I was catching up on recent episodes of Worlds Greatest Motorcycle Rides presented by Henry Cole last night in his latest adventure he was trying to ride a british Mattise Steven McQueen replica, original design from 1967, across South Africa and no surprise the thing started to fall apart as all old designed British bikes do, leaking oil, silencer falling off etc etc. But how luck was he when one morning before setting off from his overnight lodgings after literally tipping the bike over to one side to check the oil level as he brought it back up straight BOTH top rear shock mounts completely shattered and the shocks basically fell off. As he said to the camera 10 minutes later I would have been on the road and DEAD, he's not joking. This was a new bike indeed i think he is the money behind the new project to build them again. Not a great advert the bike had only covered less than 500 miles !! technology evolves machinery for a very good reason
Right at the beginning of the program when he said he was using the Mattise I thought he was being very brave and slightly foolhardy in trying to do the South Africa ride on one. Did think it was going to be a nice little promotional film for Mattise, after all look what Charlie Boring and Ewan McGregor did for the sales of BMW GS's. Now it looks like a marketing nightmare for Mattise. Henry Cole is CEO of Gladstone Motorcycles who are building limited run hand built motorcycles and I think Matisse build their frames so there is a tie up there, perhaps we can see why he said he felt like crying when the bike broke and he had to swop onto a 990 KTM. It is interesting that he decided to show what he did in the film and not simply get the bike fixed and edit the break downs out. Triumph went belly up the first time round by not keeping up with technology and I see little reason to make new bikes with old technology. Think modern Triumphs have the right idea using retro looks but the latest engine design...... they don't leak oil like they used to.
A bit of a plot spoiler there! I've only just picked up the series of programs and have watched the East Coast and his Route 66 ones. Although I wasn't sure about him first of all I've rather warmed to his style and look forward to seeing the rest of the series. That Gladstone No 1 looks interesting. Just needs a top box, some panniers, a front mudguard, a nice screen, a dual seat .....
