Nice Kettle, mine was Red with a Gold rad, bought it in '79 only had it a year before it was nicked. Handling could be a bit wayward if pushed. Also the front brakes that didn't work at all in the wet, caused a few brown trouser moments! This is my S4R after a bit of garage time.
Yep! Trashed my Kettle after hitting a pothole whilst cranked over resulting in a massive tank slapper!
Sounds similar to one of my dismounts on it, wet manhole cover and once the tank slapper started there was no holding it. I got quite good at falling off it, should have had judges holding up scores for each one, fortunately all low speed with minor damage. But then again I was very young had bought it for my 20th birthday.
In the old days you worked your way up from a ped or 100, and learned how to crash, and how not to. 17 years old, passed my test, and pulled a wheelie away from the test center .
First five road legal or on the fields? Fields came first: 350 Enfield Bullet 500 Enfield Bullet 250 Greeves Tiger Cub Norton Navigator Road legal: Lambretta 150 LDB Francis Barnett 250 Cruiser 80 500 Enfield Bullet with sidecar Matchless 500 Bitsa BSA 650 Super Rocket
A bit late to the motorcycling party,but in 1989 a friend of mine asked if i would like to try for the test as he had the part one already bagged and i said yes. So we purchased the Honda 125 between us,it was a two weeks on and two off swap affair.I only really wanted to pass & tick the box,but got hooked floating around the Kent/Sussex/Surrey country lanes. Next came the XV535 which he found in the small adverts in Greenford but with no photographs so i'd no idea what it looked like,turned out to be one owner/low mileage and a fair price ,cut my biking teeth on this one and my back.the next choice was all mine with the Honda CBR600FP then the first blade etc.
Malagutti Monte 50cc Suzuki GT250 Honda 400/4 F2 Honda CB900F Suzuki GS1000 heres a photo of a Monte because nobody knows what they are.
My first 5 were (the years I had 'em not years of bikes) : 1) 1976 Malaguti Olympique GT (My very first Italian lol) 2) 1977 Honda CB125S 3) 1977 Suzuki AP50 4) 1977 Suzuki GT250M 5) 1978 Suzuki GT380A
1973 FS1E, 1972 YCS5E (forerunner to the RD200) 1976 Dunstall RD250C 1979 RD400E 33 year gap R6 50th GP ANNIVERSARY
Gilera 50 Trials Suzuki GT250 Kawasaki KH400 Suzuki RG500 Ducati 996 (took me a while to accept a 4 stroke!)