Motorbike Archives

My first ever motorbike was technically a 1958 Lambretta Li 150. However I bought it as a non-runner off a friend for Ł5 when I was only 15. My Dad's first words upon seeing it were "You'll never get that to go". He was right of course! No pictures exist of this wreck.

My first proper bike was a 1974 Honda CB250G5 purchased in 1979. It was truly horrible; of course being young, foolish and knowing no better, I didn't realise that bikes were supposed to go round right hand bends as well as they went round left hand bends! I had worked the summer after leaving school and bought it in secret from my parents who didn't want me to have a bike (My Mum still doesn't) and to be honest I only had enough cash to buy a complete wreck and that readers, is what I got. I did take the advice of the bike mags and took along a biker friend to view it with me but learnt soon afterwards that my mate Gary didn't know the first thing about bikes, he just rode the brand new Suzuki X7 that his parents had bought him in total ignorance.

It wasn't until my Dad rode the G5 that I discovered that amongst many problems the swing arm bushes were totally shot. That explained why I got aquainted with a lot of hedges on right hand bends. One thing I will say is that it taught me a lot about crashing and bike mechanics. First the regulator/rectifier went wrong (quite common on a Honda, even to this day)! then the coil packed up. The first was solved after I built a new one from parts purchased in Tandy, a tenth of the Honda price. The second I had to bite the bullet and pay Honda prices.

Later in the year I went off to Portsmouth Polytechnic and after realising I couldn't keep up with anyone on the twisty lanes of the South Downs, I spent a lot of time taking lifts on other motorbike club members bikes. This is one of the few times it ventured out, picture taken near South Boarhunt, Hampshire in March 1980.

The bike nearly came to an end one night in my second term, I was trying to keep up with Martin Grange on his Honda 350 going up Butser Hill, north of Portsmouth (no chance). Whilst flat out, the engine produced a mighty bang! and then went silent. We managed to coax it back into life but it would only go at 20mph on one cylinder. After a very long limp home, it was eventually stripped down to discover that I had snapped the overhead camshaft in half!

I should have known better but remember the young and foolish bit. I rebuilt the engine with second hand parts over the Easter holiday and decided to take it home to my parents house and leave it there for the summer. All went well for the first 40 miles of the journey until somewhere north of Guilford, I lost power quite dramatically and pulled over to the side of the road. Smoke was pouring out of the air filter that was clearly on fire. Unfortunately the fire went out so I couldn't claim on the insurance. Again it fired up on one cylinder and realising I was in the middle of nowhere, still had 60 miles to go and it was almost certainly terminal, I decided to coax the bike as far as I could, and managed to get going at about 45mph this time. In the event "as far as I could" turned out to be the Kingston Bypass in South London, still 40 miles from home, the engine seized and I ended up dumping it behind a block of flats and enduring a long bus/tube/train ride home.

The next day, my Dad borrowed a friend's pick up truck and we went and collected it. A strip down of the engine revealed that a valve had snapped. Continuing to ride it meant that it eventually smashed it's way through the piston and then seized the crankshaft. The bike was beyond economical repair so we broke it up for spares.

Now you will note that my Dad features a lot here. Thankfully he realised I was likely to go out and buy another wreck after I had worked for the Summer, so he pre-empted this. Not only did he buy me a new bike but also arranged a better paid job that the one I had found for myself. Of course thare was a catch in that I had to pay back the "loan" out of my weekly pay. Not that I minded because this was the new bike, a shiny new Honda CB 250 RS. CB250RS

I certainly owed him for that.

Returning to Portsmouth, I became a member of the bike club committee and usually rode with the club's "fast group" that composed mainly of bikes of 400cc and above. Of course being in my second year I knew a lot of the roads really well and made up for a lack of horsepower with sheer enthusiasm. I would never say that I was the fastest rider but I never seemed to get left behind. It was at this time I gained the nickname "Animal" from my friend Alistair Maclean.... can't think why?

The "RS" stood me in good stead throughout my student days as a member of the infamous Team Thrasher and I have to say was a truly amazing bike. It was reliable, quick and even capable of moderate touring, taking me all over Britain between 1980 and 1983.

In 1983, newly graduated and now with a proper job, I decided to get a "proper" bike. Now a tip for you reader... never buy a bike unless you can ride it first. I part exchanged the RS for a Kawasaki GPz 750. Now the GPz 550 had taken the world by storm and having ridden one I was hooked. However when I visited a Kawasaki dealer, they had the newer 750 in the show room for Ł100 less. I should have realised why!

