RealClassic

I have been very fortunate to own many of my dream motorcycles, but the Royal Enfield Interceptor Series 2 has slipped through the net on three occasions. The first time was forgivable. In 1970 I saw the pictures in the bike press and thought that th

We read about the dog-awful Ducati 125 Regolarita, it of the 4-stroke bottom end and terrible 2-stroke top end in RC185. Here is our tale of woe on the subject. About a year ago my son and I acquired two (yes two) of these bikes here in Canada, both

Once the dust had settled after the Great War, it became clear that America's thriving motorcycle industry would struggle to survive in the 1920s. The initial abundance of multiple pioneer marques contracted massively. The pattern followed the same p

'Cotton never put Triumph engines in their frames - is it a special?'That's a statement and question all rolled into one that I often hear at events where classic bikes and riders congregate . 'Yes, they did ... but yes, it kind-of is; I reply, my us

When you set out to buy a classic bike you can never be too sure where the journey will take you. That has certainly proved to be the case with the Royal Enfield Continental GT I bought last year. Much has been written about this little bike and I am

I first saw one of these machines howling up Sunrising Hill during the VMCC Banbury Run. It wore a BSA logo on the tank but the engine looked and sounded like an eardrum breaking four-cylinder two-stroke. I spotted it next at the Rose of the Shires R

You've read some articles, seen social media pictures of normal -looking people appearing to extract abnormal levels of fun from very old bikes and thought, perhaps, there might be space in your heart and shed for a vintage bike. Congratulations! You

The bait had been dangled several months earlier by Anthony who, very kindly, sent me a couple of photos of a very dirty engine and gearbox sitting on a workbench in someone's garage. This, he assured me, was a prototype Norton twin from the 1940s de

When Martin Gelder (known to many RC regulars as 'RealMart ; from message boards of yore) died in 2018, I lost one of my oldest and dearest friends. He'd arranged for his bikes to go to his friends and my name was on the list. One option was his 1983

Bike builders and restorers have never had it so good. There's a rash opening statement for you. We can all hark back to the days when up and running bikes were fifty quid each (or often much less), and parts were correspondingly cheap. Back wheel fo