Lemons: Honda CB250N Super Dream

Sometimes bikes are amazingly successful when there is nothing really spectacular about them: take the Honda 250 Super Dream. ​There was nothing fundamentally or seriously wrong with the machine but neither was there anything magical about it...

Top bikes of the Seventies: 4

John Nutting's top 40 bikes from the Seventies, distilled from over 200 road tests. Final part, numbers 40 to 31...

750cc fours tested

At the dawn of the 80s the choice of 750cc sportbikes was limited to conventional in-line fours from Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki. Larger capacity bikes satisfied the power hungry, but the 750s were more agile rides and began to win back support. John Nutting rode three of the best...

Japan’s famous racing four

Honda's slightly 'oversquare' 250 four is conventionally designed, aside from the four valves per cylinder, contributing to a healthy 45bhp output

Kawasaki Z1300

Kawasaki’s huge six-cylinder shaft-drive Z1300 was the zenith of Japanese motorcycle excess in the 70s. John Nutting covered several thousand miles on two early versions, but still looks back fondly on what is now regarded as a beast of a bike...

Camshaft teach in

Rod Gibson gets to grips with the science of camshaft design, and enters a world full of ramps, overlap, lift and durations. But will it make the bike go faster?