Good to go

ONE OF THE THINGS I just love about being involved with a motorcycle magazine is that I can modify bikes without having somebody slap my hand and tell me to behave. If truth be known, over the years there have been many occasions when someone should have slapped my hand and told me to behave. I have been guilty of some appalling modifications which, as I’m sure you will understand, seemed like a good idea at the time. I have been editing or otherwise working for motorcycle magazines for over 40 years, so there has been plenty of time for me to screw up.

Not that all of my mods were failures. Take the Honda XL250s that my mate Charlie and I set up for our ride around the world. Those bikes were just about spot on for the trip, and did their job outstandingly well. The Acerbis tanks, relocated exhaust pipes, combination pannier cradles and crash bars with their twin five litre fluid containers and aluminium tank ‘bags’ (and eventually the Oxford windscreen) all