Cruisers

Back in March this year I was contacted by a good friend who asked if I’d be interested in doing a Grand Moped Tour of southern Spain in October? Of course, the answer was ‘yes’ and so the hunt for a suitable bike to do it on began. Words: Ben Dyer; Pics: Simon Everett I…

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In 2010, Donna Kilby, a lifelong biker, was in the unusual position, for her anyway, of being without a bike. As someone who’s totally addicted to them, and made her living breaking Japanese ones for parts, this really would not do. Words and pictures: Lawrence Howes A trader offered her a 1984 Yamaha FJ1100; it had…

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Many years ago, Guy bought my much-loved green 1260 Bosworth big-bore EFE chop, writes Lin Jefford. He rode it, loved it, and then sold it. Almost instantly he regretted selling it almost as much as I did, but things have to move on to provide money and space for subsequent projects. He said then that one…

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Prior to 2004, most people in the world, even the biking world, when asked about Exile Cycles, went quieter than the bar in the Slaughtered Lamb. Now, though, ex-pat Brit Russell Mitchell’s company and bikes are among the most famous on the planet. Pictures: Garry Stuart You see, in 2004 Russ and Exile Cycles participated in…

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Remember those inline fours built in Great Britain under the Indian name a couple of decades ago? This is the guy who started the whole project back in the early 1990s under the name Wiking, with bikes based on 2000cc Volvo engines. Word and pictures: Charley Charles Sture Torngren of Stockholm, Sweden, is 71 years…

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When Kawasaki launched the W650, its take on the infant retro market that actually preceded Triumph’s relaunched Bonneville (1999 for the Kwak, 2001 for the Bonnie, according to Wikipedia), a lot of people didn’t realise quite how ‘retro’ it was. Pictures: Simon Everett You see, the ‘W’ in ‘W650’ refers to Kawasaki’s W1, W2 and…

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Steampunk, as any fule nose, is just about one of the most fashionable lifestyle sub-cultures around at the moment. Flat/street-trackers are equally as desirable. Put them together and what do you get? Well, this bike here actually… Chris Vincent, the owner and builder of the black BMW cafe racer from the last issue, had an…

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With the advent of eBay back in September 1995 (it was actually called AuctionWeb back then, did you know that?), the biking world suddenly both expanded and shrank at the same time. What am I blithering on about? Well, it expanded in that us lot ’ere in Grande Bretagne (and in other countries around the…

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Anyone who’s been to any of the bigger events this year (and a fair few of the smaller ones too) will no doubt have seen the two gentlemen responsible for the creation of this bike; Roy Gilby from Stondon Choppers, the builder, and Dave Harvey, the owner. They’re quite easy to spot as, usually, they…

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In much the same way as there are now reckoned to be more of the legendary Manx Norton race bikes today than were ever built by the Bracebridge factory in the model’s 16-year (1946-1962) history, there do seem to be a suspiciously large number of hardtail frames allegedly 
built by John Reed, the legendary Uncle…

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