Features

Honda C77 motorcycle restoration (pdf) Rebuilds often stall at the farming out stage. Parts disappear into the ether, worthy professionals are often busy stretching time estimates and many of us move goal posts which irritates the service providers slowing the job down. With the C77, all welding, brazing, machining, assembly and wiring were tasks for…

Continue reading »

To Honda’s top brass it must have, at first, sounded like the craziest of ideas. Not only a six-cylinder motorcycle with the pots inline across the frame, but also one of more than 1000cc. It could be huge and unwieldy, more so than Benelli’s 750 Sei. But, with fabled engineer Shoichiro Irimajiri at the helm…

Continue reading »

Are five valves better than four? The four-valve head… the 16-valve motor: the name trips off the tongue as the cutting-edge of suck-squeeze-bang-blow technology. We loved this in the 1980s, in the bike or car world, and both forms of transport would be emblazoned with ‘16 valve’ or ‘four valve’ in a bid to lure…

Continue reading »

Honda VF500F11 Jaundiced contributors to the pocket-sized bike mags moan about 25-year-old Honda fours as if they’re singing from the same hymn sheet: flaky ignition, self-destructing camshafts and cam-chain adjusters and self-seizing brake calipers. No matter that these bikes have been often sadly neglected by halfwit owners who’ve failed to observe the need for 1500-mile…

Continue reading »

Suzuki GT380 classic motorcycle Kawasaki and Yamaha’s contribution to global pollution levels is well known but it’s worth remembering that Suzuki was actually the last of the Japanese giants to abandon the two stroke. Honda showed uncanny foresight by not bothering with ring-dingers in the first place of course, but Yamaha had been producing the…

Continue reading »

Iconic Yamaha TZ750 Few motorcycles had such a dramatic impact on road racing in the 1970s as Yamaha’s TZ750. While Yamaha had been successfully providing 250cc and 350cc machines for club and international racers alike since the mid-60s, the TZ750 burst on the scene in 1974 and changed everything, becoming the machine of choice for…

Continue reading »

Joe’s bike was looking sorry for itself It's the sound of the V4s that got to me. Yes, I’m probably a lot younger than most of you CMM readers. I’m 23 and was just four years old when I went to my first World Superbike race and fell in love with the sound of the…

Continue reading »

Suzuki GT185 Describe a motorcycle as delightful these days and you’ll get a strange look. Motorcycles aren’t delightful. They’re awesome, amazing, stunning. But there was a time when the term fitted comfortably into the lexicon of motorcycle terminology. And it fitted Suzuki’s little GT185 two-stroke twin perfectly. It was in the early 70s, when Suzuki…

Continue reading »

Stafford motorcycle show, October 19-20 Special guest of honour is former 250cc GP champion and 500cc legend Christian Sarron. Christian will be adding his own brand of Gallic charm to proceedings and has a wealth of racing memories he wants to share with you. A new addition to the show for 2013 is stunt rider…

Continue reading »

Born on March 27, 1955, he received help from French rider Patrick Pons, who recognised Christian’s immense talent early on. Christian made his international debut in 1976 and by the following year had won his first 250cc race in West Germany. Injuries would always blight Christian’s career, as one paddock wag put it: “Christian doesn’t…

Continue reading »