Old Bike Mart Magazine 421 - July 2020 Back Issue

While the situation may have changed once again by the time you read this piece – given that July 4 is an alleged date for things like pubs opening – and it seems like we are slowly returning towhat wemay have to accept as being ‘normal’, there are still hangovers from social distancing and other measures taken during the Covid pandemic that will affect us for some time to come.

As you’ll know if you’re the sort of person who reads the News pages first, the Stafford show has now been moved to October, but is still being given the green light, while Ardingley autojumble is set to go ahead in July, albeit with some social distancing measures in place. This is fantastic to hear, but it’s not all good news. Motorcycle Live, the industry’s big shindig held in Birmingham’s NEC in November has been cancelled, as has the huge biennial Intermot show inCologne, Germany.

While the initial thought may be that although these cancellations are a shame, it only really means that we have to wait a little longer to attend such events, it actually seems that there could be deeper implications.

These events are truly huge events – particularly Intermot, although Motorcycle Live is the largest in theUK, with nigh on 120,000 visitors last year – although they focus majorly on new machinery, with little in the way of classic interest but for a few bikes on stands such as that organised by the National Motorcycle Museum at the NEC.