What are the opening hours?

Monday 10am - 5:30pm Tuesday 10am - 5:30pm Wednesday 10am - 5:30pm Thursday 10am - 5:30pm Friday 10am - 5:30pm

Motolegends, Unit 8, Quadrum Park Industrial Estate, Old Portsmouth Road, Guildford (2026)

Motolegends is a seller of motorcycle apparel, but we are not like other retailers. Yes, much of what we sell is available from other sellers, but we put together our ranges very differently. We have almost nothing for the sportsbike rider. We are not a serious off-road company, although we do cater for the adventure bike rider. Even though we sell some of the coolest gear on the planet, the dedic

ated hipster would probably consider us to be lacking any kind of street credibility. We also don’t do cheap. That doesn’t mean we seek out the expensive; what it means is that we are dedicated to searching out the very best, and rarely is the best gear the cheapest. We are strong, we believe, in two particular product areas. First, we have a strong bent towards technical wear. What this means is that if you are a high-mileage rider, riding all year round, whether it be for work or pleasure, we will have probably the best selection of gear for you. We seek out products that simply perform better. That can be a jacket, a pair of boots, a helmet or a pair of gloves. We are always looking for gear that is more protective, more waterproof, more comfortable, more insulating, more versatile or whatever. In this endeavour, we can be a bit nerdy. But we do know gear. We interrogate products in the way that few companies do, and we only take on those products that we have confidence in. If ever there are specific aspects of a product that we have reservations about, we will always make these clear in our website descriptions or in our video reviews. And that’s perhaps another one of our distinguishing features; we are more open and honest than other retailers when it comes to talking about the equipment we sell. We say it as we see it. If a product has a weakness in our eyes, we will highlight it. Our second strength, notwithstanding what we have said about our lack of hipster credentials, is what one might term ‘cool’ gear. We like the casual look; that is to say bike gear that doesn’t necessarily look like bike gear. And we particularly like the retro aesthetic. But we simply don’t have time for gear that looks the part but does not deliver on the bike. We won’t go near clothing that is not CE approved, and so we are not interested in what some people call ‘resistant’ jeans that are not actually designed with safety in mind. If we offer an item of clothing, be it a jacket a glove or a boot, we need to be satisfied that it is suitably protective, and that it provides the level of functionality that one requires when riding on a modern motorcycle. If anything we feel this even more strongly when it comes to helmets. Helmets that look amazing, but that don’t fit well, that let the rain in and that generate huge amounts of wind noise are simply not for us. However much they cost! We are, for some customers, just an internet company, albeit one with perhaps the most interesting and informative website in the business. But we don’t hide from our customers. We have a fully-staffed customer service operation with an in-house team of people taking calls, complaints and orders six days a week. We are very proud of the quality of our service; if you want to check us out, all you need to do is visit Trustpilot. We also have a simply amazing shop at our headquarters just outside Guildford that, once again, is rather different. The footprint of the shop is small, although as it’s attached to our three-floor warehouse it is technically the second largest motorcycle clothing shop in the UK, in terms of its access to stock. But nothing in the shop has a price label. There are no Sale rails or dump bins. And there’s only ever one size of any given garment on display. It is the most stylish and beautiful motorcycle shop you will ever visit, but frankly it’s not the kind of shop you’d want to visit if all you’re interested in is browsing. We wouldn’t quite term our approach ‘personal shopping’ but it’s about as close in the motorcycle clothing business as you’re going to get. None of us here is a sales person. If any of us was employed elsewhere we would, almost certainly, be fired for a lack of productivity. What we do here is talk to you to find out what kind of riding you do. We will then show you the gear that we think will best suit your needs. We never push. Nobody in this industry knows as much, or cares as much, about helmet fitting as we do, and nobody goes to the lengths we do to make sure the armour in your outfits fits the way it should, that the leg length of your jeans is correct, and indeed that the gear you want is going to work for the kind of riding you do. All this may make it sound as though we are going to be an expensive option for your bike gear. Well, we don’t sell the budget brands it is true. Everything we sell is priced at the manufacturers’ recommended figures, but we will not be undersold, so our ‘10% Price Beat Guarantee’ means that if anybody is cheaper than us on anything we sell, we will beat that retailer’s price by a full 10%. So, in reality, we will actually always be the cheapest. (See the website for terms and conditions). So that is us. We have no desire to be the biggest player in the market. Selling more gear for the sake of selling more gear holds no appeal for us. When we started doing this, we wanted to create the motorcycle clothing store that we had always searched for, but never found. The best gear. The best advice. The best service. Maybe we are not there yet? There’s always room for improvement; that we accept. But we will never give up trying.

