Classic Motorcycle Mechanics – August 2018

Well? Who was it? Was it your brother, father, sister, mother or uncle? Or maybe a best mate?
It’s a nostalgic question that’s left me all dewy-eyed this month.
We received a letter from reader Carl Clarke who wanted to say ‘thank you’ to CMM’s own Pip Higham for helping him get into bikes. You’ll see the letter on page 20, but the long and the short of it is a teenage Carl turned up at Pip’s bike shop with a crisp fiver in his hand and ended up leaving with a bike (sort of) of his very own. Suffice to say Carl’s still into bikes to this very day and wanted to say thank you.
So who would you like to say thank you to?
Perhaps we should include them in the pages of CMM? Me? Well, that’s easy. You’re doubtless bored of hearing how my uncle Kev Wesley (see page 24) would regularly turn up at my house when I was a nipper with a different
(and hot) 1970s spec lovely lady on the back of his succession of Kawasakis. That and my first pillion ride aged about nine on his Z1000J sealed it for me. I had to become a biker!
Second person was my old mate Paul Evans, who allowed me to ride and generally thrash his Suzuki X1 over our school field. Bliss! This issue is chock full of people who inspire: from Pip, to Allen Millyard, to CMM reader Ken Turnock to you turning the pages.
Keep on keeping on!