Reviews

Sidecars are a natural attachment to traditional classic bikes. But riding them does require a little skill. Paul Friday tells a victim’s tale from his first (last) sidecar encounter… I have a memory of drawing my perfect space rocket, from when I was at school. It had everything: living pod, missiles, radar dish and an…

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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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A chance find of an old album of photographs led to the publication of this book, which recalls the halcyon days of motorcycle racing at the Donington circuit… A major challenge in recording history is that as it gets left behind by subsequent generations it compresses: formerly distinct time periods slide into each other to…

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Steve Wilson didn’t really need to ride another Enfield straight away, but we wanted to do the ‘out standing in his field’ joke. So he just had to go a-trialling-oh… If you want to go trail riding in proper classic style, then you need to get something relatively reliable, affordable and fuss-free, and do it…

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First rule of restorations: be certain you know what you’re dealing with. Initially, Russ Gannicott was certain he was dealing with a 153cc Rossa. Now he’s certainly… confused! OK, where did we get to? I’d carried out some renovations and modifications to the frame, sourced some rare bits and was about to tackle the job…

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You want a modern bike with classic style. How do you choose? Steve The Toast explains how he ended up with a Harley Softail… It was the summer of 2002. The small ads were once again spread before me. My finances had experienced a lift which gave me the chance to buy a new bike.…

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Isle of Man TT – The Photographic History Bill Snelling and Michael Scott This handsome hardback aims to captures the spirit, excitement and danger of the world’s most famous motorcycle road race series. We asked Bill Nelson to read it and he went quite quiet (for a while)… Let’s start at the beginning, with the…

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In the 1970s Dave Minton first greeted the idea of a high-speed, high-mileage 750cc parallel twin with suspicion, but he was fast won over. Here’s how, and why… As a working motorcycle journalist, by 1971 I had become accustomed to abandoning test BSAs, Triumphs and Nortons by the roadside. The build quality of these final…

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A rebuild draws to a close, and Gerry Atric makes a discovery about Lucas alternators which may help you if your electrical system fails to charge its battery properly… Assembling my large DIY motorbike kit was not without its snags. For a start I was a little disappointed with how brittle the stove-enamelling was. While…

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