AMBASSADORENVY

I too enjoyed Reg Eyre’s article regarding the Ambassador Envoy in RC193. It brought back many happy memories of Ambassadors from my youth. In fact, I enjoyed the feature so much I contacted Dr Reg to tell him so – the upshot of which is that I am now the proud owner of the Envoy! I am absolutely delighted with it and look forward to riding it extensively.

Discussing this with a friend and fellow RC reader, we both agreed that it would be great to see more articles concerning the much maligned and underrated ‘grey porridge’ machines, please. On the subject of which, I feel Ollie was both a little unkind and unlucky in his experiences with an MZ ES250/2 Trophy. I once took one of these fine machines on a trip to Algiers and back – just under 5000 miles in three weeks – without an ounce of trouble!

I was pleased to see the reference following the excellent Panther 100 article to Theresa Wallach’s book ‘ The Rugged

Road’. I first enjoyed this remarkable account several years ago and while it was an amazing feat and Theresa was certainly a redoubtable lady, the heroine of that tale is surely her riding partner Florence Blenkiron. On completion of their ride from London to Cape Town, the two ladies apparently had a falling out and as a result Theresa made her way back to the UK by ship, leaving Florence to complete the return journey on the Panther outfit on her own. Much to her chagrin, the powers that be would not allow her to proceed across the Sahara on her own and instead she had to suffer the ignominy of riding for three days in the Desert Bus with the Panther on a trailer behind. Even so, the return journey really was some achievement! Dick Hobart, member 310

Not sure if they qualify as ‘porridge’ precisely, but we have quite a few small capacity classics lined up for future issues, from a Tiger Cub to a CZ, a V-twin 350 to a BSA Dandy. Oh, and the Norton lightweights which emerged from the editorial Shed during lockdown – but they’re a long way from grey gruel!