What is The Vintagent? An exploration of all things Old Motorcycle; the bikes, the events, the people, the cultural connections, the art, the fashion, the writing, the films…because, as it says on The Vintagent’s masthead: The world of Motorcycles has all the ingredients of a good, enriching drama; heroic deeds, political intrigue, design brilliance, cut-throat business practices, quirky characters, national tensions, cultural biases, eros and thanatos.When diving into the murk of motorcycle history, we find unexpected riches…everything which makes this life interesting, and worth living. Motorcycles per se are just metal; it is individuals who animate them, and inhabit the stories within this site. We provide meaning to the metal, and in telling the story of Motorcycling, we tell the story of our world. What’s my history with old bikes? I’ve been collecting, restoring, investigating, traveling for, and most importantly, riding old bikes since I was 20 years old. Something got under my skin, and vintage motorcycles became an obsession; I spent the next 25 years following that muse, and amassed a huge library of books on the subject, while collecting obscure machines, trying them out, finding my favorites. I’ve owned around 300 bikes in that time, sometimes buying large collections to ‘get at’ one machine I wanted, especially in the days when old bikes were relatively cheap, and the financial stakes were low. I was lucky to get in the game while it was still possible to buy just about anything you could find, and I’ve been offered interesting bikes I wish I’d bought, or kept!The following are some of the machines I’ve owned…its amazing how poorly I kept photographic records of the machines which passed through my garage…but a few of these bikes are still in my collection; most are not. I kept the ones which were the most fun to ride, period.
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Flat tank BMW motorcycles are so rare and coveted. I own the very R63 you are sitting on. Much has been done in the decades since you owned it. Some things still need to be sorted out and I’m enjoying every hour of it. (Flawless new header pipes this month. Not easy. Lots of blocking, sanding and polishing. I do my own nickel plating.) It is so achingly beautiful parked on a polished wooden floor with nine foot ceilings and no claptrap anywhere in sight. I’m a retired designer and appreciate this thing more and more every time I gaze upon it. I’ll take it to my grave and pass it on into my family of very serious collectors of art, furniture, Bugattis and Alfas where it will be displayed in a museum like atmosphere. I love the Vintagent and get lost in your wonderful writing.
So glad to hear that! It was indeed a gorgeous machine, but needed more than I had time to give…great that you’ve sorted it out.