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
Is it better to go back or to experience something new? This is a subject I return to again and again, insomuch as the machines I own and ride, as well as the motorcycling events I do. It can be applied across life too – it’s human nature to return t
The Classic MotorCycle1 min read
The Classic MotorCycle
EDITOR James RobinsonTel 01507 529405 Fax 01507 [email protected] REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS Tim Britton, Alan Cathcart, Jonathan Hill, Ian Kerr, Roy Poynting, Richard Rosenthal, Martin Squires, Jerry Thurston, Alan Turner CONTRIBUTORS IN T
The Classic MotorCycle3 min read
Policewomen Who Motorcycle
Published in the July 5, 1917, edition of The Motor Cycle, the feature with which the reproduced picture appeared shared the title with that which we use, though it was accredited to ‘One of them’ rather than a specific name; in fact, none of our tri
The Classic MotorCycle1 min read
News In Brief
It’s 85 years since the Ace Cafe opened on London’s North Circular. A weekend of celebration is planned over September 1-3, the event culminating in the Brighton Burn Up, down to Madeira Drive. Details from www.acecafe.com or 0208 961 1000. Reviews
The Classic MotorCycle1 min read
Henry Cole for Stafford
Big news for the October 14/15 Stafford show is that star guests will be Henry Cole, host of ITV4’s popular The Motorbike Show, and his co-stars Allen Millyard and Guy ‘Skid’ Willison. The television trio has brought motorcycling to the masses, the T
The Classic MotorCycle1 min read
East Collection And Much More Up For Auction
Bonhams has announced it is to sell the well known collection of motorcycles from Tony East, at an all ‘no reserve’ sale at the Autumn Stafford Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show on October 14/15. Highlights include a bevy of beautiful Triumphs, some
The Classic MotorCycle1 min read
Hesketh Riders Visit Estate
On August 13, Hesketh motorcycle owners returned to Easton Neston, just outside Towcester, Northants, for the first time since Lord Hesketh sold the estate. Among those in attendance were Mick Broom, who did so much to keep the marque going. ■
The Classic MotorCycle1 min read
Strong Competition At Cheffins’ Vintage Sale
The Cheffins Vintage Sale on July 22 saw an eclectic range of motorcycles under the hammer. An appealing unrestored 1937 350cc Velocette KTS project sold for £4800, a glistening 1936 350cc International Norton was £15,000, a 1978 Moto Guzzi Le Mans M
The Classic MotorCycle1 min read
Sammy’s New Arrivals
Latest arrivals at Sammy Miller’s superb and ever-expanding museum are a pretty diverse pair – a 1950 Vincent Grey Flash road racer and a 1963 50cc Victoria. The Flash is believed ex-works, while the futuristically styled Victoria was made in Nurembu
The Classic MotorCycle1 min read
Yorkshire Classic
Motorcycles representing bygone eras of biking history were showcased at Yorkshire Classic Motorcycle Club’s Classic Bike show. Now in its 17th year, the event, at New Quarry House pub, Cross Roads, Haworth in West Yorkshire, attracted a record numbe
The Classic MotorCycle2 min read
The Way We Were In October
As well as a range of new single cylinder inlet over exhaust engines, the bespoke Swiss engine maker MAG had launched two new V-twins for the coming season. They were to be on display at all major European shows, including the London Motor Cycle Show
The Classic MotorCycle2 min read
Book Review
“Dave Bickers Unscrambled” Author: Ian Berry Foreword: Sylvia Bickers Publisher: York Publishing Services, 64 Hallfield Road, Layerthorpe, York YO31 7ZQ. Tel.: 01904 431213Email: [email protected] Softback: 210 x 250mm (portrait); 228 pag
The Classic MotorCycle2 min read
Ixion Cavalcade
The Ixion is back! The event was formerly the Ixion Run, centred on St Barnabas’ Church at Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex. ‘Ixion’ was the nom de plume under which Canon Basil H Davies contributed to The Motor Cycle for many years. At the same time, h
The Classic MotorCycle3 min read
The Desert Is His Highway
The caption for this original image, published in The Motor Cycle of February 17, 1938, reads: “This picture of a motorcycle-mounted trooper of the Egyptian desert patrol shows how two wheels have replaced four (camel’s) legs to a large extent. Note
The Classic MotorCycle3 min read
On The Skids
This image comes from the 30th Land’s End Trial, held in 1950 over the Easter weekend, as seems to be the norm, which was in April that year. The picture, and report, appeared in The Motor Cycle, April 13, 1950, the photograph was captioned: “Skiddin
The Classic MotorCycle5 min read
Readers’ Letters
With reference to Roy Poynting’s column on popularity of 350s in the August 2023 issue, Roy misses the main point – it was all down to insurance. In 1960, as a 16-year-old, I purchased a 250cc BSA C15, with fully comprehensive insurance costing £12
The Classic MotorCycle3 min read
Summer Institution
There’s just something about Founders’ Day that makes it special. It’s impossible to pinpoint, but it’s perhaps to do with tradition and nostalgia. For various reasons, some of the ‘big events’ of the year are perhaps not what they once were – with B
The Classic MotorCycle7 min read
Golden Touch
