News

A CBX1000 might be an awesome thing to admire in a showroom, but what’s it really like to live with? Long term owner John Hall reveals some useful wrinkles… The CBX is one of those marvellous monsters from the 1980s which nowadays brings with it a unique set of problems. John Hall has owned four…

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Jonny Wellard wants to know if his Kawasaki W650 is groovy and fab, or just grubby and sad. People ask him; ‘what’s the point of having one of those when you could buy the real thing?’ And he has an answer for them! That’s the nub of the issue isn’t it — Kodak or Constable?…

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In 1932, Robert Fulton Jr set off aboard a Douglas twin on a round the world ride from England to America. The essence of that adventure is revealed in images in this rarely-seen hardback book… Many of us will be familiar with the globe-trotting adventure of Robert E Fulton Jr, whose epic journey of the…

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Martin Gelder goes back to the seventies (inevitably) to explain why his personal idea of a Real Classic Motorcycle is small, Italian and has “Three and a Half” written on the side… This is a story that begins a long, long time ago and in a land far, far away. Travel back with me to…

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Dave Minton discovers what might be the definitive description of the Isle of Man TT circuit… If your motorcycling interests cover Vincents you will recognize the name David Wright because he wrote the fascinating ‘Vincents in the Isle of Man’. Understandably such a specifically targeted volume appeals to a minority of buffs. Fortunately David has…

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Phil Speakman takes an unusual first ride on his latest classic bike. From the middle of nowhere to the other side of the country on one of the coldest days of the year — aka hypothermia for beginners… ‘How do you spell it?’ ‘S-L-E-A-F’ ‘Ah yes, I’ve got it now. Never heard of that station…

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Chapter Three of Jim Algar’s Dominator Diary, wherein the engine gets torn down, and the news is… not good. So let’s take the gearbox apart, shall we? With the engine and gearbox on the workbench at the end of Chapter 2, the next step was to tear the engine down to its component parts in…

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So when did the Post Office start using BSA Bantams to deliver telegrams? Paul Wood continues his tale of working motorcycles, from the 1930s through to the heyday of the BSA Bantam… Before the 1930s, the Post Office had concentrated on sidecars for the bulk of their delivery rounds but the solo motorcycle was to…

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This motorcycling anthology of ‘writing from the fast lane’ was selected and introduced by Neil Bradford, and it caught the attention of at least one RC reader… ‘When my mood gets too hot and I find myself wandering beyond control I pull out my motorbike and hurl it at top speed through these unfit roads…

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How do you turn a bland UJM into a genuine Japanese classic? You add style, of course. Rowena Hoseason has a thing about pop-up headlights… An interesting phenomenon was observed at the recent Japanese Classic Motorcycle Show at Donington: there was an extremely clean Suzuki 1100 Katana offered for sale at sensible money. It wasn’t…

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