Features

The Calthorpe Ivory is best known in its sloping engine guise, but John Pape’s model is the early upright version. Either way the company gained immediate acclaim from the motorcycle press and bike-buying public because of the machine’s clean and attractive design…

The Royal Enfield Bullet is a machine which has been in production for many years, though few look better than this superb example

Pure riding skill and bulldog spirit kept Eric Oliver ahead of the opposition. A 500cc Norton outfit should not have been a match for the power of the Gilera 4, but Oliver won four world titles…

With its 100ft wide concrete straights and 30ft high bankings, the Brooklands circuit at Weybridge, Surrey, was a daunting high speed challenge and only the strong survived…

A neglected Kawasaki Z400 engine with all its road muck still on and left exposed to the elements without spark plugs fitted. Rod Gibson goes in…

Rod Gibson orders parts from Z-Power and is told that his Kawasaki twin is an older 400, not what he thought…

More usually model 221s are 175cc capacity but the owner of this one has gone large…

Well aware of the rumours of exotica hiding within the body of Andy Roberton’s BSA, tester Vic Allan was pleased to find the machine was more a reflection of attention to detail by the builder

The first of Norton’s Commandos was a radical looking machine, as exampled by this stunning specimen

Norton’s famous – and successful – Commando came in a number of guises, but is any more handsome than the S Type?