Didn't learn on one but did a few miles on my mates. He left it at my folks house in the Midlands (where I live now) while we were at sea and I went and collected it for him. The wife drove me up in the Mini and the trip back was a case of me passing her on the downhill bits then her catching me up on the uphill bits His next bike was a Honda CX500 and he was keen for me to try it so we went out one day and swapped. He proceeded to disappear on my GSX1100 leaving me on the plastic pig
I do know what it's like, when i was an apprentice Panel Beater i caught my thumb in-between a door on a car i was working on and it took the Nail completely off, i was about 17 at the time and although i'm 71 now the nail has never grown back properly giving me three nails, so even now i clip it very short as not to catch it on anything,
So even after all these years it still reminds me of the Pain it caused me!!
Roger.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
I didn't learn on one as they came out long after I got my full licence (my first bike was a brand new Suzuki GT185 with the drum brakes) but I did have one for a while some years later. I used it as my 'winter bike' so that I didn't have to ride my Yamaha XS750 triple in the slush and ice (the wife had the car to go to work).
My brother had the 400CC Superdream and it was better (in terms of performance) but still not a patch on the CB400F I had as my second bike.
I learnt to ride on a BSA Bantam 123cc. It was a friend's and as I was only 15 it meant learning on quiet country lanes. They really were quiet then. The roads. My first legal bike was a 1938 Triumph 350 side valve single with a sidecar chassis and girder forks. I wrote it off in 1962 when I saw the first miniskirt in Kent and ran in the back of a car
The CB400F was a corker. The first Mrs Speedbird always fancied one but eventually went mad and bought herself the CBX550F so she could keep up with my VF750F. Nearly!
I had another friend who had a CBX1100 6 cylinder who insisted on swapping with me during rides as he liked cornering on my Suzuki GS750. The CBX had such a high CoG due to the six across engine it was awful to ride - I hated swapping.
