June 2008

* BSA A50 Royal Star We asked Karl Bentley to write this story when he began the rebuild of his Beesa 500, always intending it to be in RC50. But it all got a bit touch-and-go towards the end: would it be done? Would it be a runner? Would Karl like what he?d built? Here are the answers...
* 1952 Douglas Mk V We tried to find a Douglas Mark 50, but they didn?t make one, so Rowena Hoseason took to the road on a 350cc Mark V instead
* 50 Miles Per Hour Another 50-themed story; following a route on a pair of Triumph triples, to travel 50 miles in an hour. Yes, we could get more contrived than this, but only by trying very hard!
* Another 50 Mile Per Hour We originally asked Rod to do a similar ride on a Norton Model 50. But the bike he wanted to use was sold before he got out there and did it, so instead he dusted off his Yamaha XS750. (Well, there?s a ?50? in there somewhere). And he did ride 50 miles along the A50, so it turned out nice again
* Gilera 50 RS Trial Back in the day, everyone want a sports moped. Didn?t they? Well, Frank Westworth didn?t actually want one, but we still made him ride the Gilera ?cos it?s not every day you get to celebrate your fiftieth issue. Oh no.
* 1931 Matchless 500 Back in pre-war days, road tax bands were calculated by mass, hence Matchless built their tax-beating Light 500. And Dave D has just finished restoring one to its former glory
* Norton Commando Fastback 750 Andy Bone bought his Fastback and then applied his engineering skills to improve its reliability and performance. Here are his recommended (and no so useful) mods and upgrades
* Speedster Project Odgie?s vintafake now needs things like electrics and a starter and such, and he doesn?t filch all of them from a Hoover Junior vacuum cleaner
* New Triumph Bonneville T100 Steve Wilson needed to update the chapter of his Triumph book to include the most recent Hinckley model Bonnie, so we went along for a spin

Plus: Humbernut build a fork stem for a girder forked vintage machine; Steve Wilson looks back on the old days of the BSAOC?s Star magazine; PUB goes to Stafford and the VMCC?s Relay Rally; Dave Minton talks about gearing; and Frank Westworth gets his Norton ready for the road and flirts with Fertan.