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Getting into the engine: the time has come for Phillip Rashleigh to take apart the crankcases and discover what horrors lurk within… Finally, I decided that the time had come to take the crankcases apart. The bike had come with the barrel and head only resting on the cases but the crank and timing gear…

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Fiery Fred bought a new old-style bike in the shape of a Chang Jiang 750. The first thing it did was to break down. Could he solve the problem? The next new day arrived and although I was disappointed not to have succeeded in my epic journey I was determined to get to the bottom…

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Jim Algar was galloping on with his restoration on a Norton twin. And then he discovered that his cylinder head has… shrunk! What next? Time, I think, to add the crowning glory to the now installed engine; the cylinder head. Ah, the infamous Norton cylinder head. Gather round, children, and I’ll tell you a story…a…

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Emm collects her new classic bike. Emm loves her new classic bike. The new classic bike wasn’t yet available for comment… Visitors to this site will know that I have eagerly awaited the opportunity to collect a new motorbike recently and, with thanks to those of you that have whet my appetite over the last…

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Buying a ratty classic bike unseen is always risky but – hey – nothing ventured… Russ Gannicott starts a new project and asks; ‘Can you tell what it is yet?’ Of all my eBay purchases this could have been the one where I came unstuck big-time. Scanning through the ‘newly listed‘ section of ‘other motorcycles’…

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In 1954, an adventurer set off on an overland ride from Britain to Australia, aboard a Norton Dominator. These are his diaries, which we asked Dave Blendell to read… The Hard Way Round is more of a thick pamphlet than a book, taking 44 pages of A4 to tell the tale. There is also a…

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This book aims to give advice to cure leaks, reduce vibes and boost performance. So who better to review it than a professional motorcycle engineer? ‘Improving Classic Motorcycle Engines’ is the third in a series of books by Graham Blighe, and it follows the same format as ‘Improving Classic Motorcycles’ and ‘Magnetic Speedometer Repair.’ It’s…

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Dave Minton has been riding Laverda triples for over 30 years. Meet his favourite and be surprised: it’s no Jota (but it does make all the right sounds)… At between 2500 and 4000 revs in the higher gears, 180-degree Breganze triples make wonderful noises — a sort of basso profundo gargle, not unlike a narrow…

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Gerry Atric’s restoration of his 500cc twin continues, and we’ve discovered some other info about these bikes, too… While all the previously described work was going on, I had been regularly visiting autojumbles in an effort to find the missing pieces of the jigsaw, which might one day make up a complete bike (one with…

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It runs! Quick, take it to bits again! With a deadline in sight, Martin Gelder’s 1982 Moto Morini 350 Sport finally receives some much needed attention after sitting in the shed for two years… Progress! Well, progress of a sort, at least. Two years ago, I fried my Morini’s alternator windings by trying to fit…

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