1963 Royal Enfield Interceptor 1963 ROYAL ENFIELD INTERCEPTOR BACKGROUND Royal Enfield hopped up its 692cc Constellation and created a new...
A WHOLE NEW MOTORCYCLE! The 1963 Triumph Bonneville was essentially a brand-new bike. Not quite designed from a clean slate,...
1963 Triumph Thunderbird 1963 TRIUMPH THUNDERBIRD GOES UNIT CONSTRUCTION Along with the rest of the Triumph 650 line, the 1963 6T Thunderbird converted over to Triumph’s incredible new unit-construction powerplant, frame and cycle gear. It was a major transition, with nearly every component replaced. But what a change! Unit Construction...
1963 Triumph TR6 1963 TRIUMPH TR6 BY THE NUMBERS The only model for 1963 was the Triumph TR6 S/S (Street...
1964 BSA A65 NEW MODELS The 1964 BSA A65 was, of course, the third model year of the new unit...
1964 Matchless G12 650 Monarch Twin 1964 MATCHLESS G12 BACKGROUND Just prior to World War II, Triumph rocked the world with their seminal 500 Speed Twin, but the world had to wait for the war to end before the rest of the industry would have a chance to catch up....
1964 Norton Atlas 1964 NORTON ATLAS BACKSTORY The story starts not with a Norton at all, but with the 1938...
SECOND YEAR CARRYOVER The 1964 Triumph Bonneville T120 650 was pretty much a carry-over from 1963 and at the same...
1964 Triumph Thunderbird 1964 TRIUMPH THUNDERBIRD AS A COMMUTER? When the 6T Thunderbird launched in 1950, it was the first Triumph 650 (up from the 500cc 5T Speed Twin, and was the largest British-made parallel twin at the time. As such, it was a true hot rod in its day....
1964 TRIUMPH TR6 BY THE NUMBERS While model years 1962 & 1963 saw only one model designation for all Triumph...
1965 BSA A65 1965 BSA A65 LIGHTNING The Lightning was the high-performance roadster in the 1965 BSA A65 lineup, with...
1965 Matchless G12CSR 650 Twin 1965 MATCHLESS G12CSR – A BRIEF HISTORY Matchless built their first vertical twin in 1949, the 500cc G9. In 1956, they punched it out to 600cc and named it the G12 (seen here). In 1959 they punched it out again to 650cc and called it...
1965 Royal Enfield Interceptor 1965 ROYAL ENFIELD INTERCEPTOR BACKGROUND Royal Enfield hopped up its 692cc Constellation and created a new...
SLOW STEADY REFINEMENT The 1965 Triumph Bonneville T120 650 was again more or less a carry-over from 1964, which itself...
1965 Triumph Thunderbird 1965 TRIUMPH THUNDERBIRD AS A COMMUTER? When the 6T Thunderbird launched in 1950, it was the first Triumph 650 (up from the 500cc 5T Speed Twin, and was the largest British-made parallel twin at the time. As such, it was a true hot rod in its day....
The 1965 Triumph TR6 is a beautiful, graceful machine. This, however is a 1964 TR6SS, very similar to the ’65,...
1966 BSA A65 1966 BSA A65 Spitfire Special 1966 BSA A65 SPITFIRE SPECIAL This was the hot rod version of...
1966 Matchless G12 1966 MATCHLESS G12 BACKGROND In the 1950s, Matchless and AJS were the diamonds in AMC’s (Associated Motor Cycles) crown, but by the 1960s, their fortunes had turned for the worst. Matchless had launched the G12 and AJS Model 31 650 twins in 1958, with high hopes for...
1966 Norton Atlas 1966 NORTON ATLAS HISTORY The story starts not with a Norton at all, but with the 1938...
MORE POWER, SCOTTY! By the release of the new 1966 Triumph Bonneville T120 650, Meriden had had a few years...
