Built in India - letter to Motorcycle Sport & Leisure

 

What a great article that was about the new BSA Gold Star in October’s MSL. And what a great bike the new Goldie is. And how great is the whole retro bike scene, allowing as it does the style and feel of those old bikes without the reality of true authenticity. ABS, electric start, oil tight and reliable, what’s not to like?

There are plenty of people like me out there ready to buy them, these new old bikes – except that I won’t be. Well, not one made in India, anyway. And sadly, that means no new Gold Star for me. Why, because it’s not British? Certainly not, Mahindra Group have resurrected an iconic name and brought it back into motorcycling, for which we should be very grateful. Because there’s a bloody great radiator bolted to the front? Nope, that’s just a sign of the times, and it must be there for the bike to exist.

It's because I absolutely refuse to do anything that might in any way support the Russian economy. The longer the war in Ukraine goes on, the more we will suffer. The quicker sanctions work, the quicker we can get back to some sort of normality. By importing Russian crude, India is funding Putin’s war, prolonging the agony of Ukraine and threatening life in the West. I know it’s complicated, and I am fully prepared to except that I have little if no understanding of energy markets. But the principle stands – give nothing to Russia other than that which is absolutely necessary. India can source oil elsewhere, as it has in the past. It should continue to do so now. I also appreciate that this might not be the sort of material for a magazine dedicated to the true enjoyment of motorcycling. But these are extremely difficult times and we all should be aware of the importance and consequences of the choices we make, and what is ultimately at stake.

So, there won’t be a new Goldie in my garage, or a Royal Enfield Continental GT 650, the other modern classic that was on my ‘must have’ list. Maybe they’ll be sold to someone in Moscow instead. It’ll have to be the Norton, on the basis that it’s British. Oh, hang on... .

 

The Dreaded EVs

I have to admit a certain amount of dread before turning to some of the articles published these days about electric vehicles.  They are often rather pessimistic and although there's obviously some truth in what the writers are getting at, I cannot help but feel the overall picture is actually pretty good, and not quite the doom-laden image they seem to portray.

Issues sited by these critics of EVs include the mining of materials for batteries, more specifically the environmental damage it causes, and the treatment of people employed in those industries. But surely all energy comes at a cost. The extraction of coal, gas and oil all involve a great deal of disruption and intrusion into the Earth’s fragile ecosystems and that’s before you start considering fracking. (Even the covering fields normally used for agriculture with solar panels has an impact on the land’s ability to photosynthesise.) The damage done harvesting the materials needed for modern batteries must be weighed against that done by fossil fuel companies. And it’s up to individual governments to sort any human rights issues, and not the energy companies, green or otherwise.

Even EV battery afterlife, another area of concern highlighted by doubters, seems to have been addressed with a plan for many homes in the future to use them as storage. With a world increasingly geared towards renewables, some parts admittedly slower on the take up than others, a seismic shift will surely come that sees a lack of demand for fossil fuels and an industry no longer viable.

Change will come and if the history of transport is anything to go by, It’ll come quickly. It’s interesting to see how things really are gathering pace. There are more charging points around now, even if we don’t always like to admit the fact. And I see more cars ‘plugged in’ on people’s driveways. The Highway Code announced changes recently that give pedestrians priority at some junctions – a recognition of some safety issues associated with electric vehicles regarding sound, maybe, but almost certainly in preparation for a future that’s nearly upon us.