Forty years of The Classic MotorCycle
It was 40 years ago when the first issue of The Classic MotorCycle appeared; we celebrate the period.
Forty years is too many to go through year by year, so I decided on looking at every five years over the history of The Classic MotorCycle, which will give an overview of how the magazine has changed and developed.
Following on from that, please enjoy a four-page article about Bob Currie, the magazine’s founding editor and leading light, from its inception, up until Bob’s death in July 1988. One does like to think he’d have been pleased that the magazine is still going strong, and still largely following the template he created.
There’s also a debt of gratitude from us, the magazine producers, to you, the readers, as if you didn’t continue to support and purchase our product, then it wouldn’t continue.
Likewise, all our advertisers too, as without them, also, we’d have no magazine.
Compiling this little feature has been interesting, as well as memory prompting. Over the years I’ve been editor, the magazine has had several publishers, often who wanted to bring their own ideas into practice – as an editor, one answers to the publisher, with some keener than others to influence/dictate editorial direction and design. But during my time, every publisher has contributed something valuable to the magazine.
Last year was without doubt the toughest of my 20 year association with the magazine, bringing about as it did an entire revision of how we worked, culminating in my time being based in the office coming to an end – and with it, my everyday access to the archive of The Motor Cycle, which has been the bedrock of The Classic MotorCycle since its foundation. It still seems a bit strange that the whole office environment is gone, but, well, we’ll adjust. Just last week we had an impromptu editorial meeting of sorts in my garden, when Richard Rosenthal and I were joined by Phillip Tooth. We have new working practices, which we’ll adapt to, and continue doing the best we can. Here’s to the next 40 years!
1981
The first issue of The Classic MotorCycle was the June/July 1981 edition. Featuring a BSA Gold Star racer on its cover (though no explanatory wording about the motorcycle on the cover itself ) with other features highlighted including a road test of a Vincent Black Shadow, the National Motorcycle Museum and a free collectors catalogue. Cover price was 80p for the 72-page magazine.
Founding editor Bob Currie used his first editorial to discuss transferring registration numbers from old vehicles, then followed that with a feature detailing the exciting ambitions for the planned National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham. Interestingly, Bob waited until issue two to extend (in his words) the ‘metaphorical handshake’ with the ‘Hello and welcome!’ words. His reasoning being he wanted people to judge for themselves, and in issue two he explained the positive feedback he’d received.
From that first magazine, full-page advertiser Verralls still remains a regular, while other names (including Draganfly) feature too, and the You Were Asking section was in there too. The reviewed book in the first issue, was Bert Hopwood’s Whatever happened to the British Motorcycle Industry?
There were three more issues that year (including the awkward December 1981/ January 1982 number) while to prove that we all make mistakes, issue two mentions on the cover a feature on a ‘BMW R695’ when inside reveals it to be the intended BMW R69S…
Other cover stars of that first year were a Moto Guzzi 250cc single cylinder racer and then John Surtees’ Vincent Grey Flash, with issue four a 1922 Harley-Davidson board tracker – so the first four issues all had racers on them.
1986
By now the magazine had become a ‘monthly’ (as from April 1983) though it still numbered 72 pages and the price was now £1.10, though that went up to £1.20 from the March issue. Bob Currie was still editor, though he had been joined by an assistant editor in Tim Holmes, while the magazine was now under the ownership of East Midlands Allied Press (EMAP).
January’s issue – which featured a blue border – had a Model 7 Norton Dominator on the cover, with the headline ‘Debonair Dominator’ clearly related to the main image. Other tasters on the cover were for a Harley-Davidson feature, a ‘Scott vs Sunbeam’ double test while a feature entitled ‘German motorcycle – what went wrong’ all pointed out that a different approach had started to be adopted, with conventions that are still recognisably magazine standards beginning to appear.
Interestingly, February’s cover features another black and silver swinging arm, not-Featherbed Norton, though a single this time, while the border was red, with a masthead. Notable features during the year included a multi-part piece on Norton superstar Harold Daniell, while the regular ‘Treasures of the National’ series – where machines from the NMM were featured – continued, with among those detailed an early Greeves, a Scott triple and ex-ISDT Triumph.
The 12 covers of the year featured: Norton Model 7, Norton ES2 and sidecar, Morgan three-wheeler, Vincent Comet, ex-RFC P&M, AJS 7R, Wallis speedway machine, 1913 Sunbeam, 1920 BSA V-twin, BSA A10, ISDT Ariel HT5 and a 1903 Werner/1908 Moto Reve.
