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.

Welcome • SEPTEMBER 2024 ISSUE #536

CONTRIBUTORS IN THIS ISSUE

Next month in Classic Bike

A fast track to racing history • This year, the Classic Racing Motorcyle Club’s annual celebration weekend at Donington Park provided the usual heady mix of racing – featuring bikes from the ’60s to the ’90s – plus special parades and displays of competition machinery with different hues and histories. We couldn’t resist sampling the sights, sounds and smells

It’s a what? • Offenstadt Kawasaki emerges at Goodwood Festival of Speed

BIBS ATTRACTS BIDS • A collection of over 100 speedway bibs were sold on July 5 by HJ Pugh auctioneers. Here are four of them that’d make ideal interior decorations hjpugh.com

Take it to the Manx • For classic road racers, the Manx Grand Prix is the highlight of the summer, but there’s penty happening away from The Mountain Course too. Island resident and former racer Rupert Murden knows the ropes

Diary dates for September

No Show? Do it yourself!

Classic Bike

FAIR AND SQUARE • Celebrating its 50th birthday this year, Suzuki’s RG500 is the greatest GP bike ever (probably). The square-four stroker’s domination of the sport led to 11 world titles and world fame for a certain Mr Sheene

Gilera Nuovo Saturno • Retro models that revive old names are often more refined, but lack the charm and energy of the original model. Is it a trap Gilera’s late ’80s namesake of its ’50s single falls into?

Brian Crichton • One of Britain’s most jovial and prolific motorcycle journalists explains how always saying yes took him from being MCN’s amateur stuntman to owning 30 bikes

BRIAN CRICHTON • ‘Yes, of course I’ll have a go at that…’

The HOME COMING • Laverda made their first motorcycle in Breganze 75 years ago, so the town laid on a special birthday party. Bob Dixon was there

Tonkin’s TT tales • Steve Tonkin won the Junior TT in 1981, but this year he’s back on the Isle of Man with a freshly built Metisse-framed Gold Star

Steve’s Metisse Gold Star

A MATCH FOR A MANX • Norton’s overhead cam singles are legendary TT racers, but Peter Lodge chose to develop the company’s plodding ES2 ohv roadster – and he’ll be shipping it from New Zealand again to compete in this year’s Manx GP

Ride into summer with Classic Bike

BUYING + RIDING + FETTLING • Welcome to the sharp end of Classic Bike. Your hosts are spannering supremos Rick Parkington and Alan Seeley, along with market guru Gez Kane

Tales from the classic world Earth-shattering news • A reader’s query prompts Rick to explain the thinking behind the CB project Thunderbolt’s electrics

Imperial Fixes • Problems with old iron? Rick can help

Rick Parkington

Metric Fixes • European and Japanese classic bikes sorted with Alan Seeley

Alan Seeley

Getting it together again • The horrors inside the Harris’s secondhand Suzuki GSX1100 engine resulted in a hiatus and a hunt for parts,...