20/03/2026

After 11 years we say adieu to Artur

Artur has been running our warehouse operation for more than 10 years. And he's always done it quietly and calmly. He is not a demonstrative figure. He doesn't shout at people; indeed he doesn't make a lot of noise at all. He just gets the job done; and he does it without upsetting people. And in his role that's an accomplishment because, both internally and externally, there's lots of scope for falling out with people when you run the warehouse. The couriers can be a nightmare. Customers get annoyed if their parcels don't arrive in good time, and if they don't look nice when they arrive. The guys in the shop get frustrated if they can't find something that is meant to be in the warehouse. And the customer service team will often, perhaps uncharitably, assume that the warehouse is to blame if something goes wrong with an order. Don't get me wrong, ours is a happy ship; but part of that is because Artur is as much a diplomat as he is a warehouse manager.

It was a shock when, a couple of months ago, Artur came into the Airstream one morning to tell us he was leaving. Truth be told, it's always a difficult pill for us to swallow when any of our managers decides to move on. But at least Artur had a good reason. He has decided to move his family back to Poland. When Artur first came to the UK it was because he had heard that the streets were paved with gold. And relative to how things were back home, for him they kind of were. He and his wife both got good jobs over here. They bought a house. They had a kid. They worked hard. They made a contribution. They had a good life.

But whereas Artur felt that, in the early days, it was perhaps ten times better in the UK than it was back home, that differential has reduced over time. There might still be things over here that are better than they are in Poland, but the gap has closed; and with parents getting older, he and his wife have decided to go home. And we cannot argue with that.

To say thank you we had a bit of a day out last Saturday. We kicked off with an early breakfast at Cowdray Park. Thence to Goodwood to partake in my and Sara's latest hobby: simulator racing. Now I know that sounds a ridiculous pastime for people of our age, but it's a lot of fun; and it's a lot less expensive than taking real cars around the circuit. Sara and I try to get the early slot one Saturday a month; and it's a hoot.

And so we thought we would have a staff do down there; basically so that we could give them a drubbing. But these things don't always go to plan!

I gave up my seat in the practice rounds to allow one of our people's sons to have a go. But for the heats Helen from the shop dropped out, a little shaken up by the violent movements generated by the hydraulics system that does its best to replicate what it feels like to race the circuit at speed.

She ceded her seat to me. And so to get into the final, four-car race, all I needed to do was win my heat. My plan was simple. To follow the leader, get to understand the car then, once up to speed, overtake and breeze into the final. I was confident that I would prevail. It was all going so well. With three laps to go, I closed in on Mark coming in to Fordwater. But as I went past, he deliberately pushed me off the circuit. I was out. A great miscarriage of justice had been perpetrated. Frankly, we might well have been looking for two replacements in the warehouse rather than one!

Sara, predictably, cruised into the final, but there she came up against 'PFS' Joe. Now Joe freely admits that he spent a good part of his adolescence racing on his PlayStation; which in hindsight explains a lot. But even we were surprised at how quick he was, and more importantly how slow he was to understand the benefits of allowing Sara to beat him. Still, she came second.

