David Williams: Motoring icons with two and three wheels

Café racer motorcycles are very fashionable in London, and many old boxer-engined BMWs, even old Honda CX500s, are being converted to this style, just as fast as backstreet garages can get their hands on them.

So the publication of British Café Racers, by Veloce, is particularly good timing — and it makes for a great read, backed up by evocative images of stylish Nortons, Excelsiors, Cottons, Triumphs, Royal Enfields and so on. Costing £30, the hardback book by Uli Cloesen aims to present the “eye candy of historic British brands”. That it does — and in spades.

I only drove a Reliant Robin once — and that was enough for me. It was flimsy, slow and, to my eyes at least, ugly.