Interviewed in a 2003 BBC documentary Solitary Life, Thompson said: "When I was a kid, that [the Vincent Black Lightning] was always the exotic bike, that was always the one, the one that you went "ooh, wow". I'd always been looking for English ideas that didn't sound corny, that had some romance to them, and around which you could pin a song. And this song started with a motorcycle, it started with the Vincent. It was a good lodestone around which the song could revolve"...
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Inventors of the the motorcycle centre stand and at one time Europe's largest motorcycle manufacturer, innovative Italian brand Moto Guzzi was also the first manufacturer to install a wind tunnel designed specifically for bikes - as this magazine extract explains...
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The term 'clubman' can trace it origins to a period in the late 1920s / early 1930s when groups of men formed gentlemen's clubs. Relieved to be free from the physical and physiological impacts of WWI, many got together to enjoy their leisure time in the interest of the spirit of competition. Whether it was socialising, cycling, running, football or motor racing, most of these active club members were likeable and approachable characters who valued the importance of group activities. Club-level participation was a type of therapy if nothing else, a way to escape the horrors of the past whilst having jolly good fun.
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