Author: RowenaH

Frank’s Famous Last Words, #41

Features
On some classic motorcycles, there’s an intriguing lever on the left handlebar. Back in the days before automatic ignition timing, it did something quite important. Frank Westworth has been reminded of its function… A man has been fascinating me on the subject of ignition advance. No no; really. He has, and it actually was fascinating. Strange but true. By way…
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The Top Mountain Motorcycle Museum

Features
On his Continental travels, Dave Whiting discovered an amazing motorcycling road. And at the end of it, he found an amazing motorcycle museum, stuffed full of iconic classic bikes and vintage motorcycles… It’s not often I find myself ‘ahead of the curve’ so to speak, certainly not in the classic motorcycle world but this time I think that I might…
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Vintage vehicle survey results

Features
The average vintage vehicle travels 1100 miles a year, and there are nearly 300,000 classic bikes on the DVLA’s database. Which classic motorcycle marque do you think is the most popular? Triumph? BSA, maybe? Every five years in recent times, the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs carries out a survey of the historic vehicle scene in the United Kingdom,…
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James Superswift Two-Stroke Twin

Features
  ‘It’s the finest and dandiest 250 you’ve ever seen,’ said the launch publicity about the new Superswift in the autumn of 1961. ‘The James twin you have been waiting for!’ The new machines, priced at £181.18.8, offered ‘thrilling performance matched only by its superb styling and finish… Ride it here, ride it there, ride it anywhere – this is…
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Win an AJS Model 18

Features
If you’re looking for a typical British bike, then the single-cylinder four-strokes built by Associated Motor Cycles immediately after WW2 are the obvious choice. Small wonder then that the National Motorcycle Museum chose an AJS Model 18 as one of the prizes in their winter raffle. Honest, dependable and free of phoney pretensions, the Ajay 18 neatly balances price and…
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Frank Melling: The Flying Penguin

Reviews
Frank Melling tells a mean tall story. You’d seek him out on Friday night, pint in hand, to hear ripping yarns about being black-flagged on Sammy Miller’s Norton Kneeler, or staring down the wrong end of a Colt 45 barrel in backwoods Missouri. The twist to this second collection of postcards from a riding life is that Frank’s tall stories…
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