News

Fans of 1960s and 70s TT racing will be delighted by this second edition of photos from the camera of Ken Sprayson. Costa Zarifi has read it… Ken Sprayson, in Colour is a collection of Ken Sprayson’s Island snaps, from 1963 to 1981. If the name seems familiar, it is because Ken can be associated…

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Owners of old British bikes are not biased about their machines. Most certainly not. They know all about the bikes’ good points — but no one is ever particularly shy about coming forwards with the bad news, too. It just happens that in the case of Ted Richardson’s 1969 Starfire there is very little bad…

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20 years ago, Stephen Dunne threw caution to the wind and set off around mainland Europe on an 8500 mile journey which would turn out to be the best time of his life… Whilst consuming beer at a very excellent weekend in Belgium, the discussion moved on to a chap who had ridden over from…

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Some experts consider the Gold Star to be the best bike ever built by BSA. Make up your own mind, after examining our quick fire classic bike guide to the breed… A Bit of Background We’re all probably familiar with the charismatic postwar bikes, but the Gold Star first arrived in the years leading up…

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Bike builder, demon scribbler and so much more, Odgie celebrates one of those ‘special’ birthdays this year. And to commemorate the moment, he’s written an autobiography… From the get-go I have to admit an interest in this book: I’ve long admired and enjoyed Odgie’s exploits and it’s a delight to feature his outlandish machines and…

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Kel Boyce bought a Spanish-built Mototrans 24 Horas by mistake, believing it to be a Ducati. No problem; it was built to go racing and so that’s what he did with it… So the road-going race replica I’d bought added up to a very overweight bike, right? Yep! But don’t get too carried away because…

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Every inch of Russ Gannicott’s 250cc Enfield racer has been tweaked and tightened or gas-flowed and lightened. Time to give it a try, then… With the bike finally built we got permission to do our testing at Hurn Airport, and on a sunny February day the Super 5 first burst into life. On first push,…

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Ambassador built small two-strokes during the 1950s and 1960s. This new book should be hugely helpful to any restorer, says Tony Gutteridge… Ambassador’s first production motorcycle was a 197cc lightweight fitted with a Villiers 5E engine. It came out in 1947 with a rigid frame and girder forks, and a three-speed gearbox. This model was…

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You meet the nicest people on a Honda. And Jim Peace… Once upon a time, many years ago, motorcycle engines had proper capacities like 250, 350 and 500cc. And motorbikes knew their place. Two-strokes and Tiger Cubs were for commuting, 350s could be used for modest touring, 500s were more sporting, and 650s and thousands…

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It was big. Really big. Really extremely big for the 1980s. Steve The Toast debates the virtues of blunderbuss motorcycling and Kawasaki’s classic six-cylinder machine… If anyone ever tells you that they have never made a mistake, you would be relatively safe to draw the conclusion that they have never made anything, as the saying…

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