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With Triumph recently launching their much-improved Street Scrambler, we thought it the ideal opportunity to not only test the new model, but also to look back at the original high-barred, high-level piped, knobbly-tyred bike that came out of Meriden, destined for the US market.

The proliferation of retro street scramblers also gave us the excuse to show the real roots of the genre, with some of the original Honda four-strokes marketed in the US from the ’60s to mid-’70s. We also have an XT500 built as a tribute to one of the early Paris-dakar Rally bikes run in the late ’70s by French Yamaha importer Sonauto. But unlike most street scramblers that only see tarmac, owner Mark Smith insisted we give the big single a blast on a dirt track.

But it’s not all dirt in this issue. Rick’s kicked off a new Rudge project, we feature Roadstar, a quirky traditional bike shop near Dover, and we’ve got a rebuild of a 500cc Enfield Meteor Minor engine. Enjoy the mag.