Last issue, I explained about a very special person, Barry Owen. Barry was a marshal (and they are special enough) but Barry picked me up out of the gravel more than once, and as I said, he was always up for a chat at the end of the day whether I’d b

Suzuki’s seminal RG500 racer will always be remembered for four riders’ world 500cc Grand Prix titles – Barry Sheene’s wins in 1976 and 1977, Marco Lucchinelli’s in 1981 and fellow Italian Franco Uncini’s in 1982. But the square-four two-stroke was m

In the early 1970s, a new category of road racing was gathering momentum: Formula 750 was conceived as a production-based class to promote the new range of ‘superbikes’ which major manufacturers were then embracing. This brought an exciting new dimen

Pat Hennen was the first American to win a Grand Prix. As such, he was the trailblazer for the American invasion that followed in his wake – riders like Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz went on to dominate

Team Allspeed has always enjoyed taking part in the various series where we can use our TZR250 racer – most notably the Yamaha Past Masters Series. Some of our exploits have been in Classic Racer’s sister-title Classic Motorcycle Mechanics. As propri

From that moment on, Kavanagh was a road-racer and a very capable one, resulting in his selection as Victoria State’s nomination for Australia’s 1951 Isle of Man TT team. Although Kavanagh’s first rides in the TT that year ended in retirements, the p

During the no-holds-barred era of Grand Prix racing in the 1960s, Honda went the air-cooled four-stroke route with more cylinders, more rpm and more gears, Suzuki andYamaha pushed the water-cooled two-stroke envelope with multi-cylinders, disc (rotar

It’s three decades since Carl Fogarty became World Superbike champion for the first time. What followed from the nail-biting last-round championship win in 1994 was Carl’s domination on the Ducati V-twin, with three more titles coming in 1995, 1998 a

Eddie Lawson is one of the greatest riders of the ‘modern’ era of motorcycle racing. He came from the same California ‘crucible’ of dirt-track riding as Wayne Rainey in the 1970s – but was a few years ahead. He moved intoTarmac racing in 1979 and bec

We’ve teamed up with The Hobby Company (www.hobbyco.net) which distributes Tamiya plastic motorcycle kits in the UK to give away one of its amazing motorcycles in miniature. So, send in your pictures of bike racing and bike racers from back in the da

Launched in 1980, S100 has become Germany’s number one motorcycle care brand, collecting well over 100 awards along the way. We’re giving away a selection of their most popular cleaning products for your bike, helmet and riding kit. Find out more at

Former TT race winner, five-time Scottish champion and brilliant race engineer Bill Simpson has died at the age of 78 after a short battle with liver cancer. Father of five-time British champion and triple TT winner Ian Simpson, Bill served as his so

Some 50 years on from its 1974 debut, the TZ750 lives on, restored, maintained and ridden by an army of enthusiasts. To celebrate this amazing half-century, the Mallory Park Bike Bonanza held on July 6/7 will be hosting not only top TZ jockey Steve B

Fred Walmsley is best known for the succession of Manx Norton and Matchless G50 classic racers he’s furnished over the past 30-plus years for the likes of Barry Sheene, Wayne Gardner, John McGuinness, and other stars of the past and present, to ride.

Rod Gould, the 1970 World 250cc Champion, died on April 17 at the age of 80, after a long struggle with cancer. His passing means that there are now no longer any survivors of Britain’s long list of great champions from the glory days of the premier

The weather… always ready to play havoc with people’s plans, upsetting the apple cart and – sometimes – producing a sporting result no one was expecting. As is often the case with the Isle of Man races, the weather played a major part in the 1974 TT

These days he might be better known for being the father of current Moto2 star Jake Dixon, but Darren Dixon was no slouch on a bike either – whether it had two wheels or three. Very few riders have switched disciplines between solos and sidecars whil

‘WHATEVER HAPPENED TO’: ARTIE BELL – YOUR RACE PICTURES FROM ‘BACK IN THE DAY’ AND MUCH, MUCH MORE! * WE LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF SUZUKI’S RG500 AND YAMAHA’S TZ750… BARRY’S MANX NORTON THE VLADIVAR VODKA 250CC SERIES RECALLED THEY DIDN’T, DID THEY?

There can’t be a racetrack that’s been more photographed than the Isle of ManTT course, can there? While you can recognise pictures taken at famous corners on tracks from around the world (thinkThe Corkscrew, Eau Rouge, Craner Curves, The Parabolica)

Prior to 1954 there was nothing in the regulations for the Manx Grand Prix, or in the policies adopted by the organising Manx Motor Cycle Club (MMCC), to preclude previous MGP winners from re-entering, and the winner of the first two MGPs was former

The argument will always rage back and forth – who is the greatest racer of all time? Valentino Rossi could make his play for the title when he made the switch from Honda toYamaha 20 years ago in 2004. Back in the late 1990s, Honda had built the most

WHEN IT WAS FOUND THAT THE ‘DUSTBIN’ FAIRINGS COULD MAKE A BIKE DANGEROUSLY UNSTABLE, THEY WERE BANNED. ALL DUCATI ‘DUSTBINS’ WERE DESTROYED OR LOST. THIS VERY BIKE WAS CAMPAIGNED BY WILLY SCHEIDHAUER, WHO SCORED WINS AT ZANDVOORT AND TUBBERGEN BETWE

It was a sight us Brits instantly fell in love with back in 1976: the pint-sized, 5ft 3in American jockey hustling the awesome red and black TZ750 OW31 Yamaha around Mallory Park. With its tubular frame and rudimentary Monocross rear suspension, slic