1966 Triumph TR6 1966 TRIUMPH TR6 BY THE NUMBERS For the 1966 model year, the model lineup were TR6, TR6R, TR6SR, TR6SS, TR6C & TR6SC, all called “Trophy”. Engine & Frame Numbers ran from DU24876 to DU43161, with build dates running from August 6, 1965 to July 8, 1966. The...
1967 BSA A65 1967 BSA A65 LIGHTNING 1967 BSA A65 LIGHTNING The 650 Lightning was BSA’s top-line bike, and meant...
1967 Norton Atlas 750 1967 NORTON ATLAS HISTORY The story starts not with a Norton at all, but with the...
1967 Royal Enfield Interceptor 1967 ROYAL ENFIELD INTERCEPTOR BACKGROUND Royal Enfield hopped up its 692cc Constellation and created a new model, the 700 Interceptor in 1960, for sale in the US and Canada markets only (on England). They’d just lost their contract to rebadge Constellations with Indian Motorcycle regalia then...
MODEL LINE-UP The 1967 Triumph Bonneville T120 650 continued to be developed and refined in incremental steps, sometimes one forward...
1967 Triumph TR6 1967 Triumph TR6C Trophy 1967 TRUMPH TR6C TROPHY Triumph built two basic versions of the 650 TR6,...
1968 BSA A65 1968 BSA A65 Spitfire Royal Star ABOVE: Starting with the 1968 BSA A65, the Spitfire Royal Star joined the lineup, as BSA’s premium offering, at least until the arrival of the Rocket 3 a year later. 1968 BSA A65 Firebird Scrambler BSA’S DESERT SLED The A65 Firebird...
1968 Egli-Vincent 1968 EGLI-VINCENT BACKGROUND Swiss racer/engineer Fritz Egli designed and built custom frame kits for the legendary Vincent 998cc...
1968 Norton Commando ABOVE: The first 1968 Norton Commando was the Commando Fastback, pictured here in this British racing green,...
1973 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE MODEL DESIGNATIONS 1973 was a big year for the new Oil-in-Frame Triumph Bonneville. Starting the model year with Engine #JH15366, the T120 Bonneville 650 soldiered on for another year (it would finally be dropped in 1976), side-by-side with the new T140 Bonneville 750, which started with Engine...
1968 TRIUMPH TR6 NOMENCLATURE For years, every Triumph TR6 was referred to as a Triumph Trophy, but that was soon...
1969 BSA A65 1969 BSA A65 Lightning 1969 BSA A65 LIGHTNING The 650 Lightning was BSA’s top-line bike, and meant...
1969 BSA Rocket 3 1969 BSA ROCKET 3 BREAKS NEW GROUND The irony here is that the mad scientists in the back room at sister-brand Triumph had 3-cylinder prototypes running around since 1965, a full 4 years ahead of Honda. But parent-company BSA dithered. It wasn’t until word leaked out...
1969 Norton Commando Fastback ABOVE: 1969 Norton Commando Fastback MODEL DESIGNATIONS The 1969 Norton Commando came in one additional model...
1969 Norton Dominator 650SS 1969 NORTON DOMINATOR 650SS BACKGROUND The story starts not with a Norton, but with the 1938...
COMPETITION FROM ABROAD The 1969 Triumph Bonneville had its work cut out for it. It seemed like the Triumph Bonneville was getting faster every year, and good thing too, with new arrivals from Japan like the 1969 Honda 750/Four & the Kawasaki 500 triple. The merry men at Meriden found...
1969 TRIUMPH TR6 BY THE NUMBERS For the first time ever, a Triumph TR6 was called a “Tiger”. In fact...
1969 Triumph Trident T150 1969 TRIUMPH TRIDENT: BRITAIN’S SUPERBIKE! At a time when Honda started building 50,000 750s a year,...
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...
1970 BSA A65 1970 BSA A65 Firebird Scrambler 1970 BSA A65 FIREBIRD SCRAMBLER The term “scrambler” was the word used...