A stroll through my motorbiking history......

Here follow the mad ramblings of an old biker....... I may add to them from time to time as the grey cells give up of their secrets. I've already had to update it three times as the number of bikes has continued to expand over time!

The first bike I rode is now just a memory.... it would be about 1976 at the age of 14, riding my mate "Stumpy" McWilliam's BSA C15 round his back garden. It would take us forever to start it, then with no knowledge of how to ride, we'd stall it and so it would all start again! On the way home, I was wrongfully arrested for allegedly vandalising a bus stop - but that's another story........

First moped - 60's Mobylette. Horrible, horrible thing - I still bear the mental scars!

It's finest hour was being knocked over by a Rolls Royce while I was filling up with 2-stroke at Holland Motors (now the site of Lidl in Southport). A bloke in a cravat got out, sniffed and could see there was no damage, got back in his car and drove off.

I also did a mighty Mobylette power slide onto the pavement packed with shocked shoppers, outside the Scarisbrick Hotel on Lord St, Southport. In hindsight, I might have hit an oil patch; or it might have been the knackered, geriatric rear tyre? No, I think it was probably a power slide.

This was replaced ASAP by a legendary Yamaha FS1e, with custom silver paint job:

But as soon a I was 17, I wanted a proper bike and began my Honda love affair with a 1974 CB125S. I bought it a week before my birthday and was out on it at 6am, as soon as the insurance kicked in!

I passed my test on this bike - the test route ran down our road, so we knew exactly where all the manoeuvres needed to be done. I think I got the record for the fastest emergency stop - I knew exactly where he'd jump out in front of me!

Without L plates, the world of motorways opened up to me. I did a mega coast to coast journey over the M62 from Southport to Hull in search of love, following a holiday romance in Torquay the previous summer! The poor little 125 would be doing 50 at best up the hills, being overtaken by HGVs. Then we'd get to the top and I'd be doing 75 down the other side, flat on the tank, overtaking them again, only for the game to be played out again at the next hill. I recall it took me most of the day, each way. In hindsight, I think it was that journey that started the Honda thing with me.

But all my friends were on bikes that were much less staid and I soon traded it for a Yamaha RS125, which felt so much more modern - it even had a disc brake! I think it started off badly painted in red and I restored it to it's original silver courtesy of Holts spray cans - much nicer.

I remember being chased through Southport by Mods on Vespas, during the 70's Mod revival thing - Paul Weller, you have a lot to answer for.

Anyway, of course as I'd passed my test, I really needed something bigger than a 250 to show I was a real biker now.  I traded the RS in for a relatively new (for me) Honda CB360G5 at George Leigh's on Eastbank St, Southport. George was an ex IoM TT racer - it has been Southport Superbikes for many years, but is a much less interesting place now than it used to be, with George's old racing Yamahas displayed proudly in there. 

We'd be at about 1978/9 by now.

Great bike, it took me all over the place - commuting back and forth between Southport and my bedsit in Chester, then a daily run up to Preston for a while; holidays in the Lakes - fantastic! Something died on it - I forget what - and I ended up slotting a 250 engine in it to take down to Birmingham while I was at Uni, but it never did much after that. I eventually ended up selling it for scrap I think. Sad end for a great bike.

On a trip back home one weekend, I spotted another CB125S for sale in the local rag (£50 I think it was) - no photo, but it was identical to my first "proper" bike that you've already seen above.

I remember riding it back down the A41 to Birmingham in the pouring rain, wearing a damp and musty smelling old Army dispatch rider's coat that my next door neighbour Fred had dragged out of his shed and a pair of wellies! But it did the 110 miles no sweat. The exhaust had rusted through and I stuck a reverse cone megaphone on it that made it sound like a BSA Gold Star (well, it did to me!)

I banged out of Uni' after a couple of years and got a job. I had money again! As soon as I could afford it, I put a deposit down on another bike - this time a Honda 250 Superdream. Don't have a photo of this, but it was just like this one (even down to the Invader fairing and white top box):

They were labelled as bland, but maybe that's what I liked, because I thought it was a
cracking bike!  The G5 seemed so unrefined compared to this. I did a couple of trips two-up between Birmingham and Bristol and it used to handle them with ease.