Nevertheless GPZ 750

I signed on the dotted line (quite literally as I got it on finance) and the shiny red beast was mine. Now in its defence I have to say it had a blinding engine with massive torque for an in line four cylinder engine of that age. It was also very comfy with its sit up and beg riding position. However there was the handling! It was OK most of the time but at speed and especially in long sweeping bends it had the most disconcerting weave. No end of suspension adjustments, tyre pressures, changing fork oil, fitting a fork brace, trying different tyres and new shock absorbers (Marzocchis) followed but never got rid of it. Despite this I kept if for three and a half years, rode it all over Britain and Europe, Nearly wrote it off in France (see "Team Thrasher on Tour") and to be honest I still have a bit of a soft spot for it.

During the rebuild after the France trip, I acquired a temporary replacement, the infamous Honda Monkey Bike! A Honda ST70 Dax to give it's proper name. This was a laugh a minute and carried me to work each day while I saved up for the repairs to the Kawasaki. It was nicknamed "Clouseau" by Paul Cooper after the Peter Sellers phrase from the Pink Panther films "do you have a leesance for zis minkey?"

The engine was a bit tired as you can see from the smoke in the picture and eventually gave up the ghost. At the time I couldn't find a second hand C70 engine (for that's what it was) so instead purchased a 50cc motor from a Honda C50 for the princely sum of Ł30. This slotted straight in and actually improved performance. The speedo was a bit inaccurate and swung all over the place so I never really knew what it could do but a friend following me clocked it a 55mph once (OK is was downhill) This was most probably a reflection on the state of the original engine rather than any tuning secret.

The GPz became my sole transport again, did another trip to the Bol d'Or in southern France via Belgium, Germany, The Nurburgring and Switzerland with Paul. Towards the end of its life It even got taken green laning once (yes I know what you're thinking), an event that led to it's replacement:

Whilst out on a ride one day I stopped at a pub for lunch that had a car park full of BMWs. It turned out to be the London Section of the BMW Club out on a green lane run. Now this confused me as there were only two GS models amongst them and in those days it was assumed nobody actually took them off tarmac. Needless to say I joined them for some gentle green lanes along with road going twins and even a couple of K series bikes.

I only went into what was then Sawbridgeworth Motorcycles, now SBW Motorrad for a small plastic cover for the swing arm pivot, a Ł1.49 part but ended up riding away on an eight month old R 80 RT tourer. It was immaculate and at 4000 miles not even properly run in.

I owned this one for two years, took it to the Bol D'Or again in the South of France (my third trip there) and it also carried me to the French Alps for a summer's climbing near Chamonix. It was a great tourer, light weight, comfortable, excellent weather protection and good luggage capacity.

At that time I worked for Enfield Social Services and helped out with their Motor Project for young offenders. One of the "clients" turned up one day on a Honda CD 175, he was 15 so had no licence, insurance, tax or MOT! He was not keen to give up his new toy until a deal was struck when the leader of the project offered to buy it off him for what he had paid, all of Ł10. As paying this out of Council funds was a bit dubious, I stepped in a bought it, I even got a V5!!! A few quid got it through the MOT and it provided me with transport for a few months until the alternator started to fail. It still ran OK in the daytime but you couldn't use the lights. So I donated it back to the motor project where it was converted into a trail bike (honest). This picture was taken after it had been taken out and thrashed in standard trim and just before it was fitted with knobblies and a home made, high level 2 into 1 exhaust.

Soon after a friend knew someone selling a Yamaha XT250 at a good price, so I snapped it up. Stripped down with Acerbis plastic bits it made a great little green lane machine. It even competed in the National Rally, 500 miles in 20 hours across Britain (with a can of petrol strapped on the back to augment the 1.1 gallon tank). Driving through the night was fun on a 6 volt headlamp bulb, especially when there was no one else to follow. The previous year I had done it on the R80 RT with an 80/110W headlamp bulb and two 100w spot lights bolted on.

My last bike before a long lay off was bought from Graham and had quite a history. A Yamaha TT600, which was a model never officially imported to the UK it had been brought into the country by the Yamaha importers for use by the racer Vic Allen in the British Four Stroke Moto Cross Championships. It had been fitted with a White Brothers high compression piston and performance cam, had the balancers removed and a close ratio gearbox fitted. Ram Air filters and a White Brothers Exhaust finished it off. By the time Graham bought it, a set of Honda CR500 forks and disk brake had relaced the original drum and a White Power rear shock had been fitted. He registered it for the road in Enduro trim and even entered it in the Weston Supermare Beach Race and I think a few Enduros too. I eventually bought it off him and used it for green laning and the occasional play at moto cross tracks on practice days. Later in its life I even fitted road tyres (the first Super Moto in Britain)? and commuted into London on it at one point. A blown head gasket then meant I took it off the road and as I shortly afterwards got married, I never got round to fixing it and eventually sold it to my friend Tigger.