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Noughties are nice
A read through the May issue and a shufti on auction sites made me realise a harsh reality – we are paying a lot of dough for some awful tat. My motorcycle threshold moment was my big brother’s Suzuki TS100. I was a spotty yoof and learned to ride it at a local quarry. I was hooked and needed my own. I had a range of bikes and owing to my precarious pecuniary position, all shite. I started low with a KL C and dropped away sharply with an RS (Yamaha, not BMW), RD and a few crimes against good taste that I can’t bring myself to list. Jump forward many years and I found advancing years had afforded me a few spare quid. I worked out a nice budget for a suitably aged machine from my era (late ’¢ s) might be around £ . Yeah right! As it turns out that will buy me roughly the same type of shite I had to endure as a young man – people are bidding over K for a Superdream.
So I think the future for the rational shopper is to avoid retro at which point it becomes rapidly apparent this budget does buy sir something from the ’ s, or noughties. Would sir prefer an R, or maybe a nice SRAD?
Uncleal, email
Not self-proclaimed
So Mark Edwards ( Bike, June, Letters) decrees Triumph, BMW, and Ducati are ‘self appointed premium brands’ while dismissing their small bike presence (or lack of ).
I believe they are perceived as premium manufacturers because of the quality and desirability of their products, and the consumers demand for them rather than because of some proclamation demanding they be viewed that way.
Neil Phillips, email
End of the road
No, no, no! How very dare you? After years of reading Bike and relishing all the shiny new stuff, information and genuinely fascinating articles you go and ruin our relationship with the June issue. Being good and following the instructions my Aprilia is still at home and I am staring at sunny, dry, unsalty tarmac and you go and do a double page picture of The Road that happens to be my most favourite place to ride in the country. miles from my house. I thought we had something special Bike magazine. How could you do this to me, now of all times?
Right, back to furiously scrubbing inside the exhaust pipes with a toothbrush.
Keep it up, stay safe and sane you all. Dom Greenway, email