HISTORIC MOTORCYCLE FEATURES

This is the one annual Australian motorcycle show we try never to miss, because there’s always at least one major surprise. The 2026 event celebrated the 125th Anniversary of Indian and the 30th Anniversary of the famous Harley-Davidson ‘Knucklehead’ engine release.

There was widespread media coverage of the announcement that the 2026 MotoGP event at Phillip Island would be the last. Adelaide was chosen as the 2027 venue.

In the 1920s the sleeve-valve engine looked like it could dominate the top end of the car market and at least one company thought it could appeal to motorcycle makers as well.

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.

Two-stroke engines have higher power-to-weight ratios than naturally aspirated four-stroke engines. Also, two-stroke engines have fewer moving parts and are lighter and cheaper to manufacture. Although the four-stroke eventually dominated, many motorcycle manufacturers used two-strokes to power on- and off-road bikes.

Insurance: perhaps the most uninteresting subject you will find on these hallowed pages. Many will call it a necessary evil; even closing their eyes in defiant belligerence as they enter their credit card details. But what are you buying exactly?

One of HV’s wandering bike team came across a very rare gem among a quartet of treasures in Scotland. The Brough Superior Austin Four was parked beside a conventional, JAP-powered Brough, a Vincent Grey Flash and a Scott.

An exhibition that we missed, but whose website content is freely available for all to access.

You’re at an historic vehicle show and you need to get to town for something. The rapid acceptance of e-bikes and e-scooters has changed the way vehicle owners can move around a district when their pride and joy has to remain on display. 

The Isle of Man TT or Tourist Trophy is an annual motorcycle racing event run on the Isle of Man in May and June of most years since the inaugural race in 1907. The former Classic TT, now called the Manx Grand Prix, is the amateur ‘feeder’ race, held in August.

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.

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.