kindred spirits........ 5 speed with front disc? i painted mine in john player special gold and black livery like the Lotus F1 of the time. i had gold suspension. obviously ahead of my time.....
3 years ago at the age of 43 did 3 days solid training and module 1&. 2 the same day passed and came home jumped on my first bike yam r6 and shit myself
When I was 7 we moved out into the wilds of county Tyrone, next to the Gortin Glens forest park in Northern Ireland, dad bought me a little trail bike to make up for leaving all my friends behind, rode it around the one way scenic drive of the park most evenings, wearing a bmx helmet and a pair of woolly gloves! Ideal for learning your sense of balance! View attachment 10588 Got a Suzuki B120 for passing my o levels in 1985, back when you could ride a larger capacity bike in Norn Iron than rest of UK, but couldn't shag till you were 17! Painted it red and yellow with cheap gloss to look like Tom Herron's texaco Suzuki as he'd always been my favourite rider, and I'd been at the NW200 the day he was killed. Couldn't afford a bike of my own for a few years after school, moved to England with work, got fed up listening to others having fun at weekends and bought a cbr600f in 1994, always had one since then, cbr6 followed by a drunken purchase of a zzr1100, to a yzf750, a cbr1100, Fazer 1000, and now the blade.
Mine had drum brakes still, so i guess even older than yours? when did they get disc brakes? This was like my first moped I then bought the Yam 200 twin and passed my bike test on it, still had drum brakes
Past test in sept 89 after buying a brand new fzr600 yam in the August ! Not been without a bike since
That's how mine ended up, stripped off lights, guards etc and tore around worrying sheep on it, until the day a big rock smashed the engine casing. Paid £99 for mine in 1985, but can't put a price on the fun I had with it.
SS50 (one of the very last 5 speeds) as it was Sept 77......and all those restricted models were introduced....... GT 185 Suzuki (wanted a GT250) but my old man said "you ll be dead in a week" then on to KH250 triple with gold mags and expansions........then on a honda 400 four.......got married had kids got the urge to return to biking with a yamaha 350 LC in roberts colours........got divorced so bought a new CBR 900rrw to celebrate... ! oh those were great times !
Getting old, you want to give 34 years ago when I was 16 a go Martin....then you’ll know how I feel. Off road whilst being chased by the parky in Sutton Park on an old C90 step through when I was about 14 or so, Suzuki AP50 on the road at 16 just beating the 30mph putt putt restriction which I crashing the back of a milk float flat out at 50mph. Yamaha RD250 on my seventeenth birthday. Passed my test a couple of months later, but who could fail back then when the tester stood at the side of the road and watched you drive off, telling you to turn left and then left again whilst he nipped down an ally to watch you ride up the other road for the emergency stop. What a joke by today’s standards. Not long after I also crashed that in a high speed low side and from which I still bear the scars. Various second hand bikes followed over the years including a 1978 Honda F2 400/4 in yellow and that when my love affair with Honda started, Honda 750’s 900’s, married and had kids, then 3 blades, a divorce and then a few years later a new CBR600 in March 2011 which was promptly part exchanged for a new ABS blade in June for delivery in July of the same year. The rest as they say is history.
had a brother i never knew killed on a bike when he was 16 and 4 days before xmas, my 2 other brothers got me onto a dt 175 when i was 11 around local industrial and waste land hoping to give me the skills needed before i hit the road at 16. parents obviously never wanted me to have a bike but had an ap50 then an mt5 at 16 passed test in 1988 and with the exception of a year break mid 90,s when we bought the house i,ve never been without a bike or 2. 60+ bikes and many stories later i,m now with the tuono and 11plate repsol.
Started at 16 in 1981 on a restricted black with gold trim Honda MB5 after seeing one advertised in MCN whilst doing my newspaper round and vowed to have one. Swapped my bike for a car when I passed my car test at 17 and for a year or two rode my dads 'bog seat' C90, my mates Suzuki GP 125 (whilst he recovered from major back surgery) and my brothers air cooled RD250 whenever I felt like a blast. Had a 28 year 'break' from riding bikes until my wife paid for my CBT in 2011 for my birthday and I got the riding bug again. Passed my DAS bike test later that year and spent 12 months 'cutting my teeth' on a CBR600F before buying my Blade last year. Glad to be able to say that not only am I a blade owner but I'm still married too. In fact we celebrate our Silver Wedding Anniversary the week after next. Life is good.
I started in 1979 at 16 on a malaguti superquattro my dad wouldn't let me have an Ap 50 then when I was 17 brought a dt175mx 175 brand new passed my test a few months later wanted a 350lc because they were too fast according to my dad he wouldn't sign for the fianance so Had to buy a 3 1/2 moto morni that my dad would sign for ,have had loads of bikes and have ended with a soft spot for Hondas that is possibly my dads fault as my dad had one of the first cb 750 which I loved had a beautifull candy red Cbx Which was beautiful he still owns a cb750 along with about 14 other motorbikes my dad still rides every day at the age of 72 he even been featured in MCN a few years ago so I defiantly got the bug from him
Grew up around bikes, my Grandad, Uncle and cousins all had them. So with a "miss spent youth" could ride to fashion from the age of around 13. Earn't my pocket money from cleaning all their bikes. Unfortunately my uncle had a really bad spill on his rd500 resulting in 4 week stay in hospital. Mum then made it clear that as long as I lived under her roof I wasn't having a bike, strange I moved out at 17! After moving out I couldn't afford a bike, financial situation improved but buying my first house at 20 again delayed passing my test. The wife then came along and didn't want me to have one, specially after George my lad was born. Then in 2008 I visited my old boss who had become a close friend, whilst visiting he told me the shocking news that he had lost his battle with cancer and had a short time left, he was 44. Driving home I passed a Honda dealer so turned round and popped in to cheer myself up. At the time I had a considerable amount of cash in the bank for a loft extension and conservatory. Got chatting to the dealer and thought to myself "you can't go through life putting off things you want to do, when my times up I don't wanna be thinking I wished I'd have done..........." So there and then I bought a 600rr and booked my DA. Surprisingly Jo was cool when I broke the news that the conservatory wasn't happening! Five years on I have the two blades, Jo has her duke and George has a pit bike. Best bit is I've met some of my closest friends since having the bikes, wouldn't be without one now.
I passed my test September 2010 (just before they changed the test to make it more complicated). No one else in my family rides, and none of my (local) friends do either, although I have a mate in Milton Keynes who does. I wanted to do it for years and was pestering Mrs Stu for ages before she eventually relented and said that I could. After passing my test I bought an SV650S, had that for just under 2 years and then got the 08 blade. As per my post yesterday on the 'Cornering' thread I have a long way to go with my learning and really should grow a pair and do a race school or advanced course to learn how to handle the Blade properly. I love riding it but know that there is a lot that I can do to improve and get more out of her. I haven't really done any long trips out yet (and I'm ashamed to admit it), I think that the furthest I've done in a day is about 160 miles, and that was a 2 way trip with a day of work in the middle of it. I haven't quite grown the 'let's just go out and see where I end up' gene yet, so I tend just to use the bike for commuting or popping into town. Confession over.
