250 – 499cc
1961 Matchless G80 Typhoon
1961 MATCHLESS G80 TYPHOON BACKGROUND Parent-company AMC knew how to build big singles. Despite now having a nice lineup of vertical twins, the real money was made selling Matchless and AJS singles. For Matchless, the top of the heap was the 500cc G80, and the best of those was the Typhoon. The AJS version was …
1945 BSA M20
The 1945 BSA M20 was the last year of production during World War 2 and and just a part of BSA’s massive wartime contribution to Britain’s war effort. 1937 was its first year of production that would last until the late 1950s. Designed to be simple, rugged and reliable, the WM20 was a side-valve (flathead) …
1970 Triumph Daytona
1970 Triumph Daytona 500 1970 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 96.6 mph. By 1967, it …
Honda CB400SF (Super Four) Motorcycles
1992-95 Honda CB400SF (Super Four) Engine Engine Liquid cooled, transverse four cylinders, four stroke, Displacement 399cc Bore x Stroke 55 x 42 mm Compression Ratio 11.3:1 Fuel Delivery Four 32mm carburetors Max Power 53 hp 38.6 kW @ 10000 rpm Max Torque 40.18 Nm @ 7500 rpm Drivetrain Transmission 5-speed Final Drive Chain CHASSIS / …
1968 Rickman-BSA 441
This 1968 Rickman-BSA 441 represents years of development. After years of racing motocross in the 1950s in England and Europe, brothers Don and Derek Rickman decided to design their own frame. At the time, most dirt bikes were simply stripped-down street bikes, which were too heavy and not ideal for racing in the dirt. They …
Royal Enfield Bullet
ROYAL ENFIELD BULLET BACKGROUND Royal Enfield had been building sturdy, reliable motorcycles since the turn of the century. They produced military motorcycles for the British army in both world wars. They struggled at the edge of insolvency throughout most of the 1930s but managed to hang on until the the second world war boosted their …
1939 Triumph T100
1939 Triumph T100 1939 TRIUMPH T100 – THE LAST PRE-WAR TIGER The Tiger T100 was launched in 1938. Performance was boosted by the use of high-compression forged pistons and polished ports and internals, the result being a machine that could touch 100mph in road trim and exceed it with the silencer end-caps removed. The 1939 …
1964 Velocette Venom
1964 Velocette Venom 1964 VELOCETTE VENOM BACKGROUND By the time Venom production began in 1965, Velocette was almost at the end of its long road of singles. And it represented everything that Velo had learned about building a big single. They were fast, light, handled well, and were very reliable. Since Velocette never made a …
1962 Norton Navigator
1962 Norton Navigator 1962 NORTON NAVIGATOR BACKGROUND Norton has always been known for big powerful bikes like the Manx and the Commando. But they also had a very ambitious line of smaller bikes that they originally built to respond to a change in British motoring law that was announced in 1958. Starting in 1960, first-time …
1955 BSA A7
1955 BSA A7 Pre-Unit 500 Twin 1955 BSA A7 BACKGROUND The 500cc A7 was BSA’s first vertical twin and marked its entry into that very lucrative market, started by the Triumph Speed Twin just prior to the war. At war’s end, virtually every British motorcycle manufacturer fielded their own vertical twin, usually starting out at …
1953 BSA Gold Star
1953 BSA Gold Star 1953 BSA GOLD STAR BACKGROUND Throughout the 1930s, BSA created and developed a strong line of single-cylinder motorcycles. In 1937, they introduced the 500cc Empire Star. When Wal Handley lapped the Brooklands racetrack at over 100 mph average speed, he was awarded a Gold Star. The name stuck and was applied …
1951 Triumph Speed Twin
1951 Triumph Speed Twin 1951 TRIUMPH SPEED TWIN BACKGROUND The Triumph Speed Twin was the world’s first ‘modern’ vertical twin, when it was introduced in 1937 as a 1938 model. Designed by Edward Turner (who also designed the Ariel Square Four), the 500cc 5T Speed Twin was a revelation at the time. Pretty much everyone …
1969 Velocette Venom
1969 Velocette Venom 1969 VELOCETTE VENOM By 1969, Velocette was a year from closing its doors. Whether they knew that in 1969 or not is questionable, but surely they realized they were in dire straights, financially. Velocette was the one British brand still building bikes in the 1960s that never fielded a vertical twin. The …
2007 Royal Enfield Bullet
2007 Royal Enfield Bullet 2007 ROYAL ENFIELD BULLET BACKGROUND Like all modern, Indian-built Royal Enfields, the 500 Bullet is a descendant of the original British-built Enfields of the late 1940s. Despite being completely redesigned in modern times by parent company Madras Motors, and sprouting modern features like electric starters and electronic fuel injection, Royal Enfields …
