Back when he was a sixteen year old just leaving school to join his family's business Winton Motors young William Henderson would have had no idea that he was on a path that would make his name near legendary in the history of American motorcycles. In life, everybody starts out as a beginner, and William ...
The Harley-Davidson X8E was arguably the first "Big Twin". Introduced in the second half of 1912 the X8E had a 60 cu. in. (1000cc) engine putting out 8hp replacing its 6.5hp predecessor. This was Harley-Davidson's first all chain drive model and included a clutch although not yet the three speed gearbox that would come later. ...
The Vincent Black Prince is a motorcycle that, if you see one in your rear view mirror, you are likely to think "its a cop" and slow down and drive nicely. Phil Vincent described it as "The Bentley of motorcycles" and because James Bond drives a Bentley in Ian Fleming's novels the Vincent Black Prince ...
The Welbike began life as a creation of the boffins of Britain's Special Operation Executive's (SOE) secret special equipment facility "Station IX" at Welwyn in Hertfordshire and found a surprising range of uses during the Second World War and in the immediate post war era. The original idea of the Welbike was to create a ...
In the post Second World War era both the Indian motorcycle company of the United States and Vincent HRD in Britain were struggling financially. Indian were struggling because of a series of poor management decisions in their history especially with regard to their having starved their dealerships of motorcycles during the US involvement in the ...
Despite their name The Black Douglas Motorcycle Company are not Scottish, nor even English, they are in fact Italian and based in the heart of Italian fashion, Milan. Recognizing that there are many motorcycle enthusiasts who would much prefer to ride a vintage style motorcycle but neither want the problems associated with keeping a genuine ...
The Douglas manufacturing company was founded in 1882 as a family business which branched out into motorcycle manufacturing in 1907. Douglas venture into motorcycle making began when one of their customers, Joseph F. Barter's Light Motors Ltd. Joseph F. Barter's Light Motors Ltd. designed their "Fée" (i.e. Fairy) system for mounting an engine in a ...
The Triumph Speed Twin is the bike said to have saved Triumph from disaster in the post Second World War era. Originally designed by Edward Turner - the creator of the Ariel Square Four - the Speed Twin's overhead valve engine was a parallel twin with both pistons going up and down together so the ...
BMW's first venture into motorcycle manufacture was with their tube framed R32, R42, and R52 series (See our Revivaler post on these bikes here). Tube frames proved to be fine for motorcycle construction but BMW had entered into motor car manufacturing with their acquisition of Automobilewerk Eisenach who were making British Austin Seven based automobiles ...
BMW began in 1916 when the aircraft engine manufacturer Rapp Motorenwerke was reorganized to become BMW. This was done at a time when the First World War was at its height. At the end of the war the Treaty of Versailles banned the German Air Force and the German aircraft manufacturing industry. Thus it was ...
