Classic Motorcycles – From Four Wheels to Two

For as long as I can remember, I have loved cars and like most teenagers, couldn’t wait to drive. I guess it was genetic – my grandfather was a car salesman after the war and my father was, as a result, always at the wheel of something interesting – at least when I was young. One of my most vivid memories was being flung around the back ‘seat’ of his MGB GT V8, charging across country, watching the six-sided main-beam lamp flicking on and off as we left a trail of chaos behind us.

Fast forward a few years and he’s letting me drive the family car on empty fields whenever possible. He eventually gets me insured, I get some lessons and heaven-forbid, my full licence.

In the following years, I go through a succession of shonky rubbish, cheap Italian sports-fun, modified cars, the VW scene and various classics before arriving at the first of many safe, economical and ultimately boring family wagons. Sure, some were fun (if an S-Max can be fun) but my enjoyment as a driver was so far down the list of attributes, it wasn’t even on the first page.

So it didn’t take long for my eyes to wander when I started working on a monthly motorcycle magazine. My role was production, so I didn’t need to know about bikes or even be interested in them. However, because the answer to the inevitable question, “Do you like bikes?” was that I love anything with an engine, it didn’t take long before I was infected.

I’d ridden the odd bike in my youth and for a short period, even hankered after one instead of getting into cars but with the benefit of hindsight, it was a very good thing that I never got round to it. Like all drivers, my early motor career had its ups and down but no-one got hurt (apart from the odd wheel rim) and generally, no-one got too scared either.

However, had I been on a motorbike instead of in a car, I wouldn’t be tapping these beautiful white keys right now… I have no doubt about that. But, by the time I could legitimately approach a mid-life crisis, the speed freak was in my past, a dim and not-particularly-fondly remembered previous life.

After a year or so on the magazine, I was asked if I’d like to get my licence and write about it. So I went back to school and started the process of getting a modern licence. Things had changed quite a lot since I’d passed my car test and this has notably contributed to the huge drop in the number of young motorcyclists on the roads. However, there was soon another old one – in fact, I became a textbook modern motorcyclist, the wrong side of 50 and wobbling around to begin with.

The big question, of course, is why?

There are so many reasons. It was different from driving a car – a new set of controls, a new set of sensations and a new set of skills. Just passing the test required a change of mind-set and to look at the roads differently. In a car, you tend to become a little complacent; safety technology over the years has – rightly – made motoring safer and safer. However, on a motorcycle, you’re obviously more exposed so you pay a lot more attention to what’s going on around you. You’re part of the larger environment, not in the tiny one of your own vehicle. Furthermore, everything interacts with you – it’s very liberating.

You have the noise of the other traffic, which is a revelation. You have the turbulence coming from lorries, vans, even other cars, that you have no idea is there from within your own vehicle. You have rain – if you’re unlucky (but it’s inevitable)– but as long as you have decent gear, it’s not a problem. You have the sound of your breath inside the crash helmet, muffled but feeling like something out of 2001; A Space Odyssey. “Hal, overtake the lorry.” “I’m sorry Jim but I can’t do that…”

But it’s the feeling of liberation, of freedom, of being in control of your own destiny that makes it. After years of driving mainly for necessity, it’s a chance to do something for the sake of it; to get a little taste of that feeling of achievement, of excitement and of discovery that accompanies the early years of driving. I now commute by bike whenever possible – the only thing stopping that is the mercury dropping on the wrong side of 0°C. Hot, cold, wet, dry – it’s all good with the right gear. It’s just the roads you have to be aware of when things freeze.

I find riding a bike is a wonderful catharsis for modern drudgery. Sure, it takes a while to get kitted up and it might be something you have to steal an hour or two from ‘life’ to do if it’s purely for fun but it’s oh-so-worth-it. It’s just you and only you. There’s no-one calling you for an update on yesterday’s meeting (unless you really want them to), there are no arguments about who has the iPad in the back seat, there’s no fuming when the traffic grinds to a halt (filtering between lanes of stationary traffic is legal and even welcomed by some drivers) and if you commute, it’s pretty cheap too (most decent bikes will easily beat 50mpg on petrol).

Picture from Rugged Motorcycle Jeans

As the speed freak in me is long-gone, I’m not into trying to squeeze my dad-bod into a set of leathers, clamber onto a road-legal racer or a supercharged hyperbike (seriously!) and go out to get my knee down. I like the feeling of freedom, the chance to look around and simply enjoy a journey from a different perspective.

The nod that bikers seem to give each other is pretty cool too…

Give it a go

If you want to try before you buy, it’s easy. Apply for a provisional motorcycle licence (Class A – hah) and go and do a CBT course – Compulsory Basic Training. Everyone has to do this one-day course which combines riding around cones in a car park with a road ride with an instructor. It costs around £100 and most schools will loan you a helmet so you don’t have to commit. If you like it, then you can progress to your full licence and beyond but that’s another story. For now, give it a try and see how you like it – I’m so very glad I did…