VINCENT RAPIDE BACKGROUND Vincent head engineer Phil Irving was working on some tracings of the firm’s 499cc single cylinder engine...
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1927 AJS MODEL H4 AJS built a fine line of motorcycles in the late 1920s, including side-valve (SV) and overhead...
THE TRIUMPH TWENTY ONE MISSION There are two schools of thought on the name ‘Triumph Twenty One’. It’s either honoring the 21st anniversary of Triumph Engineering, or was derived from the bike’s displacement in cubic inches. Either way, that was just it’s name. It’s model designation was 3TA, and it...
THE 1973 TRIUMPH X75 HURRICANE As an interesting aside to the Triumph Trident / BSA Rocket 3 story is the...
ABOVE: The 1960 BSA Gold Star Clubman was a high-performance roadster. The Gold Star also earned major off-road competition cred...
1959 AJS MODEL 31 BACKGROUND AJS and sister-brand Matchless were late to the vertical twin party. Triumph started it all with the 1938 Speed Twin, the world’s first ‘modern’ vertical twin (aka: parallel twin). It took the world by storm, and suddenly every other British brand had to have one...
ROYAL ENFIELD INTERCEPTOR BACKGROUND Royal Enfield hopped up its 692cc Constellation and created a new model, the 700 Interceptor in...
MY 1979 TRIUMPH T140D BONNEVILLE SPECIAL I own a ’79 T140D myself. It’s pictured above, on display at the Quail...
Sweet 1970 Triumph TR6 Trophy, with high pipes (on the other side). THE ORIGINS OF THE TR6 The story of the Triumph TR6 starts, as does virtually every British vertical twin, with the seminal 1938 Triumph Speed Twin. This 500cc cast iron twin started it all & after WWII when...
1961 AJS MODEL 31 BACKGROUND AJS and sister-brand Matchless were late to the vertical twin party. Triumph started it all...
Hinkley Triumph Motorcycles Hinkley Triumph Motorcycles have a rich and interesting history, despite being a fairly young company. The classic...
1936 Matchless G3C Trials. MATCHLESS G3 EARLY HISTORY In the early 1930’s Matchless was enjoying great success with its side-valve & later OHV singles. It was only natural to continue to develop this line, and in 1936 Matchless introduced two new distinct ‘families’ of motorcycles: The “Clubman”, and the “Tourist”....
1946 AJS MODEL 18 BACKGROUND Immediately following the end of World War II in 1945, every British motorcycle manufacturer rushed...
BSA B50 BACKGROUND BSA built its business and its reputation on big singles. The 350cc and 500cc Gold Star dominated...
THE VELOCETTE LE – A BEST-SELLER? Immediately following World War 2, there was a pressing need in the UK for simple, inexpensive, utilitarian personal transport to get to-and-from work. Velocette attempted to tap into this market with their radical new “LE” in 1948. LE stands for “Little Engine”, and it...
1947 BSA C10 BACKGROUND With the exception of their exciting new vertical twin, the A7, BSA’s postwar lineup was pretty...
TRIUMPH SPEED TWIN CHANGES THE WORLD! From their earliest inception through the 1930s, most classic British motorcycles were single-cylinder designs...
NORTON NAVIGATOR BACKGROUND Norton has always been known for big powerful bikes like the Manx and the Commando. But they also had a very ambitious line of smaller bikes that they originally built to respond to a change in British motoring law that was announced in 1958. Starting in 1960,...
TANGLED ROOTS The BSA Rocket 3 is something of an anomaly in the history of BSA Motorcycles. Designed by Triumph,...
VELOCETTE KSS – WHAT’S IN A NAME? In case you were wondering, the letters “KSS” stand for Kamshaft Super Sport...
1977 Triumph Bonneville Silver Jubilee US-Market Version ABOVE & BELOW: The US-spec version of the 1977 Triumph Bonneville Silver Jubilee had a typical US-style teardrop tank. (Pictures courtesy of MidAmerica Auctions.) CELEBRATING A QUEEN Elizabeth II was crowned Queen of England in 1952. 1977 was the 25th, or Silver Anniversary...
