Talking to my son yesterday evening about where i used to buy my bikes from. My first and second bikes came from Elite motorcycles in Tooting. They were a large main dealer for Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki along with a Honda car showroom opposite. My next came from Mocheck in Clapham, the main Honda dealer. Then i started buying from Gus Kains in Balham these were also known as Hein Gericke from their clothing shop opposite. This dealer was the main BMW dealer with a small showroom. Bought a few of bikes from there. At this time i was only keeping the bikes for a year or so due to the mileage i was doing as a despatch rider. Then next was a from 3 leg cross. A Le mans MK2 and an Orange Jota. These were for fun only. Next, it was motorcycle city at Heathrow. My Z1300's came from there. One Blue the other Green I also bought a Yamaha XT600 Tenere from their Farnborough branch. At the time it had the biggest tank going without a fairing. Next was a Moto Gussi from 3 leg cross. Le mans MK2 and an Orange. Jota. My last new bike was purchased from Hughenden A40. At the time there were a main BMW dealer. I bought a K75 from there 3 cylinders, shaft drive and as smooth as silk. I covered over 150 thousand miles on this bike, with only one breakdown when the UJ broke in the shaft drive. I know Hughenden then went to Triumph and now ?. I also bought a few new Triumphs in the mix but can't remember from where Ive only listed were i bought new and excluded the second hand bikes because most were small used dealers and private sales. Does anyone know what happened to Motorcycle city, Mocheck, Gus Kains and Elite motorcycles?. I think Motorcycle city took over Mocheck but am not 100% on that one.
Some blasts from the past there mate. I was a South London boy and bought bikes from Elite (Tiger Cub Sport), Pride & Clarke (James Superswift), George Clarke (Norton 500 SS Dominator) and I think it was Gus Kuhn that you mean (a Norton dealer as well as BMW if I remember rightly). Those were the days....
Forgotten about Pride and Clark & G Clark. Never bought a bike from them. If i know now what i didn't then i would have bought LC 250,350, 500, an NC500, BMW K1 and a few others and dry stored them
I think quite a few on here would echo that sentiment, including myself, with the benefit of hindsight! Now why oh why did I sell that KR1S?
Hughenden gave up BMW as BMW wanted to integrate with their car dealership in Oxford at the time. That's where it moved to and still is with North Oxford BMW. There are still some bike only BMW dealers though like Bahnstormer. Hughenden recently gave up the Triumph franchise as Triumph wanted them to move to another premises with massive rent and business rates. The premises was also far nearer Oxford so traffic around the area would have been rubbish for test rides. I used to enjoy the ride out to their old showroom, some good roads around there. They have now setup as the Motorcycle Barn near Aylesbury. Motorcycle City went bust years ago a bit like most of those big dealers did, Carnells and George Whites. Never used any of the others you mention apart from 3X where I had my first test ride on a Speed Triple.