I never brought it back home to Southport because it was "my little secret" (I think I still owed Mum & Dad money from Uni at the time....) Curiously, I discovered at this time that Dad also had a similar little secret - an old "rent a wreck" Austin Allegro that he hired as a runabout while he was working abroad in Holland. Like father, like son - I wonder what Rob and Andy are hiding from me? ;-)

Sadly, the Superdream was stolen from outside my bedsit (on  my 22nd birthday!!) and didn't turn up till many months later as vandalised remains. However, the insurance had paid out  and I moved on to that all time classic, the 400-4.

Truth be told, it wasn't the finest example, but it used to regularly do the 100 miles between Birmingham and Southport with ease and never let me down. I stuck a new exhaust on it, used the remains of the Superdream to replace the very worn out wheels, tyres and forks; swapped the seat off the festering remains of the G5 and it wasn't half bad!

It too got stolen one night, but was discovered a short distance away the following day. The half-wits had pushed it up the road to a quiet spot by the canal where they screwdrivered the seat lock to hot wire the ignition. Sadly for them, one of them had knocked the seat and it slammed shut again, trapping their tools underneath! I still have one of the screwdrivers in my toolkit now :).  Once again, the remains of the G5 were picked over and the seat lock was replaced within the hour. I was in profit!!

I love the idea of building a 400-4 / G5 hybrid, with  400-4 running gear and G5 tank, panels, seat and exhausts etc. I'd want it to look like a prototype replacement for the G5! Maybe the next restoration?

Life got serious then - usual stuff, job, marriage, kids - and I was bikeless for 5 or 6 years. I'd been cycling into work for a few years while we were on a single wage and single car when the kids were little and one winter got really fed up with it. Great idea - why don't I get another bike?!

So, in about 1996, I returned to the fold :-) I was unfaithful to Mr Honda though. My brother had owned a beautiful, almost new Suzuki GS550 that I coveted when I was a spotty teenager and when a  GS500 came up, it seemed to have my name on it. As well as commuting duties, it took me to the TT for the first time after too many years away, which is where these photos were taken.

Change of job in 1998 and a company car for the first time meant that the GS had to go.

I really fancied doing a restoration and came across an old 250 G5. It was in a bit of a state but I took the plunge with happy memories of my old 360 tugging at my wallet!

I got a long way into the restoration. It was never going to be a "show bike" but was starting to look pretty presentable.

I just couldn't get it running right. Knowing what I know now, I think it probably needed the carbs reconditioning. In the end I got fed up of the money it was sucking in with little inherent value and sold it on.

But I wanted to ride again - I spotted an ad in the Newsagents window .....

I'd always loved the styling of the CBX550 and here was one, admittedly described as shabby, and with hardly any MOT, but going for a song. How hard could it be to get it usable for high days and holidays? Very hard, as it turned out!

It had the typical camchain rattle - soon sorted with a new tensioner. The brakes were binding - soon sorted with a strip and clean out. They were a stupid design but OK once you got used to them. It was a lovely bike but then started suffering real problems, intermittently dying on me and refusing to go more than a couple of hundred yards. I was sure it was a fuelling problem and got very adept at removing the carbs and cleaning them. I was so blind about what the problem was - the fuel tank was rusty as hell inside (and out - you can see in the photo) and was no doubt sending all sorts of crap into the carbs. I got fed up with it and sold it on eventually, but would gladly have another - I still like the styling.

But still I wanted to ride! My mate had a Kawasaki GT550 that he was selling - I was a sitting duck! 

 

I'd never owned a Kawasaki before - it was really nice and in good condition too. It had no character whatsoever, but it was good to have a reliable ride again and it was a lovely tourer. I took another trip to the TT with my mate Clive in 2002.

I had been spending lots of time working silly hours part time on a commission for a client. Spring was coming and I was looking forward to some good riding weather. I went for a spin into Chester on the GT and just  popped into the Chester Honda dealers to kill some time .....

There before me was a gorgeous low mileage VFR800i. I had lusted after them for years but they were always out of my league. Nice to look at though. I got back onto the GT and rode home. The post had arrived and there was a cheque there for all the part time work I'd been doing for the previous 6 months......

A week later, I collected my dream bike from Chester Honda. How scared was I of riding that beast home? I don't think I dared take it over 50!

We did the Wirral Egg Run for the first time that year (2003) and another trip across to the Island for the TT in June.

For lots of reasons, I only kept the VFR for about 18 months, but mainly because I became really paranoid about having the lads on the bike - I couldn't deal with what might happen to them in an accident, but equally they were desperate to go out with me on it. The solution was simple - ditch the bike and get a sports car - so I bought an old MG Midget instead!

