Tribute

Sorry for your loss, my dad was also 91 when he passed. Nobody like's to lose a loved one but as with your dad mine was ready to go.
My uncle Stan got me into bike's , letting me charge around the back garden on his Puch Maxi . A little later somebody at school turned up on an FS1E
and a mate bought a Suzuki AP50 so I waited a little longer and bought a CB125 Honda and as the saying goes it's been down hill ever since..

 

Sorry for your loss Mike, your Dad did well to give you and your brother a permanent smile from a great hobby -that also reminds you of him.

My well to do mate got a Casal "sports moped" for Xmas. After falling off it in his garden a few times I was totally hooked. Some months later I had saved up enough money washing the floors at Carrefour to pay for an AP50. I've had a bike most of my life, sometimes several. Dirtbikes, sport bikes, adventure bikes even classic oil leaking bikes... Its still the same now as it always has been, get on, get going and you're off on a freedom ride to anywhere you feel like. Nothing like it in the world.

 

Sorry for your loss Mike. Its always difficult to lose your father. But ift its time, its time.

My Pop always loved bikes (he rode BSA's around Egypt & Libya during the war), but always tried to deter me from haivng one. Then again he was a paramedic from tle late 50's through to the 80's when road deaths weere outrageously high.
I think was always terrified his next call-out would be scraping me up off the road.

Didn't stop him from taking mine out for a spin though!

 

Your dad was clearly a man of some taste, the NSU Quickly was my first introduction to bikes, although this particular model had pedals!

My dad like many men of the era was a biker, in his youth he suffered with a BSA M20 before moving on to a triumph speed twin, a difference he described as chalk and cheese, though which was which I never found out.

Years later we found two NSU’s fully seized in a cellar of a house he’d bought and him being an engineer had no problem in getting one running with the help of his apprentice!

His enthusiasm set me on the road, literally, he would often ride my bikes and we even shared a Moto Guzzi for a while.

Good times, good memories.

 

Thanks for your thought provoking message and very sorry for your loss, but glad he died peacefully in his sleep.

With two sisters, and parents that were against me having a motorbike, despite my father having Nortons when he was young, I had no one pushing me, quite the opposite. So, it was good old schoolboy excitement of being able to have wheels at 16 yrs! I had to work hard and saved up £160 for a 2nd hand Gilera 50 Trials moped, in red. I absolutely loved that bike and it set me on my way, self taught to ride as we were; I got away with murder on it. Probably a good thing it only did 45mph.

Now, my two sons are both riders and one even has his own Ducati. Motorcycling has been a massive influence and enjoyment in my life. Most of my close friends are bikers and we have a great sense of comaraderie. I couldn't possibly stop my sons, even with the inherent dangers.

Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone.

 

My sincere condolences Mike, sad times but great memories...

I was never allowed a bike (or moped) until I could pay for one myself at 16 once I had started work. I loved them due to my Uncle and his Son always having them. My cousin was a bike cop in Leicester when I was about 13 and he took me on the back of his Honda 750, that was the start of it for me (he rode like a nutter!).
Mates at school all had peds but I had to wait - and they used to take the piss as I didn't have wheels
At 17 I had a 250LC on my birthday, self funded from a well paid but hot ad sweaty job at the glass works. Passed my test at 17 and bought a Z1000 to the distain of my school friends that used to take the piss at school my hard earned went on turbocharging it by the time I was 18.
So many memories / close scrapes and fun - it's unimaginable not to have had bikes in my life.
Lost my Dad 20 years ago to the big C - although he was never into bikes he was always secretly proud of me and mine - he was such a funny and kind man, despite never having rode a bike we had a lot in common.
Best wishes to you and your family in the coming weeks and years, the memories will never fade...

 

Sorry for your loss..



No idea where my love for motorbikes or motorsport came from until 5 years ago .
I passed my Bike test in 2001 at the age of 21 have always been into my Japanese performance cars and had the need for speed ... well I never met or seen my father or even knew who he was for that matter , had a bad child hood and had several step fathers but left home at 16 .
Wasn’t till 2016 I confronted my mother to find out who my real father was . She would t tell me so took it upon my self to find out who , took me less than 24 hrs to get a name . I tried tracking down his mother and father but they both passed away but his father remarried and his widow is still alive and it opened a whole can of worms .. anyway just to cut it short , I found a brother from my real father and he was happy to do a dna test and came back positive at 99.8% for half sidling . So my real father is Michael mansell sadly passed away many many years ago who is Nigel mansell’s brother so can only guess this is where I got it from as no other person on my mother side has any interest in motorsports