Classic Bike Guide Magazine 334 February 2019 Back Issue

I first came across the Enfield, then Royal Enfield Bullet, in the Nineties, when popping in to see my friend and local dealer, Dave Wicks. He was selling the 350s and 500s to those that wanted a modern classic, those that didn’t want to spend the kids’ inheritance and those that wanted a cheap winter hack – the prices started at £2250 – brand-new. I ended up with a 50s 350 engine in an Indian frame for fun in the dirt and though that machine has gone, I still have an affection for the budget thumper.

The Carole Nash Classic Bike Guide Winter Classic, to give it its official mantle, has an unusual feel – more of a relaxed nature with no ‘dress code’. Other shows have more glitz, more beautiful bikes and even auctions of bikes being turned into capital, or ‘investments’ (I despise that word – run it past trading standards – can you prove it is an investment? I’d ban it from all bike adverts if I had any say; or tell the truth and replace it with ‘inflated by £1000’. Sorry…), whereas Newark is like the Bristol show, a more innocen appreciation of nice old bikes.

So, with that rationale in mind, I chose not the Norton, or the BSA or even the Honda, but the CZ to have on the stand. I have thick skin so I can take all the sarcasm, ridicule and banter that the Czechoslovakian commuter will rain my way. I put on my big coat and prepared.