Under lockdown

In these days of coupons when most of our joy in motorcycling has of necessity to be of the 'armchair' variety, I often allow my thoughts to range over the machines I have owned in the past. There is one feature that strikes me most forcibly and that is that when viewed in retrospect, it is the machines owned early on - in fact the older the machine the longer ago one owned it the better - that give the greatest pleasure in these reveries.

Why is it - and I believe I am not alone in this - that what at the time seem to be catastrophes, all resolve into laughable episodes?

The first machine I owned was a 350cc Sports AJS that for several years had been owned by my closest friend. I ran it as a solo for six months or so and early on found that the rather narrow tyres were very much more comfortable when run at well below the maker's recommended pressures - until one day the front cover peeled off when landing after a bump in the road.

Some kind friend gave me a speedo for this job and having fitted it, off I went to the nearest bit of wide open road full of 'joie de vivre' having 'hotted' the job up