Features Archives Page 39 of 52

Dot Motorcycles

5th October 2017 RowenaH Features

Famous after WW2 for their lightweight trials and scrambles machines, Dot Motorcycles adopted their ‘Devoid of Trouble’ marketing slogan back in the early 1920s, around five years before the 1928 350 pictured here was built. Exactly where the company’s name came from appears to have been lost down the back of the sofa of time. Brand name aside, Dot’s story…

Norton Commando

30th September 2017 RowenaH Features

The S-type 750 Commando was introduced in 1969 alongside the Fastback, itself a tweaked version of the initial Commando, and the R-type Roadster. The S was intended to capture the hearts and wallets of the American market and it wedded Norton’s isolastic chassis to the street scrambler styling of the P11 desert sled which had been discontinued the previous year.…

Honda CL350

19th September 2017 RowenaH Features

Here’s another contender for our ‘compact classic’ competition. Honda’s street scrambler from the late 1960s comes with 100mph potential, electric starting and a not too scary purchase price. Richard Jones examines its credentials… So here’s the problem. You like the look of those trail / adventure bikes that seem to be ridden by everyone yet you don’t want the cost,…

Egli Vincent

12th September 2017 RowenaH Features

Take an iconic British V-twin engine and wrap it in an uprated Continental chassis and – voila! – you have created the Egli Vincent. Well, that’s exactly what Fritz did. Richard Jones bumped into this example of the breed at a recent British Historic Racing meet, and it inspired him to investigate the background of the beast and its more…

Suzuki GT750

9th September 2017 RowenaH Features

Now that it’s an acknowledged cult classic, this iconic 1970s water-cooled 750 triple doesn’t come cheap. But if you spend one single quid to enter the VMCC’s raffle, there’s a chance you could win this very bike. So what’s it like to ride? Remember the ‘Universal Japanese Motorcycle’, that faintly derogatory term from the 1970s and 80s? Its point was…

Moto Guzzi Falcone

5th September 2017 RowenaH Features

Which aspect of classic motorcycling is more important – the nuts, bolts and engineering which produces the bike’s performance potential? Or its charisma, its character; its joie de vivre? Richard Jones reckons this iconic Italian encapsulates all the attributes of a timeless classic bike… I could tell you that the Moto Guzzi Falcone of the 1950s has a single cylinder,…