Anyway, neither of us are the type to hold grudges for too long, so after Joe had been crowned victor with what I felt was a little bit too much enthusiasm, we made our way to the Fox Goes Free in Charlton.

We had a lovely lunch, and what made it so much fun was seeing all the partners, wives, husbands and kids that were prepared to turn out for our little event. It really was a great day.

Of course, we all got together to say goodbye to Artur, but actually the day ended up being far more than just a farewell get-together. For Sara and me it felt more like a celebration of what makes Motolegends the company it is.

It was a special day, although I'm still pi**ed off that I didn't get into the final, and that everybody thinks Sara is faster than me!

11/03/2026

A weekend away. The still before the storm!

It's become a bit of a fixture on our personal calendar for Sara and I to pop off to Marrakech for a long weekend in early March; partly to remind ourselves what the sun actually looks like, but partly to grab a last break before the new season kicks off in earnest.

Walking down the boarding stairs onto the tarmac, Sara encouragingly tells me that it's actually the same temperature as Guildford, but the sun is out here and I have to say it feels warmer. But whatever the weather, it's good to get away for a short break. We stay in the same hotel we've been coming to for some 20 years. I'm a creature of habit, and we both feel very comfortable within its walls.

Sara has booked us in for a relaxing hammam in the centre of town on Friday afternoon. A hammam is North African version of a Turkish bath. She thinks it's going to be more 'real' and 'authentic' than what's on offer in the hotel spa. And so we walk into town. I follow Sara down a maze of alleys as she's guided by an App. on her phone. We end up in a rather terrifying, back alley with no possible escape route. My highly honed instincts, accrued from years of watching Seal Team 6, kick in. I’m on edge, looking for a way out. But Sara finds the right wooden door, and rings the bell. It's an inauspicious start, but once inside my fears that we're never going to make it out alive subside. The place is lovely. Classically Moorish, simply done, but decoratively ornate, the interior has been beautifully executed. Every surface is squeaky clean; the floors are polished to a mirror-like finish.

We wait in an open, central area, full of anticipation at the prospect of what is to come. Separately, we are led to our respective, changing areas. In my locker there's a gown, some slippers and a pair of very unattractive paper knickers.

I am brought down to what I would describe as a mini, steam room. There's a marble bench down each side. My wife is there already. We are asked to take our gowns off. We stare at one another across the tiny room. Sara is wearing a paper thong. I feel very uncomfortable. After all, the last time we found ourselves thus attired the lights were off, and the curtains drawn!

One swimsuit-clad, young lady starts applying soap to my body. The other one does the same to Sara. And then in a scene somewhat reminiscent of one of those cheap, British, prison movies where one inmate walks into the cell of another inmate and throws the contents of a boiling kettle over him, my lady pours a bowl of scalding hot water over my head. "What the f**k?" is all I can think. "What have I f**king done to you to warrant that?" is what I want to say, but I figure it would go down badly, so I take a deep breath in, and throw her my most menacing, hurt look. Sara takes her bowlful like a Trappist monk, and says nothing. Maybe her water wasn't as hot as mine? More bowls follow. Either I'm getting used to it or she's lowered the temperature. I eventually get my breath back.

We are then bidden to lie down on our fronts. There's some soapy sponging, followed by more bowls of water which, by now, have become somewhat more bearable.

Now I've heard the term exfoliation, but if it's always done like this I never want to hear it again. My girl grabs a sanding block around which a sheet of something like a 40 grit Wet and Dry has clearly been wrapped. She attacks me with a near-manic, level of vigour. She leaves no nook, no cranny, no crevice unexplored. It's excruciating. If she carries on at this rate, she's soon going to be down to bare metal.

I remember, a couple of years ago, taking the petrol tank of an old BMW R80 to Tony for him to repaint. He reckoned it took him an entire day to rub down. Well next time I need one prepping I'm bringing it with me on the plane; my lady will have it totally stripped, ready for paint in 30 minutes. No problem.

