Blog

The workshop (shed, garage or whathaveyou) is an essential part of classic biking life, it seems. John R Kerridge (aka Yorkie) explains why every man should have one… A shed, a hut, a lean-to; a shelter, a den or a garage. Call it what you will it’s something every man should have. It’s a place…

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When it comes to navigation, Rowena Hoseason is a traditionalist at heart and has no truck with SatNav… Earlier in the year I mentioned my Unmentionable motorcycle in the RC subscriber’s newsletter. An Unmentionable, for anyone unacquainted with the technical terminology, is a motorcycle which really truly and absolutely does not have any place in…

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Matt Swindlehurst recalls a time of dirty carrots, dodging rugby practice, shooting a Lee Enfield rifle – oh, and there’s a Matchless G3 in here somewhere, too… Back in the late 1960s the housewives of Leek in North Staffordshire certainly knew their onions – and their cabbages and their cauliflowers and, in particular, their carrots.…

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Some folk fall off their bikes. A surprise, it’s true, but Frank Westworth is one of them. Someone is to blame! Someone must pay!… I was pulling into the driveway at RCHQ Bude when Jack, the imaginatively-named black tomcat, ran under the front wheel. I braked. This is a reflex action. Running over the cat…

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We’ve just received a press release about the launch of a new British Motorcycle Brand, complete with tantalising computer generated images of a range of Buell Blast based singles. Martin Gelder isn’t sure whether to laugh or cry… In times of recession, good news is always welcome. We all want to hear that there is…

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If a bike from yesteryear was rubbish when it was a new bike, does that mean it’s still rubbish now it can claim to be a classic bike? Frank Westworth contemplates classicness and other fantasies… A man gazed at me in what may have been wonder. It may also have been fright, admiration or horror.…

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In a recent issue of RealClassic magazine, reader Roger Bibbings asked for nominations for the perfect modern motorcycle to suit classic bike riders. And lots of people answered him… Roger’s Quandary I am now 58 years old and have been riding motorcycles (over 45 different machines) almost every day since February 1965, covering somewhere towards…

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If you’re thinking of buying your first Japanese classic bike, then Steve Cooper of the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club has some suggestions… Mention Japanese bikes to those of a different persuasion down the pub or at club night and you may often get some incredulous or disdainful looks. It’s not so much the hackneyed, loathing…

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To some folk, a classic bike is a precious thing to be cosseted and cared for. Steve Cooper of the VJMC argues that there’s room for the scruffy sort, too… I recently encountered the legendary chap who has what appears to be the world’s most care-worn BSA Bantam. Sporting copious layers of hand-applied blue and…

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You might expect that everyone sufficiently fortunate to ride old motorcycles would inevitably be cheerful. Frank Westworth can’t understand why not entirely everyone is… Gloom. You get to recognise it as it walks towards you. ‘Another old one’s gone.’ I gaze with a familiar sinking sense of inevitability at a man who has materialised before…

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