Thanks To P and A Motorcycles - By Ren Withnell

A Big thanks go to this bike shop...why?

It was a cold and frosty night riding into Halewood to see the GF. I look down and the speedo is reading zero...but I must be doing 70. Dammit. In the morning I remove the speedo cable and sure enough it's broken.

I don't like riding with no speedo. I can kind of guess my speed OK but I'd much rather know how fast I'm going. I'm curious where I can get a suitable speedo cable from. A brief look in the internet points me to a couple of bike shops in Widnes, only 5 or 6 miles from the GF's house.

I'm not expecting much. Things are all computerised these days, which has it's advantages, but it also has it's great disadvantages. I expect that if I enter a shop and ask for a speedo cable suitable for an H reg NTV 600 Revere, they will go to the PC and look up the appropriate part number, look then at the stock database and tell me they haven't got one but can order me one in the next few days. It's quite likely they may have quite a number of Honda cables in for a variety of machines, but unless the part numbers match my NTV's they will assume they are different and not fit.

That's stupid. As long as the ends are the same and the cable is a similar length then it will do. It may be that they don't have a NTV cable, but they may have a Shadow, CBR, CB or Varadero cable that will fit. It may be and inch or two longer than the NTV and as such have a different part number. This means the "Computer says no..."

P and A Motorcycles is my first stop. It looks like a proper bike shop, the sort I grew up with and am familiar with. It's clean enough but not like the daft modern shiny shops with shiny bikes, shiny staff in shiny suits and shiny floors and glass walkways. The chap behind the counter has overalls on that look like he's actually fixed a bike a few times in his career, not like he's the new appretice. I place the cable on the desk and he um's and er's a little then dissapears into the back somewhere. There come the sounds of rustling, moving, looking and checking. After a couple of minutes he returns with a cable in a plastic bag.

On comparison with my original cable it proves to be some 4 inches too long. He looks at me questioningly but I know this will do the job just fine! I'm more than happy to pay a tenner for the cable and it only takes a moment for me to fit it onto the bike. Sorted.

Modern bike shops of the shiny variety would not be this helpful. I can't imagine the spotty oiks behind the counter taking time to actually look for something. I can't imagine them being experienced and intelligent enough to be able to work out what may or may not work. I can't imagine them offering a range of possible solutions to my problem. "Computer says no..."

Again a big thanks to P & A Motorcycles, Widnes.

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