Old Bike Australasia

Old Bike magazine is a must for those who ride as well as the dedicated enthusiast and rebuilder, covering everything from Vintage to early 1980s bikes - marvel at the restoration of machines that could still sit proudly on the showroom floor. Each issue brings you the latest news and results from recent events, race reports and Rally Roundup, along with new and old bike news and reviews, readers letters, Club Directory, What’s On and much, much more.

EDITOR’S LETTER

Old Bike Australasia • NUMBER 107

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

RARITEE Best Letter

OUT IN THE SHED • Older riders, older machines. No longer invincible.

Buzz BOX OLD BIKE NEWS

Big things ahead for Pheasant Wood • Scott Hill, Track Manager and All Historic Racing Committee member for the Pheasant Wood circuit near Goulburn, NSW, forecasts an exciting year ahead.

Bulli goes Italian • The theme for the 2023 Bulli Antique Motorcycle Weekend near Wollongong on 12-13 August is “Made in Italy”, but will also incorporate a celebration of European, British, American and Japanese motorcycles, parts and memorabilia. There will also be demonstrations, Tech seminars, Awards, AMCA Judging and more.

Oz Historics head south

Wrong rider

No NSW Old Timers dinner

Buzz BOX Under the Chequered Flag

The Flying Doctor • Rodger Freeth was a highly talented New Zealand championwho could race and win on any type of motorcycle, or car.

Domiracer … not the new Manx. • It took just 2 hours 17 minutes 31.2 seconds for the Norton ‘Domiracer’ to write itself into the history books when Australian Tom Phillis crossed the finish line in third place in the 1961 Isle of Man Senior TT. His fastest lap was his second of six, at 100.36 mph – the first time a twin had achieved the magic “ton” and the first time a pushrod engine had done so. It should have been the cause for rapturous celebration, but the podium place was the high point of a very short existence that had been mired in controversy from the very beginning.

A TWIN TWO STROKE THAT oozes class • It took DKW a little over ten years from its beginning in 1919 to become the largest motorcycle producer in the world. In 1929 the company built almost 200,000 and within another decade had produced its millionth motorcycle. The twin cylinder SB500 was one of its outstanding creations.

Triple Treat • It may have been on sale for just two years, but today the NS400R is recognised as one of Honda’s true classic models.

The rally in the Mallee 1971 BP Sunraysia Desert Rally Hattah, Victoria • Over the years, most of us had seen or heard of the uniquely American form of motor sport known as Desert Racing. In motorcycling terms, that meant hundreds of bikes lined up across vast expanses of nothing, waiting for the starting signal (usually a petrol bomb) to send them careening across the wasteland to wherever the finish was. At least two Australians (Tim Gibbes and Roy East) had attempted it, but Desert Racing certainly wasn’t on the radar in the Antipodes, despite an abundance of desert.

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GREY FLASHONE FOR THE ROAD • Mention of Vincents conjures up images of muscled vee twins with that distinctive exhaust note, Siamese pipes, cantilever frames, Girdraulic forks and so on. Rarity is a word often used. Just 35* genuine Black Lightnings were built (a number that included the solitary ‘White Lightning), of which less than 50 remain… But even rarer is the road-going Grey Flash – only two (or possibly three) came out of the Stevenage factory in a production span of just over one year.

A Down Under Flash

The Odd Angry Chott • Although it wasn’t Laverda’s first 2-stroke, the 250 Chott, which made its public bow at the 1973 Milan...