Inspiring the next generation
This special ‘Young Guns’ issue of CB focuses on a subject close to Rick’s heart
MOTORCYCLING MISSED a generation, thanks to overly restrictive legislation and maybe the ‘born again’ boom that made it all a bit middleaged. But thankfully, as I hope this month’s issue proves, bikes – and especially classics – are ‘cool’ again. So how can we help younger riders?
Prices are the big problem. With wallets bled dry by test fees, there’s little chance of affording what you want – even in project or basket case form (my old low-cost option). Yes, there are ‘affordable classics’ – but all the young people
I meet seem to want British twins, not utility lightweights. There’s still loads of projects around whose owners have no time to build them. Youth at least has time on its side – and I can testify that helping a young person get onto a classic bike is far more rewarding than counting your profits. We can’t all offer a beginner a bargain, but encouragement costs nothing. Accentuate the positive – don’t rubbish their café racer dream because clip-ons give you backache; these guys are on their own journey and would rather hear ‘how’ than ‘what’ to do.
Take Will Coleman. He admits to having ‘a chopper itch’ and is currently operating on a Kawasaki Z440 whose seriously corroded back end justified surgery (see pic above). Choppers aren’t my thing, but I ventured a few suggestions and loaned him my 1970s American chopper mags for inspiration. Thing is, time teaches us skills and refines our tastes – but it’s important to separate the two. If Will wants to build a chopper, I’d rather see if my experience can help him than start telling him: ‘You don’t want to do that...’ Think back for a minute – isn’t that what we all wanted when we were young?
‘ENCOURAGEMENT COSTS NOTHING. THESE GUYS ARE ON THEIR OWN JOURNEY’