It’s been said repeatedly that ‘it’s a small world’, and the sphere of motorcycling is, I would argue, even smaller. Why, you might ask? Well, sitting in the very pleasant Buckinghamshire rural retreat of Dave Weeden and asking about his motorcycling
The Classic MotorCycle8 min read
Miracles Do Happen
In 2016, twin brothers Attila and Alban Scheiber, then 49-years-old, opened Europe’s highest motor museum at an altitude of 2160m/7021ft above sea level, at the entrance to the Timmelsjoch High Alpine Road (aka Passo del Rombo), a private toll road l
The Classic MotorCycle9 min read
The Owner’s View
Attila Scheiber, 55, was the tour guide for my visit to the magnificent Top Mountain Motorcycle Museum, which he and his twin brother Alban have jointly created – twice over! Sitting down with him in the restaurant for a half-time cup of coffee gave
The Classic MotorCycle14 min read
Black And Gold Beauty
In the summer of 2008, I was asked to assess the contents of a lock up garage in Cumbria, where there was a substantial quantity of overhead camshaft Velocette spares, and which included a dismantled Mk.VIII KTT. I made a report and was then asked to
The Classic MotorCycle2 min read
Way Out West
American reader Terry Ressler – from Salt Lake Tahoe, CA – sent these accompanying pictures through, in a big, white hardback envelope, with an accompanying note: “Love the mag! Enclosed find some photos from the late Fred Larsen. Fred was Sam Pierce
The Classic MotorCycle8 min read
Red Rooster
Royal Red! Gold-lined tank panels! This latest acquisition by fowl fancier Alex Taylor certainly looked the business. We’d tested Alex’s trusty Bantam 125cc D1 and 150cc D3, and narrowly missed trying his 1958 D5, the first, rare, one-year only 175cc
The Classic MotorCycle4 min read
High-class Engineering
Living in a deep valley in the high ground above Bradford, West Yorkshire, the hills can be challenging – especially in winter. Yet a dusting of snow and an arctic chill didn’t faze John Emanuel’s magnificent 1914 6hp Humber motorcycle and Gloria sid
The Classic MotorCycle3 min read
And Four Years Later…
In June 2019 when, after featuring them as a plateau d’honneur the previous year, a permanent class for motorcycles was incorporated into the programme of the Bressuire GP Historique, the organisers of the event could not have envisaged that four yea
The Classic MotorCycle11 min read
Penelope the Panther
I’m at the top of New Zealand’s South Island in Takaka, having ridden up through the drizzly Lewis Pass yesterday on my new Royal Enfield Classic 350. The little bike, incidentally, performed admirably on the 500km trip, and my ageing posterior was n
The Classic MotorCycle5 min read
Royal Enfield Continental
In nearly four decades, enthusiastic Hitchcocks Motorcycles has become a byword for all things Royal Enfield, both the original concern and its later incarnations. For this guide, we look at what became one of the seminal models of the Redditch era a
The Classic MotorCycle9 min read
Deceptions, Saddle Tanks And Sloping Engines
The use of a petrol or oil tank as a motorcycle frame member was developed before the First World War, but didn’t often make it into production, or, if so, production was limited. Denmark’s Nimbus is a good example of a vintage machine employing its
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 OCTOBER ISSUE O
The Classic MotorCycle5 min read
New Skills
Part of the attraction, for me at least, when restoring and working on motorcycles, is the acquisition of new skills – or perhaps the attempted acquisition should be a better description. There are the obvious skills which come with owning an old mot
The Classic MotorCycle3 min read
Fact And Friction (sic)
Friction generally gets a bad press, not helped by politicians banging on about the benefits of ‘frictionless trade.’ And even in our field of interest, it’s tempting to think that friction is a bad thing, limiting the power available from an engine
The Classic MotorCycle2 min read
TIMETABLE – What’s On at the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show
9am Bonhams Stafford Sale opens for viewing 10am Bonhams Stafford Sale Auction 10.30am John McCrink hosts the live start-up of some incredible machines in the GP Paddock area 10.30am Stannage Stunt Team display in the Main Ring 11am Jack Burnicle ta
The Classic MotorCycle3 min read
Generation Game
German émigré Henry Miller, a tin-plate worker, founded H Miller & Co in 1869 to make oil carriage lamps. Business expanded and as cycling began to grow, Miller added cycle oil lamps to the range. Factory premises were expanded over the decades and M
The Classic MotorCycle2 min read
It’s A Beautiful Day…
If you’re into the beautiful motorcycles and lovely people – then the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show is the only place to be this October 14-15. If I’m honest, it’s the highlight of my biking year… 26,000 fellow classic motorcycle enthusiasts mill
The Classic MotorCycle3 min read
Inappropriate Behaviour?
It was 25 years ago when I painted black-and-white chequers onto the flat tank of my OHV Norton, the reasoning for which was twofold. Firstly, I wanted to ape Freddie Hicks’s AJS Brooklands colour scheme and secondly (and probably as importantly…) I

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