‘It was like being in Led Zeppelin’
Rupert Paul, 57. Former editor of Performance Bikes swapped the rock ‘n’ roll of bike journalism for Rupe’s Rewires. And he’s never looked back…
How do motorcycles fit into your life now? In my personal life I ride less than when I worked on motorcycle magazines. If a journey is faster, more convenient or more enjoyable I’ll use the bike. Otherwise I have a perfectly good £400 car. In my current professional life the motorcycles I work on are an absorbing, creative challenge; a ticket to a delightful lifestyle, and a living.
Being a bike journalist would seem like a dream to many, why the change?
I spent 30 years writing about bikes, which is half fun (riding new bikes or being creative) and half dreary (sitting in front of a computer for days on end). Eventually the twin evils of smartphones and the global financial crash sucked most of the fun and money out of it. I was a qualified bike mechanic before I was a journalist, and I felt restless. I wanted to return to fixing things with my hands and brain. I’d been restoring and modifying bikes for years, but in 2009 I built a loom for a friend’s BSA. To my surprise, it didn’t catch fire. Next year another friend asked me to wire a CBX special, and then a Magnum. They didn’t catch fire either. Suddenly my 1984 Merton Tech Diploma was useful again! I was painfully slow at first. But very gradually, I figured out the pitfalls and skills, the tools and mental approach needed to build looms for old bikes. I started Rupe’s Rewires in 2014 and more or less gave up writing in 2017. This week I’m on my 165th bike rewire.
Give us a real example of your current life at its best. What makes it all worthwhile… Today is as good as any. I’ve been working on a US import chopper for nearly two weeks, and finished it at 4pm. It was a beautiful evening and I wheeled it outside to take some pics and start it up. I can’t tell you how satisfying that is.
But that’s mostly down to my working environment. I rent a corner of an E-type Jag resto shop called The Splined Hub, Oundle, Northants which is a converted boat factory close to where I live. The cars are beautiful. My eight co-workers are lovely people, highly skilled and happy to share their knowledge and help. Most of them are riders too. There’s also a local network of engineers, fabricators and suppliers. At lunchtime some of us walk in the park opposite (I bring the dog), and we all nip out for a pub lunch on Fridays. It’s a simple life, very old-fashioned in many ways. But it feels good.
What makes you question whether or not you’ve made the right decision?
Oh boy. I usually book in one job a week, and last autumn three customers in a row failed to show up. That’s no money for a month, and the overheads keep coming anyway. But that’s self employment.
What’s your current state of wellbeing? Making magazines in the ’80s and ’90s was so all-consuming and successful it was like being in Led Zeppelin. I loved it, but it’s different now. This is a humbler, less lucrative way of life, driven as much by my anti-corporate, anti-materialist inclinations as the hipster craze. I’m fascinated by turning a disaster area into a smooth, functioning bike. Feeling unable to solve a problem is stressful. Getting myself double booked, the same. But I’m never bored.
How do you make it all work financially? By not having expensive habits. All over the country people are restoring bikes or building specials. It’s a big emotional thing – nostalgia, self expression, the love of a particular bike. Some of those people find they can’t get a wiring loom any more. Others have modified their bikes so much a loom never existed. So they need a solution. And because of all that invested emotion they’re willing to pay a significant amount. And the reason it costs is because it has to be planned, designed, drawn, built and tested, by hand, wire by wire.
How does all this work with family?
You can try switching careers once the kids have grown up, but you can also argue the potential dip in income is selfish.
What are your current priorities in life? Good relationships. A good environment. Good physical and mental health. Interesting days. A happy dog.