Tales of yesteryear
Discussion
Passed my test May 13 1980, as I’d wrote my own bike off I borrowed my mate’s RD200 to take my test. I passed and this allowed me to get on the back of my mates bikes even though they were still on L-plates.
How the hell was I going to supervise if the rider wanted to cane the arse off of his RD250 or X7? I survived and here to tell the tale. Boy did we get some 7 day wonders to produce our documents.
How the hell was I going to supervise if the rider wanted to cane the arse off of his RD250 or X7? I survived and here to tell the tale. Boy did we get some 7 day wonders to produce our documents.
I must of passed test in late 70,s , maybe 77 .
Memories
1. Eyeing the girls up on the path , showing off , car pulled away & I gave it a massive handful , straight into the back of the car that had stopped and ended up lieing across the boot of the car .
2. Pulling upto traffic lights on kh250 & collapsing in a pile on road , pissed up , mates picked me up & got me and bike home , learnt not to goto a cider house while riding a bike
3 . Leaving Fri morning from Bristol after a night shift heading for the midlands , freezing fog , went into garage to get fuel , petrol attendant , the days they filled your tank , girl lifted fuel cap , put in fuel , unzipped jacket , took out money & replaced wallet , my hands were like ice blocks , how I made the rest of the journey I’ll never know, I just went past the stage of being cold .
4. Following a learner car along road , it suddenly did a emergency stop , I hit the back of it and ended up nigh on the roof of it , instructor admitted full responsibility for accident as he’d looked in mirror , not seen me , hit dash & learner did full on emergency stop , bike totalled
That’s just a few of the many incident over the years , luckily no major injuries .
Memories
1. Eyeing the girls up on the path , showing off , car pulled away & I gave it a massive handful , straight into the back of the car that had stopped and ended up lieing across the boot of the car .
2. Pulling upto traffic lights on kh250 & collapsing in a pile on road , pissed up , mates picked me up & got me and bike home , learnt not to goto a cider house while riding a bike
3 . Leaving Fri morning from Bristol after a night shift heading for the midlands , freezing fog , went into garage to get fuel , petrol attendant , the days they filled your tank , girl lifted fuel cap , put in fuel , unzipped jacket , took out money & replaced wallet , my hands were like ice blocks , how I made the rest of the journey I’ll never know, I just went past the stage of being cold .
4. Following a learner car along road , it suddenly did a emergency stop , I hit the back of it and ended up nigh on the roof of it , instructor admitted full responsibility for accident as he’d looked in mirror , not seen me , hit dash & learner did full on emergency stop , bike totalled
That’s just a few of the many incident over the years , luckily no major injuries .
Early 80's on a Fizzy with no front brake, bald tyres, major corrosion & wonky handlebars. Rode home from a massive house party when I may have been a little intoxicated. The heavens opened & I have a vague recollection of binning it on a tight right hander next to a church. Somehow I managed to pick it up & get home without a scratch!
Worst memory was riding some 3 miles back from the pub: it was around -10c & I couldn't find my gloves. I'm amazed I didn't get life changing frostbite injuries like Ranolph Feins...
Oh, & 7 day wonders occurred on a regular basis.
Worst memory was riding some 3 miles back from the pub: it was around -10c & I couldn't find my gloves. I'm amazed I didn't get life changing frostbite injuries like Ranolph Feins...
Oh, & 7 day wonders occurred on a regular basis.
Where do I start ??? Grew up in Chingford, at the Mount, gangs of mopeds were Everywhere. Came out of my road one eve on either my Fantic GT or early FS1E, as I got to the top of Chingford Mount hill, I see a moped being ridden very eratically coming towards me. As the bike gets to the brow of the Mount, the blue AP50 comes to a halt and the rider falls onto the tarmac ! It a pal Darren, paralytic drunk ( or stoned ) he is so gone he can t speak, I cannot reason with him, he just laughs & gets up, kicks the AP into life and then rides down the Mount, using both lanes. I follow and as he goes through the lights, I turn around. I can still see him now weaving into the distance, fortunately with only less than a mile to get home. I recall that there wasn’t another soul around, least of all Plod, who Hated us with a vengeance…..
Darren was very sadly killed on his R6 in spring 2007 whilst on his way back from the bikers tea hut in Epping Forest.
Darren was very sadly killed on his R6 in spring 2007 whilst on his way back from the bikers tea hut in Epping Forest.
Edited by SS427 Camaro on Sunday 10th May 19:09
Bringing back memories.
I had a set of motorbike gloves that ‘I thought’ looked the part but were useless at keeping the cold out, more often than not I couldn’t feel my fingers and then we’d all have a tea break in the local cafe and I’d get what we use to call hot ache from going cold to hot too soon.
The old 6 volt magneto on my two Italian mopeds, the front light would suddenly start working half decent but it would normally mean when I missed a gear the sudden increase in revs had blown the back light bulb.
I had a set of motorbike gloves that ‘I thought’ looked the part but were useless at keeping the cold out, more often than not I couldn’t feel my fingers and then we’d all have a tea break in the local cafe and I’d get what we use to call hot ache from going cold to hot too soon.
The old 6 volt magneto on my two Italian mopeds, the front light would suddenly start working half decent but it would normally mean when I missed a gear the sudden increase in revs had blown the back light bulb.
Sunmer of 2007 about 3 of us has Aprilia RS50s, one an SR50 and a smattering of other stuff.
I distinctly remember getting ribbed by the others about me religiously warming mine up/taking it slow for the first few miles.....
Guess who the only person was who NEVER had an engine seizure/blow up!