The longest recent period followed without a bike then - 6 years. But then I really started getting the itch again - I reasoned that I should do a restoration instead - then I'd have the bike but wouldn't be compelled to take anyone out on it for another couple of years, by which time it would be firmly their decision. And so we come to the subject of this blog - and in 2009 the Dream arrived.

But life is rarely quite so simple! Of course, as soon as the bike was there, thoughts turned to how nice it would be when I could get out on the road again....... the restoration would take maybe 6 months and then I'd be on the road in Summer 2010. Summer came and went with no end in sight. Well, OK then Spring 2011 is a realistic deadline instead! Spring 2011 came and there was no way she'd be ready for the road that summer.

Idly browsing EBay one evening...........  a week later the VFR 750 was mine..........

What a peach! 18 years old but barely a mark on her. 30k miles - barely run in for a VFR. She is an absoloute beauty and a steal. I love riding her, but don't tell the Dream!

So that's the current stable - VFR750 "rider" and CB400T Dream "restoration". Hopefully, by Spring 2012, they'll both be "riders".

Postscript: spring 2012 and the Dream is also a rider:

http://dreamrestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/first-ride-and-new-home-for-doris.html

I make that 15 bikes across 34 years; 10 Hondas, 2 Yamahas, a Suzuki and that b@$tard godforsaken sonofabitch Mobylette that mentally scarred me at school!

Not bad - that's not even one every 2 years!

Here conclude the mad ramblings of an old biker - funny thing is that I still don't really think of myself as a proper biker, even after all those bikes and all these years!

Update at November 2021

Blimey, 11 years went by quickly! And I've surprised myself how many more bikes I've had since then, looking back, so I thought I should update this post.

As we left the story in Spring 2012, the VFR750 and Doris the Dream 400 were both on the road. I started doing Advanced Riding traiining again, having failed the test a few years earlier when I had the VFR800. Happy to say I passed this time round. Anyway, lots of the instructors and other riders on the course had gone with the new fashion of "adventure" styled bikes and raved about how comfortable they were to ride etc.

I decided to dip my toe in the water and bought a Transalp 650 that had had lots of restoration work done on it.

 

I liked it a lot, even though it felt a little agricultural in some ways. I should have kept it really, but thought "newer will be better" so I sold both the VFR and the Transalp and bought  a Suzuki V-Strom with full factory luggage etc. 

That was OK but I never really gelled with it and again I sold it within 12 months. I still had the Dream, but wasn't riding it very much at all - I had put so much into it that I was paranoid about it starting to look "used" again. That was ridiculous, looking back as I loved riding it.

I decided I needed something similar but more modern than the Dream and part exchanged it for a Hinckley Triumph Bonneville.

I liked that a lot - felt like a proper bike! By this time, I had gone through a divorce and was in a new relationship and found myself riding less and less, so I eventually sold it - I hate bikes sitting there doing nothing.

A couple of years later, the itch returned of course and I got hold of an old Kawasaki ZZR600, similar to the Transalp in that it was quite old but had had a lot of restoration work done on it. 

I had a really wierd problem with this one, not long after I got it. I went out for a short spin one Sunday afternoon and got a few miles from home then sputtered to a halt at the side of the motorway. It felt like fuel starvation and I knew it was low on fuel but not THAT low. I tried to open the fuel cap and the lock barrel disintegrated, so I couldn't get in! I had to be recovered to home. 

I put a new filler cap on it and cleaned the carbs out, then went for a spin again and it started sputtering again.So I investigated the fuel tank and the tap was shot - the main and reserve filters rusted away etc. 

I got a new tap and also lined the tank. Tried again - same problem. Eventually I realised that there wasn't a fuel pump where a fuel pump should have been! When the fuel level had been above the level of the carb intake, it was fine, but when it got low it couldn't feed under gravity. It transpired that there was a common ZZR fault where the fuel pump relay dies and, when I tested mine, it was indeed dead. A new relay and pump sorted it. I suspect the old pump had been binned unneccessarily.

Anyway, I really liked it - hadn't had an inline four for a long time and the handling was lovely.

I was driving home from work one night in Nov 17 and got caught up as an innocent victim in a police car chase! An unmarked BMW hit me head on and wrote off my car. I was OK but a lot of whiplash type injuries that took a year of physio to sort out. But it really spooked me to think what would have happened if I'd been on my bike and I sold it within 2 weeks of the accident (slight over-reaction!)