1950 AJS 7R BOY RACER BACKGROUND The 7R was a factory road racer produced by AJS from 1948 through 1963....
1959 AJS MODEL 16 BACKGROUND The Model 16 was AJS’s middleweight 350 single. They were rugged, well-designed and fast for...
1953 AJS Model 18S 1953 AJS Model 18C 1953 AJS MODEL 18 BACKGROUND Since AMC owned both brands, the AJS Model 18 is almost mechanically identical to the Matchless G80. Besides styling, the only real difference between the two is that AJS mounted it’s magneto in front of the cylinder,...
1964 MATCHLESS G3C BACKGROUND Parent-company AMC got a contract to build 80,000 Matchless G3s and G3/Ls for the British government...
1974 Triumph Trident T150 1974 TRIUMPH TRIDENT MOSTLY CARRIES OVER The 1974 Trident was essentially much the same as the...
1971 Norton Commando 1971 Norton Commando ROADSTER 4 NEW MODELS The 1971 Norton Commando line grew from 2 models in 1968 (Fastback & S), to 3 models at the beginning of the 1969 model year (Fastback, S & R), then dropped back down to 2 models by the end of...
Yamaha Motorcycles THE JAPANESE INVASION Yamaha Motorcycles were part of the onslaught of low-priced, high-quality Japanese motorcycles that overwhelmed and...
2014 Norton Commando 961 2014 NORTON COMMANDO 961 BACKGROUND When the classic Commando went out of production in 1975, a...
1955 BSA GOLD STAR BACKGROUND By 1955, the Gold Star was well-sorted and had turned into a fine machine. All Goldies were special to begin with, each engine being hand-assembled and dyno-tested at the factory. A copy of the dyno test was included with each new Gold Star. They were...
Honda Motorcycles HONDA MOTORCYCLES – THE BIKE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD This is a very early 1969 Honda CB750 with...
Representing the peak of Royal Enfield Motorcycles evolution, was the 750 Interceptor. This 1963 Royal Enfield Interceptor Mark I was...
1968 Egli-Vincent 1968 EGLI-VINCENT BACKGROUND Swiss racer/engineer Fritz Egli designed and built custom frame kits for the legendary Vincent 998cc V-twin engine. He built around 100 frames from 1967 to 1972, with the intent of modernizing the iconic Vincent Black Shadow, which fell out of production in 1955. 1968 EGLI-VINCENT...
1974 Norton Commando A 1974 NORTON COMMANDO FOR EVERY TASTE The Commando was available in a variety of configurations, all...
1970 Egli-Vincent 1970 EGLI-VINCENT BACKGROUND Swiss racer/engineer Fritz Egli designed and built custom frame kits for the legendary Vincent 998cc...
KAWASAKI MOTORCYCLES – A BRIEF HISTORY Kawasaki Heavy Industries got its start in 1878 building Western-style ships in Hyogo, Japan. By 1906 they had expanded into building locomotives & railroad cars. By World War II, Kawasaki Aircraft Co. was building planes for the Imperial Navy. After the war, this vast,...
1962 Norton Dominator 650SS 1962 NORTON DOMINATOR 650SS BACKGROUND The story starts not with a Norton, but with the 1938...
1953 Velocette MAC 1953 VELOCETTE MAC IS A TOP-SELLER The Velocette MAC debuted in 1933. It had an air-cooled OHV...
1958 Triumph Tiger Cub 1958 TRIUMPH TIGER CUB BACKGROUND The 200cc T20 Tiger Cub was produced from 1956 through 1968 and sold quite well for Triumph. The original Cub was introduced in 1953 at the Earls Court Motorcycle Show in London England as a 150cc commuter, at a time when...
2009 Triumph Bonneville 50th Anniversary 2009 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE 50th ANNIVERSARY The Triumph Bonneville has been with us since 1959. That...