Harry Pyne – The Laird of New England
They breed ‘em tough in the bush. Harry Pyne was a classic example of a man who never walked away from a challenge. Tamworth is today a thriving city of around 55,000 people. It grew […]
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Ducati 450 ‘Silver Shotgun’ – A bike to put a sparkle in your eye
When you mention Vincent HRD, just about everyone thinks of the big vee-twin, the legendary Phil Irving-designed machine that is today one of the most valuable and collectable motorcycles on the planet. Likewise Ducati; the […]
Alan Puckett and the Art of the Motorcycle
There are many of us who believe that the motorcycle is a work of art; a uniquely beautiful style of sculpture; an object whose function has dictated its form and in doing so created something […]
Maurie Quincey – Victorian Dominator
Maurie Quincey is assured of a place in Australia’s motorcycle racing history, by virtue of his domination of racing in the state of Victoria during the early 1950s. One of the best riders to come […]
Mini Marvels – A pair of works Lambretta racers
Strange looking devices they may have been, but the Lambretta C Racers were effective, if ephemeral in a competition sense. During the Second World War, when Allied troops began the invasion of Rome, British bombers […]
Norton Commando – Taking command
The Norton Commando is one of the most uniquely styled motorcycles of all time, with its share of detractors and well as legions of fans. Here are two examples of a different spin on a […]
Ray Owen – The complete motorcyclist
You could reasonably assume that there are a few OBA readers out there who started racing more than 60 years ago – not many, perhaps, but a few. But how many of them still own […]
Katana – The Suzuki born in Bavaria
The boom in big-capacity motorcycles that began in the late 1960s continued unabated a decade later, and the annual end-of-year shows, in Milan and Cologne (which rotated year about) and Tokyo always contained a few […]
Hume Weir – The valley of the kings
Race tracks have been crammed into some unlikely places, but few as unlikely as the site of the circuit built in 1959 in an old quarry which sat in the shadow of the dam wall […]
Rumi 125 – A Latin love affair
In a sea of Bantam BSAs on Victorian race tracks in the late 1950s, Ian Free’s Rumi stood out like the proverbial dog’s bits. Not only was it Italian, but it was a twin-cylinder 125, […]
