Just posted in the 1920 Features section is a compilation of previews, reports, reviews and gossip from the 1920 TT. There’s a basic report in the main 1920 listing but the material and pics in the feature are worthy of your attention—as well as thoughtful appraisals of the latest technology there’s  an appraisal of the various marques of flapper to be dallied with on Douglas prom. Yep, we’re roaring into the twenties.

There’s plenty more material to be added to 1920 (a feature on the TT is in preparation) but I just came across a report of the first motor cycle ride from Land’s End to John o’ Groats. Ixion referred to it in his review of the End-to-End run (which you’ll find in the 1911 Features section); now you can enjoy the whole story, as written by the rider. Also added to 1901 is a rider’s call for a club to be started for motor bicyclists, and a roadtest of a Singer Voituretts that was equally at home carrying people or goods, years before the advent of the tradesman’s sidecar.

Nearly halfway through 1920; lots of new bikes to take a look at, with a report on the London-Edinburgh, an appeal for helmets to be used by TT riders and oodles of good stuff with more being added daily. I really ought to be spending more time in the garage but a chap’s got to do what a chap’s got to do.

You’ll find a fair number of stories in 1920, including Britain’s first proper fuel station (but it didn’t have any petrol); a lightweight that looks more 1950 than 1920; a list of every marque in the Blue ‘Un Buyer’s Guide; a QD topbox; a bicycle powered by the rider’s weight …and a motorbike made by a chap called Guzzi. Watch this space.

‘Captains of industry’, competition riders, dealers, clubmen and pundits took a look at the future and suggested ways to develop the industry. Well worth a look.

The ACU judges report on the Scottish  makes interesting reading; I enjoyed the description of a reporters’ woes courtesy of The Motor Cycle’s man in the saddle and hope you do too.

Those Six Days Trials kept getting tougher. In 1914 the action was centred on Sheffield;  only half the starters were finishers. But these events were clearly improving the breed: the first and second placed marques in the team award were mainstays of the Army and RFC respectively and, as the Blue ‘Un remarked, the Western Front would be a far tougher proving ground than the Yorkshire Dales. The report includes a report on the reporter’s mount and a defence of the trial by James Norton.

The 1914 Features section has just been livened up with a brace of ripping yarns concerning a resourceful chap and two plucky gels who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Alfred Scott did not invent the two-stroke engine. But the motor cycle which bears his name established the two-stroke as a practicable vehicle equally at home as bargain basement utility runabout and world-class competition mount. In 1914 Scott told The Motor Cycle how it all came about.

As if six days trials and TTs weren’t enough of a challenge, motor cyclists went mountain climbing. Yep, another fun-filled collection of ripping yarns has ascended to the heights of the 1913 Features section.