THE FIRST RIDE OF THE SEASON The Rio Vista Delta Ride 2011, on Saturday, March 5, 2011, was just the...
JoinedMay 19, 2017
Articles1,887
Comments1
1939 Triumph T100 1939 TRIUMPH T100 – THE LAST PRE-WAR TIGER The Tiger T100 was launched in 1938. Performance was...
1960 Triumph Thunderbird The 1960 Triumph Thunderbird was similar in appearance to this 1960 Triumph T110 Tiger. Both had ‘bathtub’ bodywork, full fenders and the trademark headlight nacelle. But the Tiger was the higher-performance version, with bigger carb, higher compression & wilder cams. Note that this bike has a 1968-70...
1950 Triumph Thunderbird 1950 TRIUMPH THUNDERBIRD – BIRTH OF THE THUNDERBIRD The 1950 Triumph Thunderbird was not only the first...
1952 BSA A7 Pre-Unit 500 Twin 1952 BSA A7 BACKGROUND Like everyone else in the British motorcycle industry, BSA was...
1958 Triumph T110 Tiger 1958 TRIUMPH T110 TIGER – WHAT’S IN A NAME? Triumph’s naming convention followed a couple paths. But the one the Tiger was on always starts with a “T” for Triumph, then the next set of digits were supposed to reflect the bike’s top speed. The first...
1964 Velocette Venom 1964 VELOCETTE VENOM BACKGROUND By the time Venom production began in 1965, Velocette was almost at the...
1970 Triumph Trident T150 1970 TRIUMPH TRIDENT – A NEW LOOK After the horrible styling experiment of the 1969 Triumph...
1972 Triumph Trident T150 1972 TRIUMPH TRIDENT BACKGROUND The Trident benefitted majorly from the 1971-and-later redux of the Oil-in-Frame 650 twins. While the Trident didn’t get the oil-bearing frame, it got just about everything else. Most notably, these included the new front forks sans rubber ‘gators’, the new headlight, turn...
1975 Triumph Trident T160 1975 TRIUMPH TRIDENT AIMS HIGH It’s amazing to think about how much of a leap the...
1970 Rickman-Triumph 1970 Rickman-Triumph Background This 1970 Rickman-Triumph is typical of many of the Rickman desert racers of the era,...
1962 Norton Navigator 1962 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...
1955 BSA A7 Pre-Unit 500 Twin 1955 BSA A7 BACKGROUND The 500cc A7 was BSA’s first vertical twin and marked...
1963 Triumph Thunderbird 1963 TRIUMPH THUNDERBIRD GOES UNIT CONSTRUCTION Along with the rest of the Triumph 650 line, the 1963...
RICKMAN MOTORCYCLES – THE RICKMAN BROTHERS Don & Derek Rickman raced scrambles and motocross throughout England in the 1950s and were quite good, and had achieved great renown. By the late 50s however, they were growing increasingly disgusted with the motorcycle offerings of the major British manufacturers. Most were essentially...
1953 BSA Gold Star 1953 BSA GOLD STAR BACKGROUND Throughout the 1930s, BSA created and developed a strong line of...
Rickman 250 Restoration Project: RICKMAN 250 RESTORATION PROJECT – GERM OF AN IDEA This one is a little different for...
The Return of the Yellow Bike: THE RETURN OF THE YELLOW BIKE First off, what is the Yellow Bike? It’s my personal favorite motorcycle that I’ve ever owned, and I’ve owned several. It started out life as a ’73 Triumph TR7 that I built from scratch, nearly down to the...
CLASSIC BRITISH RAT BIKES – BORN OF CHOPPERS When I was growing up and learning to ride, around 1970, people...
CLASSIC BRITISH ROAD RACING MOTORCYCLES This 1969 Triumph Trident T150 Road Racer was campaigned by the legendary Gene Romero (above)....
