Straight talk about old Royal Enfields

Paul Henshaw talks about vintage motorcycles on YouTube.

 I've lately become a fan of YouTube videos by British philosopher-mechanic Paul Henshaw. He often features vintage Royal Enfields and their joys and problems on his channel. 

Other motorcycles may be featured, but what he really offers to me is his sometimes gruff, colorful approach to bikes, and bikers. 

His videos are not produced, scripted or rehearsed. Lighting can be poor, audio worse. His hair is typically mussed up. His jeans and his fingers are embedded with grease. 

It's straight-from-the-shoulder talk meant to be informative. 

You're welcome to take it or leave it, although you'd do well to listen since he knows what he's talking about. And he'll tell you so. 

Criticize how hard he tests motorcycles and he'll respond "Mistreatment! My butt!"

He's all for the joy of motorcycling and he'll tell you that, too. In this video he says:

"This is what I'm coming to. None of us are getting any younger, and none of us will. A lot of us, or I will, in many cases, think that we might want to do something and, ah, it's a bit cold, it's a bit wet, I'll do it another time. But. How do we know that we've got another time?"

If the bike's ready and you're ready, go for the ride, he says, rain or shine. Because "the only thing that we're guaranteed is NOW."

Do not mistake him for a Pollyanna. Paul is plainly frank about his impatience with people, even customers, who don't do the right thing. He can be grouchy.

He admits to, years ago, having pinned to the wall a fellow who insisted that "British bikes are crap" but wouldn't agree to prove it by racing against him.

In another video he courageously details his own bouts with depression in an honest effort to help fellow sufferers. Agree or disagree with this guy, but if only we could bottle his sincerity.

Paul has more than 1,600 videos on YouTube, many of them showing him doctoring Royal Enfields.

His business Performance Classics is on Facebook, where he writes that he specializes "in preparing classic motorcycles for road and track.

"Since 2004 and long before on an amateur basis, we have also managed to bring some pretty sorry looking machinery back to life, where others might have given up on them. So whether a vintage or classic machine needs maintenance, restoration, tuning or the wheels rebuilt, Performance Classics is the place to go. Based in South Wales."