DCT – The ideal automatic transmission?
In the beginning, there was only a single speed and a crude ‘chain’ of linked pieces of leather to transmit power from a motorised bicycle’s engine to the back wheel. Continue Reading
A Flock of Goldwings
When I hear the word Goldwing, I immediately think of two things: one being that it sounds like the name of some exotic bird (of the feathered variety!) that only Continue Reading
Mondo Sahara
If you’ve never heard of Austin Vince, or Mondo Enduro, you’ve been missing out. Way back in 1995-1996 Vince was the driving force behind a completely unsupported, unsponsored ride around Continue Reading
Time Travel: A Biker’s Life in the 1970s
Human nature likes to revere the past as a lost utopia by selectively erasing the bad bits. It’s like those weirdos who live their lives as if it’s 1950, decorating Continue Reading
Underneath the Arches
It’s a funny thing, writing something for someone. I find that when you are visiting somewhere, an event, a place, with a view to reporting on it, you have a Continue Reading
Blood Runner ~ 183
One of the things I enjoy about riding a blood bike is the dichotomy between it, and ‘normal’ biking. At an objective level – seen from afar – there’s little Continue Reading
Riders’ Lives – Tim Arrowsmith
1. What was your first motorcycling experience? When I was about eleven years old we went on a family trip to Jersey for a holiday. For some reason my motorcycle-phobic Continue Reading
Image of the Month ~ 182
© Dave Gurman
The Naming of the Bike
Weird place names have always fascinated me. There are thousands throughout the world, such as Ecclefechan in Scotland, Puddledub not far from my previous home, and Pratt’s Bottom in England, Continue Reading
Blood Runner ~ 182
With several months’ experience of riding a blood bike behind me now, my perspective has changed a bit – for starters, it brings a whole new meaning to the phrase, Continue Reading
Blood Runner ~ 181
The received wisdom says you should never go back; LP Hartley famously said “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there” and who am I to argue Continue Reading
Riders’ Lives – Iain Banks
1.What was your first motorcycling experience? Discounting Honda 50s and 90s, a Suzi GT185 that I was loaned for a few months back in 1976. Electric start, let me tell Continue Reading
The Posh Boys’ Bike Club
I’ve always been pretty crap with names (but spectacularly good with faces) so if anyone had asked me a few years ago if I knew Steve Hallam, I wouldn’t have Continue Reading
In The Saddle
Dear Dave, Just read TRD and liked it so much I recommended it on Facebook. You must tell The Boy Biker that he only learnt half a lesson when he Continue Reading
Riders’ Lives – Paul Nicholas Blezard (aka Blez)
1.What was your first motorcycling experience? Aged 13, hiring a 50cc motorcycle and riding it on the streets of Rimini for an hour without mastering the clutch, but also without Continue Reading
Paddy’s Perspective
Which Way Now? It’s something to ponder: Where’s the Bike Industry going? Chasing a GP dream or embracing environmentalism? Are the marketing men leading, or are consumers demanding change? Is Continue Reading
Ask a policeman
I’d like to start by saying I’m not a writer, a reporter, or a journalist. I’m not highly educated and I possess very few literary skills, (thank goodness for smell Continue Reading
Secondary Effects
I read other motorcycle magazines somewhat regularly. I’m more interested in their letters-to-the-editor than I am in their latest shoot-out between six identical motorcycles. I don’t care about elite Continue Reading
The first sunny ride of the year
It’s been a funny old winter. I started out determined to ride right through as I have done in previous years. Anything aside from snow will see me out on Continue Reading
Funky Mopeds
There was a time, many years ago, when some of the contributors to this august journal had long hair, pimply faces and flares, when there existed a sub culture Continue Reading
The Ace Cafe, Café Racers, and Racing Aces – Book Review pt. 1
It is doubtful that there is anyone involved in the world of British motorcycling whose life is not touched directly or indirectly by the Ace Cafe. A visit here, an Continue Reading
The Ace Cafe, Café Racers, and Racing Aces – Book Review pt. 2
The world of the contemporary café racer in the United States is more properly addressed in Seate’s Café Racer: the Motorcycle (2008). For the past five or so years Seate Continue Reading
Riders’ Lives – Ed March
1.What was your first motorcycling experience? Rebuilding a Honda H100 and then teaching myself to ride it in a field. I still have it too. 2.What is your current bike? Continue Reading
Biker Down
“Kevin, I’ve got an idea and I’d like hear your thoughts about it” That was how I was first introduced by Jim Sanderson to what was soon to become ‘Biker Continue Reading
Paul Sample: The Interview ‘Everyone chooses their own destiny; mine’s a bike’ – OGRI
Whitchurch is one of those places that encapsulates the essence of Englishness with all its half-timbered houses, red bricks and stone-built churches. It’s a theme I want to explore with Continue Reading