News

From the Speed Twin to the first Bonneville, this glossy hardback tells the story of Turner’s iconic twins… Crowood’s MotoClassics series has gradually evolved over the years, so I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised to discover that the latest volume in the range is a slightly different format to its predecessors. Spooky, actually:…

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Before there was Elsie, Yamaha built an equally memorable two-stroke tearaway. Anarchy shows us his 400C… Although there’s an inevitable family resemblance between the RD400 and the 350 which preceded it, the 40bhp two-stroke had been considerably developed to make it bigger, smoother, quieter, faster and longer-lived. Yamaha increased the engine stroke to add 51cc…

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This high quality, limited edition book about the Ariel motorcycles of the late 1920s will only be available for a short while. Grab it while you can… The trouble with enthusiasm is that enthusiasm is infectious. Beware enthusiasts, lest you come away from sharing their world with a bad attack of sharing their enthusiasm. Sometimes…

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Phil Speakman reviews a book which wanders from the subject of classic bikes, but which reflects the journey of one particularly distraught motorcycle rider… As someone who is unmarried, with no children, I think it is fair to say that it’s near impossible for me to really appreciate just what Neil Peart has been through.…

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Restoring a family heirloom is a daunting task, especially if the heirloom is a B33 which spent a decade wrapped up in a plastic paddling pool. Read how Andrew J Davies rose to the challenge as his restoration tale unfolds… From A(JS) to B(SA) ‘Dad, can I wash The Bike today?’ I was always the…

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What was that about ‘once bitten’? it didn’t apply to Phillip Rashleigh. After a bad Britbike experience in the 1980s he’s come back for a re-match… I guess I had better start at the beginning and then move onto where I have got to, and then head to where I am going to finish. Like…

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Do you know the difference between a B31, a B32 and a B33? With the aid of this book, you could become a BSA boffin… The cover blurb suggests that this book concen-trates on the top-notch Beezer singles, the high performance Gold Stars and Catalina special editions, but in fact much of it is given…

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Trevor (Ozboy) Brooks swapped a 1970 Triumph 500 for a 1969 Triumph 500. Out on the road together, the pair turned out to be non-identical twins… When I sold my T100R Daytona a number of people were aghast. I then acquired a T100C, to many eyes as akin to the Daytona as two peas in…

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Never mind going from Land’s End to John O’Groats, here’s a great documentary about a man who takes his travelling seriously. Would you ride a 350 Bullet to Tibet? I’ve probably mentioned before that reviewing bike videos is probably one of my least favourite tasks (and I’m the person who empties the cat litter tray…

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Kicking over classic bikes might be part of the ‘charm’ but not everyone appreciates all the fuss. Steve Hodgson went in search of an electric leg for his single-cylinder Guzzi… It all started when my recently acquired Moto Guzzi Nuovo Falcone 500 Military and I decided to go on its maiden voyage to Elvington with…

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