Like Chaz I have mixed feelings on this. I was involved in the consultation for the existing pre-1960 cutoff a few years ago; the options on the table then were pre-1919, pre-1945 and pre-1960. I opted for 1945 and set out my reasoning as being, that virtually all vehicles from that point onwards are basically the same as today in the matter of controls and layout and therefore were testable with one set of skills; however there are virtually no vehicles dating from before 1945 which are still in daily use.
Pre-1960 though is a different matter altogether; whilst I concede that most are classic vehicles which only come out for special occasions, you're starting to venture into scenarios whereby stuff like old Land-Rovers, originally built in the 1950's but so modified that they're unrecognisable from the original but still legally a pre-1960 vehicle. Under the new legislation this fast-forwards to 1978 and it becomes obvious that this can be open to abuse; not only is there the potential to save over ?200 on RFL but now another ?40 on MOT plus the cost of getting a vehicle through it. I accept that the onus is still on the user to keep the vehicle roadworthy but give people a chance to save money and they'll do it.
I do accept that bikers tend, for fairly obvious reasons, to look after their machines more carefully than drivers do their cars, but then again we're also more likely to be the victins of other peoples' badly-maintained vehicles; for this legislation to work properly, DVSA (previously known as VOSA) will need to up their game, start spot checking more than HGV's and by doing so raise the standards of vehicle safety for ALL of us. I'd be interested to hear from our own tame "man from the Ministry" as to whether this is likely to happen.