Items tagged with: motorcycles and scooters

John Parham, founder of J&P Cycles and chairman of the National Motorcycle Museum, dies at age 62

Photos courtesy National Motorcycle Museum. John Parham lost a long battle with pulmonary fibrosis on April 20th. In addition to starting J&P Cycles, one of the largest retailers in the aftermarket m...

As Burt Munro’s World’s Fastest Indian record turns 50, it remains unbroken

Photo via E Hayes Motorworks Collection. Partly the result of rulebook changes, partly the result of Burt Munro’s sheer determination and resourcesfulness, and maybe partly the result of the respect ...

Hemmings Find of the Day – 1971 BSA B54 cafe racer

From the seller’s description: 1971 BSA B54 Perhaps the most Iconic cafe racer ever offered by a factory design remains the DBD34 Gold Star Clubman, but that all ended in 1963. In 1967 the B44 Victor...

It’s “Harley vs. Indian” at new Petersen Museum exhibit

The rivalry between American motorcycle brands Indian and Harley-Davidson dates back over a century. Today, thanks to the 2011 revival of Indian and its 2016 return to racing under parent company Pol...

Could Excelsior-Henderson be poised for (another) rebirth?

2000 Excelsior-Henderson Super X. Photo courtesy Mecum Auctions. On December 21, 1999, the Excelsior-Henderson Motorcycle Company, a revival of a once-storied American brand, filed for Chapter 11 ban...

Open Diff: The repair path of least resistance

2000 BMW R1100R instrument panel. Photo by author. In a perfect world, replacement parts for all our vehicles would remain available indefinitely. Ours, however, is not a perfect world. Last summer, ...

30-year collection of Ariel two-stroke motorcycles heads to auction

Ariels from Clive Pearson’s collection. Photos courtesy H&H Classics. After surviving two bankruptcies and two world wars, British motorcycle manufacturer Ariel faced a new challenge in the closing y...

Four-Links – globetrotting Graham, Enfield in Africa, cab wars, Celica resto

“We should not teach them to be afraid,” Hermann Zapp said of the four kids he and his wife had while on a 17-year road trip around the world behind the wheel of a 1928 Graham-Paige. “We should teach...

Pre-World War I American motorcycles top a pair of Las Vegas sales

1912 Henderson Four. Photo courtesy Mecum Auctions. January is typically a good time of the year to visit Las Vegas, Nevada, particularly if one is shopping for vintage motorcycles. Auction firms Bon...

Four-Links – Maria del Camino, the bikers who beat back Hitler, British National Historic Vehicle Survey, Oneonta Ford

Most art cars depend on plastic toys glued to their exterior surfaces to make a statement. Bruce Tomb’s Maria del Camino goes a little deeper, using a 1959 El Camino riddled with holes, mounted to ta...

“The world’s fastest motorcycle,” E.J. Potter’s 1971 Widowmaker 7, heads to auction in Las Vegas

Photos courtesy Bonhams. In 1957, 16-year old Elon Jack “E.J.” Potter had the crazy, brilliant idea to drop a small-block Chevy V-8 into a motorcycle frame. It took another three years for Potter to ...

Hemmings Find of the Day – 1932 BMW R11

1932 BMW R11 motorcycle for sale. From the seller’s description: Since BMW first began to manufacture motorcycles after the Great War in 1924, their intent was to make a product that would sell for y...

Polaris to cease production of Victory Motorcycles after 18 years

Photo courtesy Victory Motorcycles. Polaris Industries today announced that it will begin to shutter its Victory brand of motorcycles and its related operations, effective immediately. Although warra...

BSA, under new parent Mahindra, planning return to the motorcycle market

1957 BSA Gold Star racing motorcycle. Photo by Jill Reger. For decades, from the pre-war years into the 1960s, Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) was one of the largest and best-known motorcycle brands in t...

A bike brand grows in Brooklyn: The Vanguard Roadster, America’s newest premium motorcycle

Vanguard Roadster. Photos by Kurt Ernst and Jim O’Clair. Since bottoming out in 2010, the U.S. motorcycle market has begun a gradual climb back to pre-recession sales numbers, but 2015’s 500,000 sale...

All five of Keith Haring’s art cars to gather for first time at Petersen Museum

Photo by Todd Lappin. Keith Haring’s artwork and design language remained fairly consistent throughout his brief career: simple, representative and bold line drawings rendered with limited palettes. ...

What’s behind the rebirth of Indian Motorcycle?

Indian Scouts on display at the 2016 Progressive New York International Motorcycle Show. Photos by author, unless otherwise noted. Editor’s note: We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Gary...

Thoughts from the 2016 Progressive International Motorcycle Show in New York City

BMW R nineT Racer. Photos by Kurt Ernst, unless otherwise noted. Media Day at the Javits Center overfilled our plates last Friday with new bike announcements from manufacturers from here in the US an...

Gallery – Sights from the 2016 New York Motorcycle Show

This Ducati 1299 Superleggera stickers for $80,000, makes 215 horsepower and weighs 340 pounds. Only 500 will be built, and most are already spoken for. Photos by Jim O’Clair and Kurt Ernst. Tourists...

Hemmings Sunday Cinema – Italian bike racing in cinema, carburetor upgrade, Moving Violation

As with Harlo at The Chicane, we don’t follow most of the dialog in this trailer for the 1957 Italian flick “I fidanzati della morte,” but that don’t matter because the motorcycles and the racing are...

Four-Links – Night Cars, Glenn Curtiss’s land-speed record, Plymouth’s XX-500, Trekka 50th

In the mid-Seventies, photographer Langdon Clay roamed the streets of New York City snapping photos of the cars parked along the city’s streets. More recently, he’s published a book featuring the bes...

Max BMW to build a BMW R69S at New York Motorcycle Show

1964 BMW R69S. Photos by author. The last BMW R69S motorcycle rolled out of the company’s factory in 1969, but on December 9-11, 2016, visitors to the IMS New York Motorcycle Show can once again witn...

Esprit de hardcore: Pismo Race of Gentlemen 2016

The flag drops and the hammer’s down at The Race of Gentlemen on Pismo Beach. Photo by Jeff Koch. It rained at Woodstock in 1969. More than 400,000 people showed up and made the best of it despite th...

Motorcycle Cannonballers race TROG West on century-old two-wheelers

Shinya Kimura’s 1915 Indian twin, fresh from this year’s Motorcycle Cannonball. Photos by the author. As if 3,306 miles of grueling highway riding just a few weeks ago wasn’t enough, several riders f...

Rare Croft-Cameron Super Eight tops Autumn Stafford sale

1924 Croft-Cameron Super Eight. Photos courtesy Bonhams. No one knows for certain how many motorcycles Croft-Cameron built during their three years in operation, from 1923-’26, or how many survive to...

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