1953 Matchless G9 500 Twin 1953 MATCHLESS G9 BACKGROUND Like everyone else in the British motorcycle industry at the time,...
1974 Norton Commando A 1974 NORTON COMMANDO FOR EVERY TASTE The Commando was available in a variety of configurations, all...
1958 Ariel Cyclone 650 OHV Vertical Twin 1958 ARIEL CYCLONE A VERY RARE BIRD Ariel was early to the vertical twin party started by Triumph with the 1938 500cc Speed Twin. Their first entry was the model KH 500cc parallel twin launched in the first year of civilian production following...
1962 BSA A65 1962 BSA A65 – NEW UNIT TWIN After 15 years of great success with their pre-unit twins,...
1956 Triumph Blackbird ABOVE: The 1956 Triumph Blackbird was essentially a 6T Thunderbird painted black. This earned it the name...
1968 Triumph Daytona 500 1968 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...
1950 Triumph Thunderbird 1950 TRIUMPH THUNDERBIRD – BIRTH OF THE THUNDERBIRD The 1950 Triumph Thunderbird was not only the first...
1973-74 CB200 Engine Engine Type 198 cc, air cooled, 2 – cylinders parallel, 4-stroke Bore and Stroke 55.5 mm x...
1970 Royal Enfield Interceptor 1970 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...
1955 Triumph T110 Tiger 1955 TRIUMPH T110 TIGER CONTINUALLY IMPROVES True to the British style at the time, steady, continuous...
1947 Triumph Speed Twin 1947 TRIUMPH SPEED TWIN LEADS THE WAY At the end of World War II, civilian production...
1948 Triumph T100 Tiger 1948 TRIUMPH T100 TIGER BACKGROUND Immediately after the end of World War II, Triumph quickly reverted back to civilian production and hit the ground running. Prior to the war, their two top models were the 500cc 5T Speed Twin and its hotter cousin, the T100 Tiger,...
1954 BSA A10 Pre-Unit 650 Twin 1954 BSA A10 Golden Flash 1954 BSA A10 BACKGROUND Like every other British motorcycle...
1969 Triumph Daytona 500 1969 TRIUMPH DAYTONA – WHAT’S IN A NAME? Triumph derived the name of this bike from...
1965 BSA A65 1965 BSA A65 LIGHTNING The Lightning was the high-performance roadster in the 1965 BSA A65 lineup, with twin Amal Monobloc carburetors and downswept pipes. In 1965, it was still running 6 volt electrics, its last year before converting over to 12 volts in ’66. The new-for-1962 unit-construction...
Engine Engine Type 4-stroke OHC parallel twin cylinders Displacement 198cc DRIVETRAIN Transmission 5-speed CHASSIS / SUSPENSION / BRAKES N/A...
1964 Triumph Thunderbird 1964 TRIUMPH THUNDERBIRD AS A COMMUTER? When the 6T Thunderbird launched in 1950, it was the first...
1969 Honda GL175 Scrambler Engine Engine Type OHC parallel twin cylinders Displacement 174cc Cylinders Vertical DRIVETRAIN N/A CHASSIS / SUSPENSION / BRAKES N/A DIMENSION N/A OTHER It was similar to the CL175K3 Notice the short (one-person) seat and the enclosed chain surround The headlight and speedo were enclosed in one...
1975 Norton Commando ABOVE: 1975 Norton Commando MkIII Roadster in Union Jack paint scheme. TROUBLE BEHIND THE SCENES While the...
1971 Triumph TR6 The 1971 Triumph TR6 saw the introduction of the new oil-bearing frame & all new cycle gear....
1962 Norton Jubilee 250 twin 1962 NORTON JUBILEE – WHAT’S IN A NAME? The name Norton Jubilee paid homage to the 60th anniversary of Norton Motorcycle production at the time of its launch in 1958 at the Earls Court Motorcycle Show in London. It was a clear break from Norton...
