The Classic MotorCycle

Started in 1903, The Classic MotorCycle has more to offer the true vintage motorcycle enthusiast than any other publication, backed by Europe's largest motorcycle image archive.

Welcome

The Classic MotorCycle

An AJS outing • Northern Irish seasoned winner Benny Crawford was in the black-and-gold works squad for the 1960 Scottish Six Days Trial.

News & Events

WAY WE WERE IN FEBRUARY

Book Review

An Ace in India • America’s finest four posed in front of a building which also examples engineering and construction magnificence.

Sport in Overseas Countries • So said the headline which accompanied this photograph, when it was first published in The Motor Cycle.

Readers’ Letters • YOUR VOICE & YOUR OPINIONS

The show still goes on • A mainstay of motorcycling in Britain for well over 100 years, the annual show always provides plenty of entertainment.

Peak fitness • The Mountain Cub was one in a very long line of T20 variants. Far from just a styling exercise, it was more than capable of hitting the heights.

Long- term relationship • For fast approaching 40 years, this Moto Guzzi has served as everything from transport to weekend toy – though these days it’s the latter function it mostly fulfils.

Rough with the smooth • This special doesn’t perhaps visually appeal to all, especially with its rather out-there colour scheme, but it is possessed of a wonderfully agreeable engine.

Not the norm • This diverse French collection, assembled by one man, is perhaps not a typical museum, but, if anything, it’s all the better for that.

Dreaming the Dream • Many of us will have fantasised about building our own motorcycle, though very few will actually have done it. John Wallace, however, was one such man.

A fine finale at Lydd • The Veterans Speedway Championships was held at the end of September 2024, at Lydd in Kent.

Pet project • A swift pint in a pub led to Chris Sawyer acquiring his next project bike; the miniature marvel that is the Brockhouse Corgi.

War horse • Moto Guzzi made their mark with a transverse V-Twin and shaft drive, but Indian got there first with the US Army Model 841 war horse.

Not so straightforward • So Triumph motorcycles are a British Institution, right? Well, they are, but it’s not quite as simple as that, as there’s Siegfried Bettmann and the Nuremberg motorcycle industry to consider.

Stripping off • Stage one of the MZ TS125 project begins, unfortunately for our budding restorer, on one of the hottest days of the year.

Sketchbook Travels presents MPTORCYCLE SPECIALS Yamaha YD-A #75

Best or better • Which is best, old-school or modern technology? The answer is, it depends...

Diary

Rookie error • When one is left feeling a bit of a twit because of a simple mistake that takes rather a lot of puzzling to resolve.

Lost in translation • The instruction manual is a crucial part of motorcycle maintenance and care – so long as it’s right…

Liquid engineering • If motorcycles are regarded as machinery, then just like industrial machinery, they need thin layers of lubricant (lube) to separate metal – or other – moving components from each other, as without such, wear, heat and noise will result.