Features

Honda’s 400cc and 500cc V-four sport bikes that appeared in 1983 were exotic high-revvers with a luxury feel – but they concealed a nasty secret. John Nutting delves into his MIRA files to find out what they were like…

Few of us will have had the good fortune of being given, as a birthday present, a motor cycle – especially something as exotic as a pre-Second World War 1265cc in-line Indian Four. Yet that is exactly what happened to Peter Sparkes when his wife decided to give him something extra-special…

Theresa Wallach returns to London in the first week of December 1950, having covered 30,002 miles in the USA and Canada on her Norton International…

France hosted the 1923 Grand Prix, on a 14 mile long circuit, and although the French contingent provided a strong challenge, British machines and riders won out…

The Goodman family – manufacturers of Velocette – stopped making motorcycles circa 1970, right? Well, not quite. In 1998, Simon Goodman, the great grandson of the firm’s founder, made one last machine, and thanks to Neil Redley we’ve scooped a test on this unique machine…

‘Specials’ are in a class of their own, particularly when it comes to taking on someone else’s unfinished project. Mike Lewis looks at the marriage of Ariel’s 997cc four-cylinder motor with Norton’s fine-handling wideline ‘Featherbed’ chassis…

Rod Ker is reminded of breezing along through a blue haze of burnt two stroke oil when he rides the smallest of Suzuki’s three-cylinder trio…

It wasn’t just England, Australia and America discovering the delights of dirt track racing in the 1920s. They were at it in the Dutch East Indies too…

Between testing road bikes in the 1970s and 80s, John Nutting was occasionally invited to try racing machines, such as Yamaha’s stunning TZ750 two-stroke four. It was a sobering experience…

Classic Motorcycle Mechanics photographer Joe Dick here is a V4-lover… but unfortunately he stacked his beloved NC30 and has had to do an eBay sweep to get the requisite parts to build his baby back to its best. What could go right?