Classic Bike

Classic Bike helps and inspires enthusiasts to get more from their passion for classic motorcycles. The magazine shares their fascination with motorcycling’s heroic past while also helping them buy, fix and improve the bikes in their shed. Our main areas of content are: - Inspirational and entertaining reads that celebrate the glory of motorcycling, from riding stories that put the reader in the seat of history’s greatest bikes to incredible racing tales - Restoration stories and instructional features that inspire and help people get their tools out and sort out their old bike - In-depth technical features from the most expert and authoritative writers in motorcycling If you share our passion about classic motorcycles from the last century, you'll enjoy reading Classic Bike.

Startline • June 1987, World 500cc Motocross GP Round Seven, Ponte a Egola, Italy

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Contributors in this issue

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Classic Bike

Issue #541 of Classic Bike was brought to you…

Seductive stroker • This 1986 Yamaha RD500LC is up for auction in February. With a wad of history and a current MoT suggesting recent use, it could make spring something to look forward to…

‘If I had £10,000…’ • Dougie Lampkin MBE, Master of Trials (world champ seven times, indoor champ five times) ponders how he’d spend an imaginary ten grand in a brown envelope

12 bikes you can buy • Gez Kane is always on the lookout for the tastiest bikes on sale. Here’s what he’s spotted for sale this month – there must be something below to tempt you…

MZ 250cc models • Quirky, affordable and plain good fun. MZ Riders Club chairman Andy Binns shines a light on why you need an MZ250 in your life

12 bikes that sold • Auction prices, live and online, provide a genuine guide to values. Gez Kane selects the most desirable and revealing bikes that were sold over the last last month..

Honda sohc fours • The archetypal ‘Universal Japanese Motorcycle’. But how are prices faring? Here’s a cross-section of models sold in the last three months

Time for a TZ? • UK’s biggest collection of Yamaha proddie racers for sale

Ariel drops its Ace

What’s new

Tommy Robb 1934-2024 • Former Honda works rider and TT winner has died, aged 90

CCM go off-road again

Rescued, revived & ridden • The classic bikes that you have found, restored or just taken for a ride

MAKE 2025 A REAL PAGE TURNER!

In the March issue

10,481 MILES, THREE REAR TYRES, 35 PINTS OF OIL • All that – along with five tyres – is what John King’s 1969 Triumph Trident went through during their epic 72-day ride around Australia

A GRITTY OLD GIRL • John King tells us how he prepped his Trident and reveals how it stood up to the challenge of a 10,000-mile-plus trip. Surely something went wrong?

Right move • David Allen decided to buy this Moto Guzzi Le Mans MkI rather than a Jota; 47 years later, he’s restored it – and happier than ever with his choice

Michael Rutter • He grew up in race paddocks, won 29 British Superbike races, 14 North West 200s and seven TTs. But why does Michael Rutter think Mick Doohan is a ‘complete prick’?

MICHAEL RUTTER • 35 years of racing success

Norton P11 • When the big names of the British bike industry amalgamated, it didn’t take long before cross-breeding took place. This month, our Rick tries out one of Norton’s more desirable desert sled hybrids

‘I had a decent set of balls on me and les s up the top’ • Gritty, fun-loving Aussie Rob Phillis tells us how he challenged for the World Superbike title aboard a dog-slow Kawasaki ZX750R, missed out on Carl Fogarty’s Ducati deal, turned down a TT ride worth big money and ended up with the nickname...