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  • Norton International

    Norton International

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    The December magazine featured a fabulous cammy Norton, a Model 30 500. There wasn’t space in print to show off the super old images to best effect, so here they are in glorious web-o-vision – together with the background to the model in case you’re not familiar with it… Before the Inter came the cammy…

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  • Moto Guzzi V7

    Moto Guzzi V7

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    Although Motorcycle Live at the NEC majors on modern motorcycles, the odd classic bike sneaks in here and there. RC’s roving reporter Richard Jones discovered an authentic Moto Guzzi V-twin, and then fell over its modern equivalent… I was wandering out of the NEC one evening after a hard days graft at Motorcycle Live when…

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  • Honda Valkyrie

    Honda Valkyrie

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    Honda’s six-cylinder ‘power cruiser’ certainly turned heads when it arrived two decades ago. It turned out to be an inspired innovation, removing all the touring equipment from the gargantuan Gold Wing to create a mighty musclebike, and the Valkyrie (or Flat 6 Custom) has built itself a solid following. The first book to be published…

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  • Honda Black Bomber

    Honda Black Bomber

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    In 1968 Soichiro Honda rode his firm’s 10 millionth motorcycle off the production line. That bike was the ground-breaking CB450 Black Bomber – notable not least for its use of novel valvegear with torsion-bars ‘springs’ in its top end. It wasn’t long before racers transformed the CB streetbike into a world class competitor, and the…

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  • Vincent Black Shadow

    Vincent Black Shadow

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    When the Vincent Black Shadow was announced in 1948 it wowed the world with a top speed of 125mph. Since then it’s become accepted as an icon of the old British bike industry. A new book explains how the Black Shadow was originally conceived, developed and produced – with in-depth chapters looking in detail at…

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  • Royal Enfield Interceptor

    Royal Enfield Interceptor

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    Several manufacturers showcased models at this winter’s Motorcycle Live exhibition which seek to recreate the classic bikes from their marque’s glory days of yesteryear. Richard Jones inspects several of them on our behalf – along with some other retro offerings – and gets the ball rolling with the long-awaited big twin from India…. In mid-1970…

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  • Torrens: the classic motorcyclist

    Torrens: the classic motorcyclist

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    Back in the days of black and white, when the Green ’Un and Blue ’Un ruled the motorcycling roost, journalist, editor and publisher Torrens was one of the world’s foremost riding writers. We review his memoir, Behind The Scenes In The Vintage Years… Torrens himself, taking part in a Land’s End to John O’Groats trial…

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  • BSA B50

    BSA B50

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    A couple of months ago, our Ace Tester Paul Miles rode and reported on an excellently upgraded BSA B50SS. Paul reckoned it definitely deserved its Gold Star designation. No sooner had that magazine been delivered than international man of mystery Frank Melling popped up, expounding exactly the opposite opinion. Here’s Frank’s view of the B50,…

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  • December issue out now

    December issue out now

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    Winter drawers on! We’ve been waiting all year to make that joke. We have also decked the halls with boughs of holly for the fabulous festiveness that is RC164. The December issue of the monthly RealClassic magazine is indeed a veritable cornucopia of classic motorcycling. And some dodgy old bikes. And even a shock-horror-hold-the-front-page new…

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  • Ride Of My Life

    Ride Of My Life

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    In Ride of My Life, racer and writer Frank Melling tells of a few of the bikes and experiences, bad and good, that he has encountered during a lifetime of motorcycling. Frank always tells it as he sees it in his own honest, fascinating and often humorous manner, and in a way that every motorcyclist…

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