I was then bikeless for 3 years, but after getting into watching "Repair Shop" on TV, I realised I really missed restoring bikes. I got myself a 1962 "basket case" Royal Enfield Crusader Sport 250. It's been off the road for 40 years and the plan is to have it back on the road for it's 60th birthday in April 2022. You can  read about it here. 

So, the end of the story? Not quite. If you remember back through this story, I have had something of a recurring soft spot for the Honda 250/360G5. My first proper bike in 1979, then an almost finished restoration in 2000ish. Well, I had started noticing that they were becoming quite collectible and going for daft prices, but spotted one on EBay that looked to be about 25% below what they were going for. To cut a long story short, I made a complete impulse purchase and bought this 1974 250.

It's not quite as good as it looks in the photos but has good chrome and runs, so a good basis for a running restoration. Or actually I might not restore it much but just enjoy using it. I'm retiring soon and can see a tent strapped to the back of it for motorsport themed weekends! You can read about our adventures here: https://hondag5.blogspot.com/

2023 update:

The Enfield Crusader is rapidly heading towards a conclusion and is now running and registered, with paintwork underway! So I'm heading towards needing to make a decision about whether to keep the Crusader or the Honda 250. There is so much of "me" in the Crusader that I think there can be only one conclusion to that decision. The thing swinging it in the Honda's direction is a perceived "hope" that an old Japanese bike will be more reliable than an old British one when I head off on longer rides. But haven't I just completely reconditioned the Crusader? Decisions, decisions.

So I took the obvious way out and have decided that I'm going to keep the Crusader, sell the Honda and buy a brand new bike for day to day riding, keeping the Crusader for fun times locally and taking to shows etc. I'll be really sad to see the Honda go though - she is a good un and will hopefully give a new owner some great adventures of their own.

To be honest I have been looking for an excuse to do this ever since Royal Enfield brought the new Classic 350s into the country about 12 months ago. They get rave reviews and are completely aligned to my sort of riding and needs. It will be my first new bike! The order has been placed and she should be with me in a fortnight - I'm like a small child waiting for Xmas day at the moment!

The updated tally of bikes is 22 bikes over 45 years! 12 Hondas, 2 Yamahas, 2 Suzukis, 2 Kawasakis, a Triumph, 2 Royal Enfields and a Mobylette

2023 update (2)!:

The Crusader is now up and running and we've completed a happy 350 miles or so over the summer, including a fully loaded camping trip to the Isle of Man.

 Winter approaches and the itch for restoration is starting to need to be scratched!

I've enjoyed restoring a British bike and was really drawn to the idea of one of the smaller British twins as a next project - 350 / 500 Triumph, BSA or Royal Enfields for example. Most of that draw is from the sound of the 360 degree twin exhaust note - very evocative of a certain era. When I started looking around though, even quite rough examples of those were commanding prices of £2-3,000. That's just too much for what I am prepared to spend on a hobby.

I have always been quite attracted to the idea of a Moto Guzzi, but probably considered them to be a bit too "exotic" (aka expensive) for my means through most of my riding career. But I was taken by the idea of the small block Guzzis after watching a YouTube video comparing the V50 with the, similar format but quite radically different, Honda CX500. One of the things I did notice was that the exhaust note on the Guzzi was really distinctive in a similar but different way to the old British bikes.

A little more research showed that the prices for both project bikes and also spares was considerably cheaper than the British bikes; there is a thriving user group and plenty of specialist suppliers.

Shortly afterwards, I came across a bike on Facebook Marketplace, not an hour away from me. This was a 1981 V50 mark II, that the "previous, previous" owner had done a pretty rough "brat bike" conversion on. The guy selling it, after checking that it ran well (allegedly - we'll find out!), had stripped it down to further modify, so that it would fit in the back of his motorhome, and then lost interest! 

The "previous, previous" owner had actually spent quite a lot of money on the bike and had some decent stuff done, which I reckoned actually totalled up to more than the asking price. I went to see it and after checking everything over, in particular that the engine was free and all the gears engaged, agreed a 25% reduction on the price and came home with it in the boot of the car!

Current tally of bikes is 23 bikes over 46 years! 12 Hondas, 2 Yamahas, 2 Suzukis, 2 Kawasakis, a Triumph, 2 Royal Enfields, a Mobylette and a Moto Guzzi.