Blog

The truth can now be told. One-time motorcycle testing journalist, Derek Pickard, reveals the real meaning behind those bland test reports from the 1970s and 1980s… ‘This European motorcycle maker launched its new model in a cultured European way.’ Should read: They shipped the media to a licensed pizza place for a great party. ‘…and…

Continue reading »

Frank Westworth has been thinking back to days gone by, and to AJS and Matchless CSR twins of ancient memory… I’ve been plastering about the West Country aboard a CSR twin of glorious madness for the last several months (in between taking long leisurely holidays, as a chap should), and fell to wondering exactly what…

Continue reading »

More photos from Classic Motorcycling meets Kustom Kuture at Ally Pally… First thing to greet you, before you’ve even joined the queue for tickets. 1954/61 BSA A10 Super Rocket, owend by the current owner since 1971 and now for sale ([email protected]). “Brooklands Flyer”: 1921 Clyno 250 chassis, 1936 Velocette MAC 350 motor, 1922 Albion 3…

Continue reading »

In the grip of nostalgia, you may be tempted to try to find your P&J from years gone by. We’ve found that strategic enquiries works better than the scattergun approach… Every week we receive letters and adverts from previous owners asking to be reunited with their classic bikes. It’s a common theme; I loved that…

Continue reading »

Old bike clubs are right at the core of the classic bike scene. Frank Westworth has belonged to many clubs, but wonders whether the excitement is all too much… Whenever I have paused to think about it, I have always wondered why bike clubs are so popular. Think about this. One of the reasons we…

Continue reading »

That’s no way to treat a classic bike! John Kane revisits a simple land before heroes emerged from the back streets… In 1971 choppers were becoming fashionable in Britain. Lots of 15 year-olds like me had Easy Rider posters on their walls. Peter Fonda and the other one (Dennis Hopper) were the epitome of cool…

Continue reading »

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…

Continue reading »

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…

Continue reading »

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.…

Continue reading »

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…

Continue reading »