Great red, brings back memories. Honda Ss50 when I was 16, CB175 at 17 then a CB400F when I was 19. All without training. I was lucky, I lived in the country and leared to ride in the fields. Then blast off down the road on my 16th Birthday.
I was one of those talked about in that article! Have Norton Atlas will
travel!! For a couple of years we used to go down to Exeter every other week-end in the summer months....those maids down there were magic!!
I'm not old enough to remember Im not that old!!!!! It was a good read that's when bikes were bikes and when you fell off then you just bent everything back into shape I had a 50cc and the cb175 and 250 all good bikes
I'm not pointing the finger at anyone on this site - but there's a theory that if you can remember those days then you weren't there Now, what EXACTLY did I do to a mate's Matchless single to get it going one night? And did a Honda 175 not only run like a sewing machine, but sound like one as well? Memories are a bit fuzzy, you see...
I was starting out in the biking scene in the mid 70's and i've got the photo's to prove it! Started out on a Malaguti Olympia moped (that thing would eat Fizzies), then a Honda 250 G5 at 17 and a 400/4 at 18, and on from there, and yeah, I was also in a back -patch club by 18!
Hehehe gawds teeth .....that took me back to the good old days when I thought I was indestructable....as an ex fizzy, rd125, rd250, rd400 pilot usually with the front wheel skyward (no skill needed) with a lack of grip supplied by good old japanese inoque tyres...brill....oooh and the suzuki gt 500 s and cobras miss that whooop whooop sound torque induction going through the gears.... stoppit must stoppit ((reaches to sniff a bottle of castrol r ....lol...))....
Poshtotty, yes it was a blue one,there's a photo on my profile, great little bike. Probably worth a fortune now. It had the usual cam chain problem when I bought it. New chain and tensoners cured it. Amazing engine, it was the first four cylinder bike I owned.
More like the end of the 70's .....I remember doing all those things.. Mag runs, rallies ...loved every minute , must be why I am still on the bike now ....Happy days warmer and drier and more reliable now though still fixing the bike on the gravel drive though....even Ducati's need fixing
AAahhh... sweet and happy memories... Passed my test the day of my 16th birthday on a Triumph Tiger Cub, then on to a 250cc Ariel a few months later...it was all I could afford...hahaha.. Luckily job started paying more and there followed another 3 Triumphs, a 650 Thunderbird then two 650 Bonnivilles...aahhh the sweet distinctive throaty growl of Burgess pipes....you could tell a bonnie was behind you long before you saw it thanks to that growl...the smell at tracks of "Castrol R"...OK you might say, bikes ARE more developed today, but there was something charismatic about the hand built bikes of those days constructed in your garden shed....at least for me anyway, even the plod those days would rather chase you than give you a ticket...Times have indeed changed...Halcyon days indeed.... But I can't knock the reliability of todays dream machines, after all I am on one myself....hahaha
Mallagutti Olymique was the one. twin exhausts and a rorty intake.
a for an SS50Honda...omg! 200mpg and 30mph not too cool, but Honda were playing by the rules and spirit of the sixteener laws, indestructable little bikes tho. RD125 yamm, rode my mates a few times but I bought the little GT125 suzuki ram air,made a wonderful noise, got one still! (in restoration). Honda 175s? Was to take my test on a red CB175K6, it started knocking so I was lent a GT 185 Suzy the morning of my test, cracking little drum braked rocket that broke down in the pissin rain at the bottom of |Wrotham Hill in the dark after the Bike show in London,Grr. RD350/400s had several, one brand new RD400C, wonderful bike, still got an RD400E in the gge.....Suzuki T500 ? had two back then, still got two now....CB400f swopped an RD 250 for one and some cash, soo smooth and sounded like nought else, after another one now..but making silly £ for ones needing ££s spent. A Gold early RD200 electric was another little rocket I owned back then, and a CB125S and a CG125 too, a black 500 four was nice and only a few months old when I got it, oh then there was the MZ150 in yellow and a MZ250 in black, a CZ175trail too, a Jawa 350 in red. As for mopeds I spent most of that yr on a new Kriedler..but there was a few I bought and sold too, remember Garrelli? Fantic Motor and the Yammy FS1e Mostly the mauve ones my mates had but the original was around still the SS in Gold.? My Jap bikes have given way to Guzzis and Laverda now..hanker after a Benneli Sei or perhaps LeMans mk1
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