Hi, My girlfriend, Elspeth Beard was astonished to see herself on your website and forwarded your email to me. She remembers buying bits for her R60 from GK, even though she lived much closer to Park Lane BMW. She thinks that in those days BMW Park Lane didn't sell spares, and I suspect she's probably right. We thought you might like to add a link to my article about the round the world trip she did on her R60/6 BMW in the early 1980s. http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/features/122_0705_elspeth_beard/index.html
I attach a couple of photos of Elspeth and me on more modern BMW twins.
I was also tickled to see the link to Mark Williams' Motorcycle Trader column, complete with reference to GK. FWIW I wrote a scooter column for Motorcycle Trader for most of 2003 and first met Mark in the early 80s when he was editing Which Bike? and we are both former contributors to Trail Bike magazine, amongst other publications.
Gus Kuhn's was part of London 's motorcycling landscape for me, from the early 70s until it closed although I wasn't a customer because I was a Honda devotee for most of my youth. I remember a lot of people used to mis-pronounce it "Gus Kahn's". I particularly remember the Kuhn Commando racers too.
Also, one of my best biking mates, Ian Dunn, bought a Triumph from GK in its final phase after it relinquished the BMW franchise. [That would have been after the business was sold to Wheels International] He is a woodwork specialist of some renown. See here: http://www.iandunn.com
So that's three people I know who used to be GK customers....
I also once met Martin "The Professionals" Shaw when he was making a road safety film with the late great Dave Taylor, aka the wheelie king, in the mid 80s. I remember being surprised how short Martin was - about 5'7" at a guess. Bloody nice bloke, and bloody good actor. I thought he was outstanding in the series about Cecil Rhodes in which he had the title role.
Cheers, Paul Blezard, Freelance Motorcycle Journalist [April 2008]
