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 […]
Articles by Old Bike
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 […]
1984 Yamaha RZ500: Short-lived sensation
“Hanging on the wall in my garage, I had this photo of Richard Scott on the RZ500 in the 1984 Castrol Six Hour Race. I looked at it every day for years and then I thought, I’ll have to find one […]
Eric Debenham: Bathurst Easter legend
Even above the hubbub of the combined racket coming from the pits and the racetrack, it was never difficult to find Eric Debenham. His constant guffaw rose above everything else, and yet, for a bloke […]
1973/74 Ducati 750 Super Sport – The dream machine that changed Ducati’s fortunes
Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder, and who is there among us that does not behold the silver and green round-case Ducati 750 SS as the personification of motorcycling beauty? “Whenever […]
Tim Gibbes: Off-road trailblazer
The trail to England had been blazed comprehensively by aspiring Australian and New Zealand road racers and speedway riders since the mid 1920s, but the same was not the case for the relatively new (mainly […]
Triumph Rocket 3 – from cult classic to “awesome”
It’s been 16 years since Triumph sprang the awesome Rocket 3 on us. Since then 2200 units have been sold in Australia and the Rocket 3 has become a cult classic. Now there’s an all […]
The Benelli Brigade
Deep in South Australia’s choice wine country, there lurks a secret Italian society… In 2011, the Benelli marque will be 100 years old, and there are few names that evoke such reverence in motorcycling as […]
