Old Bike Mart Magazine March 2013 Back Issue

Angry letters from readers who state who they are will get a reply as all opinions are perfectly valid even if they don’t match mine. Over the years I’ve edited publications there have been a number of ‘interesting’ letters, some of which reached the pages of these publications and created lively debate. However, an unsigned letter from an angry reader is generally dealt with in the same way by every editor I’ve ever spoken to – it’s crumpled up and filed in the bin.
Now I’m not so arrogant as to be flippant over differences of opinion but if the writer can’t be bothered to sign their name, why should I bother to reply? The important word there is ‘generally’. The other day such an unsigned letter landed on my desk and it actually contained some extremely valid points and for this reason I didn’t file it in the usual place.
The first point concerned knowledge of the old bike scene and why I shouldn’t do what I do if I can’t tell one model of a particular make from another in the range. I’ve been mucking around with old bikes for close on 40 years and while having a reasonable working knowledge of various makes, I don’t pretend to know everything. In fact I’d probably mistrust anyone who claimed such extensive knowledge over all motorcycles and the longer I do the job the more I find out I don’t know.
The second point concerns the costs charged by professional restorers. Actually of the two points this one is the most important. Our archive here at OBM is full of magazines from the dawn of motorcycling up until the present day. It is interesting to note prices from years ago when there were no £10,000 bikes on general sale. In those days of piston ring sets at 6d a dozen and wages of a quid a week everything was rosey. Nowadays though anyone restoring anything – bikes, cars, furniture, crockery or mechanical toys – has certain legal obligations to fulfil. These legal obligations mean insurances, health and safety and also provide comeback for anyone who has problems.