classic bike Archives

Veloette Viper Highlights

8th September 2022 RowenaH Buying Guide, Features, Reviews, Road Tests

In the August issue of the magazine, Peter Hatfield shares his experiences of owning a 350 sports Velocette single. Here’s some of the background to the model, to get you in the mood for the full-length feature… Back in 1955, Velocette’s design engineer, Charles Udall, transformed the 350 MAC and 500 MSS all-rounders into sprightly sporters, the Venom and Viper…

Hammer Time: Auction Preview

11th July 2021 RowenaH Events, Features, News

The next interesting auction of classic motorcycles takes place on Saturday 24 July at Cheffins’ saleground at Sutton near Ely, CB6 2QT. The Cheffins catalogue is always worth browsing – the listings are detailed and well-informed, and provide a lot of background information specific to the machine which is going under the hammer. This is a lot more useful than…

Classic Techniques: practical painting

30th December 2020 RowenaH Features, Workshop

There’s a moment in every bike’s life when its paintwork needs a bit of a refresh – but you don’t want to go to the expense and extent of a full-blown professional makeover. Bob Pickett set to with the sandpaper and spray cans… Regular readers may well recognise this particular Morini 3½, which appeared many times on the original RealClassic…

Riding lives: sharing the journey

29th May 2020 RowenaH Features

For many years Len Page rode solo on his British bikes, but then began a quiet campaign to encourage his better half to join him on two wheels… In the early years of my motorcycling life most of my girlfriends were reluctant to ride pillion. It was the time of the mini-skirt and the pillion seats left a lot of…

Velocette MSS: out of the archive

9th April 2020 RowenaH Features

If you like the idea of a Velo MAC but need a little more performance than a 350 provides, then Veloce built your ideal bike in the shape of the MSS 500… Velocette is often seen as one of the ‘high class’ marques of classic bike, something of a cut above the ubiquitous parallel twin and far more refined than…

Newsflash! Six month MoT extension

25th March 2020 RowenaH News

Classic bikes over 40 years old don’t need an MoT certificate, but many old bike riders also run younger motorcycles. Normally, these need an MoT certificate to be legal. To help prevent the spread of Covid-19, MoT due dates for cars, motorcycles and light vans will be extended by 6 months from from 30 March 2020… This question has cropped…