THE LIGHTER SIDE

My underlying medical issues continue unabated. The consultant looked me directly in the eyes and said in clear and concise tones that even a stubborn, ageing, slightly-deaf motorcyclist could hopefully understand. ‘No. More. Big. Bikes’. And that was that.

My much-loved Moto Guzzi Convert, restored by me from a wreck many years ago, the bike that I was going to be buried with, and that featured in these very pages (RC146), was reluctantly put up for sale. There was some consolation in that I would keep my little 1961 Triumph T100 trail bike (see RC148), as that is easy to start and weighs about the same as a modern bicycle. Thankfully the Convert went to a good home. What to do next? Could I live with just the one bike? There is room for two in the shed. Although the consultant had clearly said ‘no more big bikes’, surely that meant I could still have small-to-medium ones?

What to buy? I prodded and sat upon various Chinese and Indian machines but none quite hit the spot emotionally, and really I like a bike where I can do all of the maintenance myself. I had a brief flirtation with a very expensive Sunbeam S7, something I had always wanted, bought ‘fully restored’ from a dealer but really just with a shiny coat of paint and a few new parts. It had manifold minor mechanical woes and by the time I had fixed most of them the love had gone. I sold it