Features

Back in 1953 people who customised motorcycles were known as ‘bitza-builders’ but as John Mills, writing in the August 20 issue of The Motor Cycle noted, the term didn’t always reflect the quality of machine built from various bits…

Rare, sought after and well engineered. The Henderson was a fast motorcycle, adopted by police forces in vast numbers…

SOS machines of any age are few and far between, as they were built in such limited numbers. So the even rarer vintage-era machines fall into the ‘hen’s teeth’ category…

A four-valve sporting single seemed out of character for Triumph in 1921. Bob Currie explains the background

Fast, tough and comfortable, the 11.50 combination was designed by its maker George Brough as a fast road train. Over 70 years later, it’s still capable of that role, if given the chance…

A term I don’t particularly care for is ‘badge engineering’ but it pretty much covers what AMC did with AJS and Matchless motorcycles. Acutely aware of marque loyalty in the market place AMC was careful to have an AJS or Matchless equivalent of each model in its range…

Shaft-driven Sunbeams were a gentlemanly alternative to the rufty tufty vision of 50s motorcycling, when young men supposedly roared across the countryside on Nortons, Triumphs and BSAs with not a care in the world…

Museums are often criticised for having lots of static exhibits. Luckily the Beaulieu collection is more enlightened and actually allows historic machines to run. Jim Reynolds gets on with a legendary Norton…

The Norton Navigator was never that popular in its day, though then – as now – it had its devotees. One of Norton’s last truly new designs, the lightweight twin thrived on revs – just like another range of small lightweight four-stroke twins soon to emerge from the east…

Kawasaki’s GPz1100 cracked the 150mph barrier in 1983, and that alone gives the bike a place in the history books. But was the last and most potent of the big air-cooled Kawasaki fours the best of the bunch? John Nutting reports…