Accessories

The scooter brigade had their mirrors and lights, but real men favoured loud exhausts and alloy discs which you bolted around your front drum brake which were supposed to dissipate heat and thus improve retardation. They didn’t. There was a vogue for clip-on ’bars, polished alloy or slimline chrome fenders and rear-sets, while touring usually meant a duffel bag or even a suitcase bungee-strapped onto the pillion.

A multitude of accessories can now be added to new bikes at time of purchase – ‘only £10 a month extra on the PCP, sir’. Alloy panniers and top boxes bestow you with global adventurer glamour, Öhlins identifies you as a potential Rossi replacement, and a shrieking loud Akrapovic proves you have the social responsibility of Pol Pot. Fear the wrathful village dwellers.

‘Us baby-boomers were sneery about periodicals of the time’