My Bikes shared

[Guest]

I miss the bikes, but I had my fun on them, and unless I get myself a side car or a trike, I cant see myself on two wheels again....but I do miss the freedom, but will always have the memories.

Same here just dream of them now. When on my Shooting Star it was another world. During the pouring rain the cold or on snow I just loved every moment. Just the dreams now. a few nightmares as I came off about 4 times.

One thick fog. Used the road every day but fog fools you. Took the left hand fork but not enough and ran slap into a wall at about 30mph. Blood, crooked forks and a bent wheel. Plus pride took a dive. Mother took me to the doctors. She said I had said I would never ride another bike. He said rubbish. Correct mended the forks and the wheel in a week and off I went. Mother was probably disappointed.

Laurie

[takeslousyphotos]

I've had more bikes over the years than I care to think about ................

At 16 I started with a PC50 Honda.......... 17 a Suzuki 250 X7 ............. And last year, a VMAX...... Open the throttle and hold on while it tears your arms out of your shoulder sockets ......... and this year ??? I'm not sure yet.

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[takeslousyphotos]

These are the bikes of my youth.The best the Shooting Star I sold to buy Pauline my wife an engagement ring. God I must have loved her I did I still do.

Love to see yours. Please

Not having a camera at that age these are not mine but as mine. Most of mine I fitted a fairing for weather protection and to make them sleek. One of the first ever to own a Barbour Suit a superb outfit.

Laurie

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Hi Laurie,

I like the engagement ring thing ............... I have a similar story. Just as romantic.

When I was 21 I was engaged to a girl (who later married me) ............. We were saving up to get married .............. I got made redundant. On the last day at work a group of us (pocket bulging with redundancy and holiday pay).went for a drink........... I nded up buying a Suzuki GT550 of a bloke in the pub, spent all the cash ........... and couldn't understand why my fiancé got the "right hump" and wasn't at all impressed with the bike .......... Women eh ????? No figuring them sometimes.

Peter

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[Guest]

Hi Laurie,I like the engagement ring thing ............... I have a similar story. Just as romantic.

When I was 21 I was engaged to a girl (who later married me) ............. We were saving up to get married .............. I got made redundant. On the last day at work a group of us (pocket bulging with redundancy and holiday pay).went for a drink........... I nded up buying a Suzuki GT550 of a bloke in the pub, spent all the cash ........... and couldn't understand why my fiancé got the "right hump" and wasn't at all impressed with the bike .......... Women eh ????? No figuring them sometimes. Peter

Wow Peter she must like you.

My bit was a bit deeper. Sold the Bike certainly to buy a ring. But sold the bike to get rid of the HP so I could then save for a ring. What we do for these women

Laurie

[Guest]

I had a 150 cc BSA single cylinder when an apprentice in Birmingham in 1955-57. Some mates and I used to roar around the country South of Birmingham, ending with the secret chicken and mushroom pies at the Fleur de Lys at Lowsenford (still offering them but for evening meals only), washed down of course. Then merrily roared back home to Erdington. No helmets, leathers etc.

[Guest]

What a great idea for a thread Laurie. It's only when you list them all together that you realise how many you have had over the years!

Here are mine:

First up is a Raleigh Runabout. Mine cost me a tenner. I once rode it all the way from Manchester to Penrith with a broken back axle!

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Next was my first proper bike, a Honda CB125. I rode one of these from Manchester to Liverpool every day, through winter to get to and from college.

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Moving up the power stakes, but not by much was my much loved Honda CD175. Again this was daily transport to and from college, sometimes with a mate on the back!

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Finally finished college and started to get a bit sportier, again not exactly a huge step but it seemed a lot at the time. A Honda CB 175

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I then turned all british for a while and started off with an out of the box restoration of a triumph TR25W Trophy. Mine didn't look much like this one, much more road orientated. One day the rod came out of the front of the crankcases, just after I had overtaken a removal van, in the fast lane of the M62. The engine seized and the bike wheel locked up, the bike started to snake in a skid so I whipped the clutch in and threw it over onto the hard shoulder. I will never know to this day how close I was to the removal van!

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I then seriously moved up the power stakes. Another half a dozen boxes of bits and I built myself a BSA 650 Lightning. Mine was very much like this one. Again though a rod out of the crankcase meant a change of engine to a 500 but I never really had much faith in it after that.

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I don't know why but I suddenly fancied a bit of off road fun and ended up buying a very old bag of nails, a Suzuki TL185. Good fun over the tops of the moors, never got it legal and kept the exhaust togetehr with bandage!

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The Suzuki was so bad though that it got replaced with a slightly better Kawasaki KL250. I have always preferred 4 strokes anyway so much preferred the grunt of this one.

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How I could forget to include my BMW I've no idea. Here it is though in the right place. Mine was exactly as this one, same colour etc. and had a pair of hard touring panniers.

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Next a much more serious road bike, my first and only Ducati. This was fitted with Yoshimura pipes and actualy set car alarms off as I went past. The handling was rubbish but the noise it made was out of this world!

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Still in love with 'V' engines I went for the much more civilised and reliable Honda VFR 750. Stunning bike with loads of torque and so easy to ride.

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I loved the VFR so much I bought a new one in '97, this time the VFR 800, which I still have with only around 8000 miles on it. I still love it to bits and don't have the heart to part with it. It performs beautifully and rides so perfectly the few miles I do a year on it are worth every penny of the running costs.

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The missis in an attempt to get me away from the idea of a Caterham/Lotus/Morgan/kit car of somesort suggested I try a cruiser. This was the result a Suzuki 750 Intruder. The handling was apalling but it did make me realise that fun could be had on a bike without going fast. Just don't slow down!

