free magazine!!! thats right, free!

If you click on the link below you can read three of my articles for Classic Bike Guide. A Triumph 3TA test, a multibike test of BSA A65 twins and a test of two Japanese 750s, A Honda CB750-4, the DOHC job and a Kawasaki z750 twin.

Three of my favourite features, as it happens.
especially the A65 one, shot on a glorious day in Yorkshire.

here is your free edition https://issuu.com/mortons-digital/docs/cbg_sample?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=classicmagazines.co.uk

Here is a little video showing what i saw at the weekend at the Classic Dirt Bike Show at Telford...

Velocette MOV 250

a bit of fun on a Velocette MOV. see what i thought of it in next months Classic Bike Guide...

aftermarket...

two Moto Morini exhaust collars. One old factory, one nice new shiny aftermarket... one 42 mm, one 43mm. thats a blimming nuisance...

The most dangerous motorcycle of the 1970s?

Was Kawasaki's H1 500cc two-stroke triple as dangerous as everybody says it was? I took my life in my hands and rode one this week and you can find out what I thought of it in the November edition of Classic Bike Guide, out at the end of October...

New blog, for what it's worth

Some time ago I had the half arsed idea to create motorcycling news type website. And in typical fashion, I've made a half arsed blog. Here it is. Perhaps some of the 200 or so people who visit this place everyday may find it entertaining. Not yet, obviously. I'm just getting started

https://moto-gazette.blogspot.com/

Honda's electric motorcycle, the WN7

Honda have announced the launch of their first full size electric motorcycle. Power of a sports 600, torque of a sports thou, range 130km, charge in 30 minutes at a public charge point, £12,999. Out early 2026...

here is what they say. Any thoughts?

Honda is pleased to announce details of its first full-sized electric motorcycle, the original incarnation of which was shown at EICMA in 2024 as the EV FUN Concept. The mass production model will be sold under the name Honda WN7 – the ‘W’ taking its inspiration from the development concept of ‘Be the Wind’, the ‘N’ standing for ‘Naked’ and the 7 being a reference to the power class. The Honda WN7 retains the slim, futuristic design of the EV FUN Concept and will offer more than 130km of range from its fixed lithium-ion battery and flexible options to take the stress out of charging. The Honda WN7 is compatible with automotive-grade CCS2 compatible rapid charging, meaning a 20-80% ‘top up’ charge is possible in just 30 minutes, with a 6kVA ‘wall box’ home charger completing a full 0-100% charge in under 3 hours*. The Honda WN7 is set to offer highly engaging performance, thanks to a svelte kerb weight of just 217kg and a powertrain - based around an 18kW water-cooled motor - that delivers an output level similar to that of a 600cc internal combustion engine (ICE) motorcycle, but with 100Nm torque** - more comparable to a 1000cc ICE. Honda is also making available an 11kW A1 licence version, broadening access to battery-powered motorcycling. The Honda WN7 has been developed to offer the new sensations of quiet, smooth, vibration- and emission-free riding – giving riders an emotional experience very different to ICE motorcycles. At the same time, Honda’s 75-plus year history of motorcycle development, which saw it reach the milestone of 500 million units in May this year, means that unrivalled levels of experience and expertise have been poured into the Honda WN7 to ensure that the classic Honda qualities of balance, stability and sheer enjoyment are fully in evidence. Full technical and specification details of the Honda WN7 will be made available at EICMA 2025, but highlights include a five-inch TFT screen with RoadSync connectivity and exclusive EV menus, plus LED lighting front and rear. Customers interested in the Honda WN7 are cordially invited to visit the Honda website, via which they will be introduced to their local dealer to place a pre-order. The Honda WN7 on the road price is set at: £12,999 and all customers placing a pre-order, before November 4th, will receive a complimentary seat bag.

Shetland 2024 pt 2

And here are some more images of our trip to Shetland. Preparations are underway for a third trip in 2026

Shetland 2024

My stats show that lots of people have viewed my aborted posts about going to Shetland in 2018. Well, we went back there in 2024. And sadly the two wheeled part was cut short when i took a tumble from my bonneville in Montrose and frractured my shoulder in a torrential rainstorm. We did get there, but i had to be driven.
Anyway, here are some pictures...

