Starting back in the Victorian era when motorcycles were just emerging, you’d have a guy building bicycles in one village, and another guy building motors the next village over. The guy building motors was thinking about putting them in an automobile or a farm tractor, the bicycle guy was just making bicycles. Well, one day…
Sometimes you just have to wonder why a motorcycle manufacturer would keep building a bike that they have already replaced with a much better bike? A bike that is smoother, faster and much more in line with the times. The 1976 Honda CB500T is the poster child for just that question. In the early to…
In 1957 Harley Davidson was not really in trouble compared to Indian. A few years before the Beatles arrived there was the original ‘British Invasion’. Soldiers had returned home from the war in Europe and were buying motorcycles. Triumph, BSA, Norton, AJS, Enfield, and others were all building light and fast motorcycles while Harley and…
….gone South. Those of us that are afflicted with ‘VBD‘ (get your mind out of the gutter, it is not a sexually transmitted disease…it’s Vintage Bike Disease) seem to have a hard time resisting finding a way to sneak some weird, obscure, oddball motorcycle into our garage without our spouses noticing. I have tried it…
Picture this, you’re buzzing along a tight twisty mountain road on a classic roadracer that just happens to have lights and a horn. The bike is light, quick and amazingly agile. The bike almost knows what you’re going to do before you do. A very light push on the bars sends you through the corner…
In 1969 BSA commanded 80% of all the Brit bikes sold here in the USA. Eighty Percent! Who woulda thunk? I, and I think most of us, would have pegged Triumph as the leader but not so say the statistics. What was it about BSA that made it that strong a seller in a time…
Little hot rod two strokes are way too much fun to ride. Like a lot of us of a certain age, we grew up riding little ring dings, dirt bikes or street bikes, the late 60’s and early 70’s were ruled by two strokes. Three out of the four Japanese manufacturers based their whole product…
What’s in a name? The Triumph T100 got its moniker because it would go 100 mph, the T110 because it went 110 mph ? Actually, ‘The Motorcycle’ magazine in Great Britain was only able to get it up to 109 mph but some others claim they got it up to 114 mph…so calling it the…
Here I am again writing about a bike that I wish I had room for in my collection, the Kawasaki KZ750 Twin. It may not have the status of a Bonneville, a Lightning 650, a Commando, or even an XS650 (I have owned 2 out of the 4), but the KZ750 Twin deserves more love…
I have always been attracted to oddball motorcycles, yet another psychological flaw I can attribute my step-father. Bultaco, Greeves, any English bike and big thumpers. Sure, I’ve owned my fair share of UJM’s, my favorite being my 1980 Honda CB750F, but I like riding a bike that you don’t see a hundred of when you…