I distinctly remember getting ribbed by the others about me religiously warming mine up/taking it slow for the first few miles.....
Guess who the only person was who NEVER had an engine seizure/blow up!
Must have been 1979/1980, living in Italy, I would go to school on my bike and, usually at the end of the day some of us would congregate at the local bar for an hour or so before going home.
Said bar was at the roadside at a busy roundabout and we would sit outside at some few tables on the path.
It was a nice sunny day and by the time I got there, there was quite a crowd including a few of the girls that I was keen to impress.
My master plan was to wheelie past them all followed by a loop of the roundabout, pull up and casually dismount in the hope that all the young Ladies would be so impressed that they would throw themselves at me, the biking God.
However, as I hooked the front up it came up too fast and too high, well past any balance point and I slid off the back, I tried to run behind, holding onto the bars, trying to get it under control but inevitably it went tits up and I ended up lying in the road with the bike on it's side, rear wheel spinning away, engine roaring.
I wasn't badly hurt, just a few minor scrapes/bruises and some damage to the bike, none of the girls were impressed either but it did give them all a good laugh.
Said bar was at the roadside at a busy roundabout and we would sit outside at some few tables on the path.
It was a nice sunny day and by the time I got there, there was quite a crowd including a few of the girls that I was keen to impress.
My master plan was to wheelie past them all followed by a loop of the roundabout, pull up and casually dismount in the hope that all the young Ladies would be so impressed that they would throw themselves at me, the biking God.
However, as I hooked the front up it came up too fast and too high, well past any balance point and I slid off the back, I tried to run behind, holding onto the bars, trying to get it under control but inevitably it went tits up and I ended up lying in the road with the bike on it's side, rear wheel spinning away, engine roaring.
I wasn't badly hurt, just a few minor scrapes/bruises and some damage to the bike, none of the girls were impressed either but it did give them all a good laugh.
In about 1996 I worked at Centre Parcs at Elveden while waiting to start my apprenticeship.
I had a Yamaha FS1SE - the custom version of the Fizzy. It was as bad as it sounds with long unruly forks.
Riding home one day a car was trying to overtake me when another car was coming the other way so I had no choice but to hug the verge and hit an enormous pothole. The forks buckled, I went over the handlebars (which took a while) and knocked myself out.
When I woke up I was under the arm of Gary Mallet, the Curley-haired Coronation Street window cleaner. He was coming the other way, saw it all and rescued me out the road. If you want a feeling of confusion try waking up under the arm of a well known northern soap star. He was a top bloke, waited with me til I got recovered and gave me his details to try and claim from the council, which I never did.
I had a Yamaha FS1SE - the custom version of the Fizzy. It was as bad as it sounds with long unruly forks.
Riding home one day a car was trying to overtake me when another car was coming the other way so I had no choice but to hug the verge and hit an enormous pothole. The forks buckled, I went over the handlebars (which took a while) and knocked myself out.
When I woke up I was under the arm of Gary Mallet, the Curley-haired Coronation Street window cleaner. He was coming the other way, saw it all and rescued me out the road. If you want a feeling of confusion try waking up under the arm of a well known northern soap star. He was a top bloke, waited with me til I got recovered and gave me his details to try and claim from the council, which I never did.
Groomio said:
I high sided one of those when i was 16. When i say high sided i mean slid it into a kerb due to the lack of pressure in the tyres and it spat me a fair way. I landed hands down with no gloves on and removed several layers of skin from all of my finger tips, who would have thought finger tips could be so sore for so long. Mate straightened the forks that were bent in a u shape and welded them back up and it was fine.18 months later got my first road legal bike, an RG125. After a few weeks decided to see how far it would lean by going faster and faster round a local roundabout on an estate under construction so no one about apart from mates. I got my knee down followed shortly after by the rest of my body and the bike. The next night a mate flipped a 100cc Go Kart on the same roundabout flat out, will never forget the look on his face as it landed right way up, lucky escape as he didn't have a helmet on. Bike was stolen a few months later. I wheelied its replacement into a lamp post after dropping my then girlfriend off thinking a wheelie up her road (on a very steep hill) would impress her. Instead she closed the door and went inside, later she told me because she thought i was dead
A few weeks later i did think i was dead when the nut and bolt holding the front brake lever on decided to part company with the bike while flat out on a local dual carriageway. When i grabbed the brake and nothing happened i stayed in the outside lane, chucked it down two gears and turned for the left hander at the roundabout. I then learned i had been riding around like a fanny after i made the corner 20mph faster than i had ever gone round it. Probably wasn't the best lesson to learn when young and stupid as a fair bit carnage ensued until overtaking a council van on a left hand bend one morning on the way to work in the pissing rain i encountered an oil/diesel spill as i tipped into the following right hander. Ended up sliding right across the road at a T junction, luckily with nothing coming. Got sent home after foreman noticed blood coming out my shoe on arrival at work, turned out gear lever punched a hole an inch deep into my ankle. Adrenaline is great stuff
Couple of weeks later got a rear indicator knocked off by a smart arse that swerved toward me when white lining at around 80mph through traffic, again on the way to work. Everyone thinks tyres back then were rubbish but given they managed all year round and after a few weeks or more of snow and ice they would have felt great on any dry warm road. A few days later i got a bit giddy overtaking a bus on a right hand bend, again it was raining heavily and slid into the side of it. It basically kept me upright until i was going slow enough to regain control. It was ten years before i got into bigger bikes and all that stupidity served as a good warning that the same stuff 100mph faster would really hurt so it curbed my enthusiasm a bit.
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