Dave Minton hanging up his pen

At the recent Founders' Day of the VMCC I bought a few copies of Real Classic magazine. I rarely buy any motorcycle mag these days but I was saddened to learn from the July issue that Dave Minton had decided to call time on his writing.

I can recall the first time I encountered this man's brilliance. I was about 17 or 18 and my dad bought me a copy of MCI at Havant station as we waited for a train to Portsmouth. Dave wrote a review of a Puch 125. The language and insight blew me away. He was far better than any other road tester and there were several good ones back then. From that day I read everything that I could find of his work.

Sadly,his erudition did not have mass appeal and therefore commercial success. But the old devil continued to plough his furrow. He was right and bugger the others.

Amazingly, at the VMCC rally I saw my my first ever Puch 125. 

Have a long and rewarding retirement Dave.