Hinkley Triumph Motorcycles Hinkley Triumph Motorcycles have a rich and interesting history, despite being a fairly young company. The classic...
TANGLED ROOTS The BSA Rocket 3 is something of an anomaly in the history of BSA Motorcycles. Designed by Triumph,...
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...
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...
2014 Norton Commando 961 2014 NORTON COMMANDO 961 BACKGROUND When the classic Commando went out of production in 1975, a battle over the rights to the name ensued. Ultimately UK business man Stuart Garner, who already owned Norton Racing Ltd acquired the rights to the Norton Commando brand. His new...
1968 Egli-Vincent 1968 EGLI-VINCENT BACKGROUND Swiss racer/engineer Fritz Egli designed and built custom frame kits for the legendary Vincent 998cc...
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 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. Each frame...
1962 Norton Dominator 650SS 1962 NORTON DOMINATOR 650SS BACKGROUND The story starts not with a Norton, but with the 1938...
2009 Triumph Bonneville 50th Anniversary 2009 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE 50th ANNIVERSARY The Triumph Bonneville has been with us since 1959. That...
1957 Ariel Square Four 1957 ARIEL SQUARE FOUR – GETTING LONG IN THE TOOTH Alas, the world was changing, and with it the motorcycle market. The Ariel Square 4 designed decades before, was keyed to another age, one where acceleration and all-out top speed weren’t as important as smoothness and...
1965 Triumph Thunderbird 1965 TRIUMPH THUNDERBIRD AS A COMMUTER? When the 6T Thunderbird launched in 1950, it was the first...
1950 Ariel Square Four 1950 ARIEL SQUARE FOUR BACKGROUND The original Ariel Square Four was created by legendary engine designer,...
2009 Triumph Bonneville 50th Anniversary 2009 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE 50th ANNIVERSARY The Triumph Bonneville has been with us since 1959. That classic Bonnie evolved completely in 1963 with its conversion to unit construction. These were the Golden Years for the Triumph Bonneville, with record sales, blistering performance for the day,...
1962 Triumph 650 Thunderbird 1962 TRIUMPH 650 THUNDERBIRD-A COMMUTER BIKE The Thunderbird was introduced in 1950 it was Triumph’s first...
1959 BSA A10 Pre-Unit 650 Twin 1959 BSA A10 Rocket 1959 BSA A10 ROCKET By 1959, both of BSA‘s big...
1970 BSA A65 1970 BSA A65 Firebird Scrambler 1970 BSA A65 FIREBIRD SCRAMBLER The term “scrambler” was the word used back then for a bike that might be called a “dual-sport” bike today. In other words, on that can be ridden on the highway, and yet handle itself off-road. These...
1948 Ariel Square Four 1948 ARIEL SQUARE FOUR BACKGROUND The Ariel Square Four engine was originally designed in 1928 by...
1967 Norton Atlas 750 1967 NORTON ATLAS HISTORY The story starts not with a Norton at all, but with the...
A WORK IN PROGRESS In our efforts to complete our online index, and make this the world’s greatest website about classic British motorcycles, we’re building pages as fast as we can. The first thing we add are the pictures. Then come the specifications and then the history. So, if you...
1962 BSA A10 Pre-Unit 650 Twin 1962 BSA A10 – NEARING END OF NON-UNIT CONSTRUCTION In 1962 BSA was in...
1954 Vincent Rapide Series C 1954 VINCENT RAPIDE-NEARING THE END Vincent built its reputation on it’s robust 499cc Comet single....
BEST EVER The 1970 Triumph Bonneville T120 was not only the high water mark in Triumph 650 development, and the year that most people favor as ‘the best Triumph Bonneville ever built’, it was also the last year before the dreaded Oil-in-Frame bikes arrived, and all the problems with...
1956 Ariel Square Four 1956 ARIEL SQUARE FOUR – NEW & IMPROVED The Square Four went through a major revision...
NEW MODEL DESIGNATIONS Starting with the 1961 Triumph Bonneville, the T120 model designation was followed by either an “R” for...
1971 BSA A65 BIG CHANGES FOR THE 1971 BSA A65 For the 1971 model year, BSA and Triumph changed virtually every item on their big 650 twins, with the exception of the engines. A new frame had been designed by BSA’s hopelessly misguided Umberslade Hall tech center. Instead of focusing...
1965 Royal Enfield Interceptor 1965 ROYAL ENFIELD INTERCEPTOR BACKGROUND Royal Enfield hopped up its 692cc Constellation and created a new...
1959 Ariel Square Four 1959 ARIEL SQUARE FOUR- IT’S FINAL YEAR Alas, the world was changing, and with it the...
1970 BSA A65 1970 BSA A65 Firebird Scrambler 1970 BSA A65 FIREBIRD SCRAMBLER The term “scrambler” was the word used back then for a bike that might be called a “dual-sport” bike today. In other words, on that can be ridden on the highway, and yet handle itself off-road. These...
1955 Vincent Rapide Series D 1955 VINCENT RAPIDE-LAST OF THE LINE Vincent built its reputation on it’s robust 499cc...
SLOW STEADY REFINEMENT The 1965 Triumph Bonneville T120 650 was again more or less a carry-over from 1964, which itself...
ABOVE: 1980 Triumph Bonneville T140E in Steel Gray & Black. SLOW SALES HURT CO-OP By 1980, what was left of the “Triumph magic” had evaporated. Large numbers of 1979 Triumph motorcycles were still sitting unsold in dealer showrooms & factory warehouses. For the first time since the end of WWII,...
ABOVE & BELOW: This 1978 Triumph Bonneville is a T140V, which still has the Delta-style head with splayed intake ports...
1970 Norton Commando ABOVE: The 1970 Norton Commando came in a new guise: The Norton Commando Roadster, or Type R....
ABOVE: This 1971 Triumph Bonneville was restored to ‘better-than-new’ condition. It won “Best of Show” Award at the Clubman’s All-British Weekend 2011 motorcycle show. TOTALLY NEW, BUT BETTER? The 1971 Triumph Bonneville was a totally new bike. Only the engine carried over from 1970. Not since the 650 twin went...
ABOVE: The 1959 Triumph Bonneville had the big fenders and nacelle of the Triumph Thunderbird. Not a popular move with...
1973 Norton Commando ABOVE: 1973 Norton Commando 750 Roadster was more or less the “standard” Commando. BACK ON TRACK After...
1962 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE -MODEL DESIGNATIONS The 1962 Triumph Bonneville again came in two basic model designations: T120R was the Road version, and T120C was the Street Scrambler/Off-Road version (what later might have been called an Enduro). Most of the bike was strictly carry-over from 1961. Of course, this was the...
MORE POWER, SCOTTY! By the release of the new 1966 Triumph Bonneville T120 650, Meriden had had a few years...