1951 Triumph Speed Twin 1951 TRIUMPH SPEED TWIN BACKGROUND The Triumph Speed Twin was the world’s first ‘modern’ vertical twin, when it was introduced in 1937 as a 1938 model. Designed by Edward Turner (who also designed the Ariel Square Four), the 500cc 5T Speed Twin was a revelation at...
IT’S A RIDE, IT’S A SHOW…IT’S A SHOW & A RIDE! The Quail Ride is part of the Quail Motorcycle...
1969 Velocette Venom 1969 VELOCETTE VENOM By 1969, Velocette was a year from closing its doors. Whether they knew that...
2007 Royal Enfield Bullet 2007 ROYAL ENFIELD BULLET BACKGROUND Like all modern, Indian-built Royal Enfields, the 500 Bullet is a descendant of the original British-built Enfields of the late 1940s. Despite being completely redesigned in modern times by parent company Madras Motors, and sprouting modern features like electric starters and...
THE QUAIL MOTORCYCLE GATHERING: A RIDE, A SHOW & AN AUCTION ALL ROLLED INTO ONE I attended this year’s Third...
THE PRE-UNIT TRIUMPH TR6 The preceding page offers a complete history of the Triumph TR6 from beginning to end. For...
1946 Velocette KSS 1946 VELOCETTE KSS BACKGROUND The Velocette KSS debuted in 1925 as an OHC (overhead cam) 350cc air-cooled single. Being OHC placed it at the cutting edge of engine technology at a time when most machines still used side-valve designs or pushrods. The name KSS breaks down to...
BACKGROUND OF NORTON ROTARY MOTORCYCLES Norton’s air-cooled, twin-rotor Wankel motorcycles made up a unique and interesting chapter in the history...
2010 Triumph Bonneville 2010 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE BACKGROUND Of course, the original Triumph Bonneville was introduced to the world in 1959,...
Phil Radford, Norton Parts Expert Extraordinaire, owner of Fair Spares America, Inc., & all-around nice guy, beside a freshly-rebuilt Commando engine. MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE When I pulled up to the non-descript commercial building in a large industrial complex in San Jose CA, the small sign that said “Fair...
1955 Triumph Thunderbird ABOVE: The 1955 Triumph Thunderbird 6T is very similar to this 1956 Triumph Thunderbird. They share essentially...
NORTON MOTORCYCLE BOOKS Norton was always a design leader with bikes like the Norton Manx, the Dominator twins, and the...
NORTON COMMANDO PRODUCTION RACER BACKGROUND When British motorcycle industry giant AMC (Associated Motor Cycles) collapsed in 1967, the only brand in its once proud stable (which included Matchless, AJS, Sunbeam, James, Francis-Barnett, and Norton) the only one making money was Norton. And it was the Norton brand that enticed Manganese...
1959 Velocette Venom 1959 VELOCETTE VENOM BACKGROUND The Venom was Velocette’s hottest bike from its inception in 1955. In 1961...
The Norton Cafe Racer EARLY NORTON CAFE RACER The Norton Manx, the BSA Gold Star and other big singles like...
1973 Triumph Trident 1973 Triumph Trident T150V THE 1973 TRIUMPH TRIDENT IS A TURNING POINT 1973 was a very important year for Triumph, and in particular for its star player, the Bonneville. Because that year, the legendary 650 “Bonnie” got punched out to a 750, got a much-need and long-overdue...
The Moto Talbott Collection THE MOTO TALBOTT COLLECTION MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM Moto Talbott, as it has become known locally, opened about...
1973 Rickman 250MX 1973 Rickman 250MX Background This 1973 Rickman 250MX is the product of years of development. Brothers Don...
The Mother Lode Ride THE MOTHER LODE RIDE: ANOTHER GREAT BSAOC RIDE The boys & girls of the BSAOC-NorCal have been busy planning a full calendar of rides for the year. I’m now on the Ride Committee & so will help with the planning for next year, and based on...
Morning After Ride 2012 ABOVE: We meet behind Hobbe’s. THE MORNING AFTER RIDE 2012 RIDE ‘EM, DON’T HIDE ‘EM! As...