1946 Velocette KSS
1946 Velocette KSS 1946 VELOCETTE KSS BACKGROUND The Velocette KSS debuted in 1925 as an OHC (overhead cam) 350cc air-cooled single. Being OHC placed it at the cutting edge of engine technology at a time when most machines still used side-valve designs or pushrods. The name KSS breaks down to the K for overhead cam …
1959 Velocette Venom
1959 Velocette Venom 1959 VELOCETTE VENOM BACKGROUND The Venom was Velocette’s hottest bike from its inception in 1955. In 1961 a factory-prepared Venom with a small fairing set the world’s 24-hour endurance speed record of 100.05 MPH at the Montlhery race track in France. The record stood until 2008 for 500cc motorcycles. The 499cc Venom …
1953 Triumph TR5 Trophy
1953 Triumph TR5 Trophy 1953 TRIUMPH TR5 TROPHY BACKGROUND The Triumph TR5 Trophy was produced from 1949 through 1958. It was based on the 500cc 5T Speed Twin, but modified for off-road use. The TR5 Trophy was originally intended as a trials bike, with high side-exhaust, high ground clearance and excellent handling (for the day). …
1948 Triumph Speed Twin
1948 Triumph Speed Twin 1948 TRIUMPH SPEED TWIN BACKGROUND In a few short years, the 5T Speed Twin went from being one of the world’s premium performance motorcycles to be Triumph’s entry-level twin. It had been surpassed by the T100 Tiger with its higher compression and hotter cams. And soon it would be bumped down …
1973 BSA B50MX
1973 BSA B50MX 1973 BSA B50MX BACKGROUND BSA produced one of the world’s most successful 500cc singles in the Gold Star starting in 1938 and running all the way through 1963 when production ended. The entire BSA product line was being converted from non-unit construction to unit-construction and the ancient non-unit Gold Star had to …
1956 Triumph TR5R
A WORK IN PROGRESS In our efforts to complete our online index, and make this the world’s greatest website about classic British motorcycles, we’re building pages as fast as we can. The first thing we add are the pictures. Then come the specifications and then the history. So, if you see a page that just …
1950 Vincent Comet
1950 VINCENT COMET RUNNING GEAR The Vincent Comet had frame similar in layout to the V-twin Vincent Black Shadow which included Vincent’s proprietary cantilever rear suspension and Vincent’s Girdraulic forks up front. And, like the big V-twins, the engine was a stressed member of the frame, eliminating the need for front downtubes and an engine …
1936 Vincent Comet
1936 VINCENT COMET FRAME & CYCLE GEAR The Vincent Comet had frame similar in layout to the V-twin Vincent Black Shadow which included Vincent’s proprietary cantilever rear suspension and Vincent’s Girdraulic forks up front. Also typical of Vincent motorcycles, the Comet had two Single Leading-Shoe (SLS) front drum brakes, one on each side. 1936 VINCENT …
1935 Vincent Comet
1935 VINCENT COMET RUNNING GEAR The Vincent Comet had frame similar in layout to the V-twin Vincent Black Shadow which included Vincent’s proprietary cantilever rear suspension and Vincent’s Girdraulic forks up front. Also typical of Vincent motorcycles, the Comet had two Single Leading-Shoe (SLS) front drum brakes, one on each side. COMET ENGINE DESIGN The …
1949 Vincent Comet
1949 VINCENT COMET RUNNING GEAR The Vincent Comet had frame similar in layout to the V-twin Vincent Black Shadow which included Vincent’s proprietary cantilever rear suspension and Vincent’s Girdraulic forks up front. And, like the big V-twins, the engine was a stressed member of the frame, eliminating the need for front downtubes and an engine …
1951 Vincent Comet
1951 VINCENT COMET RUNNING GEAR The Vincent Comet had frame similar in layout to the V-twin Vincent Black Shadow which included Vincent’s proprietary cantilever rear suspension and Vincent’s Girdraulic forks up front. And, like the big V-twins, the engine was a stressed member of the frame, eliminating the need for front downtubes and an engine …
1960 Triumph Twenty-One
1960 TRIUMPH TWENTY-ONE HAS BATHTUB STYLING. The British home market had been hungry for cheap transportation after WWII, and commuter motorcycles helped fill that role. But England being…well, England, was wet and rainy and to prevent rust an owner needed to wipe his bike down each night after getting home from work. This was a …
1938 Triumph Speed Twin
INTRODUCING THE 1938 TRIUMPH SPEED TWIN It’s hard to overstate the significance of the introduction of this bike. Until the moment of its launch, just about every British motorcycle manufacturer was producing mostly big air cooled pushrod singles, but as displacement and performance grew, so did engine vibration. They’d reached the single’s practical limits at …
