Classic Bike Guide

GREETINGS OH LOVERS OF OLD motorcycles. We hope you are well and that we find you smiling. According to the chip papers, the world is all terrible, everyone is horrible, and we all need to hide away in the back shed, counting what little money we have left and making hats out of tin foil. But, and it may be somewhat naïve, we’ve been too busy to worry about things largely out of our control. The weather has been great, the bike meets are in full swing, and the country, steam, car and bike shows are rejoicing in being allowed once more. Those bikes won’t ride themselves, you know! The young ’uns have been getting their first taste of pillion rides on the Royal Enfield Classic 350 and Maria has been…

The year is 1954 and Mr J Whitehouse is astride a 1930 Scott Squirrel. The happy throng is the end of the ACU National Rally at Rhyl, North Wales, a navigation exercise taking in a large proportion of the country. The idea was simple – to cover as close to 600 miles within 24 hours, passing through as many waypoints as you could, with one point per mile and two points per waypoint. A total of 946 two and three-wheeled vehicles started from various waypoints in the country, with the final destination, Rhyl, within a two-hour window. Most machines were solo but many had pillion, and the three-wheeler Morgans and Bond Minicars had passengers to help with navigation duties. The weather was horrendous this July weekend but most were prepared, with…

SHELAGH AND RONNIE MOORE BUILD AMAZING Norton-based specials. Tritons, ES2-based café racers, sporty Commandos and all manner of marvellous Bracebridge Street-born creations have graced their shed. At one point the couple were considering relocating to France to build the café racers that the Gallic biker seems to love so much. Even now buyers will happily wait for years for one of their creations to cross the channel. Both are long-term motorcyclists. As a teenager, Shelagh was too young to compete on the track so she borrowed her older sister’s identity to get a sidecar racing licence and would travel hundreds of miles across country to Snetterton to be a passenger in a racing outfit. Ronnie was a member of the famous 59 Club in 1962: “I used to go to the…

Speedway star Gus Kuhn was born on October 17, 1898, in Birmingham. He was of primarily English descent, though his paternal grandfather was German. He served in both the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) and the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). Gus was riding motorcycles long before speedway became a popular sport. In the early 1920s he was riding lightweight Levis motorcycles in trials, hill climbs and scrambles all over the country. He also enjoyed some success in the Isle of Man TT, riding a Sun in the Lightweight TT of 1922, one of Coventry’s Omega motorcycles in the 1924 Ultra Lightweight TT, and a Velocette and Douglas in the 1925 Junior and Senior TT races. His best finish was fifth in the Junior TT of 1926 on a Velocette. Gus was a competitor…

Harry Bott is clocking up the miles for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) on his classic Sunbeam flat-tanker. Harry is aiming to cover 8000 miles as he visits all 238 RNLI stations in the UK and Ireland, riding a classic 1926 Sunbeam Model 1 that used to belong to his great-grandad. The 96-year-old bike has a top speed of just 45mph and Harry expects his epic coastal journey, plotted with the help of an RNLI tea-towel, to take him around four-and-a-half months. Harry, 23, started his journey at Teddington RNLI and is aiming to raise £5000 for the lifesaving charity. Riding a bike that is almost a century old hasn’t come without its challenges, with Harry facing blown-out tyres, punctures, ignition issues and a seized piston. Fortunately, he has the skills…

The Motor Cycle Industry Association (MCIA), along with road safety and training experts and government departments, has launched The Elite Rider Programme. Its aims are to increase the number of riders undertaking post-test training and to motivate riders to ride considerately toward other road users and the environment. Road safety continues to be a major challenge, with 20% of all killed and seriously injured road users being motorcyclists, who in turn only represent 1% of road miles travelled. As vehicles on the road move to electric, we are also seeing increasing pressure on noise, not just from motorcycles but also high-performance cars; it is for these reasons that industry and the wider sector have come together to make every effort to improve rider safety and to encourage riders to be more socially…