Classic Racer

Let’s go back 60 years, it is 1961 and a young Mike Hailwood is in his 21st year… This would be an amazing year for Mike and the Honda factory. Honda had only been competing in Grand Prix since 1959, when they took part in the Ultra-Lightweight TT on

CompiledbyThe Classic Racer team // Send your classic racing news to: editor@classicracer.co.uk Motorcycle Live, in association with Bikesure Insurance, is returning to the NEC, Birmingham this year. The 2021 show takes place from Saturday, December

Throughout most of the 1960s the parallel universes of American and European road racing existed in essentially blissful ignorance of one another. So, in 1968 when I turned up at Daytona as the first UK journalist to cover the 200 Mile race, I was im

The August 29, 1953 issue of the French publication ‘Moto Revue’ gave over its front cover to the photograph of a small, smiling, bald, moustachioed man in racing leathers, smoking a pipe. The caption translates as: “Cyril Smith, brilliant British si

Let’s kick off with this: I don’t give a f*ck when people say: ‘Steve Parrish only lived in Barry Sheene’s slipstream’. People say that all the time and I say: ‘Who wouldn’t want to be in Barry’s slipstream? It was the best of times…’ So, the end of

On October 22, 1978, Yamaha finally won a major International road race with a four-stroke motorcycle for the very first time. Jim and Roger Heyes teamed up to win Australia’s Castrol Six Hour endurance race on theTeam AvonTyresYamaha XS1100, the Jap

In a time of Jonathan Rea’s domination and looking back to the likes of Carl Fogarty in the 1990s, it’s easy to forget about the legendary Doug Polen… While some may argue that Doug only dominated in an earlier time of the World Superbike championshi

In 1994 the Motorcycle Circuit Racing Control Board took control of the British Championship from the Auto Cycle Union – or ACU – and in October 1995 the MCRCB revealed their big plans for the series for the following year... Simplicity was the key:

By the mid-1980s it was obvious that the air-cooled two-valve Ducati engine inTT1 form had come to the end of its development as a viable race-bike. Ducati engineer Massimo Bordi, with help from Franco Farne designed a water-cooled, desmodromic, doub

There was a very warm welcome in the Welsh Valleys at the Aberdare Park Road Circuit in South Wales. Motorcycles have been racing here since 1950 and some illustrious names such as John Surtees, Mike Hailwood, Bill Ivy, Phil Reid and Bob McIntyre hav

After a year’s Covid-enforced absence the CRMC’s annual jewel in the crown, the Classic Motorcycle Festival, was back at its traditional Donington Park home. Thankfully the competitors and the big crowd of fans were rewarded with great weather, stati

So, I picked up ‘Cycle’ magazine and there was that picture of the Suzuki GS750, taken from the rider’s perspective on Old Mulholland Drive in the wee small hours. The red instrumentation glowing, leading off towards a glorious curve a mile or so awa

For his own admission, Jean-Francois Baldé was a naive rider: a man who said ‘no thanks’ to a good deal if he thought that it could hurt someone’s feelings or could be seen as a sign of disrespect. Ethics were important in his life: that was due to t

We’ve teamed up with SDoc100, which manufactures some of the best bike-cleaning kit in the business! Send in your pictures of your bikes and you could win an SDoc100 Chain Care Kit worth £50, which includes the new White Chain Spray 2.0 that offers f

After missing a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the incredibly popular Armoy Road Races, which is a firm favourite with both racers and fans alike, was finally able to take place during late July, in cool, but pleasant conditions. It gave the watc