When it's all over our charming, young sadists get us to stand up to allow more bowls of water to be thrown at us. I look down at the floor. We're standing in a pool of what looks to be rotting, potato peel. Sara tells me that, apparently, it’s our skin. Frankly, it's all a bit disgusting!

We are led into another room. A pot of sweet, mint tea is brought in. We can relax. After a few minutes I suggest to Sara that it might be a good idea to perhaps phone for an Uber to take us back to the hotel, but what we've just experienced was but an appetiser, I’m told. The main course is yet to come.

Ten minutes later, we are led into another room, where we are asked to lay down on a couple of rather uncomfortable, marble tables. It's time for our massages.

My lady gets stuck in. She's surprisingly strong; an unprepossessing force of nature.

She attacks me with gusto. Last year, I saw a physio-cum-chiropractor every week for three months with the aim of getting more flexibility into my lumbar spine. I don't know whether he achieved much, but I do remember how, after about our tenth session, he seemed childishly pleased with the fact that he was able to get a 'click' out of one of my vertebrae. Well, in the first five minutes, my young lady has elicited half a dozen. She carries on in that vein, getting crunching noises from places where I'm pretty sure there aren't technically any joints. But, all in all, it's not a totally unpleasant experience.

And then she starts with the oil; and I'm not talking about a palmful of the stuff squeezed out of the kind of bottle you find on the shelves at Boots. We're talking industrial quantities here; poured from buckets. She works it vigorously into the skin; again leaving no stone unturned. My only thought is that if somebody comes in smoking a cigarette we’re all done for. We’re all going to end up as crisp as a piece of toast. It's not going to be an attractive sight for whoever finds our remains.

She then moves onto my head. She's rubbing gallons of it into my hair. I’m upset; it’s going to look greasy for weeks is all I can think. All those years of using only Johnson’s Baby Shampoo gone to waste. The hair’s bad enough, but there’s worse is to come. She starts on my face. Now when I was a kid I had pretty awful acne; the kind of acne that meant that no teenage girl would come within a mile of me; and as I'm lying there I'm having nightmares about waking up in the morning, looking in the mirror, and coming face-to-face with my 13 year old self. And this girl, she won't let up; for a whole 15 minutes she seems set on rubbing oil into every available pore. It feels horrid.

When it's all over, we stand up. My first thought is that, as soon as we get back to the hotel, I'm going to have a long, hot, soapy shower. At which point she tells us that we shouldn't shower for the next 24 hours to allow the oils to sink in. I can't see room service at the hotel being very impressed with that when they come to make the bed in the morning.

Before we leave we are asked if we have enjoyed our experience, to which Sara responds somewhat meekly that we most certainly have. My lady tells me her name is Amina. I suppose she imagines that I'm going to big her up on Trustpilot or Tripadvisor, or something. All I can say is that hers is a name I'm not ever going to forget.

As we wend our way back through the Medina I make it clear to Sara that, interesting as this particular experience was, next year I will be happy to go back to the hotel's spa. Lying on my back, deeply breathing the incense in, and listening to a guy making ethereal, humming noises by running his fingers around the edges of a set of bowls. Now that's what I call relaxing!

09/02/2026

Is Motorcycle Live coming to the end of its days?

Cards on the table. I am not a fan of the event in its current format. Motorcycles are exciting. They’re cool and just a little bit dangerous. They can be sexy. They are aspirational. They are lifestyle. They should be marketed in a manner that takes all of this into consideration. And, in my view, the show as it stands doesn’t get close. Exhibiting at the NEC killed the motor show. I fear that the MCIA's tie-in to the Brummie venue is potentially heralding the same outcome for its two-wheeled cousin.

In recent weeks and months there's been a lot of speculation in the motorcycle industry's trade press about the show's future.

