The Classic MotorCycle

Started in 1903, The Classic MotorCycle has more to offer the true vintage motorcycle enthusiast than any other publication, backed by Europe's largest motorcycle image archive.

The Classic MotorCycle2 min read
Welcome
That there’s going to be a 1990s hall at the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show in October has set me thinking. All the time I’ve been involved in the vintage and classic scene – which is practically all my four-decades-plus of life, and the last 20 y
The Classic MotorCycle1 min read
Get Your Fix
Pre-order your next issue and save money www.classicmagazines.co.uk/pre-order-tcm Pay just £3.67 per issue by taking out a subscription by visiting www.classicmagazines.co.uk/tcmdps Download the latest edition and back issues direct to your table
The Classic MotorCycle3 min read
Clyno At Speed
In 1913, action photography was really still in its infancy – although it was 36 years since Eadweard Muybridge’s famous movement pictures of the horse Occident, it was yet a relatively primitive hit-and-miss process, which makes this picture of H G
The Classic MotorCycle3 min read
Spectacle Of Slide Sale
An extraordinary collection of 31 speedway motorcycles, reflecting the glory years of a sport once the second most popular in the UK, will be the centrepiece of Bonhams’ Autumn Stafford Sale on October 15-16. The Forshaw Speedway Collection represent
The Classic MotorCycle1 min read
The Classic MOTORCYCLE
EDITOR James Robinson Tel 01507 529405 Fax 01507 371066 [email protected] REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS Tim Britton, Alan Cathcart, Jonathan Hill, Roy Poynting, Richard Rosenthal, Martin Squires, Jerry Thurston, Alan Turner, Steve Wilson CONTRIBUTOR
The Classic MotorCycle2 min read
CMM Showtime At Stafford
Now, it’s well out of our remit for this magazine, but the fact ex-GP and BSB star Niall Mackenzie is bringing both his 1992 NR750 Honda and 1999 Yamaha R7 to the October 15/16 Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show, is something of a coup. The oval-pisto
The Classic MotorCycle2 min read
Show Success In Yorkshire
Enthusiasts were out in force to support Yorkshire Classic Motorcycle Club’s annual charity bike show. And the calibre of classic motorcycles matched the company they were keeping. Mingling among the predominantly two-wheeled icons of the racetrack –
The Classic MotorCycle1 min read
Significant Norton Sells Well
The first Norton ES2 listed in Norton factory records was the stand-out lot at Cheffins’ July 23 sale, held at the company’s sale site near Ely in Cambridgeshire. Norton’s new pushrod machine debuted in the 1927 TT, with Jimmy Shaw recording a fine f
The Classic MotorCycle2 min read
THE WAY WE WERE IN October
Cyril Pullin (349 and 733cc ohv Douglas twins) smashed a fistful of flying kilometre records in the Avenue des Acacias, Paris, raising the 750cc solo class flying kilometre from 89.91 to 98.039mph and 350cc solo from 83.07 to 91.72mph. With sidecar h
The Classic MotorCycle3 min read
Additional Track Time
This composite picture (it’s two pieces joined together) was used on the letters page in the April 28, 1938, edition of The Motor Cycle with the caption: “Bank Holiday at Donington. A fine, panoramic view of Melbourne Corner, a section of the new 3⅛-
The Classic MotorCycle1 min read
The 82nd Pioneer Run For Veteran Motorcycles
Internationally recognised as the premier event in the veteran motorcycle movement, the Pioneer Run has always attracted the largest gathering of pre-1915 solos, sidecars and tricycles in the world, providing an opportunity to see machines at least 1
The Classic MotorCycle2 min read
Book Review
“The Harley-Davidson Source Book” All the milestone production models since 1903 Author: Mitch BergeronPublished by: Motorbooks, an imprint of the Quarto GroupEmail:[email protected] from specialist bookshops and Am
The Classic MotorCycle3 min read
Off-road Triumph
In the September 21, 1961 issue of The Motor Cycle, Peter Fraser was let loose on Triumph works star Johnny Giles’s motorcycle, reported to be the machine which the International Six Days Trial (ISDT) British Trophy team rider would be aboard one mon
The Classic MotorCycle5 min read
Readers’ Letters
Thanks for the interesting article in the September 2022 issue, on Ian Hatton’s very nice Fafnir, of which I can confirm a previous keeper was Chips Sibley. Since, as the article said, I had a Fafnir, I would like to cover some queries as to the poss
The Classic MotorCycle4 min read
The Older I Get – The Faster I Am!
‘Once a racer, always a racer,’ so the saying goes, and if proof were needed, then the Veteran Speedway Riders Open Championship provided plenty. For the modest track at Lydd in the Romney Marsh, this is one of the highlights of the calendar and this
The Classic MotorCycle1 min read
