‘The hours of cleaning and polishing paid off’...

I wanted to write in to say how much I enjoyed your articles on the classic bike show at Shepton Mallett recently.

It also comes with a big ‘thank you’. Oli’s piece, ‘Judging at Shepton Mallett’, was especially pleasing. The part when he talks about a ‘better than from the crate’ Ducati 900SS was brilliant. He was talking about MY bike!

My brother and myself both entered bikes in the Private Entries category for the first time, as much for the experience as anything else.

We were not being competitive at all. Or so we thought! But I gained first in the Modern Classic category. Wow. Fantastic. The hours of cleaning and polishing paid off. I was well chuffed, to say the least.

Oli and the judges certainly have a good eye for detail. He obviously picked out the ‘Duc’ (tongue very much in cheek) but also spotted that indeed two very small mirror stickers were not original – due to a small workshop fire and a burning Yamaha XS750, but that’s another story. The small picture of the bike and the article was the icing on the cake of what was a great weekend, so thanks again to you all and to Mortons.

The Ducati is ridden, albeit on very dry and sunny days. Taxed, tested, and ready to go. Garry Lush

Thanks, Garry, and well done! It was Oli’s first go at judging and in part, the feature was for us both as we didn’t know much about that seemingly ‘closed’ world of concours events. May it have lit a new hobby for you both – Matt