Classic Bike

Classic Bike helps and inspires enthusiasts to get more from their passion for classic motorcycles. The magazine shares their fascination with motorcycling’s heroic past while also helping them buy, fix and improve the bikes in their shed. Our main areas of content are: - Inspirational and entertaining reads that celebrate the glory of motorcycling, from riding stories that put the reader in the seat of history’s greatest bikes to incredible racing tales - Restoration stories and instructional features that inspire and help people get their tools out and sort out their old bike - In-depth technical features from the most expert and authoritative writers in motorcycling If you share our passion about classic motorcycles from the last century, you'll enjoy reading Classic Bike.

Classic Bike

TALES OF THE ALTERNATIVE TT

Commando on charge • Forced induction, Fastback style and binned Isolastics are just some of the modifications lavished on this Norton by its antipodean owner

50 YEARS Rolling Thunder • It’s 50 years since Alan Clews launched CCM. The company, famous in the 1970s for its thunderous motocross bikes, still offers a range of thoroughly modern four-stroke single-cylinder motorcycles. We trace the timeline of the company’s history that has as many ups and downs as the motocross tracks its bikes have enjoyed success on

Yvon Duhamel 1939 – 2021 • We pay tribute to the man the fans knew as ‘Super Frog’, who earned respect for the way he tamed Kawasaki’s wild two-stroke triples and delighted racing enthusiasts the world over with his full-throttle antics

Spanner in the works • In this Way We Were special, Derek Bye reveals the ups and downs he experienced while assisting in the creation of a very special Velocette

My pair of Ariels

Not just a number • Thanks to everyone who contacted us with congratulations and compliments on last month’s 500th issue of CB – as well as putting us straight on the odd detail...

Get some in while you can! • Cross your fingers for good weather, then crack out your bike and enjoy some of this lot...

250 AT FIFTY • Hard to believe, but Yamaha’s YDS7 two-stroke is half a century old. With interest in smaller-capacity Japanese machinery on the rise, does it make an affordable and rideable entry into the world of classics?

TIMELINE • Yamaha YDS two-cylinder models

POWER TRIP • MZ genius Walter Kaaden was father of the modern two-stroke. Sixty years ago this summer, while MZ battled Honda for the 125cc world title, MZ rider Ernst Degner took his hard-won secrets and sold them to Suzuki after defecting to the West

“RACING THAT TRIUMPH HELPED PAY MY WAY THROUGH COLLEGE...” • Matt Capri has a long and successful history in drag racing and speed record runs – but he learnt his craft the hard way. The go-faster guru reveals how he paid his dues (and his bills) running illegal drag races in the 1960s

Scrambled HEADS • The Mortimer 100 Miler is a mad mix of classic motocross bikes and even madder riders, some of whom aren’t even there to compete – they’re just in it for a laugh…

PADDY SNOWDON • Meet the Kiwi who is considered the chief of Indian aficionados in the southern hemisphere – and savour his Springfield-built beauties

THE MUNRO CONNECTION

AT LUNCH WITH... John Cooper • A convivial chat with the unassuming hero who famously beat Ago at Mallory Park. He may never have had a works GP ride, but still enjoys riding his own bikes in his eighties

JOHN COOPER • Talent will out

Italian TT • One hundred years ago, inspired by the famous races on the Isle of Man, a tortuous and testing race was instigated on the twisty mountain roads around comely Lake Como. Here’s how it started... and ended

Classic Workshop • Spannering supremo...