1957 Norton Dominator Dominator 88 – 500cc 1957 NORTON DOMINATOR BACKGROUND Norton designed the legendary “Featherbed Frame” for the single-cylinder...
1966 Triumph TR6 1966 TRIUMPH TR6 BY THE NUMBERS For the 1966 model year, the model lineup were TR6, TR6R,...
1956 Triumph TR5R 1956 TRIUMPH TR5R BACKGROUND Triumph offered the TR5/R in limited numbers in 1956 as a top-of-the-line 500 twin, and it was certainly one of the market’s finest. Factory records indicate that just 112 TR5/R engines were built in ’56 and just 104 were installed in complete bikes....
1959 Triumph TR6 1959 TRIUMPH TR6 NOMENCLATURE 1959 was the last year that the TR6 did not carry a letter...
1963 Triumph TR6 1963 TRIUMPH TR6 BY THE NUMBERS The only model for 1963 was the Triumph TR6 S/S (Street...
1960 Triumph T100 Tiger “Bathtub” 1960 TRIUMPH T100 TIGER BATHTUB STYLING Bathtub styling was part of a brief flirtation with enclosed bike that infected England from the mid-50s to the mid-60s. After WWII, Brits were in dire need of basic transportation, and most couldn’t afford cars, so they commuted on...
1939 Triumph T100 1939 TRIUMPH T100 – THE LAST PRE-WAR TIGER The Tiger T100 was launched in 1938. Performance was...
1970 Norton Commando ABOVE: The 1970 Norton Commando came in a new guise: The Norton Commando Roadster, or Type R....
1967 Norton Atlas 750 1967 NORTON ATLAS HISTORY The story starts not with a Norton at all, but with the 1938 Triumph 500 Speed Twin, the world’s first “modern” vertical twin. The rest of the British motorcycle industry went nuts and rushed to field their own 500 twins. But WWII...
1962 Triumph TR6 1962 TRIUMPH TR6 NOMENCLATURE Of course, this is tFor the 1962 model year the only Triumph TR6...
1959 Norton Dominator 1959 NORTON DOMINATOR BACKGROUND Norton designed the legendary “Featherbed Frame” for the single-cylinder Manx racer in 1950....
1957 Triumph Thunderbird 1957 TRIUMPH THUNDERBIRD IS THE COOKING VERSION The 1957 Triumph Thunderbird was fast becoming the ‘ugly sister’ to the hot new Triumph TR6 and the already red-hot Triumph Tiger T110. With its full fenders, headlight nacelle and milder tuning, the 6T was really the basic commuter of...
1968-69 CL175K0 Scrambler Engine Engine Type 174cc OHC parallel twin cylinders Displacement 174cc Cylinders inclined from vertical DRIVETRAIN Transmission 5-speed...
1977 Honda CB250T Dream Engine Engine Type Air cooled, four stroke, twin cylinder, OHC, 2 valve per cylinder Displacement 249cc...
2014 Norton Commando 961 2014 NORTON COMMANDO 961 BACKGROUND When the classic Commando went out of production in 1975, a battle over the rights to the name ensued. Ultimately UK business man Stuart Garner, who already owned Norton Racing Ltd acquired the rights to the Norton Commando brand. His new...
1947 Triumph T100 Tiger 1947 TRIUMPH T100 TIGER LEADS THE PACK At the end of World War II, civilian production...
1955 Matchless G9B 1955 MATCHLESS G9B BACK STORY The 1955 Matchless G9B has an interesting history, that is also very...
1952 BSA A7 Pre-Unit 500 Twin 1952 BSA A7 BACKGROUND Like everyone else in the British motorcycle industry, BSA was caught flat-footed when Triumph introduced its game-changing 500 Speed Twin in 1938. And like virtually everyone else, BSA was relying heavily on single-cylinder designs for its bread and butter. But...
1956 Triumph Thunderbird ABOVE: This 1956 Triumph Thunderbird wearing black livery was nicknamed “Blackbird” by the public and it stuck....