ELSPETH THE BRAVE

I learnt as much as I could about my 1974 BMW R 60/6 before I left. I bought a Haynes service manual and set about stripping down parts of the engine and getting a basic understanding of how it all worked. At the time, my bike was eight years old and had already done 72,000km.

I replaced all the cables, bought a new battery, changed all the oils and put new tyres on. I also took the cylinder heads off to fit an extra base gasket in order to lower the compression. I didn’t really know what I was doing but I had been told by a friendly mechanic at the BMW shop that this would be a good idea.

My riding gear was fairly basic compared to today’s standards. I had an old 1973 full-face Bell helmet, my Lewis Leathers leather jacket and boots and a pair Belstaff oiled-cotton over trousers. I