HISTORIC MOTORCYCLE FEATURES

The Debenham Rally was held in the NSW Southern Highlands, in June 2023. Historic Vehicles popped in at the lunch break in Bundanoon and took some happy snaps.

Tasmania in the warmer months is a biker’s paradise, with a plethora of well maintained, winding and hilly roads, and relatively little traffic. On a recent visit to Tasmania HV visited the new location of the National Automobile Museum of Tasmania, in Launceston and also came across a few other bike initiatives.

While trapsing around Tasmania we came across the Penny Farthing Championships in Evandale. This annual festival attracts old-bicycle afficiandos from around the world and got us thinking about the evolution of the motorcycle.

Sometimes we come across stories in the most unlikely places: in this case it was at the Salmon Ponds, at Plenty, in Tasmania. At what was the first salmon and trout hatchery in the Southern Hemisphere we came across a BSA Bantam story.

Herbert James ‘Burt’ Munro was a motorcycle racer from New Zealand, famous for setting an under-1000cc world record, at Bonneville, on the 26th of August 1967 and this record still stands. Born in 1899, Munro was 68 and riding a 47-year-old machine when he set his last record.

Phillip William Read, MBE died on 6th October 2022, at the ripe old age of 83, after a long battle with prostate cancer. He competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from 1961 until 1976 and won seven world championships.

The annual Antique Motorcycle Weekend was held under grey skies and drizzly conditions in the NSW south coast township of Bulli in August. The adverse weather did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of hundreds of visitors over the two days.

Race One of the Czech Round in July 2022 is destined to be remembered by motorcycle racing enthusiasts, as Alvaro Bautista on his Ducati Panigale V4 R notched up the thousandth podium for Ducati in the Superbike World Championship.

Most bike people haven’t heard of David Spencer’s motorcycle creations of the early 1900s, but the Motorlife Museum in Kembla Grange, NSW, is host to one of them.

Mike Hailwood (1940-1981) was rated ‘the greatest motorcyclist who ever lived’ and his feats and bravery are legendary.

The Hairpin Valve-Spring Return System (HVRS) was patented by Sunbeam for its motorcycle engines, in 1925. Engine designers employed different methods for valve control, including coils, hairpins and, later, desmodromic (no springs at all).

Australian motorcycle outfit rider Ken Hibberd landed at England’s Southampton dock in the 1960s with £45 in his pocket and a dream of racing at the Mecca of Motorcycling – the Isle of Man TT.