* Ariel Leader Our restoration continues with a head gasket made from wallpaper, spaghetti junction in the wiring dept and (don't faint) the first sign of life from the engine

* BSA B50T By the 1970s Edward Turner's little Terrier engine had grown and grown to 499cc and found a new home in the oil-in-frame chassis. Frank Westworth takes the big single down some muddy lanes

* DMW Typhoon Racer Colin Sparrow's quest to discover unusual classic bikes continues with a corker: a 500cc Grand Prix factory prototype racer. It's a stunner...

* Laverda RGS 1000 By 1983 the Laverda Jota motor had been developed into a 120-degree smoothie, which seemed perfectly at home in a semi-touring chassis as the RGS (Real Gran Sport, since you asked); capable of cruising at a comfortable 100mph or more...

* Norton Model 40 International Is Norton's cammy racer for the road really as remarkable as it's cracked up to be? Rowena Hoseason rides a satisfyingly scruffy one

* Velocette Indian 500 Only an American would think to combine a street-scrambler chassis designed by Leo Tartarini in Bologna with a 500cc thumping Velocette single cylinder engine. Only a very few still exist, and our man tracked one down in the north of England...

Plus: PLUS taking on the Beamish Trophy Trial, a preview of 2009 shows and jumbles, meeting a man with RAC and AA outfits, the Norton Lowboy, Hitchcock's TrailBlaster, understanding voltage regulators, PUB looks back at Berkeleys and Frank Westworth takes an epic winter ride on a funny-coloured Matchless G12CSR.