Classic Bike Guide Magazine 340 August 2019 Edizione posteriore

Welcome! I hope your local bike meets are busy in this cracking weather. There’s much to look at after a good ride and this little world of biking sees many niches come together, from one-piece leathers parking 200bhp monsters next to wax jackets riding air-cooled cool; adventure suits clambering down from two-wheel Land Rovers next to hoodies scooting in on 50s and 125s. In today’s polarised, dystopian society, the oft-frowned upon world of biking provides a little two-wheeled utopia.

It’s also a good time to reflect on how bikes have changed, but also how they haven’t.A friend passed her test years ago, had a break and now she wants to return. She’s bought a Honda MSX125; a modern take on a Monkey, or a Dax bike. It’s fun, it looks great and it brings a smile. I wondered why she didn’t want a larger bike, but, at 5ft 4in, she just pointed at the seat heights.

Modern bikes have become too tall, the seats too wide and they are too heavy. They are stretching riders’ confidence, especially at slow speed. I recently took a couple of BMW GS owners out for some riding tuition, both proud of their new, expensive, trinket-laden behemoths.

To be blunt, neither could ride for toffee as they petrified of dropping them. If it got worse, they would give up and take up another hobby. We always need new blood in biking, or it will disappear. Can we help?