Hitchcocks Forum

Been away a while, in Southern Europe, where helmets, and actually riding on the carriageway seem entirely optional. Catching up I notice Midland Royal Enfield have ceased trading. Apparently they "No longer fit the vision of the future" within Moto GB ltd. Funny, I thought the whole point of Enfield was its retro appeal.Clearly, going to a Dixons version of a dealership is ok for some, but personally, I think being served by someone in a red bolier suit and rigger boots, is going to be a more accurate vision of the marque. A genuine enthusiast in fact.Or am I just getting old and grumpy? Incidentally, our hosts have obtained all MRE stock apparently,except for Steve's racing Bullet 500 classic.

I went to one of Steve's open days a few years ago, a really nice, down to earth enthusiast, but somehow I can't imagine him sporting a goatee beard and man bun any more than i would and I think that may be the way things are going ...

The hipster world order rolls over another victim.



A.

Don't get me started on my loathing for all things 'hipster'. I used to do 10s of thousands of miles on air-cooled BMW twins which I could pick up for a very little cash. Now that these morons have made them their bike of choice to turn into a bobber/brat/café racer by attacking them with an angle grinder I can't afford them. And all the poncey twats do with them is ride to the nearest coffee shop for a machialattepuccino. It will be a sad day if RE follow this trend rather than service real riders.

Ian

We'll probably see an increase in 'ipster enthusiasm once the twins have been released.

A recent RE feature magazine by Classic Bike I have seen would seem to point towards the hipster path.

Perhaps we're in danger of rehashing the old arguments against A10s being turned into choppers, but it's a worry if the classic mags are now buying into all this, and Smithy's point about old BMWs (and RE's, sadly Ian) which, by now, ought to be hoping to fall into the hands of a sensitive restorer/enthusiast but end up getting ineptly hacked about in these so-called builds is well made. A typical perpetrator of this stuff is Blitz Motorcycles in Paris (they've got it bad there too), here is a prime example of their work.



http://www.blitz-motorcycles.com/bikes/bmw-sroul



Shabby chic is fine for old bits of non-antique furniture, but maybe it should stop there?



A.

That's exactly the kind of crap that I'm talking about. I frequently rode 500+ miles in a day on my 20 year old R80 but I wouldn't ride that thing to the scrap yard. It amazes me that anyone would take a perfectly functional motorcycle, make it less useable and then charge a fortune for the privilege of riding it nowhere! I hope RE pull back from the headlong rush to embrace this culture cos in a year when all the long beard man bun dicks have moved on to ruining something else who will want to buy a bike from a coffee shop!? Ian

Would that 'bmw-sroul' have been built by an 'r-sole' by any chance???

But seriously....

A need does exist in the world to part wealthy people from their excess cash.

If a bunch of motorcycle 'builders' can produce overpriced tat like the rsoul, which folk with too much money then rush to buy, that is a good thing. It helps take money out of offshore accounts and put it back into the economy in general.

I do agree though, that the downside is that prices of old clunkers increase.