Hi. I'm Paul. I've had bikes since I was about 14 starting with bantam field bikes etc. and loads more since. I've been reading posts on here and thought I'd like to join up.
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Welcome to the Forum Paul!
This format has only been in use about 2 weeks now so I am not an expert on how it all works (plus we are still developing the layout).
Anyway, my motorcycling background sounds much the same as yours startung with bantams but then eventually Greeves!
I hope you enjoy the Forum and even find it useful!
Rob -
Thanks Rob.
Just to update my newbie post, I'll post a bit of my history here -
Before I was old enough to have a road bike, I had loads of field bikes, Average price was about £10, no £5.
These were about 3 bantams, a NSU Prima scooter that cost about 5 quid and this was a heavy thing but we had a load of fun from it before it went, a bit battered to a mate.. A BSA dandy 70cc, no idea where that came from but it lasted about a month. An excelsior which was brilliant. I was given a 50cc Minarelli engine from my sisters boyfriend and I remember starting it up in our kitchen by putting some juice in the carb and putting some chain round the sprocket to start it. I found a Kerry Capitano moped minus engine and put the Minarelli engine in and we ran this for ages and couldn't break it.
I remember riding one of the bantams round the local woods once with my mate on the back. When it went dark, we stopped for a ciggy (underage) and the exhaust pipe was glowing red with my mates rubber boot stuck to it. You couldn't break these bantams no matter how much you tried.
Moving forward, the last field bike I had was a Velocette 350 MAC. Cost £10 from a local butcher who had it in his shed at the back of his shop. I rode this in the woods but got it stuck bogged down in the river so I thought I'd get rid cos it was too heavy for me. That was a big mistake. My next door neighbour did it up a bit but nothing special, put a sidecar on it and sold it for £200.
Incidentally, when I picked the Velo up, me and my mate rode it back with no helmets, just our Lewis Leathers jackets on. We were 15 then. A Panda police car followed us most of the way back and I was watching him in the mirror and told my mate not to look back cos of the plod behind. We got back no problems but that was a close call. That was the mate with the melted boot by the way.
When I was 16 I had a Bantam for my first road bike. My father said if I stayed at school and did my CSE exams, he would buy me my first road bike,
It wasn't my first choice. There was an Ariel Arrow Sports that I wanted and both were £60. The Arrow needed a repair and wouldn't be ready for 2 weeks so I had the Bantam as I couldn't wait to get on the road.
I kept this for about 3 months then part x'd it for a Royal Enfield Crusader that had a 2T engine fitted. This was what I'd wanted for ages but only for the engine, This was the one to have back in the day.
My mate had a Greeves Essex and another mate had a RE Turbo Twin but I couldn't afford these.
I did many miles on the RE 2T including a weeks holiday trip to South Wales with my mate on his Honda Benly 125. It rained most of the time and I think we did about 7 or 8 hundred miles in the week. We didn't have waterproofs then. Just the leather jacket with the red lining and this dyed your shirt underneath bright red.
I had a Suzuki 125 Stinger after the 2T then went to cars.
Some years later, I went back to bikes and have had loads including - FZR600 Yamaha, KR1S Kawasaki, Aprilia RSV Mille, CB550 Honda inherited from my father, GSX1250 Suzuki, ZX6R Kawasaki (that was something else. what a bike), RE Continental GT 536 (I've got this now and it's a one off paint job like a Manx Norton, a lovely bike). And more.
I was made redundant some years back when the kids were young and bought a CX500 Honda from Geoff Hall Motorcycles in Sheffield. They had a corner of the shop called the Nasty Corner for cheap bikes and this is where it came from. It wasn't the bike I was after but needs must and being skint, I bought it as a get me about bike.
I wish I'd still got it as this must be one of the most underestimated bikes around. I did miles and miles on this and it never missed a beat.
I've had some Yamahas too. Race bikes as follows-
TD2B. TZ250A. TZ350E and lastly a new TZ350G. I did some club racing on these for about 4 years. Best ever years but we can't ever go back can we.
I had so many good times at Cadwell, Darley Moor etc.
My Father and his brother and my grandfather together with my cousin and my son, at least the ones that are still here, are all bikers. It's in the genes I reckon. I bought a Yamaha PW50 for my son when he was 4. These are brilliant bikes if you can get hold of one now. My son is on about his 15th or so bike now, all trials / crossers apart from a Fireblade.
That's a bit about me and mine.
Now I'm thinking back to that Greeves my mate had at 16 and looking for one. A blast from the past.
Regards, Paul.
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