For a change from the usual style of browsing
old bike sites, try investigating some early photos in library databases. See my photo links page.
My local club is the Veteran and Vintage Motor Cycle Club of South Australia.
Still in SA, you can catch a glimpse of the early days of motorcycling in the photo archive of the State Library
of South Australia. I'm also a member of The Antique Motorcycle Club of
Australia and the Veteran Car Club of South Australia.
The definitive "A-Z of Australian-made
Motorcycles 1893-1942" by Robert Saward is now out of print. Start searching for a
used copy.
Brough
Superior Motorcycles is one of my favourite sites: not just Broughs but all sorts of
interesting people and machines (even Scotts!). Be sure to spend some time checking out
the "memories" section. Also in the UK is the large and interesting site vintagebike.co.uk. Lots of interesting photos to
look through, and one of the few active vintage motorcycling forums on the web. Nick
Harrison recently pointed me to his Advance
of Nothhampton site, which I enjoyed enormously. Have some old Advance bits lying
aroud? Nick's your man. The Bike Sheds offer
a complete - if a little dated - guide to vintage motorcycling in the UK, with an
interesting collection of articles and photos.
There are a couple of nice sites for Rudge stuff
- mostly vintage and post-vintage but but still worth a look. The first is Mr Rudge, a site dedicated to the memory of
Helmut Krackowizer. Very personal and engaging. IRM Technologies, who manufacture new parts
for old Rudges, have some lovely photos of early Multis. The Rudge Enthusiasts Club web site is worth a visit.
If you speak a little French, you might enjoy La Memoire Terrot-Dijon, a comprehensive
site devoted to Terrot motorcycles. Be sure to look at the posters ("affiches"
in French) on this site. The links page ("liens" in French) is a good starting
point for looking at vintage motorcycle sites in Europe. While you are practicing your
French, try the Moto Club du Lion
(Peugeot motorcycles), Vintage Harley Davidson
from 1903 to 1929 , the Ultima
site, or the large and interesting Histoire
de la Moto site. Also in Europe, but in English, is Minerva Motocyclettes 1900 - 1909 and the
interesting Norwegian site Old Motorcycles
(this site seems to work only with Internet Explorer, and then only when you allow
pop-ups) ) - lots of interesting American machines, although I prefer the little
Motosacoches. If you want to practice your Dutch (OK... the photos are really interesting,
and there's info in English) try the Veteraan Moteren
Club.This Belgian
oldtimers site has a great gallery of bike photos, taken at recent rallies.
The web presence of FN motorcycles is growing.
Jacques Maertens has an excellent FN
Oldtimers site - in English. If you want to practice your German (or just look at the
lovely pictures) try Freidel's Seite or Interressengemeinschaft der F.N. FN Motorcyklar is in Swedish, but contains
material of interest to FN devotees. An interesting selection of material relating to FNs
and other Belgian motorcycles is available at the Belgische
Veteraan Moteren site. The modern-day Herstal
Group has put up some most interesting historical pages.
Interesting one-marque sites are Norton Motorcycle Singles page, Joe Stephan's Ace Site,
Tim Spacke's marvellous Spacke Deluxe site, the Flying Merkel pages, and The Henderson
Motorcycle Marque .
In the US, take the Museum Tour at
the AMCA which now includes the One
Man's Passion site. Statnekov
Motorcycles has material on early American racing motorcycles, and Gregory Walter has
put together some interesting pages on Thor motorcycles.
The Maine
Memory Network has but up some information about the bikes in the Seal Cove Auto
Museum - some lovely early American bikes. If you see something you like, be sure to play
with the cool "zoom" feature!
I don't want to get too commercial, but if you want to buy an old bike,
try Verralls in the UK or Yesterdays in the Netherlands (don't forget to look
at the Yesterdays Motor Archive while you're
there). Both dealers have a nice - and changing - selection of bikes for sale. We can
always dream...
There are some marvelous museums around the world. We recently lost the
Otis Chandler collection (now dispersed into private hands), but there are a number of
nice museums still in the USA, such as the marvelous Wheels Through Time collection, the National Motorcycle Museum, and the Solvang Vintage Motorcycle Museum.
The Southward Car Museum in New Zealand, despite
its name, has an excellent collection of bikes, including an FN four. If
you want something seroiusly out of the ordinary (but not really old), have a browse
through this interesting Museum
in the Czech Republic, or this one in Austria. Not surprisingly, the Wolverhampton Museum of
Industry has a fine site relating to motorcycles
built in the local area. AJS, Sunbeam, HRD, Clyno and a host of others are very nicely
presented. In particular, be sure not to miss the fascinating story of the
Pen Nib motorcycle.
The Bodleian Library at
Oxford University has a lovely collection of veteran motorcycling literature on the web,
including very high resolution images from sales brochures for early Ariel, Rover,
Triumph, Minerva etc.
Finally, if these links are a bit old and weird for
you, try a links page like Classic
and Vintage Motorcycle Links, or perhaps the Classic Motorcycle Webring:
