Retro rumbles on…

I felt I had to add to the Retro debate. I had to agree with Paul Weddle’s letter in the March edition, as if I wanted new bikes then I’d subscribe to something else. I thought your answer saying it was five pages of 166 was misleading. If you look at the bike reviews section there were five bikes road tested, so you could say it was 20% of the road tests. Or there were 26 pages of road tests of which it was four pages so 15% (plus it was in the editorial, and a page in news.) To follow having to read about Z1 Retros in February, we then had several pages of actual Z1 in March. Actually March was worse as you only road tested four bikes (BMW, XT500, Z1 and Honda TT EVO) so 25% of that section. Retro reboot I can take or leave, but at least it’s still sort of in the spirit of CMM, so I can live with it. I’m not really a big fan of dirt bikes (unless I have just watched On Any Sunday, in which case I really want one), but I do love reading about old Japanese bikes, whatever they are. I know some of your readership do like the new retro bikes but they can get their fix

of those elsewhere as well, whereas those of us that like the Japanese classics really only have your publication. As an aside maybe some road tests of smaller cc bikes: even mundane commuter types, learners, etc.? Lastly you did start doing some road tests of two bikes, the original with a modern retro (but still classic) equivalent – I have both a GSX1100SD Katana and GSX400SSN (Japanese market) if you ever want to try them side by side feel free! Rob Bird