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.

Editor’s welcome

Classic Motorcycle

Camping trip • In the summer of 1946, a group of motorcycle enthusiasts, and their families, enjoy a few days under canvas.

Roll up, roll up… • For the first time in over a year, we now have the real prospect of a Stafford show to look forward to.

Crucial information

NEWS IN BRIEF

News & Events

Book Review

THE WAY WE WERE IN JULY

Rare Porc for purchase • A whopper of a sale from Bonhams will be spread over three consecutive days (July 2-4, 2021) at the Stafford showground.

Readers’ Letters • YOUR VOICE & YOUR OPINIONS

Feel like flying • Tired of blending into the crowd? Buying this will ensure you never do again…

The original mile eater • For a period, the four-cylinder motorcycle, as exampled by this Indian, was much in vogue in America, it being ideally suited to covering vast distances.

SAMMY MILLER MUSEUM

Time machine • For a brief few years, being covered up was all the fashion, as exampled by this superb Norton Dominator De Luxe.

Model worker • Modest, unfussy and dependable, Royal Enfield’s Model G 350 was the perfect partner for postwar British workers. The properties that won the pre-unit single favour then, make it an ideal classic today.

FINER DETAILS

The ruby anniversary • It was 40 years ago when the first issue of The Classic MotorCycle appeared; we celebrate the period.

Bob Currie profile

Store cupboard special • With various electrical and suspension components in the process of being sorted out, the petrol tank was packed up and posted to Mansfield, for a bit of professional looking-at.

VALE PAINTS

Enjoying a 91-year-old thoroughbred • As a companion piece to Alan Cathcart’s article on John Summer’s Sunbeam Model 90 in the May 2021 issue, here’s an account of living with and using the same machine, in 2018.

Bradshaw’s motorcycles • Often, design engineers, inventors and developers have wide horizons. Granville Bradshaw was no exception. Over seven decades he was involved with (among other things) tiny 100cc V-twin engines to 12,000bhp electric motors, amusement arcade machines, automatic photo booths and even thief-proof wood screws.

AJS, Matchless and the Norton Mk.II singles

Bits and pieces • Is it just me, or do other people have lots of bits, just not the right bits?

Distribution of sparks

Reflections on the past • The term ‘reflection luminosity’ must mean something technical, to someone. Though one doesn’t imagine it used in the Lucas or Wipac factories.

Banked Track Heroes

Let the chain take the strain • For the last 100 years, the final drive chain has been the prevalent way of transferring drive to a motorcycle’s rear wheel.

You were asking • Your queries resolved with Richard Rosenthal

Diary

Villiers flywheel magnetos • Launch model Villiers two-stroke engines had internal bob weights to their crankshaft and an outside steel flywheel. Later, the Wolverhampton maker replaced this with a flywheel magneto, with its rotor serving as the engine’s outside flywheel.

Chris Conn (1937-2021) • The hard-charging RAF man who enjoyed a relatively brief, successful spell in the limelight, died earlier this year.

The perfect package? Bonneville power, Italjet chassis... Yes please! • The Classic MotorCycle is brought to you by...