WHILE I get to ride new bikes most weeks I still have a real love of older bikes. I don’t really know why I’m this way but it’s the same way with cars. I see a new GTS Commodore go past and I barely give it a second glance. If I see a HQ Holden GTS go past I’m throwing my neck out to get a second look. I don’t know who he is or where he lives exactly but every now and then I see some guy riding an old Indian out where I live and it’s as cool as it gets in my book.
Recently though I sold my 1971 Norton Commando which has gone towards the Isle of Man Manx GP trip later this year. Don’t fret though, I’ve still got a few old bikes at home so I’m doing okay. Recently I have been mucking about with an early ’70s Triumph Bonneville, well to be exact, I’ve been the middle man between the restorer and my mate who actually owns the bike.
But the brief was to get it done as I liked so it’s turned out like a sort of American custom of a sort, not a chopper but a stripped down hot rod style of bike. The bike had not been anywhere near original for many years so we haven’t cut up something original.
What’s this got to do with the title of this editorial I hear you ask? Well, magazines need to reinvent themselves every now and then because editorial content, and editors can get a bit stale. Here at Cycle Torque we think we need a revamp too, and our plan is to introduce a more diverse range of articles for your reading pleasure, including a regular classic section, which goes some way to explaining my ramble in the first couple of paragraphs of this editorial.
There’s no doubt the classic scene is huge right now, and with events like Classic Dirt and the Broadford Bike Bonanza getting bigger and bigger it’s obvious to me, and it should be to the motorcycle industry, there’s a market there to tapped into at a greater level than it is now. Look at the Island Classic and the Barry Sheene Festival of Speed for example. They get crowds the promoters of modern race meetings can only dream of.
Why is this the case? There’s a few reasons I can put my finger on but one of the main ones is the average motorcycle licence holder in Australia is in their forties. As you get older most of these people start to reminisce of their youth and hence get attracted to things from that era.
Also, it’s been rare that Cycle Torque has run how to articles, but that’s about to change. This won’t just be articles but also video showing how to put those brake pads in or re-oil your dirt bike’s air filter, or maybe even pulling your wheels out to take them into the bike shop for new tyres. Want to see how to prepare your race bike for its first race meeting? Soon you’ll be able see that in video form too, both on our YouTube channel and our iPad edition.
Our YouTube channel has over 1,600,000 views but we think this number could explode when we do more how to videos.
That’s the plan at least. You can find them at www.youtube.com/cycletorquedotcom. And talking of videos we have been busy filming for our Manx GP documentary, which we’ve called Adrenalin Generations.
So far we’ve looked at the personal journey which gives an insight into why we are doing the trip and what it takes to get there. part of the journey is the bike preparation which is more detailed than if you were getting the bike ready for a meeting here in Australia.
We have been able to fund some of this ourselves but we also set up an account at Pozible which uses crowd funding ideals to help you raise the capital for your artistic venture. There’s a fair chance you have already read about the trip in the last few issues of Cycle Torque, so now’s the time if you want to be involved in the making of the documentary.
Go to www.pozible.com and search for Adrenalin Generations, or www.pozible.com/project/17892 where you’ll watch a short video we’ve made so far, and read about the rewards you get if you donate. Times are tough, we know that, and if you can’t donate ma ybe you can tell your friends about our project. We are very excited about these ideas and hope you will be too.
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