In December's issue of British Dealer News, Dan Sager, a well-known figure in the field of motorcycle PR and marketing, posed the question: "Must the show go on"?

He suggested that "we may soon find ourselves without an industry show at all when the major manufacturers and big brands decide it's not worth exhibiting and/or visitors feel it's not worth the cost of travel, tickets and parking".

Picking up the same theme in the following month's issue, the somewhat impish, Isle of Man-based Roger Willis, variously motorcycling's shrewdest, most erudite and most cynical observer was of similar views about the show's state of health.

Dan had opined that ABR was the most appropriate model for a more interactive and engaging event, but Roger quite perceptively pointed out that the vagaries of the British weather probably made an outdoor event too risky for the industry's official, annual outing.

One of Roger's main criticisms of the show, however, was that the organisers had failed to follow in the tyre tracks of Intermot in Germany and EICMA in Italy, in excluding direct retailing at the show.

Allegedly, the show's audience was up last November, although the organisers did appear to have gone to quite extraordinary lengths to give tickets away this year! But Roger's view when looking at this year's footfall was that "a large proportion of it was made up by those in eager pursuit of distress-discount retailing". A phenomenon which he felt was similarly responsible for the demise of the Excel show.

And I think we would be largely in agreement with those sentiments. For many of those who visit the glitzy, international shows the gear and the accessories are almost as much of a draw as the bikes themselves. And from our perspective who wouldn't want to look at all the latest suits, jackets, pants, helmets, gloves, boots and other paraphernalia that the makers will be bringing to market for the coming season? This is the way it used to be in the good old days when people like Arai, Shoei, Richa and other major brands took space at UK shows. But no clothing or helmet manufacturer is going to want to pitch up at a show if the retailer on the stand opposite is doing his level best to devalue his brand by kicking the s**t out of its pricing.

Of the international clothing companies, I think it was probably Halvarssons who held out longest; and they were in a position to make the show work because they prohibited retailers from selling anywhere but their own premises. But even Halvarssons came to realise a few years ago that, with audiences that were declining both in terms of quantity and quality, the reward did not reflect the risk.

And so instead of slick, corporate showcasing of new products, what we get to see at the NEC is stands held together with metal clips and bungee cords, rails crammed to overflowing with the discontinued lines that nobody was interested in when they were current, messages written on bits of torn cardboard summoning you to ask for the best price, and pedlars wielding calculators to enable them to work out the best price they're prepared to offer on a helmet, given how much they reckon you can afford!

As a way of filling the floor space, this kind of presentation does not ooze style, although it does probably contribute to topping up the MCIA's coffers. More importantly, this kind of activity is simply not commensurate with showing off the best machinery, equipment and accessories that the motorcycle world has to offer. And it does potentially put off a whole swathe of more discerning buyers who don't figure on spending £35 for the privilege of schlepping up to the Midlands to walk around a two-wheeled, car boot sale.

In truth, I didn't go to the show this last November; I had to have my nails done! But most of the exhibitors I spoke to, despite the upbeat, post-show, back slapping, did not feel that there were many signs that attendance really was up on 2024.

But what did tickle me was the photo that somebody sent me of this stand he came across that was selling sofas. Surely if you need any proof that the MCIA and the show's organisers have lost their way, this is it. Although I'm sure that somebody from the organising committee would suggest that, like those stands that offer to clean your shoes for free, the guy had paid his money.

These days, when difficult decisions need to be made, people often talk about the need for a ‘conversation’. But, unlike Dan, Roger’s view was that conversations won't crack this particular nut. Such conversations, after all, are what politicians propose when facing some kind of intractable issue they have no genuine interest in confronting. They're about kicking the can down the road. And the MCIA, I feel sure, would be happy to do this until the cows come home. The problem is that, one day, there might not be a home for those cows to come back to!

03/02/2026

DECEMBER

This is the last in our series of monthly reports on how Motolegends fared in 2025.

