MIGHTY MOPEDS

Frank’s ‘road test’ of the mighty Puch MS50 brought back memories. In about 1970 I was regional rep for a dealer who had the Puch franchise for Kent and Sussex. My job was to tour all the dealers in a Transit van trying to flog those things. While well-made they were pretty awful to ride, the pedal / footrests being far too high. They were not popular and I think I got 15 bob commission per sale. The Puch Maxi was a very different box of tricks. They sold like hot cakes, but my commission was cut to 10 bob each because I was getting too much take-home pay!

My ‘works bike’ was the very delectable Puch 125 motorcycle. I remember taking it to Brands Hatch for a press day and Bruce MainSmith flogging the testicles off the poor little thing around the track. His opinion was it was a good performer if you kept it on the boil to the maximum and forgot about top gear!

I was well known and liked by my dealers as my sales pitch was a bit different from the ‘big boy’ reps. I would load up the van with road test machines, park at the edge of a town and then ride a Puch Maxi around it to the shops – no crash hats were needed in those days. In fine weather I might do a day doing the rounds from Kent on the 125. Happy days.

Back to the current day; I agree with PUB’s complaint about the vestigial front mudguards (they should be done under the Trades Description Act) on many new bikes. My other bleat is about the lack of centre-stands. Just look at the Triumphs in Alan Cathcart’s review. How can you adjust a chain or get out a wheel easily? Are we supposed to buy paddock stands?

I see PUB is looking around for a lighter bike with an electric foot. After a stroke I went through a few, including the Chinese Sinnis 250, but eventually ended up with my current classic, a 1992 Honda CD250U. Fairly rare, but a good little machine in perfect original nick with 20 thousand on the clock. I was determined to find one after reading Mark Holyoakes’s review of one in 2016. It only cost me £1400, too! The future classics will be the Japanese bikes of the later 20th century, no doubt. Mike Knowles, member 8882 Great letter, thanks! There are so many lighter bikes with electric feet that we could fill several magazines with them. The best is Norton’s ES400 Electra, obviously! FrankW