Last Autumn we played a game of Fantasy Auction with the lots available at Bonhams’ 2015 Autumn Stafford Sale. As promised, I’ve checked the results and here’s a summary of how I would’ve got on: Continue reading
Author Archives: Editor
Extended ordering deadline for Yamaha YZF-R1M
The deadline for ordering the 2016 factory specification Yamaha YZF-R1M race bike has been extended until midnight on 28 February. Priced at £18,749 inclusive of VAT, the YZF-R1M is a limited-run model and has an impressive specification that includes Öhlins Electronic Racing Suspension, carbon bodywork and a Communication Control Unit (CCU) for wireless remapping and data-logging. Continue reading
Avon StreetRunner AV83
It’s still the rainy season here in the UK and if you ride a learner or commuter bike (specifically those in the 125cc class) you might be interested to learn that Avon have launched a new range of tyres that sound as though they were designed with our weather in mind. Continue reading
Restoration of a Kawasaki Z750 Turbo
WHO CAN CATCH A KAWASAKI? screamed the cover of Kawasaki’s 1984 range brochure and racing across that cover was a Kawasaki Z750 Turbo looking pretty much just like the magnificent example above. Resplendent in its two-tone Ebony/Firecracker Red livery, with gloss black engine and black chrome exhausts, this 1984 ZX750-E1 model looks box-fresh and ready to go. Continue reading
2015 Autumn Stafford Sale
This weekend brings the 22nd Carole Nash Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show in Stafford and, with it, Bonhams’ 2015 Autumn Stafford Sale. Being unable to make it in person, I thought I’d console myself with a game of Fantasy Auction. What’s that? You’ve never played? Allow me to explain. In Fantasy Auction, you choose a real-life auction and then you set yourself a budget and then you pick the lots you really could be tempted by and what your maximum bid would be. After the auction, you can check the results to see whether you’d have been successful.
60th Anniversary Yamaha YZF-R1
OilySmudges recently posted an article asking Yamaha to bring back the iconic “Speed Block” design. Imagine our surprise when today (18 September 2015) Yamaha announced that a limited edition 60th Anniversary version of the YZF-R1 will be produced for the 2016 model year featuring this iconic design. Continue reading
Yamaha “Speed Block” Graphics
They are one of the most enduring motorcycle branding exercises of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century and have graced both race and road machines but when were the Yamaha “Speed Block” graphics first seen and where did they come from? Continue reading
Honda Gold Wing cafe racer
When Lars Schau decided to build a cafe racer, he knew he wanted something different, to ride the road less ridden. But that wasn’t all; his cafe racer would be different on a tight budget. He achieved the first of these objectives through his unusual choice of donor machine and the second by tackling the fabrication of most of the custom components himself. Continue reading
Retro motorcycles
Over the past few years the market for retro motorcycles, those machines that conjure up memories of the past, has really expanded and now many of the mainstream manufacturers have at least one retro model in their range. With that in mind, I thought it might be entertaining to compare these machines with the ones they take their inspiration from. Continue reading
The nature of restoration projects
A question every budding motorcycle restorer will have to answer at some point is “What sort of restoration project do I want this to be?” which really means “What sort of motorcycle do I want to have at the end of all my hard work?”.
Ultimately, to a large degree, this will depend on what you want to do with it when it’s finished… Continue reading