Real Classic

RealClassic magazine features the very best British motorcycles from all eras, plus charismatic Continental machines (and the odd Japanese classics crops up occasionally, too). Long term classic riders will recognise many of the members of the RC team, which includes authors, historians and journalists like Steve Wilson, Dave Minton, Matt Vale, Odgie, Jacqueline 'PUB' Bickerstaff, Rowena Hoseason and editor Frank Westworth -- but the magazine's key feature is that it is firmly grounded in the real world. Our articles are written by real life riders and reflect far more than a simple road test ever can. We're never scared of getting grubby in The Shed (and we even admit it when things go horribly wrong!)

Real Classic

FROM THE FRONT

REALLY RAPID • Long after the Rudge factory shut up shop, dedicated competitors kept their roadracers competitive with cutting- edge upgrades. An auction listing leads Rowena Hoseason to uncover an unsung racing innovator…

INCOMING! • RC readers write, rant and rattle on… Summat to say? Send your comments, hints, tips, tales of woe and derring-don’t to RCHQ@RealClassic.net

SHURELY SHOME MISHTAKE?

LETTERS

Mellow Yellow Motorcycle • Take a Reliant car engine and build it into a long motorcycle with a roof. What could go wrong? John Young bought one, and told Frank Westworth all about it…

MOTO MISCELLA! • Back in the late 1980s, Moto Guzzi turned their 650 roadster into a high and mighty enduro monster. 350 years later, Andy Havill reversed that process…

REAL OR RETRO? • Searching for a cure for a stiff neck, Robert Finan found what might be the perfect modern classic. Or is it just another retro?

FAB FOUR? • Another truly original and inventive British machine which failed to make it into production. Alan Cathcart tells the tale and rides a survivor

SOUNDS OF THE SEVENTIES • Does your motorcycling hark back to a definite decade? For Ted Foreman, the 1970s were an iconic era that he recreates with his classic motorcycles…

THINKING OF BUYING?

LETTER FROM AMERICA • Is there ever a ‘quick and simple’ job when it comes to a classic Triumph Trident? Don’t answer that question…

Flat-Frack Fettling • Back along, Odgie built himself a budget flat-track bike around a BSA Starfire engine and a CanAm chassis, and took it to the races. Which revealed all those little things that weren’t quite right first time around…

Make DO & MEND • Stu Thomson’s Alpino restoration reaches the finish line. But can he convince the DVLA that this bike isn’t a bitsa and is entirely entitled to an age-related registration?

PUB TALK • Working on and exhibiting the PWP has had PUB thinking about the old story of two drawings superimposed revealing the Series A Vincent Rapide engine to Phil Irving, and indeed thinking about the history and development of V-twin engines more generally…

Ollie’s ODDJOBS • In which Ollie discovers that smoking may be bad for you…

TALES FROM THE SHED • All systems are GO! Or possibly a go-slow. Frank’s attempting to put the Thudderbird together again…

Members’ Enclosure • The newsletter for RealClassic subscribers only