Yamaha YR-2: A line in the sand
The Japanese factories wanted 350s for the booming US market. Yamaha got there first. Story and photos: Jim Scaysbrook Yamaha called their first 350 the YR-1 Grand Prix (at least they did in USA), which […]
Articles by Old Bike
The Henderson Matchless: Home-spun hero
What started as a Gold Star BSA and evolved to a Matchless G50-engined Norton, eventually became the 4-valve Henderson G50 – a mighty quick single. Story: Jim Scaysbrook • Photos: Bill Forsyth, Dick Darby, Gary Reid, […]
Trease Harley 1300: Down-under, down home Special
Australia’s flourishing Historic racing movement attracts a huge variety of esoteric bikes of all ages – many wonderful, a few occasionally weird. John Trease’s Harley Special might seem to those unaware of its improbable performance […]
Mildura – Racing in the red
“Like a leg of lamb” was one description of the shape of the 3.8 mile (6.1 km) public road circuit just outside the centre of Mildura. “Mighty fast” was another. In the local aboriginal Latje […]
Peggy Hyde: Rebel with a cause
Unfazed by reputations, officialdom, or rules, Peggy Hyde showed that gender is no limiting factor in motorcycle racing. Talk to Peggy Hyde today and it is immediately evident that little has changed in her approach […]
Harley-Davidson VR1000: Star spangled bungle
Like the black sheep of the family, the VR1000 superbike project is something that Harley prefers not to talk about. Hovering on the brink of corporate collapse, it seemed the once-proud marque of Ducati was […]
Len Atlee: Quite a career
Towards the end of the 1960s, a group of callow youths from the south of Sydney, though somewhat intimidated by the stories they’d heard, decided to take the plunge and ride their shiny new Japanese […]
British brawn: 1971 Rickman Interceptor
At a time when the world was shifting to triples and fours, a marriage of convenience produced an iconic British big twin. Launching a parallel twin sports bike in 1971, powered by an engine with […]
The Guzzi invasion
The publicity generated by reigning world champion Geoff Duke’s ‘Down Under’ tour in 1954/55 did not go unnoticed overseas. Duke made noises about a repeat performance for the summer season of 1955/56 but when this […]
Yamaha DT1: Trail blazer
In the Great List of outstanding motorcycles, there is but a handful worthy of the title of Ground Breaking. In the late 1960s, it seemed the world motorcycle industry, European, American and Japanese, was entirely […]