Classic Bike

Classic Bike helps and inspires enthusiasts to get more from their passion for classic motorcycles. The magazine shares their fascination with motorcycling’s heroic past while also helping them buy, fix and improve the bikes in their shed. Our main areas of content are: - Inspirational and entertaining reads that celebrate the glory of motorcycling, from riding stories that put the reader in the seat of history’s greatest bikes to incredible racing tales - Restoration stories and instructional features that inspire and help people get their tools out and sort out their old bike - In-depth technical features from the most expert and authoritative writers in motorcycling If you share our passion about classic motorcycles from the last century, you'll enjoy reading Classic Bike.

Startline

Contributors in this issue

Letters • Classic Bike, Media House, Peterborough Business Park, Lynch Wood, Peterborough, Cambs, PE2 6EA

LETTER OF THE MONTH

MAGAZINE NEEDS YOU… • Have you just bought a new project? Or have you finished a project, taken part in an event or just been for a ride? Do you have pictures of you or your friends from your biking past? Or can you identify the riders or a face in the crowd from the Startline image on page four? Please write and tell us

Still the Star attraction • As glorious to look at and engaging to ride as ever, the BSA Gold Star is more financially attractive than it has been in ages. And this 1952 special is one you could ride all the time

‘If I had £10,000…’ • Brian Crichton started on MCN in 1971. He edited Classic Bike from 1999-2004 and was Associate Editor until 2009. Here’s what he’d blow ten grand on…

12 bikes you can buy • Why not start the new year with the excitement of a new bike? Gez Kane ferrets through auctions, dealers and private sales to find the most interesting and enticing machinery

Trident & Rocket 3 • Mark Hume is the chairman of the Trident and Rocket 3 Owners Club (TR3OC). He’s owned triples since 1977, here’s his take on why you need one

12 bikes that sold • There have been some temptingly low prices being accepted for many bikes recently. Gez Kane picks out some of the highlights, straddling five decades’ worth of machinery

BSA Bantam • One of the most fondly regarded British classics of them all – everybody loves a Bantam, don’t they? Here’s what you’ll have to pay to fulfil that love…

Veteran bonanza • Remarkable collection including an 1898 Holden will go up for sale next year

What’s new

Born to run a TR6C • Classic Triumph stars in new Bruce Springsteen movie

TT star’s moving resto

Motorcycle Live • They call it ‘MCL’, but for most of us it will forever be the NEC Show – and this year’s event included plenty of classics that stole the spotlight from all the new machinery

Diary dates…

Rescued, revived & ridden • The classic bikes that you have found, restored or just taken for a ride

It’s 1976 • Benchmark bikes, new tech, epic racing, British world champions… it was quite warm, too. Welcome to our 50th anniversary special…

AUTO WONDERS • 1976 brought a swarm of impressive new bikes – and the tantalising prospect of clutch-free operation

YAMAHA XT500 • Bursting into Europe in 1976, the XT500 reinvented single-cylinder off-road thumpers and spawned a new wave of dirt four-strokes. Can the original still claim to be the best?

A star is born • Hitting dealers in the spring, Moto Guzzi’s Le Mans was an unlikely superbike – but a huge hit. Here’s how to buy a corker

MODEL HISTORY

Which to buy, what to pay…

RETURN OF THE BIG H • After nine years away from top-flight racing, a Honda factory team rocked up in the Netherlands – and then simply blew...