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.

Welcome

The Classic MotorCycle

Severe Trail in North Wales • The headline used here is the same one which accompanied the original photo in October 1913. They weren’t joking either.

News & Events

Four in the desert • What to take for an extensive tour, including heading off into the Saharan desert? Why, an Ariel Square Four, of course.

Three-wheels on my Enfield • Apparently supplied to police forces across the Atlantic, this handsome trike was a collaboration between two old British firms, that are still going today.

Readers’ Letters • YOUR VOICE & YOUR OPINIONS

Nothing does it better • When it comes to being a usable, old British motorcycle, the BSA B33 is probably as good as it gets.

Breaking through the million • The Kop Hill Climb performed a magnificent feat, as the 2023 edition saw it donate more than £1,000,000 in total to charity.

America’s greatest motorcycle inventor • Oscar Hedstrom was the genius who designed the first Indian motorcycles, developing them from automatic inlet valve singles to eight-valve V-twin racers.

The Wet Kent Run! • The International West Kent Run, The Friars, Aylesford, Kent, over August 5/6, 2023, was a bit of a sodden affair…

Funky but flawed • Racer and engineer Bert Fruin wasn’t a man lacking in imagination or ambition, even if things didn’t always (often) quite go to plan.

Expensive and exclusive • This collection of 10 motorcycles is a wide, wild and varied bunch, although united in being something that bit special.

The full Irish • This is a Royal Enfield rally with a difference, as Ireland’s the ‘Powers the Pot’ is a special event.

A fitting memorial • The Graham Walker memorial Run started 60 years ago and continues to celebrate a man who was a titan of the heydays of the British motorcycle industry.

Rare Regolarità • Though survivors are few and far between, Gilera’s regularity models gave the factory the ISDT titles they craved, and launched the careers of many off-road stars.

Framing progress • Continuing from veteran designs, the majority of motorcycle frames during the vintage period were still cycle like, albeit stronger and lower. But there were exceptions, both in design and execution.

OSSA 250 MAR

Sketchbook Travels • MOTORCYCLES, SEEN THROUGH THE SKETCHBOOKS OF MARTIN SQUIRES

Something went ping… • Sometimes progress is halted while specialist services are busy, other times it’s because bits turn up and change the focus, but other times it’s just pure misfortune.

Diary

Old magazines make news • Looking through a magazine from nearly 90 years ago provides an insight into motorcycling gone by.

Clutch of problems • While it wasn’t quite the quick fix hoped for, remedying a transmission issue was solved relatively simply. Or so it seems.

Plunged into it • As it gained some take-up in the late 1930s, which continued apace post Second World War, was motorcycle ‘plunger’ suspension just a cheap, quick fix, or a satisfactory solution?