Triumph Daytona
TRIUMPH DAYTONA IS HOT The Triumph Daytona is essentially the high-performance version of the T100C Trophy 500 twin. Fitted with a new alloy cylinder head mounting two Amal Monobloc carubretors ‘Bonneville-style’, it also had higher compression and hotter cams. The increased the size of the intake valves, and found that they intake and exhaust valves …
Norton Dominator
CROWDED MARKET The Norton Dominator was Norton’s entry into the crowded vertical twin market, & it was intended to capitalize on the success of, & hopefully steal some sales from, the trend-setting Triumph Speed Twin. When it was introduced in 1949, the 500cc Dominator Model 7 was a handsome enough machine. The new engine was …
1947 Triumph 3T Deluxe
1947 TRIUMPH 3T DELUXE BACKGROUND Triumph production reverted to civilian machines in 1946, following the end of World War II. The biggest market that the British motorcycle industry needed to fill was the pressing need for cheap, economical transport to-and-from-work. In response, Triumph announced the new 3T, a 350cc companion to Edward Turner’s 500cc 5T …
1959 Triumph Twenty-One
1959 TRIUMPH TWENTY-ONE HAS BATHTUB STYLING. The British home market had been hungry for cheap transportation after WWII, and commuter motorcycles helped fill that role. But England being…well, England, was wet and rainy and to prevent rust an owner needed to wipe his bike down each night after getting home from work. This was a …
1946 Triumph 3T
1946 TRIUMPH 3T BACKGROUND As Triumph production reverted to civilian machines immediately after the end of World War II, the company announced the new 3T, a 350cc companion to Edward Turner’s 500cc 5T Speed Twin. The 3T was similar in many respects to the Speed Twin, but also borrowed features from the TRW and 3TW …
1961 Triumph Twenty One
1961 TRIUMPH TWENTY ONE HAS BATHTUB STYLING. The British home market had been hungry for cheap transportation after WWII, and commuter motorcycles helped fill that role. But England being…well, England, was wet and rainy and to prevent rust an owner needed to wipe his bike down each night after getting home from work. This was …
Ariel Red Hunter
ARIEL RED HUNTER BACKGROUND The 1930s were indeed the Golden Age for the British motorcycle industry. At the time, nearly all of them relied heavily on one basic engine architecture: the air-cooled, pushrod OHV single, and most marques had built their lineup of 350 and 500 singles. As the 1930s opened, Ariel’s product line was …
1964 AJS Model 16
1964 AJS MODEL 16 BACKGROUND Parent-company AMC secured some lucrative contracts from the British government to build, among other things 80,000 Matchless G3s and G3/Ls. After the war, these became the basis for their civilian middleweight line. As always, every Matchless motorcycle had a near-identical twin in the AJS lineup. This was the AJS Model …
1927 AJS Model H4
1927 AJS MODEL H4 AJS built a fine line of motorcycles in the late 1920s, including side-valve (SV) and overhead valve (OHV) singles ranging in engine size and output. Horsepower was in the single digits across the board. The H4 was a 350cc SV single with advanced features for the day. Special alloys were used …
Triumph Twenty One
THE TRIUMPH TWENTY ONE MISSION There are two schools of thought on the name ‘Triumph Twenty One’. It’s either honoring the 21st anniversary of Triumph Engineering, or was derived from the bike’s displacement in cubic inches. Either way, that was just it’s name. It’s model designation was 3TA, and it was Triumph’s entry-level 350 twin. …
BSA Gold Star
ABOVE: The 1960 BSA Gold Star Clubman was a high-performance roadster. The Gold Star also earned major off-road competition cred during its 25-year career. GOLDIE LORE The BSA Gold Star was one of the most successful motorcycles of all time, both in the showroom & on the track. It’s ancient design was outdated almost at …
Matchless G3
1936 Matchless G3C Trials. MATCHLESS G3 EARLY HISTORY In the early 1930’s Matchless was enjoying great success with its side-valve & later OHV singles. It was only natural to continue to develop this line, and in 1936 Matchless introduced two new distinct ‘families’ of motorcycles: The “Clubman”, and the “Tourist”. Available in 250, 350 & …
1946 AJS Model 18
1946 AJS MODEL 18 BACKGROUND Immediately following the end of World War II in 1945, every British motorcycle manufacturer rushed to convert from war production back to making civilian products. Millions of British troops were coming home, and they would all need transportation. But economic times were tough in England after the war, and many …
