The quarter-finals are upon us. Two old Brits tough it out. poll Will the British bike fight off the Japanese competition this time? poll There can be only one (Velocette) poll Can the Arie...

Competitors in what’s now known as the Dakar Rally set off for the first time in 1978. Thierry Sabine was inspired to create the event after he got lost on his motorcycle in the Libyan desert during t...

Four down, four to go Lightning failed to strike twice with the BSA and Vincent biting the dust. Let’s see how the quarter finals will line up after these last match-ups… Will the best Thunderbird...

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that some presents soon would be there; Colin was nestled all snug in his bed; While visions of racing danced in his head; When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, He sprang from his bed to see what the fuck was going on was the matter. Away to the window he flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up th...

We’re down to the final 16. Will the Norton live up to its name? poll The battle of the reborn classics. poll A tempestuous match-up poll Japanese honour at stake. poll Put that turkey le...

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that some presents soon would be there; Colin was nestled all snug in his bed; While visions of racing danced in his head; When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, He sprang from his bed to see what the fuck was going on was the matter. Away to the window he flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up th...

Voting has closed for Tuesday. Just one more set to give us our final 16. The tension is building. Possibly. Can the Indian keep up with the Kawasaki? poll A straight-up battle between (cough) sp...

Unleashing Triumph: A Comprehensive Review of the Legendary Motorcycle Story

Vivian Bales was the first motorcycle cover girl and became known for several long-distance rides and stunts around the USA, in the 1920s and 1930s. She died in 2001 at the grand old age of 93. Born in Wacissa, Florida, she later moved to Albany in Georgia. Bales bought her first motorcycle, a Harley Davidson 350cc Model B, called ‘the peashooter’ for the sound of its exhaust, in 1926 and taught herself to ride. Her first long tour of 300 miles was with a female friend from her home in A...

Halfway through the first round and the Brits didn’t quite have it all their own way with the plucky Katana sneaking a win against the bullish Triumph. Tuesday’s matches are in play so get your votin...

Félix Millet filed a patent in 1888 for a ‘petroleum bicycle’ named the Roue Soleil. It was powered by a 5-cylinder radial engine integral with the rear wheel which had wire springing as a form of rudimentary suspension. A prototype appeared in 1892. The hollow axle of the rear wheel formed the crankshaft. On the solo motorcycles the rear guard formed the fuel tank and the surface carburettor was located between the wheels. Ignition was via a Bunsen cell and induction coil, and long before i...

The first matches have been completed to find our final 16. Here’s the updated tournament table. Congratulations to yesterday’s winners, or rather the people who came up with the names (I hope no ...

The Fédération Internationale des Clubs Motocyclistes (FICM), the progenitor of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) was created in 1904 when delegations from France (MCM), Germany (DMV), Austria (ÖAC), Great-Britain (ACC) and Denmark met at the Ledoyen restaurant in Paris. The newly formed Motocycle-Club of France (MCM) had organised the very first international motorcycle race in September. The resulting French victory gave them the right to organise the race again in 1905. ...

Voting has closed for the play-in and the winners are… So this is the full line up for the start of the main tournament. And here are the first fout matches to see who will make it through to the final 16. The old boys are fighting it out! poll It’s a home town derby! poll Can the you pretender knock the legend off its pedestal?! poll No Bullet’s flying today but surely some sparks as the BSAs scrap it out! poll Saturday voting now open!

Peter Williams, from Nottingham, England, was a Grand Prix and TT competitor in the 1960’s and 1970’s. He started his racing on UK race circuits in 1964 and won the 250cc class of the 1964 Thruxton 500 race on an AJS model 14 CSR. Williams won the 1966 North West 200 500cc race in Northern Ireland on a Matchless. In Grand Prix, he reached the top step once, winning in a wet the 350cc race at the Ulster round. His best placing was fourth in the 1967 500cc championship. Williams sco...

Far too many suggestions to go in a single poll so let’s make it a knockout competition! There were 36 entries so the first round is a play-in to finalise the final 32 names. After that, four ‘matches’ will be played each day up to the quarter finals. The two semi-finals will be on the same day. The final on the last day. Play-in and first round ‘matches’ were drawn at random. Here are the entries: AJS Hurricane Aprilia Tuono Ariel Arrow Bluroc Legend BSA Cyclone BSA F...

Far too many suggestions to go in a single poll so let’s make it a knockout competition! There were 36 entries so the first round is a play-in to finalise the final 32 names. After that, four ‘ma...

Lionel Van Praag was born in 1908 in Sydney Australia. Fortunately, speedway was about to be invented, so he’d have something to do when he grew up. Lionel’s first full season in the sport was riding for the Wembley Lions in 1931, helping them to become national champions. In 1936, the first official World Speedway Championship was held at Wembley in London in front of a 25,000 strong crowd. Despite being unbeaten in the final, Bluey Wilkinson was not crowned Champion. Bonus points accum...

At a Vincent Owners’ Club dinner in the summer of 1955, Phil Vincent announced that the company could no longer continue in the face of heavy losses and that just 100 more machines would be built, then motorcycle production would cease. After 27 years building some of the most iconic and fast motorcycles in the world, tha last Vincent came off the Stevenage production line a week before Christmas in 1955. A year before, Vincent has developed the new Series D. The Black Knight (based on th...

3 An early version of speedway was born at Maitland, New South Wales, Australia in 1923 when New Zealand rider Johnny S. Hoskins organised a sports charity carnival called the Electric Light Carnival, staged on the Maitland Showground. Hoskins realised that there was a gap in the program of events and a couple of young, local motorcyclists told him that they were prepared to fill the gap by racing around the show ground’s grassy track. Allan Roper on the Duggie he rode at that historic sp...

BBC local news in 2015 reported that the doors to a barn on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall were opened after the owner had passed away. Revealed inside, buried under decades of dust, old machinery parts and ho...

Debbie Lawler came in to the world in Oregon in 1952. Her father, a veteran racer and clearly a excellent dad, bought Debbie a motorcycle for her 10th birthday. Lawler started racing when she was 14. “Motorcross, flat track, hill climb – we did anything on a bike. My dad was always fighting for me and my sisters to race against the men.” Aged 19, she was recruited by a motorcycle stunt troop and started jumping ar fairs and speedways in 1972. "Jumping through the air on a motorcycle gives y...

The motorcycle show season has been a regular autumn feature of the calendar since the early 1900s. People would flock to Olympia or Earls Court (and later the National Exhibition Centre) to see what temptations the manufacturers and engineers brought us. The shows would usually be in November with just a few running in to the first week of December. In 1935, it was the last weekend of the twentieth and penultimate show at Olympia before it outgrew the venue and moved to Earls Court. Among t...

The official world record for the flying mile for motorcycles under 1000cc was set in 1993 by Jon White in Christchurch, New Zealand. He reached 188.092 mph (302.705 km/h) on a Britten V1000. The record remains unbeaten in 2025. He also set the Motorcycling New Zealand (MNZ) National Speed Record for the flying kilometer and the NZ 1050cc Flying Kilometer and NZ Open Flying Kilometer records. Both those records remain unbroken too.

A Norton International Model 30, originally given to comedian George Formby, sold for £29,900 at auction in 2007. The bike was presented to Formby when he visited the Bracebridge Street site in July 1947. George had been performing in the radio show Workers Playtime at the Norton factory. As he was leaving the canteen after the broadcast he was confronted by the Norton factory employees who, at a given signal, all parted to reveal the motorcycle. In reality the presentation a publicity s...