TALES FROM THE SHED Shows

Inspired, I was. Completely inspired. I was on a mission – being a man on a mission is just so exciting! And the reason for this unusual intensity? I’d been reading a lengthy thread online which had started off groaning, moaning and grumbling that there were no ‘practical’ new bikes any more. The reason for this? The original post was from a chap who’d been to the great big bike show at Birmingham’s NEC, and had been royally unimpressed.

My head was scratched, my curiosity aroused. Also my pedantry, because surely all motorcycles are practical? Even racers are great for racing, if only to work or to the handy café, in the same way that my favourite laid-back Milwaukee monster is entirely practical should I want to go and pose, ride a couple of hundred miles to beat a friend into buying lunch, or even pop off to the pie shop for an illicit ingestion of steak, ale and pastry. I think the only truly impractical motorcycle I’ve possessed is the Norton F1, which is so darned uncomfortable that I’d never willingly ride it. Other folk do, though, so the problem is plainly mine, rather than the bike’s. Which is always a thought worth keeping in mind when criticising things.

But the NEC? My own