For the October issue, pagination was up to 88, though reverted to 72 for the two last ones of the year, while sales were up to a record high too.
1991
In 1991, our now columnist Jerry Thurston was the magazine’s advertising manager, while our sometime contributor Phillip Tooth was in the editor’s hotseat, with Jonathan Jones as staff writer, and Brian Woolley as associate editor. In the January issue, Verralls had graduated to a two-page advert, the magazine contained 72 pages (increased to 76 from March onwards) and cover price was now £1.70.
There was more of an international flavour developing within the magazine,
while there was clearly a higher emphasis being placed on riding and touring features too. During the year, for example, there came a fascinating story (featuring espionage and intrigue) about DKWs racing in 1930s Australia, around the world in 80 weeks about circumnavigating the globe in the 1920s on BSAs, as well as lots of contemporary coverage from mainland Europe, too.
As well as the staff mentioned above,
Mike Worthington-Williams contributed a regular ‘Wheeling and Dealing’ column while a new feature entitled ‘My biggest mistake’ saw the likes of big industry names as Stanley Woods, Doug Hele, Sammy Miller and Vic Willoughby contribute to the title.
The choice of machine for 1991’s covers went – from January – flat-four Zundapp, BSA Y13, Triumph Tiger 110, Norvin V-twin, Triumph Thunderbird, Norton Model 7 Dominator, Scott triple, BSA Star Twin (leaping through the air, with Phillip on board!), EMC split-singles, BSA Gold Star, Norton Dominator 88 and AJS Model 20.
1996
As 1996 dawned, editor was now Peter Watson, with Dennis Frost (these days chief judge at the Stafford show, among other things) as staff writer while that man Richard Rosenthal was listed too, now employed as archivist. Phillip Tooth was still here, though now as senior editor, with Brian Woolley as associate editor. It was an impressive brains trust, it’s fair to say. Still at 72 pages, issue price was now £2, rising to £2.20 in May. Each issue now featured a centrefold while dressing up seemed to be part of the fun too – witness Dennis Frost in a boater and plusfours, as well as sundry dispatch riders.
Big news during the year was the reporting of no road tax for vehicles over 25 years old, while former Velocette man Peter Goodman recalled his and his family’s life and times at Hall Green, over two parts. From the July issue, Brian ‘Badger’ Crichton took over the editor’s job, while Phillip’s Beamish Trial report (in which he, Richard and Peter Watson took part) featured a picture of a certain Tim Britton, both on and then off his still-owned Triumph twin….
The 1996 cover roll call saw a Ducati
Elite, a Triumph Trident, Brough Superior SS100, Norton CS1 (with Roy Poynting, no less, in the saddle), BSA Gold Stars (Rocket and single), BSA A10 with dustbin fairing, Velocette Thruxton, BSA Bushman Bantam (complete with ‘Australian outback’ farmer…), Triumph Speed twins, Series A HRD Rapide, Norton ES2 and Triumph TR6SR.
2001
By 2001, lots had changed at The Classic MotorCycle. Publishers (then and now) were Mortons Media Group, with in 2001 editor Gerard Kane, news editor Nigel Clark and staff writer Glenn Le Santo. Richard Rosenthal was ever-more becoming a key cog, and was running the You Were Asking section, while the likes of Old Bike Mart founder Ken Hallworth were regularly contributing too. Jane Skayman was by then (as is still) running the archive, having joined Mortons in 1998, the year TCM changed hands. Pagination of The Classic MotorCycle was up to a heady 132 pages, with the proclamation on the cover “The UK’s biggest and best.”
During the year, Le Santo was replaced by Tim Britton, while Mortons’ stable grew too, as Classic Racer came on board – and a youthful yours truly, mainly as Nigel C’s side-kick on Classic Racer, but an occasional helper on TCM too, signed up as well. As Mortons had also acquired the Stafford shows (which was postponed in 2001 owing to Foot and Mouth) it was an exciting, fast moving landscape.
First cover of 2001 (bearing a cover price of £2.95) was a ‘worm’s eye view’ of a 500T Norton, followed next month by a rear view of an AJS Model 31CSR café racer, then Ducati 750S, Brough Superior SS100, Norvilinspired Norton Commando, gold pre-unit Triumph Thunderbird, Egli Vincent twin, Airflow Enfield Bullet, Ducati 900SS, BSA
Rocket Gold Star, Triumph T160 Trident and a second Thunderbird of the year, this one a blue, Brando-style machine.
