Classic Bike Guide

In 1969, none other than the Duke of Edinburgh graced the Isle of Man TT with his presence. The prince first visited the TT in 1949 and by all accounts really enjoyed the spectacle; he was regularly seen riding a Honda Monkey bike on the Royal estate

THE ROAD TO ANDY’S SPECTACULAR supercharged pre-unit Triton started in a ditch in the grounds of a ramshackle manor house near Milton Keynes. “We were clearing the ditches and I found a motorcycle frame lying in one of them,” he explains. “I pulled i

Arriving in your local Royal Enfield dealership shortly will be the new Scram 411. Based on the Himalayan adventure bike, the Scram 411 is described as an engaging, accessible and capable street scrambler, built on Royal Enfield’s Harris Performance

It has been a little quiet for those waiting for the new BSA Gold Star 650 to appear, but the company says plans are rapidly moving forward. Top priorities for BSA are the establishment of a dealer network and the announcement of the price. Originall

Those with an occasional penchant for tweed and carefully sculpted facial hair need to start getting dapper – the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride is coming on May 22. Since being launched in 2012, the event has previously run on the last Sunday of Sep

A massive thanks to Bournemouth University and Shel Silva, who gave up her time to explain this THIS FEATURE MAY NOT BE ABOUT old bikes and undoubtedly we’ll get complaints, but please read on – it may be the most important thing you do read. As rid

Alright, so you want a British classic bike, an excellent choice of steed. Perhaps you’re not too bothered with getting a particular make or model, or era. But have you considered the difference between having one, two or three cylinders? Have you th

I have not seen any reader’s letter in CBG yet, but maybe you could include mine in the next issue. Hereby I refer to the excellent Phil Chester article about the restoration of his Norton Mercury. The final result will be an even better bike than wh

£449 +£12 per month rst-moto.com This is a leather jacket that has an airbag built in. The jacket is of gorgeous leather, having that nice blend of suppleness and thickness. It feels instantly broken in, like you’ve had it for years but without

THE INTERESTING THING ABOUT THE FRANCIS- Barnett Cruiser 91 Sports – apart from its somewhat ludicrous name – is how out of character it was for AMC to produce it. Francis-Barnett specialised in producing rather worthy, straightforward motorcycles fo

I SPOTTED THE LITTLE MOTORCYCLE AS SOON AS I RODE around the bend. The rider was sitting bolt upright in his black waxed cotton jacket as he trundled down the country lane, the saddle springs of his Tiger Cub clearly soaking up more bumps than the pl

FRANCIS-BARNETT AND JAMES TWO- strokes were a cut above the hordes of Villiers-engined motorcycles being built by dozens of British manufacturers in the 1950s and 1960s. Yet today, these purposeful lightweights are often overlooked by those searching

NEW PRICE: £519 in 1973 CURRENT VALUE: £8000 CAPACITY: 490cc BORE X STROKE: 69x65.5mm ENGINE LAYOUT: OHV parallel twin POWER: 30bhp @ 7000rpm TOP SPEED: 80mph TRANSMISSION: Four-speed, chain drive AVERAGE FUEL CONSUMPTION: 60mpg TANK SIZE: 2.0 gallon

BACK IN THOSE APPARENTLY GLORIOUS youthful days when we were all masters or mistresses of the universe, also impossibly vigorous, good-looking and quite possibly kind to animals, there was a great two-wheeled obsession with building specials. I even

Enormous thanks to Steph, Rurik, and Chris at Krazy Horse for the loan of their demos (Krazyhorse.co.uk). THE FANTIC CABALLERO IS FULL OF SURPRISES. When I first saw it a few years ago at our local dream-come-true bike shop, Krazy Horse, with its t

SOMETIMES YOU JUST NEED A few easy wins on a project such as my Yamaha AS1. Most of what’s been going seems to have been addressing years of abuse and decades of poor storage. Therefore I decided to play with some nice clean parts to boost my flaggin

LIKE THE OLD TUNING ADAGE OF ‘HOW fast it can be made to go depends on how much money you’ve got’, in a similar way is ‘how accurately you want something measured comes down to how much you’re prepared to spend on equipment and facilities’. I’ll admi

TIME HAS NOT BEEN MY FRIEND this month. Well, it has not been the BMWs friend, in as much as we’ve all been doing lovely stuff and ignoring said German steed. But a few evenings have proved successful and progress is coming. Think less Hollywood film

I’VE ALWAYS UNDERSTOOD THAT DéJà VU was somehow the illusion of experiencing an event before you actually experience it. So that when you do experience some mysterious thing for the first time, it feels mysteriously familiar. In the case of the woe c

