Couldnt keep me away from motorcycles. This is my earliest photo and memory of a motorcycle. Think it was a tiger cub (200cc?) that my father had. Apparently the engine was running and I had the throttle wide open..some things have remained the same. Just not the full head of hair! Ill try and find a picture of his Triton at some point. Lovely thing it was in red and chrome. Rebuilt from boxes of parts. To follow. Meanwhile, the cub:
Mine was on my uncle Franco’s Piaggo Ciao (bit like this) one a long, long, long time ago. And he’s still got it and still rides it even though he’s in his eighties.
My dad had bikes, although I can’t remember them. My mother claimed I was nearly born in the sidecar at Bath bus station when the bike caught fire and dad went to find a bucket of sand. Had my first off road C50 cost £13 at 14, AP50;in 1980, never really looked back. I love bikes, I hate to think what I’ve spent on them over the years
It's in my genes: https://www.ducatiforum.co.uk/threads/timeline-my-parents-and-bikes.77332/#post-1611644
The mighty NSU Quickly was the butt of all jokes by my Japanese bike riding fraternity. Found two in a cellar and managed get one running.
My dad had a mint BSA Gold Star. My mum made him sell it so they could buy a couch when i was born. Women ay. (will try and get some pics later)
I found out that when you throttled off on long downhills the piston gets starved of lubrication. This happed to me on one of my longer trips out with friends. Sure enough it seized, chewing up the piston rings and scoring the barrel beyond repair. It was a fun time. I kept it for twelve months until It eventually forced me to the temptation of the Japanese markets.
My first bike was a 1980 DT125 which I bought from a friend called Trigger for £35 in 1987 when I was 17. It had bent forks, bent handlebars and the seat fasteners had rusted away so it kept sliding off the frame. Absolute death trap. As I’m sure most of you know, in those days you could just slap some L plates on a 125 and then maim yourself or others in all sorts of interesting and gruesome ways. Naturally, because I’d had no training whatsoever apart from my mate explaining that “it’s one down, five up and here’s how you use the clutch”, so upon arrival at the first corner I encountered I wasn’t used to the speed compared to that which could be achieved on a pushbike, I got target fixated and went straight through someone’s hedge and into their front garden. To my mum’s great relief, me and the DT only had a short albeit tempestuous relationship because it ended up in Davy Jones’ Locker a few weeks later. Naturally, once I’d mastered the basics, I felt I was qualified and indeed had a duty to teach others how to ride, so further to that end I was on the pillion while tutoring one of my mates, we were riding along a canal towpath and I warned him “Keep right as there’s a huge hole on the left”, but he got muddled up, the front wheel disappeared from underneath us and all 3 of us, bike, me and my mate ended up going for a swim. They say you never forget your first love and so a few years ago I took a stroll down Memory Lane and I bought a 1981 DT175 which remarkably, 40 years later, was in much better cosmetic and structural condition than the 7 year old jalopy on which I’d popped my biking cherry. I green laned it and used it as a general runaround for a while but retired it from the muddy stuff as it was too delicate and parts are scarce and then shortly afterwards I blew the engine. I’ve had it bored out but the aftermarket piston doesn’t fit properly so it’s been sitting idle for 18 months because I’m the Crown Prince of Procrastination but I aim to get it back on the road before the summer. I have a pic of the OG DT somewhere but can’t find it, so here’s the 175.
Lovely, my first bike was also a dt125 and I wish I still had it. Bought from someone down devon way without looking at it for £1750. Float needed sorting and that was it. Had it 6 months before moving to an xt660x. Loved the sound and smell of the 2 stroke, it's the only 2 stroke I've had. sold it for 2k which was nice
Puch Maxi moped at 16, then Suzuki TS90 at 17 - happy days. Thankfully I can't find the picture of my Maxi & me with long-hair, platform shoes & parka...
My dad used to ride a bike when he was younger, many years before I was born. He's of the era when you sent off for a driving licence and just got on with it, no test. Though he apparently had some driving instruction during his military career. Visiting his almost step-daughter(long story) and family in Germany on their farm the husband dragged an old moped out of the barn and got it going. His idea that it might entertain me for an hour or two. Well, we were there for another four days in which, no doubt to the annoyance of everyone else, I rode the thing up and down the drive and around the farm continually, dawn until dusk. My dad, recognising the enjoyment this brought his then 8 year old son, went and purchased more petrol and two stroke oil. Note the groovy Kevlar swimming trunks... When I was 16 he continued along this path matching the savings from my meagre earnings working as a porter at a local hotel to fund my first bike, an FS1E. Three years later he sadly took his own life. He was a great father and an honourable man, being encouraged to ride a bike is something that I'm always grateful to him for. RIP dad.
I was very keen to get a bike but my father didn’t approve. I had a few rides on a chums Honda cub and another friend at 6th firm college had a CB200 (the one with the vinyl patch on the tank). I passed my car test and still went out with my friend Steve as a pillion. We were sharing a flat in Croydon and I was working for Our Price Records, they suddenly decided to move me from Croydon to Holborn so I went out and bought a Yamaha 125 (not the one in the picture) which I rode up to London on. I passed my test and bought a Honda 550 4 (I couldn’t believe how fast it was) - pic below
my first roadbike when i was 16 i've no idea what it is. mostly cos i'm lying through my teeth. it was actually a brand new one of these at 17. cost £800. after lots of homemade field bikes. micron. reed valve and ace bars, perreli mandrake tyres helped the look of it too. awesome. i actually dreamt about it recently and woke up thinking i still had it in a box in the loft.
Way back in the early 70's I was just in double figures, the lad next door had an older brother who's mate had a Japanese 250, we were 3 up, me hanging on the back for dear life screaming and laughing in equal measure, as he was flat out up and down the street, he'd have been arrested today.
What a lovely read, we all started somewhere. For me there were a few field/cliff bikes that my friends got their hands on. Often I was the one left kicking stones desperately waiting my turn. Then dad brought a Bultaco 275 trials bike home for me to play on. It was short lived as soon after he swapped it for a band saw! Gutted.
