1956 Triumph TR5R 1956 TRIUMPH TR5R BACKGROUND Triumph offered the TR5/R in limited numbers in 1956 as a top-of-the-line 500...
A WORK IN PROGRESS In our efforts to complete our online index, and make this the world’s greatest website about...
1957 Ariel Red Hunter 1957 ARIEL RED HUNTER BACKGROUND The 1930s were indeed the Golden Age for the British motorcycle industry. At the time, nearly all of them relied heavily on one basic engine architecture: the air-cooled, pushrod OHV single, and most marques had built their lineup of 350 and...
1957 Norton Dominator Dominator 88 – 500cc 1957 NORTON DOMINATOR BACKGROUND Norton designed the legendary “Featherbed Frame” for the single-cylinder...
1957 Norton Manx 1957 NORTON MANX BACKGROUND The Norton Manx was developed in 1937, in both SOHC and DOHC form,...
1958 BSA Gold Star 1958 BSA GOLD STAR BACKGROUND By 1958, 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...
1958 Triumph Twenty-One 1958 TRIUMPH TWENTY-ONE HAS BATHTUB STYLING. The British home market had been hungry for cheap transportation after...
1959 AJS MODEL 16 BACKGROUND The Model 16 was AJS’s middleweight 350 single. They were rugged, well-designed and fast for...
1959 MATCHLESS G80 BACKGROUND As was the case with virtually all Matchless motorcycles, sister-company AJS had a nearly-identical version which they called the Model 18. Matchless had cut its teeth, and built its reputation fielding fast, robust and reliable big singles (ie: 350cc and 500cc). The Matchless G80/AJS Model 18...
1959 Norton Dominator 1959 NORTON DOMINATOR BACKGROUND Norton designed the legendary “Featherbed Frame” for the single-cylinder Manx racer in 1950....
1959 Norton Manx 1959 NORTON MANX BACKGROUND The Norton Manx was developed in 1937, in both SOHC and DOHC form,...
1959 TRIUMPH TWENTY-ONE HAS BATHTUB STYLING. The British home market had been hungry for cheap transportation after WWII, and commuter motorcycles helped fill that role. But England being…well, England, was wet and rainy and to prevent rust an owner needed to wipe his bike down each night after getting home...
1959 Velocette Venom 1959 VELOCETTE VENOM BACKGROUND The Venom was Velocette’s hottest bike from its inception in 1955. In 1961...
1960 Triumph T100 Tiger “Bathtub” 1960 TRIUMPH T100 TIGER BATHTUB STYLING Bathtub styling was part of a brief flirtation with...
1960 TRIUMPH TWENTY-ONE HAS BATHTUB STYLING. The British home market had been hungry for cheap transportation after WWII, and commuter motorcycles helped fill that role. But England being…well, England, was wet and rainy and to prevent rust an owner needed to wipe his bike down each night after getting home...
1961 BSA Gold Star 1961 BSA GOLD STAR GETTING LONG IN THE TOOTH The Gold Star originally evolved out of...
1961 BSA Gold Star Clubman 1961 BSA GOLD STAR CLUBMAN While the BSA Gold Star was famous for its off-road...
1961 MATCHLESS G80 TYPHOON BACKGROUND Parent-company AMC knew how to build big singles. Despite now having a nice lineup of vertical twins, the real money was made selling Matchless and AJS singles. For Matchless, the top of the heap was the 500cc G80, and the best of those was the...
1961 Triumph Speed Twin 1961 TRIUMPH SPEED TWIN HAS A “BATHTUB” The British home market had been hungry for cheap...
1961 TRIUMPH TWENTY ONE HAS BATHTUB STYLING. The British home market had been hungry for cheap transportation after WWII, and...
1962 BSA Gold Star 1962 BSA GOLD STAR CLUBMAN While the BSA Gold Star was famous for its off-road and desert-racing prowess, when properly fitted out, they also made excellent road racing machines, on par the a Norton Manx. The Clubman edition got a 36mm bellmouth Amal carburetor, hotter cam...
1962 Norton Manx 1962 NORTON MANX BACKGROUND The Norton Manx was developed in 1937, in both SOHC and DOHC form,...
1962 Norton Navigator 1962 NORTON NAVIGATOR BACKGROUND Norton has always been known for big powerful bikes like the Manx and...
1962 Velocette Venom 1962 Velocette Venom CLUBMAN 1962 VELOCETTE VENOM CLUBMAN The Venom was already a fairly low-volume bike, but the Clubman option was even more rare. Just 36 Venom Clubmans were built in 1962. The Clubman package included rearset footpegs and controls, early-style upswept exhaust, TLS (Twin Leading Shoe)...
1964 AJS MODEL 16 BACKGROUND Parent-company AMC secured some lucrative contracts from the British government to build, among other things...
1964 MATCHLESS G3C BACKGROUND Parent-company AMC got a contract to build 80,000 Matchless G3s and G3/Ls for the British government...
1964 Velocette Venom 1964 VELOCETTE VENOM BACKGROUND By the time Venom production began in 1965, Velocette was almost at the end of its long road of singles. And it represented everything that Velo had learned about building a big single. They were fast, light, handled well, and were very reliable....
1966 MATCHLESS G80- LAST OF THE LINE The G80 was Matchless‘s top-of-the-line 500 single. Launched in 1949, just as civilian...
1966 Velocette Thruxton 1966 VELOCETTE THRUXTON Velocette has a proven design in their 500cc Velocette Venom. Big singles had sort...
1967 MATCHLESS G80 BACKGROUND Matchless de-stroked their big 500 single down to an 86mm stroke, creating what they called the “short stroke” engine. The G80 was what they called back then a “scrambler”, which later might have been defined as an ‘enduro’, and today would probably be called a ‘Dual...
1967 Triumph Daytona 500 1967 TRIUMPH DAYTONA – WHAT’S IN A NAME? Triumph derived the name of this bike from...
1968 MATCHLESS G80 BACKGROUND Matchless de-stroked their big 500 single down to an 86mm stroke, creating what they called the...
This 1968 Rickman-BSA 441 represents years of development. After years of racing motocross in the 1950s in England and Europe, brothers Don and Derek Rickman decided to design their own frame. At the time, most dirt bikes were simply stripped-down street bikes, which were too heavy and not ideal for...
1968 Triumph Daytona 500 1968 TRIUMPH DAYTONA – WHAT’S IN A NAME? Triumph derived the name of this bike from...
1968 Velocette Thruxton 1968 VELOCETTE THRUXTON BACKGROUND Velocette had a proven design in their 500cc Velocette Venom. Big singles had...
1969 Triumph Daytona 500 1969 TRIUMPH DAYTONA – WHAT’S IN A NAME? Triumph derived the name of this bike from Buddy Elmore’s win at the 1966 Daytona 200 at Daytona Beach FL riding a Triumph T100T Tiger 500 twin. It was Triumph’s first-ever Daytona victory, with an average speed of...
1969 Velocette Thruxton 1969 VELOCETTE THRUXTON Velocette had a proven design in their 500cc Velocette Venom. Big singles had sort...
1969 Velocette Venom 1969 VELOCETTE VENOM By 1969, Velocette was a year from closing its doors. Whether they knew that...
1970 Rickman-BSA 441 1970 Rickman-BSA 441 Background This 1970 Rickman-BSA 441 is the product of years of development. After years of racing motocross in the 1950s in England and Europe, brothers Don and Derek Rickman decided to design their own frame. At the time, most dirt bikes were simply stripped-down...
1970 Triumph Daytona 500 1970 TRIUMPH DAYTONA – WHAT’S IN A NAME? Triumph derived the name of this bike from...