Classic Bike July 2020

Welcome A LOVE LOST THESE LATEST ISSUES of CB have had me pulling up sandbag after sandbag, relating old tales of my biking youth. So here’s another – this time stirred by going through all the Ducati 750GT words and pics that Alan Cathcart sent us for this month’s cover feature. ‘I REGRETTED LETTING THAT RACY DUCATI SLIP THROUGH MY FINGERS’ I’d stupidly sold my gorgeous TR6 to pursue a career working for the Queen (actually on an RAF base – big mistake, long story, best forgotten). I figured I’d be done with bikes at this time and had my life all mapped out, but at weekends I still wanted to dash home to Wiltshire, hang out with my mates, play footie on Saturday afternoon and drink beer on Sunday…

THESE LATEST ISSUES of CB have had me pulling up sandbag after sandbag, relating old tales of my biking youth. So here’s another – this time stirred by going through all the Ducati 750GT words and pics that Alan Cathcart sent us for this month’s cover feature. ‘I REGRETTED LETTING THAT RACY DUCATI SLIP THROUGH MY FINGERS’ I’d stupidly sold my gorgeous TR6 to pursue a career working for the Queen (actually on an RAF base – big mistake, long story, best forgotten). I figured I’d be done with bikes at this time and had my life all mapped out, but at weekends I still wanted to dash home to Wiltshire, hang out with my mates, play footie on Saturday afternoon and drink beer on Sunday night. You know the kinda deal.…

HOT HARLEY The 265 mph SPORTSTER Fifty years ago, Harley-Davidson claimed the title of ‘world’s fastest’ when road racer Cal Rayborn piloted this single-engined streamliner to a new motorcycle land speed record at Bonneville Bonneville, 1970. The big money was on Don Vesco taking the outright motorcycle land speed record. Vesco was a former top class road racer turned tuner, who ran world champion Kel Carruthers on his 250 and 350 Yamahas at Daytona. But at Bonneville, running two 350cc Yamaha R3 two-stroke twin motors in a streamliner called Big Red, Vesco was at the controls and going fast. During the previous year’s Speedweek he’d hit 227mph and in 1970 he clocked an average of 251.924mph (over the two runs required for a record) to beat Robert Leppan’s 1966 record…

Bonneville, 1970. The big money was on Don Vesco taking the outright motorcycle land speed record. Vesco was a former top class road racer turned tuner, who ran world champion Kel Carruthers on his 250 and 350 Yamahas at Daytona. But at Bonneville, running two 350cc Yamaha R3 two-stroke twin motors in a streamliner called Big Red, Vesco was at the controls and going fast. During the previous year’s Speedweek he’d hit 227mph and in 1970 he clocked an average of 251.924mph (over the two runs required for a record) to beat Robert Leppan’s 1966 record of 245.667mph, set riding the Triumph double-engined, Alex Tremulis-designed Gyronaut. But Vesco would hold the new record for only the shortest period of time. Just a month later, Harley-Davidson showed up at the salt flats after…

SPEED MERCHANTS In the 100 years since the land speed record for bikes topped 100mph, the record has jumped over 270mph. Here are some of the landmarks BEFORE ACHIEVING FAME as an aviation pioneer, American Glenn Curtiss recorded 64mph over a measured mile at Yonkers, New York in 1903 on a home-built V-twin. His efforts were never ratified as an official world record, so the honour of being the first man to chalk up the first official land speed record was Henri Cissac, who clocked 87mph over a 1000-metre course on his 1498cc Peugeot V-twin at Blackpool in 1905. Land speed record breaking was in vogue in the 1920s and ’30s, but interest really peaked in the early 1970s thanks to the race between Don Vesco, Robert Leppen and Cal…

BEFORE ACHIEVING FAME as an aviation pioneer, American Glenn Curtiss recorded 64mph over a measured mile at Yonkers, New York in 1903 on a home-built V-twin. His efforts were never ratified as an official world record, so the honour of being the first man to chalk up the first official land speed record was Henri Cissac, who clocked 87mph over a 1000-metre course on his 1498cc Peugeot V-twin at Blackpool in 1905. Land speed record breaking was in vogue in the 1920s and ’30s, but interest really peaked in the early 1970s thanks to the race between Don Vesco, Robert Leppen and Cal Rayborn to set new standards... * This was the first record to exceed the unofficial record that stood for 20 years set by Glenn Curtiss in 1907. Riding…