About The Victor Four

Well, my name isn’t actually Victor Four.

That was my call sign when I was a Despatch Rider in the 80s and 90s in London.

Those were the days before mobile phones, before google maps, before action cameras, and way before everyone had the internet.

I’d started riding in early 80s on a Suzuki GT250, in those days when you could ride up to 250cc on a provisional licence, we had it pretty good, there were no speed cameras, no electric vehicles and no social media influencers.

Despatch riding was booming with loads of adverts for riders in MCN and earning money from riding a bike seemed like a good way to make a living, all you needed was a bike, licence, insurance and an A to Z, so I got into despatch riding on Suzuki TS100, tried out a couple of companies, passed my test, graduated to Yamaha XJ650s and 650 turbo and in those days before email and file sharing, you’d be delivering anything, from legal documents, films from tv reporters, scripts for actors, in fact anything, I even took a dead dog on back of bike for a post mortem.

It was hard work, if you wanted to make the money, you had to put in the hours and the miles whatever the weather, good life in the summer, really tough in the winter. Work in London was great and pretty easy as you got to know all the streets, out of town would be an adventure stopping at petrol stations and estate agents to get local maps trying to find your destination, all whilst wearing what looked like a silver space suit, this was how Rukkas used to look 40 years ago and we all wore them!

Used to do everything on my bikes, shopping, socialising, holidays, the bike was me, being a biker was my first and foremost identity. Whilst I rode XJs for work, I’d fallen in love with the game changing Suzuki Katana when they launched in the early 80s, so I got myself a Katana 1000, used it occasionally for work, but that really was my pleasure bike.

I despatch rode for 10 years, 10 years of breathing in crap, learning how to maintain my own bike, riding throughout the winter and having my fair share of accidents. Those XJs were brilliant bikes, comfortable, reliable, bulletproof, loved them and they earnt me a lot of money.

But 10 years of that took its toll though and I started studying software engineering one day a week, eventually leaving motorbikes completely behind and got into software sales which took me all over the world, before I started running my own tennis club.

35 years of never seeing another Suzuki Katana on the road and living a completely different, happy life, I’d often google Suzuki Katana and then google Suzuki Katana for sale and then one day there was another Suzuki Katana 1000, the rare racing version of this iconic bike and I started working on my sales pitch to myself as to why this would enhance my life :)

Test riding the Katana everything came flooding back, I put a deposit down and started hunting down the gear I would need. My old Simpsons had rotted away in the garage, so a new Simpson was first on the list and everything else followed suit quickly, my how biking gear has changed!

The intention was to enjoy the Katana in the summer when I wasn’t working, but before I knew it, I’d ridden to a Katana meet up, up north, loved it and realised I missed the camaraderie, and the freedom that riding a bike gives you.

There are faster bikes, better stopping bikes, more reliable bikes, but they’re not a Katana and they’re not me, the Katana is me. Everything you do with this bike is a challenge, finding parts, finding the right mechanic, finding the craftsman who can fix something that no one else would touch, it means that everything you do with this bike comes from a passion about the bike.

I now have 3 bikes, my 1000 Katana, a Katana pop up, an XJ650 Turbo.

But it’s the Katana I’m on most of the time and regularly tour europe again on the same old Katana.

So now I’m able to combine 3 passions, motorbike riding, travel and good food and I hope that this channel will share a little of the joy that I find along the way and that you experience some of that joy as well.

Victor Four signing out.

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About The Victor Four

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