JUST BEGINNERS

In last month’s subscriber newsletter, I puzzled over my peculiar start to motorcycling and mused on what motivated you to take to two wheels – and what keeps you going today. We got so many responses that we could fill an entire issue with them! So here’s a snapshot of many motorcycling lives; there are some longer and more detailed reminiscences on Real-Classic.co.uk Rowena

Reading your Members’ Enclosure was spooky. Here’s my start in motorcycling: I always cycled as a child, and then out of the blue at age 15 I decided to get a motorcycle, as an engine would be the logical improvement. Nobody in my immediate family or friends had a bike, and my great-uncle had been killed between the wars on his Ariel so bikes weren’t really mentioned. I remember deciding to wait until I was 17, and get a proper bike rather than a moped. Stiff parental opposition followed, but as I had a paper-round and a Saturday / holiday job in a record shop I was self-financing.

To allay parental concern, I enrolled on the RAC/ACU training scheme at Crystal Palace and took the off-road training on Sunday mornings on an interesting selection of mopeds and scooters. The training was based in the former pits in Crystal Palace Park, which were next to the arches of the original Crystal Palace. There had been a race-circuit in the park, hard to imagine racing among the concrete dinosaurs!

When the glorious day arrived of my 17th birthday in 1979 I was able to wobble off down Anerley Hill for the first time on my Suzuki B100P. Remember, I’d only ridden on the cinder pit-area, and it felt as if I was doing 100mph! The little two-stroke looked like a Japanese copy of a Bantam with a chrome tank and black knee-pads, and cost £50 plus £9 for the top-box – which says something about the bike. Sadly it put me off two-strokes for life, as every Saturday morning was spent de-coking the silencer with a blow-torch on the front path. I soon moved on to bigger and better things, taking my test on a Honda CB250 and then onto the dispatch circuit. Julie Diplock, member 844 I was looking for cheap transport after divorcing my first wife. I was 27 and had owned a selection of cars that were one step from the scrapyard. So in 1980 I bought a brand new Kawasaki Z200. I was hooked. What had I been missing all those years? There followed a Z650, Honda Superdream (briefly), and the Suzuki T500 which I still have.

There was no family connection with motorcycling. My father never drove at all. Two of my uncles had had motorcycles in their youth, but that was before my time – although I have vague memories of riding in a large sidecar with one of them. I always remember them telling me about being late back home after a trip to buy new caps. When my Grandma asked why they were so late they claimed it had taken ages for them to find caps with the peak at the back.

As for my interest in old motorcycles, it’s hard to say how that happened. I suppose it started when I went to a classic bike show at a school in Wrose, followed by discovering a small black and white publication called, if memory serves, The Used and Classic Bike

Guide. There must have been something lurking within me to prompt me to go to the show in the first place.

It was many years later before I was in a position to buy my first British bike, a 1963 Triumph Tiger. That started a love-hate relationship which continues to this day. Tim Ellis, member 5861

That was an interesting survey you mentioned, it was done the year I returned to the road after an enforced break. I count myself as a ‘long term rider’ as I didn’t stop riding because of the reasons people usually mention: mortgages, family, all that. I kept my RS going all through that, always on the cheap, but it was my only way to get to work. I only stopped riding because I got so sick I could not ride, and as soon as I started to get well enough again getting mobile again was my highest priority.

How did I start? Dad had a bike but never rode it when I was younger. It sat in the back of the shed and once in a while he would start it up with a great cloud of blue smoke. It was an Enfield Flying Flea, but somehow it never stirred me. Then Mum sold it to the scrapman for a fiver…

I took no interest until my big brother got a moped. Then I got interested and I couldn’t wait to get my own and get mobile. That was it. Partly I stayed with bikes because I could never get on with cars. I can drive one OK but never feel comfortable behind the wheel. There was no money spare in the household budget for a car; the bike trade never pays high wages, not to parts guys anyway! I do sometimes wonder if I would have kept riding if I’d not started working in a Honda dealer when I was 17.

I did have a Yamaha for a few years, mind, but only because I wanted a certain size of bike. Only Yamaha made one I considered sensible, the XJ600 Diversion which was cheap enough for me to consider. Michael Durrant, member 6740 My motivation was cycling from a young age and, I suppose, motorcycling was just a natural progression. I started motorcycling in 1962 and so the music, coffee bars and the lasses were a big attraction. Bikes of course were plentiful and affordable back then, spares were cheap and easy to find – so these are among the best days of my life, and memories of the bikes and the people will last forever.

The bikes I own at the present are a Harley ironhead Sportster and a BMW K100LT. I’ve always had a love of Harleys and I owned a couple of ex-army WLs in the 1960s. As for the BMW, I noted Frank’s comment in Tales From The Shed about the K75. These Flying Bricks represent excellent value. They fit together like LEGO so are easy to maintain. I paid £900 for mine and I’ve had it for six trouble-free years. So I would say if you want a cheap classic bike it’s not just a case of ‘pause for thought – it’s a no brainer! Mick Nichols, member 9986

My first week as a spotty engineering apprentice did not start well. Upon alighting the works bus for the first time, I was assailed by a thick blue fug of cigarette and pipe smoke. Each time one workers started smoking his neighbour would initially cough and then promptly light up themselves, as if the act was somehow defensive. After a week of this I decided to cycle the five or so miles to work and be able to breathe in fresh air instead.

