My beginning .....

They say every good story has a beginning a middle and an end. So I guess I should do the beginning first, even though there's more than 1 beginning and they each happened 30 or more years ago!

My beginning happened in about 1968 when, as a 6 or 7 year old kid living in Australia, a mate of my Dad's turned up on a gleaming black Norton Commando 850. The sound, look and smell of it was something that I will never forget and I reckon I was instantly destined to have bikes at various points throughout the rest of my life. I'd heard tales of my Mum and Dad's exploits on BSAs, Triumphs and Royal Enfields through the 50s, but never SEEN or HEARD such a beast at such close quarters.

Move on 3 years and the family returned "home" to England. The first thing my elder brother did was buy an old Yamaha 250 2-stroke (a YDS3?). Till he could take it out on the road, he used to run it in the back yard and the smell of 2 stroke was magical. I would have gladly suffocated in it! Years later I saw the only other one I have ever seen at the Stafford Show in 2009

So I was desperate to have a bike, any bike, as soon as I turned 16. It took a couple of months to persuade my Mum and eventually pester power won the day. Finally, my true beginning arrived in 1978. I was to fulfil the destiny set out for me on that Australian summer's day in 1968, when I got lifted onto the seat of that black Commando.

This was the (in hindsight humiliating) result:

A 1960 something Mobylette moped. Oh how my friends mocked! It was by far the biggest heap in the school motorbike shed - I quickly got used to the jeers and embarrassment as schoolmates cycled past my sweating efforts to get that b*$tard of a bike started. I swear I got fitter pedalling and pushing it home when it refused to start than I had ever been when I cycled to and from school!

Very quickly it made way for that wonderful machine that every red blooded motorcyclist of the 70's aspired to - the Yamaha FS1E.

Now this was more like it - like everyone else's, it would do at least 75 flat on the tank and definitely went faster at night when the air was cooler! I was smitten and it was that "Fizzy" which meant I have never had many subsequent years that I've not owned a bike. Thank you Mr Yamaha!

I have had 14 or 15 bikes since then but found myself without one in 2009, after having got rid of my beautiful Honda VFR800i in 2003. I loved it but my boys were getting to an age where they wanted to ride pillion and I really couldn't deal with the danger that I was exposing them to. Logic prevailed and I decided that I should RESTORE one, then I could still have a bike but without the danger to the lads! (This didn't last long though - 18 months later I ended up with another VFR "for the road" - this time a 750!)

And so, to the beginning of the Dream......

PS If you want to know about by biking history in a bit more detail, click the Page link on the right  - "A stroll through my biking history..."