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Numbed by the current obsession for producing shiny fake motorcycles where there was previously rust and ruin, Frank Westworth reveals a talent in the opposite direction… I was sat pondering the other evening. Don’t worry, there’s no law against a little gentle pondering – not yet, at any rate, although that could easily change, of…

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A bike that works, a place to be, a British summer. Martin Gelder finds three reasons to be cheerful while riding his Airhead BMW… I seem to have spent most of the last week bent over a hot BMW, the sun doing its best to make a redneck out of me while Max Friz’s bastard…

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Ever wondered why some people seem to revel in riding their classic bikes in winter, while others just head for the nearest bar – or the nearest ditch. Martin Gelder has some top tips… This isn’t intended to be one of those “Riding Guides” that many of the ‘proper’ magazines seem to love so much…

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We all sneer at chequebook restorers; where’s the skill in writing a cheque? Where’s the achievement? Frank Westworth contemplates the results of his first chequebook restoration… We all know one when we see one. They stand out. They gleam in an unnatural manner. Their paint is a yard deep, their chrome is more mirror-perfect than…

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The BHR classic racing season started last month. Roy Maddox reckons there was a missed opportunity at Mallory… British Historic Racing is part of the Vintage Motor Cycle Club and organises a series of race meetings during the year. In 2012 it will visit Mallory Park, Cadwell (twice), Snetterton, Lydden and Darley Moor. Austen Kear…

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What bike would make the perfect introduction to real classic motorcycling? Vague familiarity or character-building oddness? Paul Miles conducts a scientific experiment on a man called Simon… I have a friend called Simon. Simon is a nice guy in his early forties and has been around bikes, like many of us, for most of his…

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You might not want to rebuild your classic bike to standard spec, but sometimes it helps if someone else has. Karl Bentley’s BSA A50 may have been modified. Or not. Who knows? Okay, I’ll admit it straight away, I was wrong. There you are, I’ve apologised and I will never say mean and nasty things…

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Have you ever found your ideal classic bike? Frank Westworth has… and more than once! Being Editor of the mighty organ which is RealClassic has many advantages, as I keep reminding RH when she’s spent the morning on the electric telephone listening to a member who posted his advert in on Tuesday, he’s almost sure…

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Restoration, Renovation, Recreation? Frank Westworth has been listening to folk at classic bike shows again. He’ll never learn… ‘Look at that A7.’ A nice man had collared me at a show. It appears to be an occupational hazard. Time was, the occupational hazard was more like getting collared by a handsome lady and dragged into…

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Time for a little nostalgic indulgence. Take a trip back in time to the 1960s as GeofS pays homage to the bikes which could ‘Stop Anything In No Time’… It was summer, sometime in the late 1960s, on a by-pass that led to the coast, somewhere in England’s green and pleasant land. Jimmy ‘The Triton’…

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