Motorbikes - Do you remember your first one?

[shelby46 10]

Remember when you could tell what kind of bike was going to come into view just by the sound it made? I doubt that's possible with most of today's bikes

 

Tony

You are right. I was in my friend's house and heard a bike.I said "that just sounds like my dad's old BSA Gold Flash. She replied that her fella had just bought one to restore and was road testing it!! I loved riding my dad's old bikes - BSA, Bonneville, and my cousin's Honda 250 Superdream. I always wanted a Gold Wing but never got one!

[Johnh 10]

Lambretta LI 150 ... last one, Honda 400CBN.

[Janner 10]

I never owned a motorbike, but my Dad had a 600 Panther & sidecar, I was about 8 at the time, My vocabulary was increased by some " naughty" words when the kick start jumped back & trapped his foot !

[Dunlop St 10]

In '54 when I was 13 my dad had a 1000cc V twin BSA with a chair. As his garage was several hundred yards from the house I used to "borrow" it when he was at work! I did I have some fun whilst wearing his big ex Army greatcoat, goggles and a flat cap. I drove it all around Derbyshire and beyond. Luckily I had a small job in a grocer's shop to help put petrol in, at (I think) 5/- a gallon, but my dad did grumble about the mpg!

Looking back I was lucky to get away with it but there was so little traffic in those days.

At 16 I bought an Enfield 50cc Flying Flea with a hand change on the tank but quickly went on to a BSA B31 and then an Enfield 500cc Bullet I bought from Charlie Freeman's in Eckington. I always coveted a Velocette Venom or Norton 99 but never had the money.

Even in the 90's I had a little Honda 50 and then a Suzuki 125.

Now I just have a Chelsea Tractor, wife and Labrador! They are all I can afford.

[Floridablade 11]

My three mates had a bike but motorbikes never appealed to me much. i was doing National service in Gibraltar in 1948 and was on Four Corners guard duty. On the Airfield there were hundreds of Nortons all waiting to be shipped back to Blighty. I jumped on one and my mate jumped on another and we managed to get the bloody thing started and moving but no idea how to change gear or stop. We both shot off the wall at the end of the frontier road onto eastern beach, none the worse for wear except I had damaged my ankle. We got three days jankers for that little feat of stupidity.

[MHolmes 10]

I had a Lambretta Vega and several Lambrettas after that. I still love them to death but have an old BMW GS now.

[neilf 10]

Any one remember sony weston his place was just off broad st, his brother had a car scrap yard in the same block, what happened to him, (obviously in that bike scrap yard in the sky) but what happened to all the bikes and bits and of

coarse his "dogend" tin

 

Remember this guy quite well he sold me an Enfield Crusader about 1971 delivered it to my home in an old Morris Commercial van. Should have twigged all was not right in 6 months it never made it past the end of the street. But he was such a charactor you just lived with it. He made all the right noises just a shame the bike didn't. Dont you miss these sort of blokes it was a diffrent life.

[flyer 10]

My three mates had a bike but motorbikes never appealed to me much. i was doing National service in Gibraltar in 1948 and was on Four Corners guard duty. On the Airfield there were hundreds of Nortons all waiting to be shipped back to Blighty. I jumped on one and my mate jumped on another and we managed to get the bloody thing started and moving but no idea how to change gear or stop. We both shot off the wall at the end of the frontier road onto eastern beach, none the worse for wear except I had damaged my ankle. We got three days jankers for that little feat of stupidity.

cruised around half of north africa trying to ruin my 350 matchbox (iwas gunning for a telli fork) when i finaly got one it lasted 2days some-one went a joy riding and totaled it, iwas back to girder forks for the rest of my 3yr stay, those bikes went on for ever &were indistructable

[bazmcc 10]

Yes 1963 Lambretta TV175, bought from Armando's. Added full Mod gear lights mirrors crash bars and had the sidepanals copper plated.

[langy 10]

In 1979 I got my first road bike it was an EMZ Simpson 50cc from a shop at Handsworth. Since then I've had a CZ 175 trail, Yamaha RS200, Yamaha XS400, Suzuki SB200, Honda CB750, another Yamaha XS400, HondaVF1000F, Kawasaki KLR 650 and now I'm riding a Honda CBR1000F. The last five I've owned since living in Australia, where I can ride all year around without getting too cold and no chance of black ice or snow, (apart from the one year I spent living in the Victorian Alpine region). I've also owned three bush bashers.

 

Got to go, cause I'm going for a ride now, think I'll take the long way home.

[suggs69 10]

my first road legal bike was a crapy dt50mx you could have run faster lol.

[PopT 10]

In the early seventies I became the proud ownwer of a BSA Bantam bike.

 

It didn't last long as my young son at that time couldn't resist sitting on it and starting her up which didn't please my wife one bit.

 

She accused me of encouraging him to ride bikes and she wasn't having it'

 

The bike had to go after several arguments.

 

The bike was bought and transformed by the new owner into a real showpiece.

 

My son grew up and now rides a 919 Ducatti road bike and races two racing machines on the racetracks all over the UK and France.

 

Happy Days!