December issue out now 

Winter drawers on! We’ve been waiting all year to make that joke. We have also decked the halls with boughs of holly for the fabulous festiveness that is RC164. The December issue of the monthly RealClassic magazine is indeed a veritable cornucopia of classic motorcycling. And some dodgy old bikes. And even a shock-horror-hold-the-front-page new one!  

You can cut to the chase and buy the issue in paper or digital formats. 

Or if you need to know more, step this way for the low-down on our in-depth, expert and enthusiast articles… 

ARIEL SQUARE FOUR 

Ariel’s Square attracts many admirers, but the average Britbike fan might feel a touch intimidated by its appearance of intricacy. Roger Slater reveals that fettling the famous engine isn’t actually as tricky as it might seem 

BSA A65 PROJECT 

Odgie’s endeavour to turn a slightly tubby unit construction 650 twin into a svelte dirt scrambler continues. This month, wheels sprout spokes and mudguards get bashed 

MASH DIRTSTAR 

Ever more retro roadsters are hitting the street, and ever more RC readers ask for details. So here’s a single-cylinder street scrambler which mixes all mods cons with classic credentials. Will Editor Westworth be impressed? 

NORTON INTERNATIONAL         

Bikes packed with character tend to attract owners of a similar ilk. Odgie finds a pre-war Norton single with more history then you can shake an overhead camshaft at 

TriBSA               

Back in the 1970s, some owners of BSA singles might’ve gone the Gold Star route to extract more oomph from their original engine. Others opted for a twin-cylinder solution. We’ve discovered a stealthy street-sleeper, a TriBSA so subtle you might just miss what makes it so special 

TRIUMPH 2-STROKE PROTOTYPE                      

Everyone knows about the Ariel 2-stroke twins, but how’s about the Triumph nearly-rival? Alan Cathcart borrowed the only example, built in the 1950s, and which didn’t quite set the world alight 

VELOCETTE BUYING GUIDE 

Thinking of buying an MOV, MAC, MSS, Viper or Venom? Veloce built pushrod singles for nearly four decades so you’ve an extensive array to evaluate. Rowena Hoseason kicks some virtual tyres on your behalf 

PLUS we go behind the scenes at BSA in the mid-1960s, when there was big trouble brewing at Small Heath; get technical with an investigation into wet sumping; RC readers discuss MoTs, Norton’s 650SS, BSA B50s, Beesa bearings and beefy Benellis; Jacqueline Bickerstaff discovers a hot-air engine, and Frank Westworth left the safety of The Shed to spend a splendid day at the National Motorcycle Museum. 

RealClassic magazine is not on sale in UK newsagents but you can buy the current issue in digital and paper formats here 

You can also buy stacks of older issues of RealClassic, but it’s heaps cheaper if you subscribe. Subscribers save 50% on the price of a single issue AND get an exclusive subscriber newsletter every month AND access to the subscriber-only Facebook group AND can win show tickets, RC regalia, bike books and more goodies in our subscriber prize draws. All that, and we might even do a new sticker for 2018…