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There will be blogs here one day
I have had a love of motorcycles ever since I
helped with the weekly newspaper recycling round in my school years. Every week
I got last weeks copy of The Motorcycle News. KH250's, Z1R's, tuned proddy racer
KH400's with no centre stands and clip on bars. Oh I dreamed.... Anyway it
happened, I got a bike, and then the tales begin.
So here is the first episode.
Part One - The early years.
The stories are pure fiction, no characters represented
are real, etc.
1980 to 2004 Richard’s bikes.
A simple list with photographs and some comments.
Yamaha DT100 - My brother (Tony) crashed it.
The story is told here.
Yamaha RD 250C-Silver, I crashed it often. My first bike on the road.
Tony gave me 5 GEARS of instruction. Oh and Tony crashed it before I owned it.
Honda XL250 – HVP 300N - I only looped it once, into a car.
Suzuki GT185 - Scuffed a few times, then stolen
Yamaha RD250F – PNP945V - yellow, cut down seat, Norton straights,
removed centre stand, scuffed a few times, swapped for GT550.
Suzuki GT550 - triple two stroke – holed 4 pistons! Expansion chambers,
twin disks, clip-ons, single seat, too low geared and therefore fried 2 pistons
twice. The first time was 25 miles after I had bought it. A phone call ensued,
and the previous owner volunteered to assist. And to get the new pistons and to
pay.
Honda GL1000K2 – TBF 230R - stolen rediscovered as a trike!
Honda Monkey bike – Ruddy slow compared to the Honda below.
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Honda CB550F2 -
EFK830T - crashed big mode, rebuilt. Once diced with a GSXR11, my
little Honda used to rev, I arrived first but upon leaving third gear had
apparently departed. More stories of Bulls, scratchin', minor electrical
fires, a Dunstal exhaust and several bottles of 1080 cider, what to do in a
field whilst waiting for the recovery truck with a gearbox full of teeth in
the sump. It was my brother’s fault, he re-built it, I told him it was his
fault. I then had to re-build it myself, he wouldn’t help me. What did I
say? It was his fault…………. |
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| CB550 in its original colours
after I had scuffed it. Notice the flat handlebars and lack of indicators. |
Filled the dent in the tank,
re-painted red, Dunstal exhaust, black painted re-built engine after the
gearbox grenaded. |
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Honda CB250RS - crashed, knobblies,
campaigned forever, dropped, looped, crashed, thrashed, I could not kill it
(literally – 4th gear down a long hill). It did 98 in top slip streaming!
Pictured at the Devils Weald rally after a trip to the off licence!
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Cagiva SXT350 -
thrashed till chrome plating fell off the bores (twice). Like following a
sparkler my friend said.
Honda CB250RS - light metallic blue one.
Honda CD175 - crashed
Honda CD175 - or was it this one
Honda CB250N - didn’t crash but did full 360 on ice
 Honda
CB250RS next to my GPz900. The RS had my engine (but that's another story).
  Kawasaki
GPZ900
Yamaha TDR250 -
useless on dirt, mental on the road
Suzuki GT250X7 -
Suzuki GSXR1100 - big story – involving those lovely (not) people at
Streetbike. Sorry about the tyre. Didn’t get a photo because of all the smoke.
He He. One speeding conviction.
Suzuki SP370 - Flew off it once and one sonofabitch backfire on my calf.
I swore to never kick it wearing anything less than boots. Then one day I just
nipped out to buy a pack of fags wearing my trainers. It knew, first prod and
smack, the worlds biggest ever backfire with the pedal smashing into my calf. I
hopped, skipped, screamed, and recovered after a little more flinching around.
And yet, I still had to start it. I took one great big momma of a kick, the kind
that no engine could deny, and it started. This bike was a bitch. My friend
still owns it and it has been under covers for years. My brother owned it, his
friend built it for wheeling, big bore, high compression, very pretty paint. The
decompressor was disconnected and it took a brave kick in heavy boots to start
it. When it used to ‘pop back’ you used to have to hold on tight as it rattled
your bones. Any sign of weakness from a human skeleton and it would have found
it!
Kawasaki Z550LTD - did 125mph on the clock when it was my friends, did
147 and fell apart within 4 weeks of me having it.
Kawasaki KMX200 - gorgeous fast and capable off road - stolen
Yamaha XS250 - 2 into 1 pipe, all noise no go
 Pegasso
650 - not quick enough, not smooth enough, not ………
  Moto-Guzzi
Lemans Mk5 - G96TDH - glorious open Lafranconi’s, throttle hurt my
wrist. Glorious. Set car alarms off on command, lurrrvely ‘round corners too.
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XR600 - very good at most things, bought it with a low back tire,
couldn’t reach the floor when it had a new knobbly. Sold to my brother, he
took it to the Sahara. |
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On a step ladder I
could reach the seat. |
 Triumph
Daytona 1200 - Very quick off the line, so quick that the Police Officers
words “Your ****ing banned” still ring through my ears. Much, much gruntier than
the FJ1200!! 40-140MPH, 2 up in top gear, awesome.
15 speed mountain bike.
 Suzuki
GT250 X7 - day one lovely little bike in the wet, day 2 in the dry holed a
piston. (Kink in oil pump cable).
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Kawasaki ZXR 400 - wicked at 12,500 – 14,000 |
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Georgia on the ZXR |
Cagiva Raptor 1000 - Y665TOL Current bike
– during owning this I have had Gilera DNA, Honda VFR 800, CCM 650, Pegasso 125
scooter, Pegasso 500 scooter, Peugot 125 scooter, as long or short term courtesy
bikes.
Momentable bikes I have ridden;
A 150mph FZ750 (the original one)
A 170mph FZR1000 exup
Another FZ750 (not quite as quick as the
original one) but greasy winter roads in Wales – fantastically reassuring.
VFR 800 VTEC – lovely noise (little go), drank
petrol, excellent handling and suspension on wet greasy winter roads.
130mph GPz750 mk1 – “It’s no good if it won’t
pull 130 up here.”
 Georgia's
H100 Honda – Joking to the bikers in our local pub we commented that we hadn’t
seen many bikes out today. They said they had only seen one mad couple out on a
Honda 100 paddling up the road. There were several inches of snow that day.
Harley 1000 Sportster – never in my history of
riding have I done so many miles, so slowly, but still so enjoyably.
My mates A10 chop – just on our way INTO the
corner the centre-stand dug in hard, it remained scraping right across the other
lane and then up and onto the grass verge. It was a little surprising (not least
to Gary) when we caught him up and passed him some while later. He was on an MTX
125 Honda which was quicker and had considerably more ground clearance.
CZ175 a police motorcyclist pulled us up and
asked if I had passed my test, I was somewhat offended having had one for about
15 years by then. Then he told me he had only pulled us up because he had one.
 Moto-Guzzi
California Injection – Friday night Jan 11th in the rain and the dark to
Barmouth, so easy, and quicker than my Lemans.
 
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