When this timeline came on line the ‘pre-history’ section was light on illustrations; no longer. From the Big Bang (well, from a teensie fraction of a second thereafter) to 1899, the pictures are in place with 1900-1906 to be sorted next; the years 1907-1912 are already illustrated. Crazy modernists among you will find plenty of text and some illustrations for the 1920s and ’30s with a full complement of pics to follow. Enjoy.

You’ll find that 1912 is now covered in some detail with lots of pictures and plenty of features: the TT was fascinating, the lomg-distance trials were tougher than ever. The pre-history section up to 1799 has also been tidied up and illustrated. Yarns to be unearthed include a Cornish vicar being chased by a steam trike and a Jesuit priest’s toy turbine built for a Chinese emperor’s nipper. And that’s not the half of it.

Completing the 1912 Features section: trials and tribulations in the Lake District; plucky gels get their hands dirty; fantasising about flying motor cycles.

There’s a picture of the Pearson & Cox steam-powered motor bicycle in 1912; turn to the 1912 Features section for a full description of a production steam bike.

Uploaded today to the 1912 Features section: a selection of letters sent to the Editor of The Motor Cycle. Topics range from riding seven-up for a bet and fuel-consumtion records to mad dogs and the advisability of issuing motor cyclists with automatic rifles.

Uploaded for your delight, a blow-by-blow account of the 1912 ACU Six Days’ Trial which was based in Taunton and took competitors over 1,000 miles of mud, rocks, narrow lanes and some of the steepest hills in Britain.

Following an expedition to the 1911 TT by a contingent of Dutch enthusiasts, a team of Brits ventured over the North Sea for an Anglo-Dutch Trial and everyone had a smashing time, as you’ll see in the 1912 Features section.

Bikes were getting tougher but so were the long-distance trials. The Scottish Six Days’Trial was not for the faint-hearted.

Uploaded for your delectation, a gem of a story from a 1912 issue of CP Fry’s sports magazine describing the life of factory roadtesters. Also new to the 1912 Features section is a brief test of the 1911 Junior TT winning Humber 339cc V-twin and a review of that most important development in motor cycling’s evolution: the kickstart.

For the first time the Senior and Junior TTs were limited to 500 and 350cc; singles and twins competed on equal terms; most manufacturers boycotted the Island. It was a great year for Scott and Douglas, the racing was sometimes both wild and woolly with a rutted, flooded section of track forcing racers onto the pavement. Read all about it.