Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2025 i Motorcycle Classics

“I first saw this bike at the Antique Motorcycle Club of America meet at Dixon, California, where the previous owner was having it judged. I was fascinated by the bike.”—Owner Clay Baker Honda’s experiment with factory custom paint In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Honda concentrated on engineering and reliability, not on art. But at one point, the company stepped outside of its comfort zone and experimented with hydro-dipping tanks and side covers to produce tie-dyed effects for some of its motorcycles. End papers used in classic bookbinding often have a similar treatment, called marbling. Why Honda did this is unknown. It is known that the factory, flush with cash from export sales, was experimenting with different possibilities. These experiments were carried out by small special project teams in…

Honda CB450 swingarm bushings have a reputation for wearing out prematurely. Early CB450s like our subject 1970 CB450K4 used metallic bushings, while later ones apparently switched to plastic, a material more than a few manufacturers embraced for ease of installation. Early or late, CB450 swingarm bushings don’t appear to last more than 10,000 miles or so. Our subject bike didn’t lead a particularly difficult life, yet with a mere 13,000 miles showing on the clock, the swingarm bushings were shot, exhibiting an easy 1/8 inch or more of slop on the swingarm pivot pin. Although a small amount of play won’t show adverse effects, too much results in a wandering rear end, the back wheel moving left and right, generating an uncontrollable steering input. Typically, once the wear becomes great…

New Item! RED TAPE AND WHITE KNUCKLES In Red Tape and White Knuckles, celebrated adventurer and author Lois Pryce shares the story of her 10,000-mile journey through the vast continent of Africa. Setting off from her home in London, Lois makes her way to the shores of Tunisia, the Sahara Desert, wartorn Angola, and the Congo basin before reaching her ultimate destination of Cape Town, South Africa — all done on a simple 250cc motorbike and carrying along only the bare necessities. #12630 $19.95 Members: $17.95 VICTORY MOTORCYCLES Victory’s innovative and stylish heavyweight cruisers attracted a loyal, hard-riding following, though not the market share that was needed to survive. This richly illustrated book covers the brand’s history model-bymodel and analyzes why the parent company announced in early 2017 that its…

A hundred bucks well spent I was somewhat startled to see a ’39 EL go for 110,000 Simoleons at the Mecum auction in Las Vegas. My first motorcycle was a ’39 61 inch Knucklehead. I gave a friend a hundred bucks for it. That was in Milwaukee where I grew up. The EL tranny needed help so I took it to a shop out on 60th and Fond du Lac Ave that dealt only in used Harleys. It was run by a soft spoken older gent named Ralph who always had classical music playing. He called and said it needed a bottom shaft but that he couldn’t find one anywhere. This was in the ’60s. I called a family friend, Sal Tarantino, who had worked in the racing division at…

Held over MotoGP weekend, March 28–30, 2025, the 10th Anniversary Handbuilt Motorcycle Show returned to downtown Austin, Texas. Hosted by Revival Cycles, the show has grown from a niche gathering of custom builders into a world-class celebration of mechanical artistry. And this year, it was bigger and bolder than ever. With over 250 motorcycles and cars on display and an estimated 13,000+ visitors over three days, the show transformed The Printhouse — a 100,000 square-foot former newspaper facility just south of downtown — into a buzzing hub of creativity and community. Billed as “an inspiring showcase of works from builders and craftsmen that combine knowledge, skill, and ingenuity to create one-of-a-kind, truly hand-built machines,” the Handbuilt Show delivered on that promise. The floor was filled with a mix of vintage…

Possibly the best-kept secret in the world of classic motorcycling is an event that takes place every two years and is restricted to just 120 riders and their machines, which must have been built before 1970. The event encompasses ten days of riding, some of them optional day trips interspersed by a couple of rest days for vehicle maintenance, sightseeing, or simply socializing. The ride is about 1,500 miles over near-deserted, wellpaved roads, through some of the most scenic and diverse countryside on the planet. It used to be held every three years, given that the organizers arrange it all in their spare time. But “in response to popular demand,” as they say, their recovery time was cut back to two years from the 2020 event onwards! This little-known landmark…

