Motorcycles

[DaveB]

Made me laugh too Eric and in that spirit, I hope you enjoy these..

About to embark on annual outing to Rhyl.. 1963. Far right is my nan (my dad's mom).. next to her is my mom.. then me adjusting my undergarments and to the left of me is my grandad (my mom's dad). He was a coal miner by trade hence his stature!


Here I am enjoying the spirit of the open road. My earliest motorcycling days were done when I could just walk. No crash helmet necessary and my dad used to tie me to him (me on the back) with the belt on his overcoat. Sadly.. no records of those days captured. You will note that my nan is wearing the lampshade she was carrying earlier


And finally.. me sat on the GT185 fresh back from Portugal in '78.. the shot taken by my new wife. Typical me.. I couldn't come back from abroad with a present.. I had to come back with a wife!

JCR 545P was part-exed shortly after. Got a good price for it too despite the relatively high mileage.

A feature of interest in that last shot. The white building in the far distance behind me was the venue for the wedding reception to the present Mrs B Kind of ironic

ATB

DaveB

[Tako_Kichi]

Love the photos Dave and can't help noticing that you either turned the stock bars on that 185 upside down or put a set of drops on it. I tried drops for a while but soon went back to stock....the back ache was too much!

I traded mine in for a Honda CB400F when they first came out, one of the best bikes I ever owned (and I had close to a dozen in 19 years), the best being the BMW R65LS I had right up until I emigrated.

[Filonian]

Any bikers on here?

There is one golden rule that you must obey if you intend staying out of hospital or worse.. treat every other road user as a complete idiot, that is, expect them all to do something stupid and be ready for it. Live by this creed and you should be ok. I'm still here 34 years later so it works.. believe me
DaveB

Couldn't agree more Dave, been my mantra ever since I first took to the roads.

Safe riding Jonesey.

Graham

[DaveB]

Yes Larry..

Dropped bars.. Campbell Geometrics expansion chambers and I notice too a nice fibreglass front guard. I was a bit worried about taking my test with the bike in that state (boy racer as opposed to sensible DayGlo Derek) so my dad suggested I buy an open face helmet for it and do the test on closed throttle It worked as I passed first time. Went straight down to Cannock Suzuki on getting my piece of paper and bought the GS550D. Happy days I liked the 400-4 too but was too into Suzi's to make the jump to Honda.
I rode back from Portugal through spain to Santander on that little bike with a tank bag, a pair of throw over saddle bags, a bag behind me and another strapped to the top box. I could barely get on or off it!

ATB

DaveB

[TSR2]

Love the photos Dave. Those first wheels look very much like the go cart my dad started to build us in the garage. after 6 months or so he gave up and we were left with two tubular steel seet frames attached to a box section... I think sectrely he realised we'd need to be Geoff Capes to have enough stregth to move it, hence why it went on the back burner.... he then made me a bike from a frame he'd found on a bonfire... and that was excellent! Love tha jacket in that last photo too!

[DaveB]

Yeh.. it was kinda trendy at the time I notice too I had rather a lot of hair in that shot. Though we were still RN, the posting to Portugal was NATO so things were a bit lax. No punishments could be doled out because the wasn't the infrastructure to carry it out. If you were really bad.. the worst they could do is send you back to blighty

Jonesey..
Sri for bushwacking your thread mate but when you mentioned your first bike.. it rekindled the old fire again. I still love biking now as I did back then though to be honest, I'm more fair weather rider these days and I'm less likely to pull something apart just for the hell of it. A world of freedom awaits you that you'll never get on 4 wheels. There'll be good days (sunshine) and bad days (rain, frost, ice and snow) but you'll get through them Hang in there.. make sure you pass your test (be Dayglo Derek!) then move up to something with a little more poke. It doesn't have to be a Superbike to be fun

ATB

DaveB

[Jon.M]

Welcome to the biking world Jonesey.

Good advice from the others. I'd add position yourself on the road where you can be seen, and where you can see as much of the road in front as possible. Don't ride in the gutter.

First bike (unless we want to mention the Fizzy or the offroad only Bantam)



Honda CB250 K1. 1968 model which I bought in 1975. This is a picture I found not my actual bike. Mine got written off in an accident, and the lesson was don't trust that someone indicating right will turn right.



This is my latest bike a month ago in the Dolomites. A Yamaha MT-03. For the first time ever I bought a bike that is (much) slower than the one before. The handleing's great though.

Jon

[DaveB]

More good advice there Jon

I noticed not long back my ex-chef (following me on his SV650) was sitting in the area from the gutter to the middle of our side of the road. I asked him if this is how he'd been taught and he said yes Forget that I told him. Stay in the area from the middle of our side to the white line. Make sure you can be seen in both his side and rear view mirrors. If you can see his face in both.. there is no way that he can't see you.. unless of course he doesn't look

ATB

DaveB

[Jon.M]

Yep. Try to make it as easy as possible for the poor sap in the metal box to see you. And don't sit in their blind spot on the rear quarter.

Going back to Jonesey's original post, one of the best bits of biking is that you do have to be awake, and it's that involvement and interaction with the bike and the environment that adds to the enjoyment. In a car it's too easy to drive on auto pilot and nowadays there are more toys (sat/navs, cell phones, stereos) to distract you.

A special treat in Italy is drivers talking animatedly to their passengers looking at them and waving both arms around. On the other hand bikes, scooters and mopeds are much more common than in the UK and most drivers will have spent some time on two wheels. I'm not sure if this is a great aid to safety as I have to spend as much time looking out for nutters on bikes as in cars.

jon

[Nigel H-J]

Hi Mark and welcome to the life on two wheels!!

My first motor-bike was a Honda RS125 with a reasonable amount of acceleration except in a strong headwind!!

By the time I decided to have one, very much the same reasons as yours the laws regarding learner riders changed in that one was restricted to 125cc with a two part test. Exception being if the bike had a sidecar attachment and that was to a maximum of (I think) 400CC then. Later I bought a Honda VT500E and below is a tale of its' demise.

One tip when riding if I may be so bold ( I learn't the hard way) no matter how hot the weather may be always wear leathers and good protection for the protection afforded when riding a motorbike is......Zilch!!.....between you and the hard surface of the tarmac is just a coating of thin air which does not even support the weight of a feather!! Come off, as I have seen other riders do wearing just a T-Shirt the after effects of their body sand papering the road does not make for a pretty sight. My mistake was just lazyness, finished work Xmas Eve, parked up my tractor unit after dropping the trailer then, as I only had four and a half miles to ride home, just put on my helmet and thick biker jacket not bothering to put on the proper leg wear. Maintaining the national speed limit on a country road with 2 cars following a dog suddenly ran in front of me, could not take evasive action but my speed was down to 50mph when I scored a direct hit .......result?.....Brake lever through the knee 2 cars following swerved either side of me, onto the grass verges (fortunately there was one either side of the road) and I was sliding very undignified along the crown of the road with my bike keeping pace with me (my leg was trapped underneath) and fortunately no traffic coming the other way

Spent two and a half years on sick including physiotherapy, lost my HGV Licence on medical ground (knee-cap removed) have arthritis and loss of leg muscle. Now in a completely different career as a result of some stupid half wit woman!!

Why have I related all this? Because you might just need to very quickly ride to the shop or somewhere (maybe just a mile away) and you feel it is too much time consuming to get into your protective clothing for such a short trip...!! Not saying for one minute you would, but always be prepared for the unexpected and be protected.

Safe riding.

Regards
Nigel.