Classic Bike Guide

TWO CLASSIC BIKE racers from Cornwall have broken two American Land Speed Records on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Phil Betty and Miki Sprosen featured on our news pages back in July and revealed their plan to seize back the two land speed records for T

THE IMMORTAL OGRI was the proto-rocker that a certain kind of Seventies and Eighties rider wished they were. Created by the genius that is Paul Sample, Ogri, along with the hapless Malcolm, the frankly pneumatic Mitzi and Kickstart the dog, was a mon

CAFE RACER KITS (CRK) have announced details of their latest bike conversion kit. Following the success of the Honda and Triumph kits, the latest offering turns Yamaha’s naked sports Fazer FZS600 into a TZ250-style street racer. CRK offerings use bik

SIDECAR MANUFACTURER WATSONIAN have launched new sidecars for modern classics from Triumph and Royal Enfield. A Prescott sidecar has been created for use with the 1200cc Triumph Bobber Black. The combo featured the popular Prescott body shell, based

BECAUSE THE CLUTCH is mounted inboard of the final drive sprocket, the mechanism is very slender. With an engine arrangement that is already very narrow and compact, it’s unlike almost any other clutch, with 16 tiny springs mounted in a ring behind t

Engine: Liquid-cooled parallel-twin four-stroke with four valves per cylinder, 270° crankshaft and chain-driven double overhead cams with idler gear Dimensions: 82 x 61.5mm Capacity: 649.57cc Output: 84 bhp/63kW at 11,000rpm (at crankshaft) Torque: 6

AS I WRITE, THE WIND AND RAIN IS POUNDING on the glass and my garden furniture has been swept into a pile of confusion against the shed; today is not the day to be out riding. Instead, I’ve mostly been idly browsing the interweb and magazines for wha

THERE’S A SAYING THAT RUNS: NO GOOD DEED goes unpunished – and there’s more than a grain of truth to it. A particular case in point has to be the small Yamaha AS1 twin that has blighted my life for longer than I care to remember. For those that don’t

NO ONE IS A GUEST WITHOUT EXPECTATION. AS a five-year guest of the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles (guest curator that is), my job is to pull rabbits out of hats annually for their motorcycle exhibitions. This year, we travel back in time to Italy, ex

An AJS Model 16 or Matchless G3 should definitely be on your shopping list. A good AMC 350 will come in a lot cheaper than a Velocette, to the tune of thousands of pounds. Originally a rigid, and always fitted with telescopic forks, like Velocette, t

IT TOOK A REMARKABLY LONG TIME, BUT suddenly and at last I find myself using a Triumph twin as daily wheels again. For the first time since 1976/77, in fact. Which is not to say that there hasn’t been a steady stream of twin-pot Trumpets passing thro