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Bike of the Year always provokes an argument, stopping just short of fisticuffs, in the Bike o ce. It continues in the pub after work. Usually we’ve got a clear idea of the front runners at the start, but not this time. So, possibly while still in the pub, we decided to spice up the 2020 contest by making it a knockout competition. It’d keep some surprising bikes in the running for longer, but we’d still end up with a worthy champion. Value, practicality, looks and riding experience seemed like reasonable categories on which to separate the contenders. We added to the Bike team’s expertise by asking artist Grayson Perry to separate the semi-finalists on looks. He’s always got interesting things to say about why things look the way they do and what it all means, though as a custom bike builder he wasn’t going to favour black bikes.

The quarter final contest between an electric bike and a Honda was affected by a lack of volts, and not in the way that you might expect, while Mike Armitage boldly marked down the Ducati Streetfighter V4 on account of the (for some, glorious) racket that it makes.

Noise seems to be topical, maybe because people have recently experienced the artificial quiet of lockdown. Sitting in a pal’s garden as an open-piped Norton 961 was screamed along the village by-pass, you could sense the speed limit petition being prepared for the parish council.

Our ride to the Peak District for the showdown ride between the two Bike of the Year finalists involved a favourite local route, and the unpleasant discovery that it’s been wrecked with a 50mph limit along the whole stretch. I suspect that’s noise related too, though taken as a whole it hardly affected what was a great day’s riding.

I’ve done more miles this past month than in the whole of rest of the year (for obvious reasons) and I’ve had some great rides. Highlights? The Fiddler’s Elbow road in the Peak District, the A44 in Wales (so good I rode it twice) and the B2141 over the South Downs. Bikes don’t have to be Bike of the Year to be a brilliant way to get about.

Enjoy the issue.