Eight (Yes - 8!) Old Quasar and Phasar articles
1) Motorcycle Mechanics. September 1977: https://davestestsandarticles.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/4/5/4845046/mcmsep77quasarspx500.pdf
2) Cycle. June 1978: https://davestestsandarticles.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/4/5/4845046/cyclejune78quasar.pdf
3) Bike. August 1978: https://davestestsandarticles.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/4/5/4845046/bike_august_1978_quasar_tt_1978.pdf
4) cycle guide. December 1979: https://davestestsandarticles.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/4/5/4845046/cycle_guide_december_1979_quasar.pdf
5) Two Wheels. August 1980: https://davestestsandarticles.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/4/5/4845046/twowhaug80quasar.pdf
6) Which Bike. July 1981: https://davestestsandarticles.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/4/5/4845046/which_bike_july_1981_phasar.pdf
7) Motorcycling. February 1983: https://davestestsandarticles.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/4/5/4845046/motorcycling_february_1983_quasar.pdf
8) Bike. November 1984: https://davestestsandarticles.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/4/5/4845046/bikenov84phasar.pdf
All 8 here: https://davestestsandarticles.weebly.com/quasar.html
The host is asking for MORE Quasar and Phasar articles: https://davestestsandarticles.weebly.com/wanted.html
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Thanks for that!
That's a lot of fun - well for me anyway. Why did I waste most of my working life trying to 'mainstream' FFs? Read the IoM piece. And I did get the lighter, smaller version referred to at the end of one of the articles. It's a pity we all didn't get the even lighter, neater and better made version that any of the corporates could have made if they'd had the balls, could even have been electric by now.
I trust you've pointed the 'host wanting more Quasar/Phasar articles' at Bikeweb, and of course Mark Crowson at Quasar world.
The Quasar's performance had already impressed me before I got to the Island with one. Prior to the Bike road test I discovered that I couldn't even keep Malcolm, in a Quasar, in sight, on an English Country Road. Laugh at this because I was riding a Velocette Venom, that ancient survival from a bygone era - then try and keep up with one on an English Country Road... Malcolm and I had a wonderfull time terrorising the traffic of south west England until he regrettably died, although by then I'd got the Banana and done a 33 minute lap of the Island and was on my way to discovering how reactionary and basically frightened of the future society was (is?)
Apart from all that stuff, I do find it interesting that the Quasar has such a cachet, despite being far too intimidating for most potential owners (I didn't have that problem, I didn't own one..,) while the far more practical, lighter, smaller, more agile Voyagers get described as 'uninspiring'. I think a lot of commentry comes from people who want to be 'inspired' rather than actually use one. I had the use of a Qusar for some months, using it as urban transport. Basically my old Ford Thames van was less effort to drive round town. But the Quasar was transformative. There's a continous development line from Ken Leamans design to the Voyagers. Many shoulders stood on, a future for PTWs abandoned in the face of obvious and now pressing need.
So it goes.
That Z13Quasar & standard Quasar article in Nov 84 Bike.
I've just re-read No.8 in that list of articles, Bike Editor Brecon Quaddy's entertaining account of his trip down to Wiltshire to see Malcolm Newell's cottage FF-building emporium and test both a standard Quasar and the rip-snorting new Z13, with me. It was my first ever photo session for a magazine and as Brecon mentions, I grounded the standard Quasar on the A4 Avebury roundabout hard enough to lose traction and slide it down the road. There's a great photo by Kel Edge of me creating sparks several laps earlier in the Quasar section of bikeweb here: https://bikeweb.com/node/128
That machine, FHR 942W, has a whole sub-section of the Quasar folder to itself. As you'll see, it now has pride of place in the National Motorcycle Museum: https://bikeweb.com/image/tid/166
There are 4 photos of the Z13 Quasar down the years in the Malcolm Newell's creations folder, here: https://bikeweb.com/image/tid/9
I shall have to re-read all those other articles too! PNB