Was banned from having a bike. My Dad had a bad crash before us kids come along and so mother was hostile to us even talking about it so we weren't even allowed a Puch 50. DId use to knock around a bit on a mates C90 though. Bought a Rev'N'Rip in 2007 to have a break from the cycle commute and soon realised just how dangerous a gutless bike is, so in 2008 I booked my DAS and scraped* a first time pass at the end of the week * scraped it because I thought I had failed on the U turn but the examiner put it down as a minor because in his eyes it was just a comfort dab. Sure it had nothing to do with him being an ex-wedgehead and me using the phonetic alphabet on the eyesight test which prompted a quick pre-test conversation
July 1969, on my 16th. birthday. My parents brought me a Lambretta SX150 (I paid the deposit). The next spring I passed my test and the Sx lasted until '71 to be replaced by a TS90R then TS125T, CB500/4 and then a Z900A4 by 1976. A big accident and insurance complications followed by house purchase, marriage and starting a family kept me off bikes until 1986 since when only a years disqualification has interupted my riding.
Sadly not many pictures of my early bikes exist, so I've supplemented them with pictures off the net. My Suzuki K10 Bought for £20 in 1977, stripped cleaned, resprayed, rebuilt for another £20. Compared with my mate's AP50's it was butt ugly but pissed all over them. The engine now resides in a go kart me and my mate built for his son (before he had one, but you know how it is) and is now sat waiting for his grandson to be able to reach the pedals. It let me down soooooo many times but in doing so taught me much about the vagueries of automotive electrics. My CB200 A proper bike. Cable operated front disc brake (guess how effective that was), electric start, completely invincible. It had a tank pad as standard! How ahead of its time was that! I passed my test on this bike. A guy in the "Three Horse Shoes", at the time, the only bikers pub in Exeter said out loud that I "looked like Snoopy flying his kennel against the Red Baron" while I was riding it, So I was Snoopy from that day on. I even decalled it as such. It was nicked from outside my door in the night and was never heard of again. Although I did once get a call from the Nottinghamshire police saying details regarding it had cropped up in an investigation, but nothing more. Paying off the finance left me without transport for a while until I signed away my soul on this, my 550f And yes T, that is Sandy Bay. Love at first sight. It very nearly killed me the first week I had it, leaving me with another £200 bill for repairs. I know, I know, but in 1978, it was a lot of money for me. This bike really is indestructible. Started first time, everytime no matter what abuse I put it through, and there was a lot. Could never adjust the bloody cam chain on it though. Drove mef ucking mad! I eventually put a pair of ace bars on it and couldnt believe how it improved the handling. Until I noticed how bent the old handlebars were, the result of dropping it on them, stationary in the snow once. Well it is heavier than the FireBlade. Special to me, this bike, and, as such it still lives in the back of the garage waiting for me to strip it to the bone and rebuild it bit by bit in my retirement. Other bikes will come and go, but not this one. 30 years of cars, then a customer of mine, strapped for cash, waved this at me. I loved it. I hated it. Then, I loved it again. Then I murdered it. It is, without doubt, the most Italian thing I have ever owned. It went when it wanted to go, it cost lots of money, just standing still, it handled beautifully, it pulled out of corners like a bike with three times its power. Then, when I wrote it off, I could still ride it home. It's gone now, but it taught me that the idiot Clarkson is right about Alpha Romeos, you have to have suffered one to truly qualify for petrolhead-dom, and an old Ducati is the same. Not really looking that hard for a replacement, but honestly, nagged by Jeanette to go into Bridge Garage one Saturday afternoon (that'll teach her), I found this. The bike that made me start looking at sportbikes when it was launched, even though I never had any reason to believe I'd ever ride a bike again at the time. The bike that when we talked bikes was the one that was always "Well if I ever got back into bikes, it would have to be this one." And there it is, sat on my drive, looking down it's nose at everyone. I've never before anthropomorphised my vehicles until now. Never even thought of them as "he" or "she", but this one is Bill. And he's way too fast for me and way too powerful for any logical purpose, but I don't care, because more times than not, when I'm on it, I've got this grin that keeps getting spit in my ears. Plus, he's got the seal of approval from my mother, who wasn't overly keen on me getting back into bikes in the first place, but because he's a Honda and blue, he matches her criteria for "always getting me home because it's a blue Honda".
