Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Magazine 387 - January 2020 Back Issue

We recall bikes from our past for many different reasons and there’s a lovely mixed bag in CMM this issue. I was interested to see how John Nutting would get on with the Suzuki Hayabusa, which is our cover star. Y’see, I recall (as if only yesterday) my first ride on one. It was all white knuckles, dry mouth and an almost soiled seating position. Ah, those were the days!

Suzuki’s B120P (or Bloop) seems to have stirred up lots of love and interest from our Buyer’s Guide last month. Readers have recalled stories and rides, and our own Pip Higham decided to get one to restore to riding condition. See how he gets on from page 68.

For me, the stand-out is Rob Bean’s Triumph Sprint Sport. Many years ago I was ‘loaned’ one for the third week of my new job as reporter for the weekly bike paper. Thing was, while it was a great mile-muncher, one of the first jobs I had was to ride from the Midlands to Kent to witness filming of ‘Ridge Riders’, a TV show headed up by Nick Knowles, he of DIY SOS fame. I do remember suggesting to my boss that the hefty Sprint wouldn’t be the tool of choice (the guests included Tony ‘Baldrick’ Robinson and Paula Hamilton,a model) and they were riding the likes of Suzuki DRs and other more suited off-roaders.

Naturally, as soon as we went ‘off-road’ the Sprint and I went down in a heap. Picking the heavy beast off me, nice Nick commented that I was the supposed ‘expert’ from MCN, but was bizarrely the first to crash… Thanks for that.

Thankfully, I wasn’t to be the last that day!