USE 'EM OR WE WILL LOSE 'EM

A NEW SURVEY SAYS BIKES ARE USED LESS THAN ANY OTHER CLASSIC VEHICLE. NOT GOOD ENOUGH, SAYS JOHN

‘GETTING OLD BIKES ON THE ROAD INCREASES OUR POLITICAL LOBBYING POWER’

How do you buy your motorcycles? I thought myself a bit of a maverick: none of my classics has ever come via ebay, MCN or Car & Classic ads – or through a public auction run by the likes of Bonhams or H&H. Many have turned up through friends or by following up chatter on owners’ club websites, plus the odd one found in a dusty corner of a local freesheet.

That’s how most of us do it, according to a new survey. It’s all about networking and ferreting, according to a massive new report from the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC). In the internet age, around a third of us still find our classics via word of mouth, thanks to friends and fellow club members.

Even the most expensive motorcycles on the market end up changing hands this way, according to the FBHVC survey of the nation’s classic club members. My first Z900 was bought from the greengrocer at the bottom of my road. An H1 came from spotting a postcard stuck to the bike outside Camden Market. A bargain £90 Yammy 350 YR5 was gladly sold to me by a Brit-loving schoolfriend who couldn’t stand the sight of it.

I’ve harboured secret vile envy of acquaintances who always habitually turn up original low-mileage gems at bargain prices, seemingly out of nowhere. Now I know how – they won’t stop chatting to everyone they meet about old bikes.

I never cease to be astonished by the amazing variety of ways in which classic bikes enter people’s lives. In the early 1970s, my pal Jerry won a marketing competition run by NVT, which was desperate to shift bikes. If you bought a brand-new Commando or Trident T150, you were automatically entered into a draw to win another. Jerry won top prize. He didn’t want another Norton, so he asked for a Trident. He’s still got it. What’s more, that faithful Trumpet is still on the road, after years of commuting duties.

Sadly, that’s more than can be said of almost half the classic bikes owned in the UK. The FBHV survey shows that of the 297,000 known to exist, 25% are on SORN; a further 20% are in long-term storage, having been off the road for ages.

To me, a bike ain’t a bike if it ain’t being ridden. Nothing raises the spirits more than the sight and sound of a beautiful old machine suddenly appearing in town or countryside. So I find it a little disheartening to see that even our roadworthy bikes are seeing so little action. The federation survey shows that a classic motorcycles owned in the UK does on average only 835 miles a year and only leaves the garage 11 times – significantly less than classic cars, buses or vans.

Even classic tractors get out more, completing an annual average of 1150 miles. In fact, of all the classic subgroups in the survey, motorcycles are most likely not to be used at all.

There is another important reason why we need to get those old bikes out on the road – political lobbying power. The report shows how important classic vehicles have become to the UK economy over the past decade, having rapidly grown into an industry worth £5.5 billion.

Classic bike owners alone spend an annual total of £104 million on our passion. This includes £37 million buying bikes and £48 million on restoration and major repairs. All that cash could wield us significant lobbying ammunition in a cashstrapped UK economy that is dominated by service industries. At the very least, it could protect our free historic road tax and continue the push to have standard bikes older than 30 years exempt from Mots in 2018 (as per the forthcoming EU Roadworthiness Directive). On the other hand, the UK has no shortage of rabid safety-campaigners, misery merchants and bandwagon-riding MPS who’d love to see all old motorcycles banned from the road for being loud, smoky and wonderfully dangerous.

If we continue to exercise a voluntary riding ban on ourselves, we’ll be doing half the job for them. So get spannering. Spring could see hundreds of thousands of classic headlamps blinking the dust of decades from their grateful filaments.