And Yamaha RD200DX, Suzuki GS750EC, Honda C50, Kawasaki GPZ1100B1, Suzuki GSXR1100, Kawasaki ZX9R B2, Suzuki GSXR1000K1, Suzuki GSXR1000K3, Suzuki GSX1400K4, Suzuki GSXR1000K7IOMTT, Honda CBR900RRR, Honda CBR1000RR........... that I can remember so far.......
Started riding in 1985 at 16 0n a yamaha fS1E DX , had a bad accident not long after an broke my back, left shoulder, right knee, ankle , an lots of gravel rash . Took a year to recover an am 100 % now an been riding since .
Started when I was 13, drove without license for a while. Police stopped me, but they thought that I was old enough to ride a "Moped". Got my own car when I was 16, first real bike " Honda " ( 750 cc ) when I was 18 years old.
Started riding when I was 8 years old , my mate let me have a go on a 250 superdream lol on the old railway tracks . he didn't let me have another go as I didn't come back for over an hour oooops !!! stayed with the off road theme until I was 27 had an argument with a huge tree and the handle bars on a xl125 , didn't ride again until I passed my road test 6 years ago
SS50 at 16,few months on DT125 AT 17 then got a RD125LC Passed test when they ran thru the alleys trying to keep an eye on you,gotta RD350 LC Then which was stolen so 20 years without a bike then midlife crisis gixer 600 k6 to ease my way back for a year then the Blade.
I rode my first bike when I was 9 years old and was in Saudi Arabia at the time as my dad worked out there, so used to potter around in the back garden on that. I was brought up around bikes in the 70's as my old man used to short circuit race and has raced in 19 Isle of Man TT races on everything from Manx Nortons, RD 350's to Moto Guzzis. I only took my test early 1990s so had a good old period without any riding but since passing my test I have never been without a bike.
Hi All Started riding on the road in 79 on a dt125 passed my test in 1980 on a gsx250 and have had quite a few bikes since then and now running cbr600 which I've had from new now 15 year old,changing too a 2010/11 hrc blade in the next few months. So have been riding now approx 34 years on the road Cheers Stu
Did my DAS October 2010, bought a new Hornet in Feb 2011, put 12,000 miles on it, bought Blade October 2012 but couldn't insure it until Feb 2013, put 1000 miles on Blade so far, all going well
Was never allowed bikes as a kid as my parents wouldn`t let me. (My Older brother was killed in a car crash at 20 months old so I guess it was from that really). I used to go with my mate and his dad to the park for a blast on his monkey bike when we were about 9 lol. Also used to go to the beach with the brother in law too with his Yamaha banshee. Sat my test in 1998 and had a zx6r for a few years. Then had about a 9 yr gap and then bought a duc748. Now on the blade and never looked back
A Bultaco (offroad) in early 80's was my first bike ride... I bought an XR200 in 1985 (Stacked it fronton into a honda civic in early '86), and i think I got my license a few months later. Followed the next day by a VF400... My dad went ape when I bought it... For about a day... Then he made me show it to him, and said it was great. First bike in the UK was a 600F, then 600RR and now perfection... A 2012 blade. (Although it was a toss-up between that and an S1000RR H
I started aged 15, got a white FS1e from down the bottom of my brothers mates garden! It was a scrapper, but I managed to build another FS1e up from that and the good bits from the white one. The had a little Yamaha 100. Then i got a job that needed a car, so I was away from riding until I was 45!!! Decided that just watching all motorcycle sport on the tv wasn't enough I needed to get back on one. Purchased a VFR800 that used to be owned by Surrey police! Then found out that my other half had no plans to go pillion, so the VFR was traded in against a brand new Fireblade 2012! What a lucky man I am to be able to afford such a luxury.
