Classic Motorcycle Mechanics

It was a weird week for me – and a wonderful one, too. I’d joined ‘the’ national weekly motorcycle newspaper, and coming from a well-organised bi-weekly local newspaper it was a bit of a culture shock… Out went the shirt and tie, in came jeans and T-

It’s two decades since James Toseland became the youngest ever World Superbike champion. When he took the hard-fought title at Magny Cours on October 3, 2004 he was just 23 years, 11 months and 29 days old. Still so very young and yet he’d already be

The National Motorcycle Museum has a spectacular event to mark its 40th anniversary later this month. Museum LIVE 2024 takes place on Saturday October 26-27 at the museum on Coventry Road, Bickenhill, Solihull (B92 0EJ) and it’s promising to be a bel

Former CMM contributor and all-round two-stroke tuning legend Stan Stephens has finally retired: Again! Stan was ‘The Man’ behind the power of many a two-stroke racer and road bike in the 1970s through to modern day specials. His career spanned more

Suzuki is offering 0% APR finance across multiple models this autumn, including the 25th Anniversary GSX1300R Hayabusa and new-shape ‘retro’ Katana. This year saw the Hayabusa celebrate its ‘silver’ anniversary and the launch to mark the occasion. Av

We want to see YOUR pride and joy in our pages, so you can share what you ride and what you restore/build with fellow readers. Email your hi-res shots to [email protected] or mail in some photos at the address at the front of the mag. Let us kn

Do you want to see YOUR club featured in CMM’s pages? Then contact the editor at: [email protected] Nestled in the picturesque landscape of Carmarthenshire, a unique community initiative is transforming lives, one motorcycle at a time. Since it

Riding this restored Yamaha XS1100 it’s hard to believe that an example of this huge shaft-drive across the frame four-cylinder litre-plus sports-tourer was victorious in the world’s most prestigious international production race for motorcycles in 1

I don’t like four-cylinder BMWs. Never have. That’s a bold statement to make and I made it to the BMW public relations person who invited me to the launch of the K1300 family… Thankfully he and I were old friends and fortuitously he persuaded me to a

So, you’ve seen on the preceding pages why I really loved the BMW K1300 S – now’s my chance to plead with BMW bosses why I’d love to see it return… I was 37 when the bike came out. I still owned a set of one piece ‘race’ leathers and I thought I was

When an elderly bike with engine ailments finds it’s way to my workshop, the first thing I want to know is if it has full compression and if not, where is it leaking from? Most folk are conversant with the humble compression gauge and there are a ple

A ComfortAir Seat Cushion worth £69.99. Ideal for classic and modern machines alike, these seat cushions improve comfort on longer journeys. Best of all, they’re easy to both attach and remove. Duchinni Youth Michigan Jacket worth £139.99. Designed f

It’s a mediocre Monday afternoon in what’s supposed to be middle of summer, and yet outside it’s grey skies and rain, again. I sigh. I flop open my laptop and head to Facebook Marketplace with search criteria set at > vehicles > motorcycles: It’s a p

This month I am starting to modify the frame of this Z900 to make it less bendy than it was when it left Mr Kawasaki’s factory in Akashi. While the big four Japanese motorcycle manufacturers had cracked building powerful engines in the 1970s, it woul

Good unit and should have decent feel at the lever. If it locks or binds, service the caliper but also looked for blocked return hole in the master cylinder. Better than the previous 250s but some owners still retro fit Mikunis of various origins. A

Kev Raymond keeps his eye on the choppy waters of the classic world to see if any projects, donors and bargains are out there worthy of being dragged out of the surf for some mouth-to-mouth… Asking: £260 A bit of a rarity, this: Launched in 1986, if

Alarge proportion of bikes that feature in CMM are two-strokes – those humble yet sometimes vexatious beasts that make many of us smile disproportionally to their engine’s capacity. Unlike their four-stroke cousins, ‘stinkwheels’ rely on not one but

Ahhh… I ended part six stating that I had just a couple more things to do and the bike would then be finished. Okay, it might stretch to another article or two beyond this one, I guess it depends on how much I detail each stage of the build. There is

With the engine back together again, I was ready to hit the streets on the mighty ST70: Well, kind of. The fact was that although the engine did seem to have a bit more output (with the exhaust seeming correspondingly noisier), the running was still

Well, it has taken a while but finally I have the ‘Goose’ bike finished. After many long months waiting for Dream Machine to finish the paintwork off, I finally picked it up from their shop in Nottingham. It was well worth the wait, Kevin Porter and

Get 6 issues of one of these mags for just £20 Visit www.classicmagazines.co.uk/xmas24dps Or call 01507 529529 and quote xmas24dps Rates are based on UK orders only. Subscriptions will start with the issue selected at basket. Offer closes 31/1/2025.

Back in the late 1970s I had progressed from an FS1-E and was onto an RD250 when the SR500 was launched into the UK. Even at this early stage in my biking career I was very taken with the first XT500s – so having seen a new red and black SR in the lo

WITH MORE THAN 30 PAGES OF PRACTICAL ADVICE! SUZUKI GSX750: Road test by Steve Cooper HONDA CBR600RR: 20 years on DUCATI 999: Buyer’s Guide GOING OUT IN STYLE: Motorcycle funerals SHOW US YER SHED: WIN a £50 Venhill voucher if you show us YOURS! And