Saturday down here was local council election day and being a particularly plesant if not cool 25 Deg C I thought i would take the M20 up the hill to the polling booth.

Now remember mine is in civy drag with a reasonable maount of chrome so It does not look M20ish at all.

Any way no sooner was it parked than a chap wandered over with an " I used to ride one of them in the army" .

now we ran WM20's till 1967 and some divisions well into the 70's so naturally I thought he was talking about the Australian army, although there was a hint of the Pommie in his voice.
But no he rode one in Africa, lied about his age signed up at 15 and was part of RAME towards the latter stages of the war.
Would never have picked it.

email (option): bsansw1@tpg.com.au

['a particularly pleasant if not cool 25 Deg C']....

Cool?...That's a nice summer day... ....

As you say, it is amazing who you can meet by chance whilst out and about...

I parked my 4/7th Royal Dragoon Guards (8th. Ind. Armoured Brigade) marked M20 in a small town near me and returned to it to find an 'old boy' and his daughter looking at it...

It transpired he had landed on D Day with that unit and was he genuinely amazed to see his old unit markings on a WW2 bike all those decades later....Particularly so as he was only on holiday from Canada for 2 weeks visiting his daughter!...

He said sitting on the bike and having his photo taken made the holiday!!...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

The most interesting comment I've had recently was a young lady who told me she really liked my Indian. I did not contradict her - she was very pretty!

email (option): cas.vanderwoude@gmail.com

I bought a pair of ex Australia army B40GA's back in 82.
I rode these as daily transport for the next 20 years.
There were two comments I typically got from passers by.
If the person was over 50 it was I used to ride one of them when I was in the army, mistaking the B40 for an M20
If the person was under 40 it was "kool old Honda".

The funniest one ( in retrospect ) was the Highway patrol Officer who followed me for a full 1/2 hour then pulled me over.
Now at that time I was a courier rider so my license may not have been quiet valid at that particular time.
The officer told me his dad used to ride one of there in the army and he was supprised to see one still on the street and running so well.
He was neither young nor pretty but I did not bother to correct him either.

email (option): bsansw1@tpg.com.au

trevor

I met a similar fella to yours once here in South Australia. I'd just parked my civilianised contraption when this quietly spoken bloke approached & said he'd ridden one in the "Pommy army". Asking him where he'd ridden it & expecting to be told he'd ferried messages & officers' gin supplies around some English base he said "Normandy, Normandy to Berlin."He seemed a sincere bloke & I believed him.

Bob

On the return leg of a "War & Peace" Show rideout some years ago, the Matchless's timing chain slipped and the bike came to a halt half a mile away from the show-ground. It was a boiling hot day and I was dressed in all my DR clobber. By the time I got to the showground gate, I was covered in sweat and uniform in much disarray...........when through the gate exited a contingent of four smart old gents who made a beeline for me and gathered round. They were all ex-WW2 DRs from the Signals association......and boy did they give me a dressing down, from the state of my boots and jacket to the bike!