Classic Dirt Bike

Writing a column for your magazine is like any other task – sometimes it goes easily and sometimes not so. We all have those days when whatever we do goes so simply and so fast that it impresses even us, then there’s the flip side of that… Often ther

Editor: Tim Britton cdbeditor@mortons.co.uk 07739 615605 Columnist: John Dickinson Contributors: Alan Telford Media Photographers: Fiona Watson, Nick Nicholls Collection at Mortons Archive Production editor: Sarah Wilkinson Senior designer: Kelv

The difficult decision has been taken to cancel the International Dirt Bike Show at Stafford for 2020. There just isn’t enough time for all of the attractions at the show to deal with the restrictions caused by the pandemic and nor is there time to s

Rickman enthusiasts celebrated the marque last year at the Sammy Miller Museum in Hampshire and a very successful day it looked too, with all sorts of Rickman models being displayed and ridden. Plans were being made for a bigger and better happenin

Sadly, the 2020 series has been cancelled because of the pandemic. When lockdown started back in March I don’t think anybody expected the repercussions of Covid-19 to be so widespread and long lasting, writes Dave Gittins. With memories of foot-and

In order to quantify these figures I have arbitrarily given a dual cut-off date for the classic era SSDT as pre-1965 and pre-1970, which gives either 18 SSDTs if you’re a purist or 23 SSDTs if you allow the latter date. However, since 1984 there have

If you like the idea of putting a Pre-65 bike together for the Scottish trial, the club have eligibility guidelines which cover all sorts of things, but basically ensure the components on a bike are Pre-65 or of the type. Frowned on are tubeless tyre

Turning back the tide is never an easy thing to attempt, the tide in this case was the rising cost of trials bikes which was putting people off entering the sport. The problem stemmed from a shift in reasoning where a trials bike was a lightly modifi

The Challenger runs, and runs quite well, but anyone involved in old competition bikes can appreciate the build is only half of the job – it’s the settling in and fine tuning which can, and does, take time. Simone told me she’d ridden it at a South C

The owner of this Challenger, Simone Cunningham, recalls watching her older brother belting a selection of old motorcycles around a farmer’s field in her native Kent and being desperate to join in, though at six or seven years old she was a little to

In the picturesque New Forest area of Hampshire, Belfast man Sammy Miller has made his home and as well as his business activities it is also the home of his collection of classic motorcycles. Naturally the trials world features highly but not exclus

When the talents of riding and engineering are combined in one person look out for something extra special being created. We’ve come across Northern Irish lad Harry Stitt before in these pages, generally speaking he’s making one of Cecil Pearson’s Te

Such machines as pictured here rarely happen on their own and John Fleming was more than keen to tell us who had been involved in this project. As well as John there is Norrie Pattie and the man responsible for bringing them together is George Cricht

When I was strong-armed in to attaching an ex-Jack Mathews sidecar to my Can-Am, the only fitting missing was the top one near the steering head. All attempts to locate it failed so something was needed to do the job. I wanted the sidecar to be easil

There can be little doubt that adding a lathe to the workshop inventory is a worthwhile thing, it doesn’t have to be fancy – in my case I don’t have the experience to use a fancy metalwork lathe – and for my level of ability a Hobbymat lathe is plent

From a repair shop started in 1934 by Hans Trunkenpolz, to a company who became synonymous with the world of enduro and MX, and on to the multi-national corporation it is today, has not been an easy ride for KTM. Trunkenpolz began selling motorcycles

What with one thing and another it was quite late on in the weekend of the International Dirt Bike Show before there was a chance to catch up with Mark Gessey and find not only had the lad not missed a season MXing since starting in 1977, he’s raced

John Dickinson has been in, on and around the off-road scene for years. Trained as a mechanic, he spent some time in the motorcycle industry before finding his way into journalism. Thanks to his editorship of a certain weekly paper, he’s well known i

For such a small island – Jersey is five miles wide and nine miles long – the biggest of the Channel Islands manages to host an excellent two day trial every March and finds a variety of terrain to test a rider’s ability. For 2020 the Jersey Classic

If the idea of riding a two day trial on Jersey appeals to you, then the easiest way to get there is to go through Fairfield Motorsport, who will handle all ferries and hotel bookings for you. It’s a few months to go until the 2021 event but hopefull

Pre-65 Premier – 1st Graham du Feu Twin-Shock Premier – 1st Neil Dawson Twin-Shock Premier (under 40) – Adam Le Cheminant Pre-65 Sportsman – 1st Andrew Deffains Pre-65 Sportsman (Under 40) – Tyler Murphy Twin-Shock Sportsman – 1st Gary White Tw

…a number of people for contributing to the success of the event, including Bernie Schreiber, the observers, officials and landowners, plus sponsors Ravenscroft, Motorama Bisson, Pentagon, Express Auto Parts, MAC Tools, TPT Training and Rebecca Loos.