After last week’s post about mystery motorcycles I decided to follow up with more about the beautiful New Imperial v-twin ridden in this picture by Ginger Wood. So far as we can tell, this picture was taken in 1935 and shows Ginger attempting to wrangle the New Imperial around the Isle of Man TT circuit, the bike had a fantastic engine but woeful handling and in the end Ginger lost his battle with the bumps and was thrown off at over 100mph.
Amazingly he survived the accident largely unscathed and returned a year later with an updated New Imperial v-twin, although this one suffered a mechanical failure and ended New Imperial’s interest in racing. This bike is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful motorcycles of the 1930s, sadly they’re quite rare and as a result, the chance of me ever owning one is fairly low.
Click the photograph for the high resolution version.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
The ZOOZ One is an electric BMX bike that’s 20% larger than a standard BMX bicycle, to ensure that it’ll comfortably accommodate adults from 5′ all the way up to 6’5″. The bike’s design is the work of Pete Kelly, an industrial designer and the former head of design at both SkullCandy and Fossil Watches….
At first glance this 1958 Ice Speedster looks like a prop from one of the original Star Wars films. In fact I wouldn’t be at all surprised if George Lucas had encountered one and used it as a base for the X-34 Landspeeder driven by Luke Skywalker on Tattoine. Snow Planes Those of you from…
This is our annual collection of the most popular motorcycles on Silodrome for the year – this list is compiled in reverse order based on which motorcycles got the most visits on Silodrome over the past 12 months. There are more than a few surprises on the list, there are a few bikes missing that…
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the world’s most famous endurance race, it’s held at the Circuit de la Sarthe just outside the town of Le Mans in north west France. The race has been held annually except for 1936 due to strikes in France, followed by a hiatus from 1939 till 1949 while…
The Bultaco Pursang was one of the most successful two-stroke motocross bikes of its era, taking on some of the biggest motorcycle marques and regularly trouncing them while hardly breaking a sweat. A Brief History of Bultaco Before he died Paco Bultó requested that he be laid to rest in a Bultaco shirt with his moustache…
The Moto Rocker was designed to be the first “motorcycle” for aspiring riders between the ages of 1.5 and 4 years. The Moto Rocker has a model engine mounted amidships that resembles a 125cc two-stroke unit, with a carburetor, exhaust, and even a unit transmission. Three major versions are offered, a Cafe Racer, Brat Racer,…
