Real stories · The present that beat the socks

Malcolm is impossible to buy for — this little motorbike ended a 40-year problem

A present that made Malcolm grin like a twenty-year-old — that's what this little clock did, and after forty years of socks and gardening gloves I'd nearly given up hope. I'm 67, and every woman married to a man who 'doesn't need anything' knows the December dread: he's kind about the socks. That's somehow worse.

What I wanted, just once, was a present that landed.

Then I found the Motovex from a British label called York Boutique — a beautifully detailed little motorbike in gunmetal, with a proper analog alarm clock set into the front wheel. Malcolm had a motorbike at twenty. I've heard about it, on average, weekly, for four decades.

The detail is what does it. It's not a toy — the engine, the handlebars, the stance are all lovingly done — which is why a grown man picked it up and went quiet for a moment before grinning — and underneath the nostalgia it's simply a reliable little alarm clock that sits neatly on a nightstand, desk or shelf. His youth, back on the bedside table, telling the time.

A lovingly detailed little motorbike with a real alarm clock in its front wheel — which is why a man who needs nothing went quiet, grinned, and gave it his side of the bed.

It was £19.95, half the usual £40 — less than the annual socks budget, frankly. I was going to save it for Christmas; I lasted four days. A fortnight to send it back and free delivery, though there was never the slightest danger.

It has since taken up permanent residence on his bedside table, where it gets shown to every visitor — including, at length, to Winnie — and when his brother saw it on Sunday he turned it over twice and asked where it came from. I've ordered his too. Christmas, sorted, in October.

If there's also a man in your life who once had a bike and never quite got over it, do have a look — and with the gift season coming, I'd order early. The Motovex is rated 4.6 out of 5 by more than 180 customers, it comes in four finishes — and at half price the gunmetal goes first.