2006
By 2006, I had been running TCM for over three years, though the magazine was still following the similar format to what it had been five years before, though pagination had gone down to 116 from the brief rise to 132, while there was more reliance on freelance contributions – the only fulltime staff member being the editor. Those freelances now included several we still see regularly in our pages – Richard Rosenthal, Roy Poynting, Andy Westlake – plus some who still make occasional appearances (Mike Lewis, James Adam Bolton, Gerfried Vogt). In the background, Mortons had acquired more magazine titles too (Classic Bike Guide and Motorcycle Sport and
Leisure among them) as well as more shows and events.
The Buyers Guide – by Richard – was in full swing, and it was to go on to become his hardbook tome, Encyclopaedia of Classic Motorcycles, while Ken Hallworth’s From
Our Archive was a magazine mainstay, too.
The Classic MotorCycle had also started its long association with the Lansdowne Classic series, former rider Andrew
French supplying regular race reports and photography, while the regular ‘In the Spotlight’ section featured machines photographed in the bespoke studio created at the Stafford show in April.
Cover price was now £3.30, with the 2006 covers going, starting from January: Norton Commando, BSA A10, Norton ES2, Ducati 250 Desmo, Triumph T120 Bonneville, Matchless G12, BSA RGS Replica, Bianchi Tornale (complete with luxuriously bearded, French-based American rider ‘Patios’), Brough Superior SS80, Triton triple, AJS V-four (built in Canada), and for the final issue of the calendar year, two John Mosseybuilt machines, one a Norvil, the other an Egli-style Vincent powered V-twin.
2011
Ten years ago, the magazine was still of 116 pages and now retailed at £3.80. At the start of the year, a consciously ‘retro’ style was employed, adopted in 2009 as a homage to the original ‘Blue Un’ (The Motor Cycle), complete with heavy and prominent blue usage. By 2011 (and actually during 2010) this was changed, using different colours, so that the first issue of 2011 had a black background to it, with the background colour reflecting the machine featured – the covers of early 2011 went black (with black and gold AJS ‘cammies’), orange (with Difazio Hurricane), then an Indian Scout (with khaki cover), pair of Vincents (A Rapide and a
Grey Flash rep, so a grey cover), then a DB34 Goldie and a red E-type, with a red cover.
Changes were afoot though, and the magazine’s 30th anniversary was celebrated with a reprint of the first issue, while a thorough, comprehensive design was implemented from the August 2011 issue (after there was a three-Triumph issue and a special, ‘adventure’ silhouette cover). The new design featured a host of new additions and shorter features, some of which survive today, the double page spread Restoration Guide among them.
Later in the year, we had a Triumph Speed Twin cover (in an issue where we took a team of bikes to the Banbury and learned an important lesson about biting off more than could chew…), then a Norton 500T (with legend Murray Walker on board), a pair of Matchless G12s and finally a BSA A7SS. By year’s end, cover price was £3.95.
2016
Looking over the issues (cover price £4.20, pages 116), for me, personally, I can’t really believe that it’s five years since then, though admittedly one of those years has pretty much been spent doing nothing.
We started 2016 with an editorial team of two, as young Michael Barraclough had joined as staff writer, though he moved on to pastures new, with the slack taken up by additional freelance contribution.
Covers for 2016 went: Indian Velocette, cammy Ariel Square Four, BSA B32, Aermacchi single, Coventry Eagle Flying 8, Velocette Thruxton, Brough Superior
680, Triumph T110, Matchless Model X,
BSA Gold star, International Norton, RCA Hogan prototype.
Looking over them, I realise I personally had a good riding year, as I rode eight of the 12 ‘cover stars’ that year, reflecting a little how the editor’s role has changed, with going out and riding bikes and writing features, the domain of the staff writer 20 years before, now often the editor’s job too.
It was also in 2016 that the magazine went ‘perfect bound’ with the first issue thus presented the March issue. The idea was to have a motorcycling quote on every spine, which started with TE Lawrence’s fabulous “A skittish motorcycle with a touch of blood in it is better than all the riding animals in the world” though arguably my favourite was “Only a motorcyclist knows why a dog sticks his head out of the car window.”
Final comment
So there you have it, The Classic MotorCycle in five-year chunks. A lot has changed but what hasn’t is that it’s still put together by an enthusiastic team who remain besotted with old bikes.
What follows next is a four-page feature on Bob Currie, the man who founded the magazine and without whom we’d have all had a lot less enjoyment.