I have no idea why I ever thought these Facebook updates were a good idea, but clearly at about this time last year, I did. All I know is that we frequently hear rumours about how well we are, or are not, doing. There are those who, for whatever reason, suggest that we are weeks away from disappearing. Equally, we get accused of being richer than Croesus. Everybody, I suppose, has an agenda, but we set out here to put the record straight, at least for a 12-month period, and to talk about the vicissitudes of running a small business in these somewhat straightened times.

The truth is that we are like most businesses. Sometimes things are up; sometimes they are down. At the end of the day, at the end of the year, the business seems to work. But nobody’s coining it! That's fine by Sara and me, though. We didn’t get into this business because we thought it was a get-rich-quick scheme. We got into it because we like bikes, because we thought we could do clothing better than the shops we had been to, and because we thought it would be fun. And that’s still where we are.

We reported in October on our financial year, which came to its conclusion on September 30th.. Overall, we ended up by about 7% for the year, with the internet and mail order performing better than the shop. The shop was up a little; the internet was up by more.

But whilst it's the financial year that counts as far as the banks and the credit agencies are concerned, a lot of people, us included, tend to think in terms of calendar years when discussing how business has been. So in this, our final report, we are looking at the full 12 months of 2025. December, though, also marks the end of our first quarter for the coming financial year, and so for us the quarter is a good indicator as to whether things are going in the right direction, or whether there needs to be some further adjustments at the tiller for the period ahead.

It's at times like this that I kind of wish I hadn't decided to be so open, because it's painful sharing disappointing news. But the fact is that the shop was down in December again. Down by a low, single-digit percentage, but it sure as hell was not up! And so what we can now see is that, in 2025, the shop was up fairly consistently through until July. From then on, we were down a little on 2024 almost every month.

The problem, of course, is knowing the reasons for this. Does it simply reflect a worsening economy that is causing people to tighten their belts? Or are we doing something wrong? Have we somehow lost our edge? Well, one can't always do a lot about the former, but we can the latter; and so we'll certainly be working on sharpening up our act on the physical, retail front.

But whereas the shop disappointed a little, the internet was inexplicably strong in the last quarter. In December the internet was up by some 35%. But October and November had been up by even more than that. So whilst the shop was down by around 5% in this quarter, the internet was up by well over 30%; and as the internet is the larger part of our business, we'll take wins like this whenever we come across them.

And despite the poor shop figures in the last quarter, the internet's performance means we exit 2025 slightly stronger than we were at the end of the financial year. That is to say that our first quarter has shown pretty strong growth. And we can but be happy with that.

As ever, of course, there has to be a context. If a business is up by 5% when the market is up by 10%, that's not good. By contrast, if a business is up by 5% when everybody else is down by 15% that has to be seen as a very creditable result.

The truth, though, is that we don't really know how rest of the market has performed. MCN recently reported that motorcycle registrations were down by just under 20% in 2025. That doesn't sound good, although it doesn't necessarily mean that we're all doing less biking.

The numbers might suggest that people are less inclined to throw cash at new toys, and at expenditures that might be considered non-essential. But the other issue here is dealers' pre-registrations when Euro 5 came into effect. These registrations will be distorting what looks to be very disappointing new bike sales this year. So, as ever, it's difficult to know what's really going on.

Anecdotally, though, we do hear that many clothing retailers are struggling. We read this in the trade press. We hear it from both the distributors and the brands themselves. And we hear it to a degree that leads us to be not unhappy with our performance. One distributor recently opined that the only growth he expected to see from his retailers this year was from start ups, although he acknowledged that there aren't many people foolish enough to take that path right now. He did expect some of the multiples to be up with him, but what he acknowledged was that this was almost certainly coming from the buying of market share through acquisitions and new shop openings, rather than by dint of organic growth.