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The back end was so bad the missis picked out a much more wife friendly cruiser, a Kawasaki VN 900. Not much power but very comfortable and very easy to ride. Mind you I binned the first one, managed to flip it over a roundabout so we bought another exactly the same! I still have this one as well. Dead easy for nipping down to the shops on.

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My last bike purchase and the third bike now in the stable is my return to the roots of motorcycling. This bike is exactly the same age as me, so I have such an affinity for it right from the start, a 1957 Triumph 650 Thunderbird. It doesn't handle very well, the power is apparently 'brisk', but so is tea, and the brakes are downright exiting. When I look at the three possibilities I nearly always pick the Triumph though, just for the pure grin factor. The noise is out of this world and you hold on to the revs just to enjoy listening to it! You have to think about the riding though, you have to plan everything you do and if you don't you get yourself in bother. I've had a couple of narrow scrapes already. It makes you realise just what chances were being taken all those years ago down dark twisty country roads at night, in the rain, with a skinful of Tetleys!

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Next up I fancy a pre-war BSA with girder forks, a hand gear change, single cylinder with exposed valves and a twin port head. Now that will be an adventure to ride.

Well I did it. Not a BSA but an Enfield. A 1930 GL30, 350 cc OHV single sloper. It has got the hand gear change, exposed valves, twin port engine I was after and not a bad restoration but still needed some attention, and still does.

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[Guest]

And now the car version Laurie....eh?

[Dave W]

Got my first bike when I was 19 (1977).a Honda CB125s,Then it was a Honda 400-4,Z900,Laverda Jota,GS1000.Gsx750ESD,GSXR750,Fj1100,FZ750,FZR750, CBR600 ,ZX600and finally an Aprillia RSV1000 .Gave up bikes in 2000 after a bad track day accident on the Aprilia.

[Guest]

[quote=

so I have such an affinity for it right from the start, a 1957 Triumph 650 Thunderbird.

.

Richard you are motor bike greedy what a catalogue.

Thunderbird about the same age as mine. Mine was the metallic Blue. That boom boom exhaust was something else. Not loud but very distinctive.

But the Shooting star was/is favourite. Went to have a look at a renovated one in the Island a few years back. But expensive not suprising.

Laurie

[Guest]

OK. Now lets lower the macho tone a bit. I forgot to post my Puch Maxi:

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I commuted from Surry into central London every day for a year or so in the early 1980s on this bone-rattler. The front brake did not work and the seat was so uncomfortable I used a cushion from the sofa under me. I must have looked a real sight. It was noisy, and especially ear-splitting when the silencer fell off as it did.

After that I had a Honda C70 with a huge top box.

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I stopped commuting to London when an artic passed me on a dual carriageway near the river and pulled in too soon. I wobbled left then right then left and when I scraped to a stop the front wheel and forks were as flat as a pancake, and I was still in the saddle!! If I had wobbled right again I would also have been paper-thin. He stopped and came back. I said a few words and he said "You were on my blind side". I added some more words. Several people at a bus stop 20 feet away just looked on. I hobbled across the bridge to Westminster Hospital. My shoulder healed and I was lucky to avoid a frozen shoulder (not to mention death). Train for me after that.

[john i am]

OK. Now lets lower the macho tone a bit. I forgot to post my Puch Maxi:[ATTACH]97539[/ATTACH]

I commuted from Surry into central London every day for a year or so in the early 1980s on this bone-rattler. The front brake did not work and the seat was so uncomfortable I used a cushion from the sofa under me. I must have looked a real sight. It was noisy, and especially ear-splitting when the silencer fell off as it did.

After that I had a Honda C70 with a huge top box.

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I stopped commuting to London when an artic passed me on a dual carriageway near the river and pulled in too soon. I wobbled left then right then left and when I scraped to a stop the front wheel and forks were as flat as a pancake, and I was still in the saddle!! If I had wobbled right again I would also have been paper-thin. He stopped and came back. I said a few words and he said "You were on my blind side". I added some more words. Several people at a bus stop 20 feet away just looked on. I hobbled across the bridge to Westminster Hospital. My shoulder healed and I was lucky to avoid a frozen shoulder (not to mention death). Train for me after that.

Back in the late seventies our gang (7 14yr olds) were gifted a honda 70 by one of the dad's. we had loads of fun scrambling this stripped down machine in the school holidays unfortunately the inevitable happened and both bike and rider ended up in the river thankfully rider recovered but never saw the bike again

[Guest]

There are some lovely bikes there Richard

[Guest]

There are some lovely bikes there Richard

I wish I still had them all!

[Guest]

I wish I still had them all!

Yes a dream come true. But the dream is still there. A really golden moment in my life. 4 years from 18 until 22.

6 motor bikes, played cricket Saturday morning for school, adult cricket Saturday afternoon. Cricket all day Sunday. Cricket practice 4 days a week. Ballroom dancing to meet the girls and then engaged. That was four years of wear and tear and immense, totally immense pleasure

A cloth full of Solvalautosol shining up the aluminium casings to chrome bright. A razor blade to scrape the cricket bat and to feed it a cloth with linseed oil. A bath slosh on the smellies hair immaculate and off to the dance.

Laurie

Forgot. Radio Luxumberg top 20 Sunday night 11:00 to 12:00pm

[Guest]

I can't believe I actually forgot one! I had one of these for a couple of years after purchasing from an unscrupulous dealer. The engine blew itself up after only a few miles so I replaced all the broken bits with parts from an R65. I kept the side panels though so everyone still thought it was a 450 cc bike

I'll stick it in the appropriate place in the post above as well. I covered a lot of miles on this bike as well. I had an American girlfreind at the time and we toured a lot of the UK on it but did get fed up of stopping regularly to take pictures of dry stone walls and sheep! A great touring bike though, they really will go forever.

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