"Get the bike!" My Triumph T140 Bonneville 750 is used in a shootout

In an episode of the legendary British cop show The Sweeney, indeed in "The Taste of Fear" one of the most legendary episodes, the bad geezers make their getaway on a bright vermillion Triumph Bonneville 750, taking potshots at Regan and Carter wiv' a shootah.
Back in 2018 I was lucky enough to purchase said Triumph Bonneville at auction, not knowing its history.
Ever since then we have become firm friends, though it is by now a rather drab shade of brown...

Here it is in action. The bike appears about halfway through, and you do have to endure some very curious background music in the lead-up.

I do think the director should have been encouraged to "leave it aht!"

MV Agusta 125, 1970

Another brief preview of things to come: A beautiful MV Agusta 125 enjoying itself in the midsummer sun...

Kawasaki Z750s = Ichiban* (一番) among equals

I've got my paws, temporarily, on a modernish Japanese motorcycle, and very nice it is, too.
The Kawasaki z750s is something of a last gasp for traditional Japanese motorcycling. It is devoid of rider aids, ABS, catalytic converters and all that modern nonsense. instead it is a very poky 750cc DOHC liquid cooled four, producing a ridiculous 104bhp, and is a bit of a civilised sociopath. It goes like stink, but at the same time looks perfectly respectable.
When it was new in 2005, to keep its price down, the Z750 had a steel frame, non-adjustable 41mm forks and simple preload and rebound adjustments for the Uni-Trak system's single shock. It had six-spoke wheels shod with radials, an anti-tamper immobiliser equipped ignition lock, decent but simple instrumentation, an LED taillight at the back and a fuel-injected inline-four in the middle. This was a 748cc, liquid-cooled, 16-valve engine, essentially a sleeved-down Z1000 motor, which was in turn a version of the much sportier ZX-9R. It was also cheaper than a Honda 600 Hornet. There is a nose fairing, the seat is low enough for the shorter rider – at 5ft 10 I can get my feet flat on the floor with my knees slightly bent. If you stick your bum in the back of the riders perch you put much of your upper body weight on your wrists, but if you slide forward you can seriously feel the bumps as you are sitting over the shock absorber.

My normal frame of reference for a 750 is either my T140 Bonneville or Guzzi V7, both pushrod twins, with the Guzzi the more powerful at 47bhp. The twin cam Z750s produces more than twice that. 104bhp (30bhp less than the Z1000), a ridiculous amount of power by comparison with the Guzzi, but the way the Zed's power comes in is fascinating, providing smooth power at low revs, and if you want more oomph, just roll back the throttle and there it is, absolutely buckets of it.
That's a 9/10 from me, and well worth a look...
More on the Z750s in the August 2025 edition of Classic Bike Guide magazine..
See you later, chums. I'm off for a ride in the sunshine.
Toodle pip!
*Ichiban: First or Number One

Big Vern Goes to Shetland 3: Liverpool, rain and pie

Day two:

We had a stroll around Chester, which was very pleasant and has ancient shops on galleries with two levels and Roman Walls and amphitheatres and stuff...

Potatoes and added ruins

...and had nutrition free breakfasts and returned to collect the bikes from the NCP. 

The Bonneville had been a little incontinent in the oil department, though nothing excessive, while the Kawasaki had managed to burn its way through a quantity of semi-synthetic, so I donated a half a litre of Castrol GP I’d picked up at an autojumble, and we set off and immediately got lost. 

We had intended to grit our teeth and belt up the M6 to Preston, but a check of the map suggested an alternative. Why not go through the Mersey tunnel and skirt the coast, head up to Southport and rejoin the A6 further north? The first part of this brilliant plan went well. When we got out of the tunnel at the other side we found ourselves being directed by friendly waving policemen, who had obviously been told of our arrival,  and ended up at Liverpool docks, having been mistaken for being sports bike fans on the way to the Isle of Man TT. 

Extricating ourselves from the city through Liverpool’s old docklands was interesting – I have a thing for derelict industrial wastelands, and this was just that. 

Onwards we rode through Mersey's fat suburbs and it suddenly all went to heck. 

For some reason, that part of the country is infested with aggressive and stupid Audi drivers, possibly overpaid football stars or something, all of whom seemed to be intent on running one off the road at every opportunity. 

