Britain's biggest FREE bike newspaper

Star Letter: Middleweight, not overweight

Two decisions have been made easier by MCM. Firstly as a subscriber to your sister publication Motorcycle Sport and Leisure I was persuaded to subscribe to MCM when the free issue came with last month’s MSL.  This meant cancelling my weekly copy of another well-known newspaper based motorcycling newspaper. I thought I'd have withdrawal symptoms from not getting my weekly fix, but MCM is doing a fine job at a fraction of the cost.

Secondly as an admirer of Steve Rose’s journalistic skills for a number of years I was really pleased when he got his latest position within the Mortons stable. However my respect for him was severely tested when I started to read his ‘Super Saviours’ article in the August issue. I identified with so many of his comments because I own two "ever less practical, ever faster, ever more expensive extreme sportsbikes". I'm not overweight (I don't think!) but I am middle aged, I do own a gaudy pair of leathers and I do sometimes wobble around my local roundabouts. How dare he insult the likes of many of us! Trouble is, he's darn right. When was the last time you went to a bike meet and it wasn't full of middle-aged men riding sportsbikes? Steve is right: we need more smartly designed, well-engineered middleweight bikes to engage a younger audience into motorcycling and to secure the future of our chosen hobby (actually it should be more than a hobby, it should be a form of transport for the future).

So one of my ever less practical, ever faster, ever more expensive motorcycles is going and a second-hand middleweight will be purchased instead (probably a Versys as your paper seems to be doing such a good job of selling them!). Keep up the good work.

Nick Turnbull
via email

Glad you’re enjoying MCM Nick: let us know what middleweight you end up buying. To help you out further, have £50 of biking goodies on us. Anyone else out there a fully paid-up member of the Steve Rose appreciation society? Be warned, he’s fallen in love with a certain type of cruisin’ this month – turn to page 8 now.

Infinity Motorcycles

Every month, MCM’s star letter writer will receive a £50 Club Infinity Card, courtesy of those kind folk at Infinity Motorcycles (www.infinitymotorcycles.com).

The money can be spent at any of Infinity's seven stores, online or via mail order and the card can also be used to collect points on purchases that are then converted to money-off vouchers and sent to you regularly.

Simply send your letters via email to mcmeditor@mortons.co.uk or post them to Letters, Motorcycle Monthly, Mortons of Horncastle Ltd, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6JR. Don’t forget to include your contact details in case you are a lucky winner!