Buy RealClassic 150 / October 2016

RC-the-magazine celebrates its 150th issue this month with some beautiful British bikes, not all of which are orange. Find out more…

BSA A65FS
The firebird of Greek mythology lived 500 years before being reborn in a blaze of glory. BSA’s final Firebird 650 twin will soon be 50 years old, and show no signs of going up in smoke just yet

MATCHLESS G2
A cheap and cheerful runabout has turned out to be an ideal lightweight classic for later on in life. An owner of this lively 350 lightweight single explains why he doesn’t need to buy a ‘proper motorcycle’

NORTON NOSTALGIA
Back in 1994, Frank Melling was in the right place at the right time to participate in the revitalised classic Montlhéry track day. Shame he dropped the bike he was supposed to be riding. Amazing that someone loaned him a substitute machine, and that motorcycle was the priceless, unique and utterly irreplaceable Norton Kneeler

NORTON MODEL 7
Many classic motorcycles are sold after being in storage for more than a wee while, and are in need of ‘recommissioning’. Stuart Urquhart explores exactly what that might mean, as he makes the acquaintance of Norton’s first post-war twin

NORTON ELECTRA REBUILD, Pt1
Surely, mused PeterH, it can’t be that hard to restore an old British bike? So began a decade-long project to bring a Norton ES400 lightweight twin back to life

ROYAL ENFIELD CLASSIC COMBO
NigelS owns an Enfield Bullet and has previously written about the 500 Classic so, obviously, his choice of relaxing transport for R&R in south-west Ireland was… an Enfield 500. With a chair attached!

TRIUMPH MÉTISSE
It’s insidious, this affliction. You start with a Triumph 650 twin engine and before you can blink it’s sprouted T140 internals and found itself a lightweight Métisse chassis to live in…

VELOCETTE VENOM CLUBMAN
Ace Tester Miles continues his adventures with iconic classics, pulling them off their precious pedestals and bringing them down to earth with a bump. This time, can he live comfortably with Veloce’s famous sporting single?

PLUS! RC readers debate the merits of Japanese classics, triple tweaks, new bikes good and bad, and oil pumps; while Frank’s BSA B25 rebuild moves on to explore electrical eccentricity, and PUB reports from the Lakeland Motor Museum and the Brackley Motorcycle festival

• RealClassic isn’t on sale in UK newsagents – but if you’d like to read these articles then you can order a mail order copy here
• The best way to read the magazine regularly is by subscription – each magazine typically costs around half the price of a single mail-order issue