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Glamorgan’s Andrew Salter on the joys of feeling rubber meet road as a ‘café racer’.
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Glamorgan all-rounder Andrew Salter was the player under the spotlight in the ‘My Passion’ feature in the 2018/19 winter edition of Beyond the Boundaries – the 23rd issue of the PCA member magazine – and he discusses his thirst for motorbikes.
My dad rode bikes. But mum made him get rid of them when they had me and my brother. I think he was secretly pleased when I showed an interest in motorcycles. That started at university. Me and a friend of mine would goad each other into getting one, to the point where we both did. I got my full license in 2017, but rode smaller (150cc) bikes for two years before that.
I now ride a 14-year-old Harley Davidson. It ‘specialises in straight lines’, as they say, but has loads of character. I know they divide opinion amongst the biker community, but it offers a real sense of fun on two wheels.
I’m one of those bike riders who mixes up my look when riding. Seeing David Beckham motorcycling with his mates across South America has remained a bit of an influence. I don’t see anything wrong at all in rep’ing the leather jacket as a so-called café racer.
I’ve never raced bikes around a track. I ride with mates, just pottering around Cardiff is nice. For a longer run, taking the bikes up into the Brecon Beacons is great. More widely than that, I’ve ridden bikes in New Zealand and South Africa, with a tour around NZ’s South Island a real highlight.
I couldn’t pick a single ‘dream bike’. But I could pick three. It’s something I do on a daily basis! It would have to be a classic British Triumph Bonneville, copying Beckham. A custom-built 1989 Italian Moto Guzzi. And another classic; a big 1200cc Harley Davidson.
I share a blog with guys I ride with. I think an entry on there sums up my experience as someone who enjoys motorcycling as a diversion from playing cricket.
I wrote, ‘For me, riding provides a life outside of cricket (work), it provides me with the opportunity to meet people from different professions, backgrounds and cultures. It’s a life of little expectation and complete freedom. The only thing that matters is ‘to come back in one piece’ as directed by mum, which of course, is absolutely the most important factor’.
Visit Andrew Salter’s website – baffleculture.com
