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Richard McCann discovers that recession doesn’t only affect valve seats… The headlines have been relentless. ‘Dow plunges another 600 points.’ ‘Consumer confidence slips again.’ ‘Banks in every country facing liquidation.’ So despite watching a recent BBC TV interview with a group of young ladies in Birmingham who claimed not to have heard about the credit…

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Why do so many of us apparently need to categorise everything? Frank Westworth is bemused by the notion of an emerging classic… When you become a student of the biological sciences, as I once was, one of the very first thing your lecturers beat into your dense student heads is the importance of classification. If…

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By 1976, Mocheck were enjoying enough success on the circuits that the company produced and sold a proddie race replica. John Ryan rode less and spent more time spannering, and shares a selection of his classic photographic memories of the era… Race mechanic John Ryan and the four-cylinder Honda 900 at the Zandvoort endurance race…

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This year – this week, in fact – there have been two competing motorcycle shows in London. Martin Gelder tries to pick a winner while making “vroom vroom” noises and bouncing on seats… The Ally Pally show sponsors MCN announced last year that the long established event at Alexandra Palace in North London would be…

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How do we define ourselves? By our jobs, the way we dress, or the music we like? By the bikes we ride or lust after? Episode two from Trevor Oz Brooks… In my younger days (sigh) I had a clear picture of who I was. I was Big Twin man, not Step-Thru boy, despite cutting…

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Even though more of us fell off last year, motorcycling is getting safer. Fact. Martin Gelder wades through the Department for Transport Road Casualties Report to find out what causes motorcycle accidents… The Department for Transport’s annual report on road casualties in Great Britain came out last month. Most of the press reports at the…

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‘Tell us what you think’ and ‘have your say’ seem ubiquitous these days. Magazine editors listen closely to every word you tell them. Whether magazine editors act upon those words is another matter entirely. Frank Westworth admits defeat… ‘I don’t bother reading magazines any more. They’re all the same.’ I scratch my head in an…

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Familiarity breeds… you know. Roger Houghton, a visitor from South Africa, takes a fresh look at the UK while he visits its classic motorcycling heritage sites… I am a classic motorcycle nut and my dream trip was to visit the ‘pilgrimage sites’ of the now virtually extinct British motorcycle industry – once the largest of…

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Back in the day, the young lads of The Paddock weren’t averse to a quick sprint to demonstrate their riding prowess. Ian Caswell remembers ones particular evening when things got a tiny little bit competitive… In my early days of knocking around the Paddock there were several of the occasional riders who I knew only…

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John Ryan shares a final selection of his classic motorcycling photographic memories from the days when South London dealer Mocheck developed competitive production racers… In 1977, Mocheck’s racing effort moved up a gear with a genuine, factory-supplied RSC (Racing Services Centre) engine. Here’s the bike being prepared for its first test Old and New 400…

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