BSA B66: Get your kicks on the B66
In OBA 10 we featured Doug Fraser’s remarkable Empire Twin. Now it has a brother…the B66. It has to be shared right here and right now: the B66 is the best motorcycle BSA never made, and […]
Bikes
John Dunscombe and The Flying Bedstead
They called him The Professor, and his acolytes were numerous in the fertile area for sidecar racers, Maitland, near Newcastle. John Dunscombe, who died in 2005, was a wiry little chap who lived in a […]
Hunter Piccaninny: Melbourne-made miniature marvel.
In the early 1950s, the Ultra Lightweight class was a hot-bed of two strokes, but one hand-built DOHC model could run with the best of them. The story of the Hunter Piccaninny really has to […]
Ducati 916: Tamburini’s masterpiece – Ducati’s saviour
What makes a classic? The striking beauty of Massimo Tamburini’s design is simply breathtaking, but sheer beauty is not enough to make any machine an instant legend. But in this case, underneath the svelte exterior […]
Zen, Motorcycles, and the Metaphysics of Quality
What is it about motorcycling that makes us so passionate about it? Sure we have our different tribes: Harley owners, Ducatisti, Adventure Bikers, Café Racers, etc. But it doesn’t matter which tribe you belong to, […]
Triumph’s last gasp: the abandoned Bandit
Besieged and battered they may have been, but Triumph’s boffins could see that the middleweights were the way of the future. With the Bandit and its badge-brother the BSA Fury, they were on the right track, but… In the early 1970s, the world […]
Vincent Black Lightning: The prize fighter
The Vincent Black Lightning is perhaps the most revered motorcycle in the world. Just a handful exist, and this one still carries the grime from countless battles under its mudguards. 5,000 miles on the clock, […]
Kawasaki Z1300: Let’s get physical
Such was the impact of the Z1 Kawasaki on its release in 1972, it could have been generally accepted that this was as far as conventional motorcycle wisdom would go. But no; within twelve months, […]
Two litres of sheer terror.
We’ve met Mark Walker before. In Issue 12 we got acquainted with his humungous creation, Big Ned. Now, here’s one he prepared earlier… What was originally known as the MW Special came into being because […]
Velocette Sportsman: Sent to the colonies
With Velocette in its death throes, a small batch of bespoke 500s escaped before it was too late… Hall Green, Birmingham in 1969 was not a happy place to be. The spectre of the ill-fated […]