It also seems to have a set of traffic lights every three hundred yards, all of them at red. All of which was a bit of a bind for a Triumph Bonneville with a stiff clutch and a Kawasaki that belched black smoke at every acceleration point. 

The dreadfully dull Crosby and Formby, their gyms, tanning parlours and takeaways passed by in a tiresome, unattractive and clunky hack, and a trip to the beach where Antony Gormley’s cast iron sculptures gaze out to sea had to be aborted because there was a 30 car one-hour queue to get into the car park, and a ridiculous National Trust parking charge too. So we headed for Southport. I’d been to Southport as a very small child and had fond memories of it, and my Dad had told me magical tales of being evacuated there during WW2 so this looked promising. 

Stalag Luft Pontins

First of all, we took a wrong turning and ended up on a bleak beach, girded by a Pontins holiday camp that had barbed wire on the walls. Whether to keep people out or keep them in was moot point. There was a derelict hotel too, which looked as if it was something from League of Gentlemen, and this added to its charm. 

After we  blatted up and down the esplanade for a bit and passed a nightmarish Fun Park made to look like an Arab fort which looked as if it had been attacked by a drone strike we made it into Southport for lunch, at our second Wetherspoons.

Southport. How lovely

Southport, we felt, was doing its best, but had some truly ugly features. A couple of psychotic motorists in Range Rovers attempted to kill us by driving stupidly – surely not everyone round there plays for Everton or Liverpool? Or is a coke dealer? 

Anticipating a clearer run from there on we headed on, and found Preston to be almost as ghastly as Crosby, but we chugged our way through it and made Lancaster just in time for another gridlocked rush hour. We fought our way through, stopping afterwards at an actual proper truckstop near Carnforth, and took a look at the map. 

Our destination in Westmorland wasn’t that far away, and we decided that having endured a series of horrid runs, we’d try and have some fun, so decided to go into the Lake District, head over the Kirkstone Pass, down past Ullswater and on to our destination on the other side of Penrith. There was a light drizzle as we left the truckstop, but we felt this was sure to change, and sure enough it did, becoming a torrential downpour as we made it into Windermere and we began to climb the Kirkstone Pass. The rain got even heavier until we found cloudbase and not only could we now not see where we were going, but were still soaked, while passing signs indicating that half the accidents on the Pass involved motorcycles. 

We kept climbing with about 15 yards of vision before getting caught behind a lorry carrying flammable gas. So far, so Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The lorry chugged along at 20, stopping occasionally for hairpins and eventually pulled over. 

This is the Kirkstone Pass. Pretty, isn't it? That's not what it looked like in May

To be honest the road was so treacherous I hadn’t minded going so slowly, and the subsequent steep drop over the pass to Ullswater put a strain on the Bonneville’s single disc. I’d gone onto reserve as we made it down to lake level but reckoned that with just 10 miles to go to Penrith, all would be well. It wasn’t and I rolled silently to a halt in the middle of nowhere. 

We checked phones and miraculously we found that not only was there a signal, but there was a filling station not half a mile distant. Even more serendipitously there was a discarded plastic cyclists water bottle by the roadside. All we had to do, drenched and tired as we were, was get half a pint of fuel from the Kawasaki’s tank and pour it into the Bonnie. Removing the filler cap it became clear however that there was some fuel in the Bonneville’s tank. So I laid it over to the right and some sloshed over to the working tap, just enough to get me coughing and spluttering to the filling station. We wrung what rainwater we could out of our gloves. The black dye on Sean's brand new and very expensive summer weight gloves had sent his hands completely black and despite copious scrubbing remained like that for days. My own sopping wet Richa wax cotton jacket had failed in its task of keeping the rain out, but I'd been too damp to extricate my nylon overjacket from its hiding place. And thus, squelching slightly, we began the final ride on to the Shepherds Inn, Langwathby. 

Visit this pub

We arrived 20 minutes late for dinner, dripping dirty water on the carpet and looking dishevelled. The landlord, the kind of grumpy looking chap who you only find running rural pubs, took pity upon us and rustled up one of the finest shepherds pies I’ve ever eaten. 

great joy it was in this evening to be alive

In return, we partook of many of his ales and had a long conversation with a local whose tales of mysterious barns full of classic motorcycles in the area were very probably too good to be true…