The last of the Mohicans ...

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Purchasing classics there

Or: The end of an era. One of the last old-fashioned motorcycle runners in our country stops.

A very young Gert Muts from Soest took over the motorcycle run from his father on command. While he wanted to go to the conservatory. Fortunately, Gert's musical life path also worked out well. But the demolition remained his basis.

After more than forty years, he is about to quit now. He keeps cleanup. A lot has already gone, but there is still plenty. In the past, motor scrap yards were a kind of ritual slaughtering place where the carcasses were treated with little respect.

You demolished what you needed at that moment from a motorcycle and the loose bolts, nuts and rings disappeared into the soil soaked with old oil and battery acid.

The devoured motorcycle carcass remained on the spot waiting for a next visit by bait seekers. The fact that nature cannot be broken was already clear then.

Brave grew from the greasy environmental disaster among the desolate grass trees cut through frames, and later through tanks and panels. The further you got to the back of the field, the more nature had taken over power. That was the place where you could find the oldest engines. After a lot of searching in the green.

In winter it didn't get much better either. Because then the world lay under the fallen leaf and the snow.

But with courage, policy, loyalty and a pair of planed fingers you could find what you were looking for. Or something that at least fitted in well. Because we didn't look that closely at the time.

The engine just had to be kept moving and restoration was a concept we had heard of. It happened to old masters or something. Ever since the year in Soest there is a jar of motor scrap yard Muts. Gert Muts is now approaching seventy and he is the second generation of Muts in the trade. And the last. Because where his father once started out in the countryside, there is now the Soestse Goudkust.

And a motor run does not harmonize with that. Apart from that, more and more people with genuine interest ask the question: "Are you still there?" And if people start asking, then it's time to stop                         according to Gert.

Fiddling with old engines has become marginal. It no longer generates real income for Gert. His work as an organist and choir leader has become increasingly important. In addition, Gert has become allergic to 'arch supports and cloud walkers'. Aimless and pointless naggers.

But people who just come to search and pay? They are - by appointment - welcome. While stocks last.

Gert still has a lot of stuff for Japanese people from the eighties. There are still some Ducati single-cylinder parts and used or dusted New Old Stock parts for the sixties and seventies British bicycles are still there.

The Norton Command Fastback and the only BMW on the site are not for sale. Probably not in every case.

Cap-Motorsloop Nieuweweg 23 3765 GA Soest Tel: 035-6012457 / 06-54307892. Open by appointment. While it lasts.

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