Sunny Day At Stanford Hall
Organised by the Taverners Section of the VMCC, the annual pilgrimage to Stamford Hall for Founders’ Day, has been in the calendar for what’s now approaching 50 years. With the weather glorious in 2022, it proved a popular ‘do’ indeed; numbers looked
The Classic MotorCycle8 min read
Mighty Atlas
I first saw and heard a Norton Atlas on the stage of Her Majesty’s Theatre in London’s Haymarket, in 1961. ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ was a loose take on an Elvis-figure in a small Ohio town, about to enter the US Army. As a teen musical it wasn’t a patch on ‘
The Classic MotorCycle8 min read
French Exchange
Dave Skinner – or ‘Dave the Watch’ as he is known by his motorcycle friends in Bath – is, on the face of it, a stereotypical example of a classic motorcycle owner and enthusiast. Despite the fact his odometer of life will click over 90 years on this
The Classic MotorCycle11 min read
Sweet Swiss stroker
It’s remarkable how many motorcycle makers have been born down the years as a second string to their company’s main business model – and flourished as a result. For some reason, guns and ammo makers have led the way – think FN, BSA, Husqvarna, Royal
The Classic MotorCycle8 min read
The Unknown Soldier
When I was less than a year old, one night our front door was blown off by a falling ack-ack shell that had failed to explode air-side. A little later, my first words apparently were attempts to say ‘lorries,’ as British and US truck convoys rolled b
The Classic MotorCycle9 min read
Life Cycle Of The Autocycle
Based in Edmonton, North London, Aberdale launched a basic autocycle powered by a Villiers Junior De Luxe (JDL) 98cc engine in 1947. Although initially branded the ‘Aberdale’ it was built by the Welsh factory Bown. Sources imply Bown was a subsidiary
The Classic MotorCycle4 min read
The Missing Trophy
Works Norton rider Jimmie Guthrie was on the last lap of the 1937 500cc German Motorcycle Grand Prix, with victory assured by a comfortable margin from the second placed rider Karl Gall, BMW. It would have been Jimmie’s hat-trick of GP wins at the Ho
The Classic MotorCycle5 min read
The Last Gilera Racer
Gilera was on top of the world. The firm had won the premier class of the Grand Prix Championship five times between 1950 and 1955. Giuseppe Gilera, founder of the company that bore his name, and his son Ferruccio, decided that the time was ripe to c
The Classic MotorCycle5 min read
MV 350b
Les Whittamore is the Spares and Technical Officer for the MV Owners’ Club of Great Britain Ltd. He is also knowledgeable about one of the models that carried the MV Agusta logo, but often goes under the radar, the 350B. We are grateful to him for sh
The Classic MotorCycle5 min read
Metal Bashing
In a project like this, it’s the little things which take a long time. Shoving an engine and gearbox together is relatively quick and simple, but gathering all the bits takes time. There’s no cutting or grinding or modifying to do, even changing the
The Classic MotorCycle5 min read
Sketchbook Travels
July 2022 was full of club rallies and this entry into the sketchbook was my second of the month, a combined event between the Velocette Owners Club and New Imperial Owners Association, held at Lichfield Rugby Club. With an active autojumble and the
The Classic MotorCycle9 min read
You Were Asking
With reference to your concise reply to the question on cadmium plated fasteners (YWA September 2022, page 84), an alternative worth considering is to glass bead blast stainless steel fixings. This offers a cadmium-like result, with a hint of yellow.
The Classic MotorCycle4 min read
Diary
The Classic MotorCycle is anxious to learn all about your motorcycle-related events. Contact us at The Classic MotorCycle, Mortons Media Ltd, Diary Listings, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ or email [email protected] 1 Straightliners,
The Classic MotorCycle3 min read
Hot To Trot…
Awhile ago I mentioned that I had bought a temperature gauge to help me to set the jetting and timing on the little two-stroke Puch Maxi that I have been tuning. It’s just a ring-type thermocouple that sits under the sparking plug, which gives me a r
The Classic MotorCycle3 min read
Vive La Difference (or Not)
A colleague once remarked that I had a butterfly mind. I don’t know if it was intended as an insult or a compliment, but I have to admit that it’s true when it comes to motorcycles. Just as flying insects ignore the colour of a bloom provided it carr
The Classic MotorCycle2 min read
Key Ingredient
Pioneer motorcycle engine makers relied on plain bush big ends. To make a more substantial big end, makers later began opting for roller element big end bearings for single cylinder and some V-twin machines. In the vast majority of cases, to renew th

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