But the bottom line is this. 2025 was probably not a vintage year for anybody in the motorised, two-wheel sector. But Motolegends is still here. We have grown, albeit probably at the expense of some margin. We're not going anywhere. We are still investing in the business, and we are constantly learning. And this learning is vital if we are to stay ahead of he market, which obviously is our aim.

The shop? That's an ongoing discussion. We love our shop. We love the way it operates. We're not going to change the one-to-one model. And we are not going to open at weekends, because we know that doesn't work for us. But we do want to find ways to grow sales. It's merely that, right now, we're not quite sure how!

28/01/2026

THE KING IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE KING!

About eight years ago we came across Scott's amazing waterproofs. They were next level; such that inside a couple of months we dropped all our other waterproof offerings, on the basis that we didn't have the heart to offer our customers a second-best solution.

The Scott waterproofs were, of course, very waterproof. But unlike other waterproofs they were super stretchy, meaning that they could be worn snug to fit over a summer outfit, yet still expand easily to go over more bulky wear in the winter. Whatever you wore them over, however, the stretch made them amazingly comfortable.

The ability to wear them snugly also meant that they didn't flap and make the kind of noise that most waterproofs make when you're making headway. Yet stretchy as the outer material was, the fabric was immensely strong. Nobody ever ripped a pair of Scotts. (Well, not that we know of, anyway).

The pants were particularly noteworthy for the fact that the waist came right up to one's chest. Any water getting in under the hem of the jacket wasn't getting over the waistband. That's for sure.

We loved our Scotts. Immodestly perhaps, we reckon we made them famous. Everyone jumped on the bandwagon; but heck we can understand why. They were simply the best.

And then, in 2024, Scott announced that they were getting out of motorcycling, and so would be discontinuing their Ergo Pro waterproofs.

We were distraught, but never one to let sleeping dogs lie, we immediately started looking around for somebody to replicate them. And the company that came through for us was Held. And that was great news, because here was a brand with a Gore-Tex licence that knew everything there was to know about making garments waterproof at the very highest level.

Well the results of that endeavour are now on the shelf; and what we are delighted to report is that whilst Held's waterproofs look, feel and wear just like the Scott ones, they are actually quite significantly improved.

The full story is on our website, but they are 25% more waterproof and 37.5% more breathable. Held is using more advanced seam-welding techniques and applying better quality taping. The zips are now YKK, and as everybody knows YKK makes the best quality, most reliable, longest lasting and most waterproof zips. They're a bit more expensive, but what the heck.

Finally, to overcome the problem of waterproofs popping off the shaft of a short ankle boot, thus allowing the rain in, the new Helds come as standard with adjustable stirrups.

We are just very excited. The loss of the Scotts was a bit of a body blow for us, as we had put all our eggs into that one particular basket. But with these new Held Hydro waterproofs we are back, and the bar has been raised. They are indistinguishable from the Scotts, but in a number of significant ways they are just better.

For us the good news is that these new waterproofs will be totally exclusive to Motolegends in the UK, so they'll be no jumping on this particular bandwagon!

23/01/2026

IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT COURIER COMPANY

Recently, we received a somewhat banal review from a customer who expressed disappointment with the damaged condition of the outer Motolegends box in which the jacket he ordered arrived on his doorstep. Apparently, he was unhappy about having to re-box it to give it to his wife on Christmas Day!

But whilst we cannot control what happens to parcels after they leave us, it did cause us to want to review whether we were indeed using the best couriers.

In truth, we use different couriers for different types of parcel, and for different geographic locations. But it's probably fair to say that we use DPD the most.

Now, back in the day, DPD was excellent. Their tracking was better than anybody else's. And probably still is. They always seemed to offer a premium-quality service. All packages were signed for, and very rarely did we get any complaints. In truth, we we still think they're pretty good. Here in Guildford we have an excellent driver who collects from us. His name is Matt, and he always goes the extra mile for us; often making an extra sweep from the depot if one of his colleagues has let us down.

