely tractors…

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Words: Roy Poynting Photographs: Terry Joslin This is actually from a year before the James model name ‘Comet’ was coined, but is in all essence the same model. I’ve had great affection for James’ motorcycles since I took to the roads on an old Comet as a teenager, and while I’ve since had several other…

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Words: TIM BRITTON Photographs: GARY CHAPMAN The label ‘classic’ is applied to all sorts of things from music to architecture through films and furniture – the Gold Star is a motorcycle for which the word could have been invented. As I wait by the side of the road for photographer Gary Chapman and Tony Clarke…

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At the Stalybridge Speed Trials, Jack Cunliffe launches his Brough-Superior JAP Photography: MORTONS ARCHIVE On last month’s news pages, we used a picture from the Brooklands Then and Now show, of a pair of Brough Superior SS100s, one of which was finished in a striking lilac-and-nickel finish. This was (and is) the Cunliffe Brough. Seeing…

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