In 1969, none other than the Duke of Edinburgh graced the Isle of Man TT with his presence. The prince first visited the TT in 1949 and by all accounts really enjoyed the spectacle; he was regularly seen riding a Honda Monkey bike on the Royal estate

THE ROAD TO ANDY’S SPECTACULAR supercharged pre-unit Triton started in a ditch in the grounds of a ramshackle manor house near Milton Keynes. “We were clearing the ditches and I found a motorcycle frame lying in one of them,” he explains. “I pulled i

Arriving in your local Royal Enfield dealership shortly will be the new Scram 411. Based on the Himalayan adventure bike, the Scram 411 is described as an engaging, accessible and capable street scrambler, built on Royal Enfield’s Harris Performance

It has been a little quiet for those waiting for the new BSA Gold Star 650 to appear, but the company says plans are rapidly moving forward. Top priorities for BSA are the establishment of a dealer network and the announcement of the price. Originall

Those with an occasional penchant for tweed and carefully sculpted facial hair need to start getting dapper – the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride is coming on May 22. Since being launched in 2012, the event has previously run on the last Sunday of Sep

A massive thanks to Bournemouth University and Shel Silva, who gave up her time to explain this THIS FEATURE MAY NOT BE ABOUT old bikes and undoubtedly we’ll get complaints, but please read on – it may be the most important thing you do read. As ride

£449 +£12 per month rst-moto.com This is a leather jacket that has an airbag built in. The jacket is of gorgeous leather, having that nice blend of suppleness and thickness. It feels instantly broken in, like you’ve had it for years but without the

I have not seen any reader’s letter in CBG yet, but maybe you could include mine in the next issue. Hereby I refer to the excellent Phil Chester article about the restoration of his Norton Mercury. The final result will be an even better bike than wh

Alright, so you want a British classic bike, an excellent choice of steed. Perhaps you’re not too bothered with getting a particular make or model, or era. But have you considered the difference between having one, two or three cylinders? Have you th

THE INTERESTING THING ABOUT THE FRANCIS- Barnett Cruiser 91 Sports – apart from its somewhat ludicrous name – is how out of character it was for AMC to produce it. Francis-Barnett specialised in producing rather worthy, straightforward motorcycles fo

FRANCIS-BARNETT AND JAMES TWO- strokes were a cut above the hordes of Villiers-engined motorcycles being built by dozens of British manufacturers in the 1950s and 1960s. Yet today, these purposeful lightweights are often overlooked by those searching

I SPOTTED THE LITTLE MOTORCYCLE AS SOON AS I RODE around the bend. The rider was sitting bolt upright in his black waxed cotton jacket as he trundled down the country lane, the saddle springs of his Tiger Cub clearly soaking up more bumps than the pl

BACK IN THOSE APPARENTLY GLORIOUS youthful days when we were all masters or mistresses of the universe, also impossibly vigorous, good-looking and quite possibly kind to animals, there was a great two-wheeled obsession with building specials. I even

NEW PRICE: £519 in 1973 CURRENT VALUE: £8000 CAPACITY: 490cc BORE X STROKE: 69x65.5mm ENGINE LAYOUT: OHV parallel twin POWER: 30bhp @ 7000rpm TOP SPEED: 80mph TRANSMISSION: Four-speed, chain drive AVERAGE FUEL CONSUMPTION: 60mpg TANK SIZE: 2.0 gallon

Enormous thanks to Steph, Rurik, and Chris at Krazy Horse for the loan of their demos (Krazyhorse.co.uk). THE FANTIC CABALLERO IS FULL OF SURPRISES. When I first saw it a few years ago at our local dream-come-true bike shop, Krazy Horse, with its top

LIKE THE OLD TUNING ADAGE OF ‘HOW fast it can be made to go depends on how much money you’ve got’, in a similar way is ‘how accurately you want something measured comes down to how much you’re prepared to spend on equipment and facilities’. I’ll admi

SOMETIMES YOU JUST NEED A few easy wins on a project such as my Yamaha AS1. Most of what’s been going seems to have been addressing years of abuse and decades of poor storage. Therefore I decided to play with some nice clean parts to boost my flaggin

TIME HAS NOT BEEN MY FRIEND this month. Well, it has not been the BMWs friend, in as much as we’ve all been doing lovely stuff and ignoring said German steed. But a few evenings have proved successful and progress is coming. Think less Hollywood film

I’VE ALWAYS UNDERSTOOD THAT DéJà VU was somehow the illusion of experiencing an event before you actually experience it. So that when you do experience some mysterious thing for the first time, it feels mysteriously familiar. In the case of the woe c