In an era where every facet of motorcycling has been splintered into tiny niches within an overall niche, it helps to jog the memory that there was a time when competitors (or fans for that matter) didn’t stick to one discipline…

After a very brief tenure with an annoyingly temperamental Bantam when I first started riding on the road at 16 years old, I swapped it for a C15 SS80 Sportsman. It turned out to be a delightfully reliable machine that not only looked way too cool back then, but also had a real bark to it that sounded like I’d always imagined a real motorcycle should sound…

Brian Crighton’s rotary-powered race bikes of the 1980s were incredible machines. So fast, so light and so reliable. It was no wonder they won British Superbike races and championships – or that Brian was able to make the bike competitive enough to even think of running it in Grands Prix…

There was a time back in the late 1970s when ‘specials’ were all the rage. Hoping perhaps to attract new buyers from Harley, who dominated the market, it seemed as if most rival manufacturers were building so-called ‘factory customs’ and calling them ‘specials’…

I’ve been lucky enough to have spent time working with Dougie Lampkin in the past, but it was always centred around trials events that he was competing in or serious interviews about his chosen sport…

If you believe the best things in life are free then you’ll love this issue of CB. We’ve added 32 extra pages to this issue of the mag and got our tech-head tipster and fixer Rick Parkington to edit a Buying Guide, covering British 650 twins…

The first thing Ian Johnston showed us when we walked into his workshop was the lump of Triumph crankcase he cut off the front of a set of scrap crankcases to shoehorn the motor into an A65 frame…

I remember taking a quick spin on Dave Hide’s CB750 – he was the first Honda four-cylinder owner among our local ‘gang’ of biking mates…

At the risk of a sweeping generalisation, I think motorcyclists have in-built fascination with both engineering and curious creations. And so, if you’re like me, the curious engineering of the ELF race bikes is a wondrous joy…

There’s nothing quite like it
When I was a youth, my dad took me to the first-ever truck Grand Prix at Donington Park in 1984. Barry Sheene was driving a DAF…

My neighbour isn’t a motorcyclist and has no interest in bikes. He couldn’t tell a Velocette LE from a Ducati 900SS. Yet there’s one machine that grabs his attention when it rolls up outside; not only that, but he can recognise it at 100 paces. Triumph’s Bonneville. Is there a more famous motorcycle?

Four decades. That’s 14,600 days and thousands of inspirational bikes, compelling people and an awful lot of PG Tips. And it means that, now we’re 40 years young, the world’s favourite classic motorcycle magazine has become a classic itself

We meet Christine Wise and hear the inspiring story of her Moto Morini that she's owned from new, commuted in snow, won the National Rally, written off and it's even been raced at the TT. V-twins stir an emotion in many of us and this special issue celebrates the charismatic motor that’s forever been at the heart of motorcycling; from the raw craziness of a board track racer, through the sheer class of Brough Superior and landmark Vincent Black Shadow, to Honda’s innovative CX500. We’ve got the story of the giant-slaying Moto Guzzi racers built by a dentist, we got to ride the exotic road version. Plus it’s a month of rumbling exhausts, fabulous engineering and, crucially, pure riding joy.

It’s incredible to think Yoshimura and Suzuki have been together for 40 years. Surely it’s one of the longest running and most successful partnerships in motorcycle sport.

Touring holidays, ambitious tuning, a period dolled-up as a street tracker, disassembled and hidden in boxes, and an eight-valve conversion.

It’s the sort of romantic story easily dismissed as a myth. Man goes to shed, man buys pile of rust, man finds he’s inadvertently bought a bike raced by a British hero. This time it’s most definitely true, however. …

Mike Hailwood’s TT comeback was, and is, remarkable. Returning to the Island after an 11-year absence was unprecedented, but storming to victory in 1978’s TT F1 race was staggering.

Think Norton, think Commando. There are many revered models in the brand’s history, yet it’s this big parallel twin that the fabulous logo always brings to mind.

Everyone expected a price like a phone number, however when bidding hit £652,414 even Bonhams must have been surprised. That’s the thick end of a million dollars.

Have a fascinating look behind the scenes at one of classic racing’s most colourful equipes - Team Obsolete's base in Brooklyn. Back on home soil, we also go behind the scenes at one of our unsung national treasures, Wasp Motorcycles – a firm that continues to make a wide range of motorcycles and rolling chassis kits using old-school production methods.

In the January 2018 issue of Classic Bike magazine we shortlist the ten potential projects that could win Barn Find of the Year in 2018. You can see all the bikes and decide who to vote for in the issue.

Ever since the motorcycle was invented, people have been trying to go faster – on the roads, around the race track, at the drag strip and on the beaches or the salt flats. Speed drives motorcyclists and this issue celebrates our need for it.

It seems rather timely for Garry Laurence to have finished his Norton Featherbed-framed BSA Gold Star to coincide with our coverage of the Ace Cafe Reunion....

If you’re a disciple of Rick’s workshop-inspired content, you’ll love this issue. As we’ll as Rick’s expert advice and fettling tips in his regular Fixes section, and the latest update on the Rudge Special project – it’s off the bench and running!

It's one not to miss!

In our September issue we have 16 pages of Classic workshop and Rickman takes us through his Suzuki saga.

This is The Green Issue, but not some kind of environmentally-motivated political message those three words now suggest. Far from it. It’s a celebration of a time when green was mean, a time of Kawasaki’s outrageous two-strokes triples and ground-breaking four-strokes. A time when big horsepower was everything and chassis technology was struggling to catch up.

This month’s Classic Bike features a free Best of British 52-page supplement featuring some of the best bikes in the National Motorcycle Museum and how you can ride them.

The CB team argue over which of Suzuki’s 70’s triples are best, we look back at the history of Donington Park at 40 and visit a shop in Athens that has been restoring BSA’s for years – we meet the third generation of Papoutsas to care for the machines.

1967. The Summer of Love. Hippy culture was kicking back big time. Traditional British bikes were coming under fire from the Japanese industry with exciting new lightweight two-strokes that matched (and even exceeded) the performance of the traditional 650 twins. Grand Prix racing hit its peak in 1967 – with the epic 500cc battles – MV Agusta v Honda, Ago v Hailwood. Honda was also pushing the boundaries of technology in the other GP classes, too – exemplified by the amazing 250-6...

Inside the May issue - Sandshifters had a ton of fun in the Sellicks Beach Races in South Australia. George Greenland told us of his plans to head to Europe for a few weeks of classic trails – at 84! Our Gez grabbed a test ride on a Ducati 750GT – the Italian V-twin of his dreams. Duckers had a spin on a Brough Black Alpine. And Rick has been flat out in this shed.

One of the many things we discovered this month was that despite Yamaha’s supermoto-styled TDR250 being initially considered totally impractical, it’s every bit as much fun to ride as it’s TZR racer-style sibling...