JOHN AND STEVE

The men behind Roadstar

Both John and Steve have spent their lives around old bikes. Starting with a Bantam field bike, Steve moved up to a Triumph Sports Cub. “My older cousin was a ‘rocker’ in the late ’60s and I started hanging round with him and his mates. Bikes were a huge lifestyle thing back then.” At 19, Steve was offered a 350cc BSA Gold Star. “It sounds good but the engine came in boxes with a bent conrod. After fixing that up, I bought an A10 Golden Flash, then I think I got a 250 Panther... I should remember – I’ve still got most of them!” Steve admits to only ever having parted with two or three of his own bikes.

If Steve is the hoarder, John’s the minimalist. “I had a nice ’30s Panther for a while and a 1929 Triumph, but I sold them; there wasn’t time to ride them and I don’t like leaving bikes in sheds.” John learned to ride off-road on NSU Quickly mopeds before taking to the road on a Honda CD175 followed by a 1968 Triumph T100S that he only recently sold. “I did over 100,000 miles on the Triumph; brilliant bike!” he recalls. John bought the 1960 650 Panther combination he still owns aged 20. “That means I’ve had it 40 years now,” he muses. His ‘modern’ bike is a Norton Commander, the fairing providing useful advertising space for his sideline organising motorcycle tours of North Thailand (sanukmotorcycletours.com)

“I went out there with my son and some mates and couldn’t believe how lovely the roads were. The ‘Mae Hong Son’ is rated one of the world’s top ten biking roads and the Thai people are among the friendliest in the world. So I started organising tours, run between November to February – the quiet period at the shop!”