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, part of the National Park Service network and the country’s first designated national lakeshore, is in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on the shores of Lake Superior. Consisting of deep forests, lakes, towering shoreline sandstone formations, sandstone cliffs, beaches, and sand dunes, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is 42 miles long. The 1820 Lewis Cass expedition first surveyed this region and the western portions of Michigan Territory; prior to that, the area had been settled for centuries by Native Americans, explorers, and fur traders. Industrial logging started in 1877 and continued unabated until the area’s pine forests were depleted. Conservation efforts replaced pine with hardwood trees which ultimately aided tourism; more on that in a moment. The Upper Peninsula’s local town, Munising (pronounced “muni sing”) became a lumber, railroad…

As the hot, stifling dog days of summer close in this time of year, many of us long to be in a more temperate climate zone. One option would be taking refuge in a place like Sweden, where 70% of the land consists of cool, lush, shaded forests, many laced with meandering trails — the perfect place to take your restored gold tank Yamaha DT-1 Enduro out for a much-needed ride. Fact is, many Swedes appreciate the beauty, even the heart and soul, of their forests. So much so that strong-willed Swedish enduro riders look forward to gathering for the annual enduro known as Novemberkasan; and you don’t need to understand the Scandinavian language to figure out that this event takes place during the month of November. The “asan” refers…

Some of the most dramatic, innovative motorcycles ever conceived never made the transition from prototype to production. Such is the case for the BSA Fury/Triumph Bandit DOHC 350, Yamaha GL750 four-cylinder two-stroke street bike, and the Harley-Davidson Project Nova 400/500 V-twin, 800/1000 V4 and 1200/1500 V6. In some cases, those “never-were” models may have been breakthrough designs that could have rescued the manufacturer from financial calamity. The Triumph Bandit/BSA Fury 350cc twin potentially could have allowed BSA/Triumph to capture a big slice of the market then owned by the popular Honda CB/CL350. The Honda had its well-proven single overhead cam engine, but the BSA/Triumph 350 planned to come on strong with the performance of a double overhead cam engine — an industry first with the exception of some Italian exotica.…

The 2025 Texas Fandango returned to the Gillespie County Fairgrounds in Fredericksburg with a three-day celebration of motorcycles past and present. Hosted by the Cherokee Chapter of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America (AMCA), the event has earned its place as a must-do for vintage motorcycle fans. The 2025 Fandango, held April 4–6, packed in a vintage swap meet, a bike show, and a strong showing from clubs and vendors, even if wet weather curtailed the dirt track racing somewhat — it took place on only one day this year. A walk through the swap meet is always a treat — and always a test of willpower. The booths are heavy with Harley parts, but look closely, and there are plenty of British, Japanese, and Italian nuggets mixed in. I…

In Part 1 of this story, published in our July/August 2025 issue, Alan Cathcart spoke with Martin Adams to uncover the origins of the Commonwealth Honda 850 — how it came to life through a handpicked team of builders, tuners, and racers, and how it emerged as a serious threat to the dominance of Ducati in Pro Twins racing. In Part 2, Cathcart puts the Honda through its paces aggressively at Willow Springs Raceway and gives us his hands-on impressions of one of the most brilliant machines ever to challenge “the establishment” on two wheels. —Ed. Levering myself aboard the little Honda for a dozen laps of Willow Springs was a taste of forbidden fruit for a Ducati racer like me — but an all too tantalizing one, at that.…

It’s been said that drag racing was one of the first forms of motorcycle racing — and that’s probably true. All that was needed, after all, was a stoplight and a pair of motorcyclists waiting for it to turn green. Whoever got to the finish line first was the winner. And when it became a sanctioned American motorsport in the Fifties — and for many years to follow — the motorcycle that got there first most often was Barn Job. How it came to be In 1964, in Buffalo, New York, native Clem Johnson purchased Vincent Rapide VIN F10AB11209 and began modifying it almost immediately. In the early days of drag racing, there were few, if any, performance parts available. Racers had to make their own, and being a master…