Classic Bike April 2020

A CHAP CONTACTED us to complain after the ‘Old Bikes, New Faces’ issue, saying Classic Bike was too ‘lifestyle’ and asked: ‘What are you going to do next, a fashion supplement?’ He also had a beef with Rick. Apparently he talks too much about vintage bikes in the workshop section. Difficult one, isn’t it? Some people would like the same content, month in, month out, others look for something a bit different. You can’t please all the people all the time. However, we are conscious of including ‘core’ bikes in each issue – and, as the chap pointed out, owners of British twins circa 1960s-70s make up the bulk of the readership. Thing is, though, we can’t constantly reinvent the Bonneville feature or the Commando feature. Well we could, but we don’t…

Welcome IT’S LIFE – NOT JUST STYLE! BAUER ARCHIVE A CHAP CONTACTED us to complain after the ‘Old Bikes, New Faces’ issue, saying Classic Bike was too ‘lifestyle’ and asked: ‘What are you going to do next, a fashion supplement?’ He also had a beef with Rick. Apparently he talks too much about vintage bikes in the workshop section. Difficult one, isn’t it? Some people would like the same content, month in, month out, others look for something a bit different. You can’t please all the people all the time. However, we are conscious of including ‘core’ bikes in each issue – and, as the chap pointed out, owners of British twins circa 1960s-70s make up the bulk of the readership. Thing is, though, we can’t constantly reinvent the Bonneville…

EVENT INTERNATIONAL ISLAND CLASSIC, PHILLIP ISLAND 24-26 JAN Where Australia rules This annual antipodean event kicked up a gear this year, featuring famous racers battling each other in international match races and mixing it with club enthusiasts in support races WORDS: HAMISH COOPER PHOTOGRAPHY: JAMES O’HAGAN A NEW ERA IN the International Challenge began at this year’s Phillip Island Classic road racing festival. Packed with talent, a pumped-up Team USA came within 13 points of beating defending champions Australia. Adding to the event was the return of a totally new Team UK. It came with an equally new focus on bringing back ‘genuine period’ machinery and a mixture of well-known racers along with club competitors. ‘AS WELL AS THE INTERNATIONAL MATCH RACES, THERE’S A HUGE CROSS-SECTION OF CLASSIC RACING’ America’s…

A NEW ERA IN the International Challenge began at this year’s Phillip Island Classic road racing festival. Packed with talent, a pumped-up Team USA came within 13 points of beating defending champions Australia. Adding to the event was the return of a totally new Team UK. It came with an equally new focus on bringing back ‘genuine period’ machinery and a mixture of well-known racers along with club competitors. ‘AS WELL AS THE INTERNATIONAL MATCH RACES, THERE’S A HUGE CROSS-SECTION OF CLASSIC RACING’ America’s Josh Hayes fought race-long battles with Aussie young guns Alex Phillis and Jed Metcher. Phillis and Hayes bagged two wins apiece, with Phillis the highest individual points scorer overall. Team UK also hope their efforts this year, on a variety of machinery dating from 1972, will encourage both…

WHILE TOURISTS FLOCK to the grand squares of Prague, enticed by the elegant landmarks of the city, it’s worth taking a 20-minute walk to the far side of the Vltava river to visit The National Technical Museum (NTM) which boasts a great collection of motorcycles. The NTM in a typically austere-looking former Eastern Bloc building, but inside it boasts a stunning collection of more than 70,000 exhibits, offering an overview of automobile, bicycle, aviation and shipping transportation. It also houses one of Europe’s most unique collections of motorcycles, reflecting how the country was once a major bike manufacturing nation. The forerunner of the Czechoslovakian industry was Laurin & Klement – a car, motorcycle and bicycle manufacturer founded in 1895. The company was acquired by Skoda in 1925 and rebranded as Skoda Auto,…

‘I WANTED TO DO SOMETHING THAT PEOPLE THOUGHT WAS CRAZY’ THE OLDER WE become, the more constraints we accept without question. We are given orders by older people when we are young, then become the order-givers to the young when we are older. But the orders we follow are sometimes subliminal, not verbal – they are just accepted protocol, like forming a queue. The rebels of the ’50s and ’60s have become the Middle Englanders of this decade. The rebel without a cause is now the target of cynical marketing. We become enveloped without thinking – trapped into a rigid framework of acceptability without questioning the boundaries of what we do and say. And yet young people are out there, crossing the world on Honda 125s and the like. So why not…