Features

It is a situation that few of us are ever likely to face at our level of racing. What am I on about? The choices facing a professional MX racer. For instance, picture the scene, a young lad, doing well is on the up. He’s chosen to try and make a living in one of…

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There are a number of competition machines which have taken on a life of their own and become equally as well known as the rider who used them to good effect. It’s arguable without the rider doing what they did these machines wouldn’t be so well known but the fact remains they were equal partners…

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If you’re going to have a 325 Bultaco restored then it is possible the workshops of the man responsible for its inception could well be the place to go. Alongside the Sally Miller Museum is a well-equipped workshop where all sorts of magic happens and machines from the dawn of motorcycling time are resurrected for…

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The motorcycle now referred to as ‘Goldie’ by enthusiasts the world over didn’t spring fully formed from the fertile minds of the BSA comp shop… though the guys in there had more than a hand in creating the legend. For this feature we’re concentrating on the swinging arm version of the Gold Star introduced for…

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If the atmosphere at the official team launch of the UK’s 1966 ISDT bid was anything to go by then yes, our teams could possibly win this prestigious event. Hopes were high for a successful trip to Sweden where the ISDT was to be held that year, and the not-so-surprising news for those assembled at…

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Turning up at the start of a trial with something new always creates a bit of interest. Blyth motorcycle dealer and trials rider, John Charlton, did just that when he arrived at the start of Castleside Trials Club’s round of CDB’s Northern British Trials Championship with a Drayton Triumph Twin instead of his usual C15.…

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There is a fascination with massive non-unit construction four-stroke MX machines which goes beyond any real reasoning. I am unashamedly a fan of these often brutal looking motorcycles even though I’m way too young to have seen them raced in their heyday. By the time this Hedlund was created the day of the dinosaur in…

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If anyone had said to me in the Seventies “what you need son is a 125…” I’d have laughed them out of the place, I knew what I needed, it was the red and black Model 199 325 Bultaco Sherpa, because that’s what ‘Vesty’ and the Lampkins were riding and winning on, or so it…

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Those of us who were youngsters in the early Seventies and reading the motorcycle press of the day had absorbed everything about the ISDT, the long distance trials where Triumph had exceeded all expectations and produced winners. We had focussed on such motorcycles as the TR5, the Trophy 500, we knew all about the wartime…

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As history will record, American Suzuki rider Brad Lackey would finish the season as world champion. However, at this stage in our story that was still to come and the motorcycling press here in the UK was full of how well the British riders could do at their home GP. In a full page preview…

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