Heres some more pics of bikes and cars. Not so dramatic as Part I though.
Back in 1981, a few months before turning 16 I bought an unrestricted Yamaha FS1E, freshened it up with a rebore, and got a few miles running it in up and down the farm lane.
Forward planning for a purpose! On my birthday spent the whole day riding EVERYWHERE. Then the next day did exactly the same such freedom!
Still 16 took my tractor road-test, and a busy year of Olevels, working on the farm, and riding.
The well-used FS1E needed a lot of tinkering so found a newer Suzuki TS50-ER, dabbled in a bit of trail riding and had my first big adventure abroad - the Isle of Wight!
The ferries have changed since 1981.. Only pic of the TS50 is this, with my sister appearing to be falling off it:
It looked exactly like this, quite smart for its day:
A fantastic weekend riding all over the Island, and all the trails, a definite life highlight even at 30 years ago. Mind you, the TS50 was restricted and painfully slow on the big hills - I clearly remember crawling up the hill out of Freshwater Bay, 2nd gear full-throttle, barely 15 mph, all the way up.
More speed needed so bought an older unrestricted Suzuki AP50, a crackin little bike. Better than the FS1E, with an extra gear and a few extra mph every little helps on a 50!
No pics so had to borrow one, identical to mine:
Nice looking bike for its time, so I had two.
Onto age 17, and again, forward planning had me a Suzuki TS100-ER lined up ready for the big day and a lot of riding was done. Loved that bike.
Only got a blurry pic:
(Well come back to that car!) but another borrowed pic shows its slightly odd, low, look not a lot of suspension.
Its top speed modest but the pick-up was brisk with a lovely sounding Fresco tail-pipe, and it would cruise at a useful 50/55.
Only a cheap-to-run 100cc at this point because before turning 17 I had already got hold of a car as well! But where the hell is the pic?! - It was identical to this:
A 1.6 Capri!! well it was OK back in 1982. Quickly took my car test and managed, oh, all of 2 days before imbedding the Capri into a tree, oops. Slippery roads not quite the same as a muddy field. Lesson learnt.
The Capri a write-off so replaced with a bland-but-reliable Vauxhall Viva 1.3 for £200, which as the pics show I also crashed, oops!!
Looks quite purposeful strangely - a slow-speed shunt from not paying enough attention in traffic another lesson learnt doh. And it was a Capri I hit!
Soon moved onto a Mini (not fast, but fun handling) and got into windsurfing and surfing for a few years.
Donkey jacket, turn-ups and Doc Martins - 1984 fashion!
These rival distractions delayed my bike test until aged 20 in 1985, and in the meantime a much newer, shinier, C90 for the road seemed the right thing to do:
Oh no it wasnt! The C90 was too slow and felt small and vulnerable on the road, so replaced it with an old DT100 - much better, a useful 10mph better in fact.
Took me test and jumped aboard a DT17MX so much power!
Well, actually not as at 35mph it would cough and lose power arrrggh! Several weeks of extremely frustrating fault-finding and eventually a 50p-sized lump of carbon was flushed out the exhaust it was that all along!
Had to drop the suspension back to standard before the chain sawed the swinging arm in half:
That pic after a TRF run circa 1986, which I joined despite still being on a student budget it was only 10-quid then!
A sea of DT175s, XL185s and XT350s.
Belstaff waxed cotton jacket, wellies, and some very odd-looking safety glasses.
Not enough photos from those days.
Started full-time work in 1987 and picked up a lovely XT350, which Ive just noticed is in one of the previous photos. Bought off one of my new TRF friends, a certain Pete Wildsmith,for I think, £1100, double what Id spent on any car or bike previously and seemed a huge amount of money!
My friend Pete who had bought the XT new also bought my current bike, the DR350 from new - 25 years later its come full-circle. Anyway, the XT:
WHAT a great bike, road, trail, motorway, it was happy to do it all. A trip to Wales on the XT will get its own thread.
Loved me bikes but the 30-mile trip to work was mainly in a cheap Morris Marina 1.3 from student days:
Best kept covered up really! A pretty poor effort by British Leyland, but it was warm, dry, and drifted a treat in the snow!
Soon replaced with a more respectable gas-guzzling 2.0 Cavalier Mk1:
then a crackin Astra:
and then I met my wife-to-be and the biking fizzled out!
Well, I had one bike left, a DT175, very neglected by its previous owner:
Which I did a basic restore job on:
.. and used it up the farm for a couple more years before the next chapter: children, and about 6 years without a motorbike - tough times!
-- Edited by thedktor on Wednesday 20th of March 2013 09:11:22 AM
Great pictures , all my memories came flooding back , I was lucky enough to have a new fizzy when I was 16 you a right about the ap 50 my mates had some they always had about 5mph more than me , I loved my fizzy though just like a small motor bike , then progressed on to yamaha 125 , 175 etc then 36 years on end up with a 250 wrf
Thanks for taking the time to put all of that to gather, as they say we are not in control of the length of our lifes but we are the width, I had a AP 50 that i paid £60 for which i paid for from a saterday morning job, and yes it took 60 hours work but the bike was a minter, I wrecked the bike befor i was legal to take it on the road, I rode it around the parish with mole grips for a gear lever in the end.
and reminisce
