Features

Few men in motorcycling led as full a life as the genial, pipe-smoking Italian designer Leopoldo Tartarini, who passed away on September 11 at his home in the hills outside Bologna, at the age of 83. 

Mick Payne looks back on the first part of Team Katy’s eventful ‘4 Corners 4 Alzheimer’s’ journey on a Jawa/Velorex outfit – including a stark reminder of the kind of things the awful disease can do to a much-loved partner.  

It drank like a fish and reared up at the drop of a hat, but Kawasaki’s crazy two-stroke triple certainly got the firm noticed, writes Steve Cooper.  

“These are bespoke machines for the refined rider.” All those fabled ancient virtues in a rigidly simple machine which provides a refreshing change of classic clothes… 

Big Brit single cylinder sloggers were built to haul sidecars. So what’s their purpose in the modern world? 

Vincent’s single is inevitably eclipsed by its twin cylinder siblings. Yet it’s the better bike for real world riding 

These days a monoshock or cantilever suspension system is considered ‘normal’, but in 1962 John Wilkinson must have caused a bit of a stir when he turned up at a scramble with this Goldie. 

It was well known in the 1960s that Sammy Miller ran two almost identical Ariels –though 786 GON was often sidelined in favour of the more famous GOV 132.