RealClassic

  • Triumph Visitor Experience

    Triumph Visitor Experience

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    Triumph has a long history of making motorcycles which stretches all the way back to 1902. The firm’s history falls into two distinct parts* – the classic bike side and the modern motorcycles – and these are reflected in the company’s new Visitor Experience. Frank Melling has visited, and is experienced… First, there is what…

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  • Stafford Show Report

    Stafford Show Report

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    Each year, the line separating classic British steeds from Japanese classics seems to blur a little more, with some vintage Oriental iron now being 50 years old. Add in the usual suspects from Italian and German manufacturers, and the result is a classic bike show with something for all tastes… as Morgan Rue found out…

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  • Triumph Thunderbird

    Triumph Thunderbird

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    Back in the early 1980s, Triumph built a budget 650; a short-stroke version of the 750 Bonneville. These days the TR65 Thunderbird is proving to be a rewarding practical classic bike for one regular rider… ‘As I age,’ says RC regular Mark Holyoake, ‘my taste in bikes has changed. Gone are the days of race-reps…

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  • Classic bikes for sale

    Classic bikes for sale

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    As usual, the monthly magazine includes an eclectic collection of classic bikes you can buy. Here’s a tempting selection of some private-sale classic motorcycles from our Small Ads, including two radically different Triumphs, an Ariel off-roader, a BMW bruiser and one of Kawasaki’s more civilised two-stroke triples… TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE 750. 1977 T140J Silver Jubilee. 14,700…

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  • Classic Bike Auction

    Classic Bike Auction

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    As usual, the autumn Stafford Show will host a Bonhams auction of classic motorcycles. Some 200 classic bikes will go under the hammer and we’ll be keeping an eye on our favourites. Some folks focus on the exclusive array of upmarket machines in these sales, and there are Gold Stars, Broughs, Vincents and Manx Nortons…

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  • Dot Motorcycles

    Dot Motorcycles

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    Famous after WW2 for their lightweight trials and scrambles machines, Dot Motorcycles adopted their ‘Devoid of Trouble’ marketing slogan back in the early 1920s, around five years before the 1928 350 pictured here was built. Exactly where the company’s name came from appears to have been lost down the back of the sofa of time.…

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  • October issue out now!

    October issue out now!

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    This month’s magazine celebrates the end of a pair of projects, as two very different British classic motorcycles return to the road. Then there two superbikes from the Seventies; two BMW boxers; two Triumphs; two BSAs, and… suddenly our Noah’s ark procession falls apart with the appearance of a single Benelli twin and a cheap-as-chips…

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  • See Sheene’s machines at Stafford

    See Sheene’s machines at Stafford

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    The Carole Nash Classic Mechanics Show is so mightily immense that you could easily spend all day at the showground and still not see everything. So here’s our handy-dandy guide of what to see at Stafford this October… The Suzuki Village is a special feature, displaying a stack of rare racing machines of the marque.…

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  • A Riding Life

    A Riding Life

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    Fans of Frank Melling’s autobiographical ‘Penguin’ books will be thrilled to discover that a new publication from the biking world’s international man of mystery has just been published. ‘Ride Of My Life’ is an action-packed, glossy A4 bookazine which runs to 132 pages. You’ll find it in bigger newsagents, or it’s available online or from…

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  • Norton Commando

    Norton Commando

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    The S-type 750 Commando was introduced in 1969 alongside the Fastback, itself a tweaked version of the initial Commando, and the R-type Roadster. The S was intended to capture the hearts and wallets of the American market and it wedded Norton’s isolastic chassis to the street scrambler styling of the P11 desert sled which had…

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