Some customers, we know, also have a great relationship with their local driver, but not infrequently we do hear about parcels being left in the garden, thrown over fences and the like. Parcels going missing at the depot is also not unheard of.

What caused the way couriers work to change, in our view, was Covid. The world went home-shopping mad. People had discovered the benefits of remote buying. The couriers made hay. And the demand was such that the quality of everybody's service seemed to suffer. But after Covid things didn't go back to the way they were.

One development that Covid brought about was the acceptance of parcels not being signed for. During Covid, of course, many people wouldn't step outside. Many, I'm sure, would have disinfected boxes before bringing them indoors. And to a lot of people the idea of getting close enough to somebody to sign for a package would have been abhorrent. Well that established a kind of precedent. Now only the most premium and insured services get signed for.

As a company, we are always interested in giving our customers the best possible delivery service, but when it comes to couriers our options are actually quite limited.

I like the smart, brown vans used by UPS; and certainly their drivers are the best attired. Internally here I have long pushed for UPS. They represent how I would like to see our parcels delivered. But UPS is pretty useless on tracking, and customers find that important these days. UPS also doesn't offer a guaranteed one-day service. Coming out of b2b their approach seems to be that it arrives when it arrives. And these days that won't cut the mustard with consumers.

DHL also looks quite professional, but again they are largely about delivering to businesses. They have always out-sourced their domestic deliveries, and recently they acquired Evri, so one can only assume that this is the route they will be taking when delivering to private addressees. And that would be of great concern to us, because we worked with Evri some years ago, and they were truly awful. And so we're not prepared to accept the customer fallout that would inevitably result.

Fed-Ex is also pretty slick, and we use them internationally, but they are not really up to the job of home deliveries, so they're not a credible alternative.

Yodel is another name, but like Evri they operate at the other end of the market to us. I think they have big contracts with the likes of Argos, Amazon, Boots and so on. Again, I'm sure they're cheap, but I can't see Yodel working well for us. I also remember working with them many years ago. It was one Christmas before Covid, and they kind of went into meltdown. At some point in December, they announced that they couldn't cope. They went dark, broke off all communications, and posted on their website that all deliveries in their system would go out at some point in January. Never again, we vowed!

Which leaves dear old Parcelforce, now under private ownership. Actually, Parcelforce is probably better than anybody when it comes to finding remote addresses deep in the shires. But I am never impressed by the nature of their deliveries into us. The whole set up feels a bit run down. Their vans look as though they've never been cleaned. The parcels often look as though they have been used for a game of football back at the depot. And even though I am sure it's ancient history, I well remember all those Decembers where we lived in fear of Parcelforce going on strike in the run up to Christmas. That has left a bit of a bitter taste in the mouth as far as Parcelforce is concerned. They do, apparently, offer a very reliable guaranteed service before nine and before 12, but it's hugely expensive.

Which brings us back to DPD. We don't think they're perfect, but at this juncture we don't believe that there's anybody out there offering a better service. Now we're not penny pinchers; if somebody was doing it better we'd happily pay a bit extra, but right now I don't think there is anybody.

But what we have decided to do is give customers the option to pay extra for a guaranteed 'Before 12' service from DPD. It'll only work on goods that are here in the building when you order, but with this DPD service parcels are given priority at the depot, and are fast tracked through the hubs. Fewer people handle the packages, and so there's less chance of things going wrong and parcels getting knocked about. And if DPD doesn't meet the stipulated time slot, we'll refund the charge, whatever that is. We'll keep you posted. (See what I did there? Clever, eh)!

Address

Unit 8, Quadrum Park Industrial Estate, Old Portsmouth Road
Guildford
GU31LU

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 5:30pm
Tuesday	10am - 5:30pm
Wednesday	10am - 5:30pm
Thursday	10am - 5:30pm
Friday	10am - 5:30pm

Telephone

01483 407500

Website

http://www.motolegends.com/

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