Hi Steve - yes, sadly, you're probably right on the posting front... especially when you see the prices of RDs! I won't be buying one anytime soon. You know life is full of 'what ifs' when you realise the tatty old RZV you rode 20 years ago (and oh the shame when I read that tripe now... and how we treated it! I'd like to punch me in the face) would've been a good investment. Still, I'm not sure about this investment thing with bikes... I was talking to Bonham's Chief Barn-find-finder (and what a cool job he's got!) and he, of all people, said he doesn't hold with buying something like a bike as an investment; they're dynamic machines and are built to be ridden. Good on him, I thought, as my VFR750 quietly rusts outside.
And something else... when I rode the RZV, it was as far removed from my present then as a GSX-R1000 K5 would be now. And I still think that's pretty current! The perspective of time is a funny thing. It's warped, is what it is. Still recall the riding experience though. I'd wanted an RD for so long. When I was younger, I cut out the cover of Bike ('Take A Good Look') and framed it, hung it on the bedroom wall. That and the pic of Roland Brown riding through Glen Coe on an NS400 – two great, great pics. It was taken by a photographer called Jim Forrest, and his NS pic inspired a man called David Goldman to pick up a camera and shoot bikes – David became, and still is, an astonishing Grand Prix photographer, producing dazzling images. Anyway he in turn inspired a man called Kenny P, who in turn coached me through the early years of my career and without whose help I would not be who I am now. Or even alive, probably. In fact Kenny took those pics of the RZV in France. Everything is connected, it seems.
Thanks for the offer of assistance. I really do appreciate it. The one thing has become clear to me over the years is how much effort/time/love/money owners – from casual to fanatic – put into doing what they do. I so respect that; I love all bikes, however old or new they are, or even how good or bad they are. I have an opinion, and sometimes I'm paid to have one, but in my heart of hearts the thing that keeps me ticking is I love bikes and I love the people who love bikes - Rupert Paul once said there's a shared understanding between bikers – you can walk into a room of strangers and you will pretty quickly know who rides a bike among them.
Anyway, enough waffle. The feature has been sent, at 3.30am this morning. I hope I found out some stuff you didn't know - doing that was in my mind as I wrote it. The trouble is with writing about stuff is there's always so much to say. It's like peeling back the layers of an onion, or a fractal pattern - there's always more and more detail and it just gets more and more interesting. Occasionally you get to join up some dots no-one has joined up before, and that's really exciting.
Buggered if I can find the date of the Paris show in 1983 tho. The event was covered by the mags in their December issues, which would suggest it was October, possibly November. I tried to ask Stan, who went, but he hasn't called back (can't blame him!). I also asked John Nutting and a couple of other journos, but they're hopeless at dates. Half of them don't even get the year right. Too many bangs to the head.
Here's a paragraph I had to cut from the piece – they might use it as a caption. I think it sums up how I felt about the RD at the time: 'For hard-up bike punters in Thatcher’s Britain, burdened by unemployment, recession, threats of nuclear war and rioting, the RD500LC was a thrilling, vivid splash of colour in grey days; an aspiration out of reach, but a reason to keep riding, saving, hoping and dreaming.'
In the end, it didn't matter I never bought an RD500LC. What mattered, to me, was that it existed. That is enough to alter the course of a life – that's why it's important stuff exists we can't afford... which is pretty much where the RD is right now, for me, come to think of it! Ah, full circle. I like it when that happens.
Take care, let me know what's going on and if anything crops up you think might make a good story worth the telling, let me know! I'm at
writestuffmedia@gmail.com
All the best, Simon H