Ties, Ball Pens and Fishing Socks

Are you old enough to recall when your local dealer wore a tie to work, looked spare parts up on a “Microfiche” and wrote orders down with a ball point pen…… and then drew a blue line on his pocket as he tucked his pen away into his shop coat?

In those pre-internet days, the local dealer was as much a place to congregate and window shop as it was to actually buy a motorcycle. Your first wheezing and unreliable moped soon made way for a 125cc or 250cc machine. Then, when you were old enough to earn a wage, (or your parents naive enough to counter sign a loan agreement!), the “big bikes” beckoned.

Along the dealer shelves would be an array of exotic “full face” crash helmets and an assortment of fairly unprotective leather jackets plus 100% NOT waterproof rainwear – but did we care? of course not. A green Z650-B1 or shiny dark blue CB400-4 and a pair of your older brothers’ hand-me-down boots (with white woollen socks turned over the top) and you were out on the open road experiencing the freedom, thrills and comradeship of biking – long before a certain Mr Gatso invented the “safety camera”.

Holidays consisted of hastily made plans and even hastier packing with tents and an assortment of clothes “bungeed” on the back of the bike and journeys of discovery like “rights of passage” creating two-wheel memories that last to this day. The lucky few kept their first bike through marriages, mortgages and even break ups and divorce – a constant in a changing world.

For the rest of us the chance to own a KH250-B1, CB175 or GT380 again is a talisman of times past but with memories as fresh as if they were yesterday. CMS is here to help your dreams become reality and make yesteryear this year. So, trawl the small ads, find a solid example of your first two-wheel passion and let us fill in the blanks. We don’t sell ball pens and fishing socks but we’ve got pretty much everything else covered!