All was well for a time but as speeds went up a nagging pain in my tummy brought upon by my energetic pedalling led to a spell in hospital with acute appendicitis. Until then I had no interest in motorcycles whatsoever, but my elder brother had decided to sell his work transport machine so I gave him a fiver for it. It seemed to me that perhaps I could breathe fresh air on my way to work without the manual effort required…

The machine? A 1949 Corgi with wheelbarrow-sized wheels and wheelbarrowtype handling! A few rides on this and I was well and truly hooked on motorcycling, an affliction which has lasted to my 75th year so far. Riding the Corgi was a real hoot for a gangly six-footer. At least if you were unlucky enough to fall off, you didn’t have far to go! Interesting things happened while riding this primitive machine. For instance: why are the handlebars getting higher? Because the seat tube pinch bolt had come loose and the saddle was sinking into the west! I should explain that Corgis were one of the original fold-up bikes on the market and frequently did fold up while you were riding them.

All this was long ago and I note that Corgis now fetch upward of £1000. I wouldn’t care to ride one on today’s roads if you paid me twice that amount. The military model seen here was spotted in a museum recently and gives an idea of the spartan nature of the beast. Ron Spinks, member 1802

As a schoolboy in the 1960s I thought bikes were pretty cool but knew nothing about them. The lightbulb moment for me was attending the 1971 Match Races at Oulton Park with some family friends. I was blown away by the sight and sound of a grid full of triples. As soon as I had fulfilled the required time in a car (from 17-19), to please my family who were anti-bike, I got my first bike. I’ve never been without one for more than a fortnight since.

I’ve raced them, trialled them, toured, bimbled, ridden alone and with friends, ever since. I even made my living out of them for a while. I guess you’d say my top reason is ‘enjoyment of motorcycling’ whether it’s fast or slow. Fast equals excitement and slow usually equals fun. The older I get, the more I gravitate towards the slower end, like many RC readers, I guess! Martyn Roberts, member 1546

What started me in motorcycles was a desperate need for transport. I lived out in the Suffolk villages long before they became the haunt of yuppies and second-homers. No bus service worth mentioning and ten miles from the nearest town. We went to secondary school by mini-bus. So at midnight on my 16th birthday (dad was a policeman and would not entertain me starting a minute early) I set off for Saxmundham. No CBT, never been on the road before, never driven at night before and somehow made it back. My bike was an Excelsior Roadmaster with a 197cc Villiers 6E, bought for £7/10s in bits and delivered in the back of my brother’s 1932 Morris Minor convertible.

After a gap of 20 years I was on an RAF detachment to Nova Scotia where a pal had a Trident stashed with a mate and we spent a wonderful three days zooming around Canada. Once again I was hooked. What decides my choice of bike? Hard to say. I have six bikes ranging from 1910 to 1988 and, while there is a certain Panther theme, it is the contrasts between them that entertains me. I like riding all of them and I also like to work on them all. Andy Loosemore, member 1713 I purchased my first ‘motorcycle’ aged 14. It was a Vincent, costing £1/10s: a Vincent Firefly clip- on engine. If only I had kept it! I fitted it into a bike I had built from bits (cost another 10s) and struggled to start it. Then it sprang into life. I roared off down our drive, a steepish hill, put the brakes on and all the brake blocks popped out. Crash – into the fence at the bottom, end of bike. What happened to the Vincent bit of it I can’t remember.

Shortly after, approaching 16, my dad enrolled me onto the RAC/ACU course run by Northampton Motorcycle Club at the cattle market, now a big supermarket car park. I learned how to ride between lines of cones, some basic maintenance, and how to ride relatively safely on the road. A very good course, and I passed my test first time. My only letdown was my bike, a Vespa 150, perfectly adequate but not cool in biker terms. My friends had a James 150, a DMW, and an LE Velocette: much cooler, or so I thought then. My dad then bought me a new machine, a Vespa 125 ex-training bike with dual controls! I had this for many years. It took me to college in Swansea on a number of occasions. I even remember being recruited as an instructor for the club.

Being a hard up teacher, I owned a number of Honda Cub 50s and a CD175 before parenthood put an end to such extravagances. Later in life, I returned to bikes, firstly a Honda 125, then a new Chinese 125. Eventually I found an MZ ETZ250 at a local dealers which I bought for £450 about 12 years ago and it’s still going strong. Recently, it has been joined by a Honda 250 with electric start (aging knees): a bad purchase, early electronics with an incurable fault. The MZ, although basic, does what I need. It’s cheap to run, easy to maintain, great around the Devon lanes and if I drop it, I can pick it up.

Although I occasionally hanker after something bigger, better, faster and newer, the reality is the MZ does 95% of what I want and will probably be my last motorcycle. Enough of Broughs, Vincents and the like, RealClassic cover the more mundane as well. I found the MZ series and Northampton motorcycle industry bit particularly interesting. Despite having grown up there, I knew nothing of it! Chris Taylor, RC member