motorbike memories

[arod]

Which motorbikes did you like riding? Did you like British bikes or did you prefer Jap bikes? Can you remember trying to "do the ton" on your BSA bantam going downhill with the wind behind you? Were you a greasy biker or a mod? I'd love to hear your memories

[sixtyten]

Re: motorbike memories

Not a huge fan of British bikes, but always wanted a Triumph Bonneville T140

[rossobantam]

Re: motorbike memories

grew up on a farm of sorts, miles from anywhere, so had lots of land to tear about on.....I had an old Puch moped (with pedals) and nearest mate had a Honda mini 'monkey bike' . We had so much fun making scramble tracks.

Then turned 16 and got an Yahama ER50...all the 'lads' lived in villages scattered across the Isle of Axholme (between Doncaster & Scunthorpe)
so you just HAD to have a bike to stay in touch. They all had Suzuki 'fizzies', bored-out engines etc

Mine LOOKED nicer..like a proper trial bike..but it was SO slow....get in a headwind and it struggled past 30mph

[arod]

Re: motorbike memories

Not a huge fan of British bikes, but always wanted a Triumph Bonneville T140

Me too, but my legs were too short so had a triumph tiger cub instead

They all had Suzuki 'fizzies'

Yeah, I remember those, everyone seem to have one or new someone that had one!

[yelever]

Re: motorbike memories

Mine LOOKED nicer..like a proper trial bike..but it was SO slow....get in a headwind and it struggled past 30mph

Same here. Had a Honda MT5, looked the part but only managed to get it up to 32mph. Before that had a Honda C50 sports moped which got 50mph out of it but that was down hill. Always wanted a MZS51 for the simple fact if you shortened the exhaust it would go faster.

[lee wild]

Re: motorbike memories

i started off on lambrettas in 72 then progressed to motorbikes then now i still love scooters . i have had over 250 forms of bike s and scooters as they were cheap then my last being a yamaha rd400e which i haD ON THE ROAD 3 YEARS AGO

[memoman]

Re: motorbike memories

Only had the one Bike a honda c70 i remember my back tyre blowing out one saturday night and having to walk 14 miles home with it in the dark ,engine running letting the engine pull it as the roads were unlit for long stretches.Had no breakdown cover back then in 1984.On the same road on some other occasion i had 55mph+ out of it estimated as speedo was off dial.Walking took 4 hours.I think i used to be able to get 140 miles to a tank i wish i had one now well cheap to run.I think i paid £100 for the bike back then.The engines are indesructable but had issues with gear selectors on a couple of times.They did have a tendancy to rot though.Mine looked like this one in the advert.

[lee wild]

Re: motorbike memories

c70 50 90 was a brilliant bike but hard to get hold of now and fetching good money

[Richard1978]

Re: motorbike memories

There used to be a good site on old bikes with many contributions from former owners.

The last time I checked the bookmark I saved didn't work.

In my teens one of my friends used to have a Jawa pedal to go 49cc moped, & later had 125cc & 250cc MZ's.

The hum of the 2 stroke engines they had was always an early indiction that he was about to arrive at my house.

[airfix]

Re: motorbike memories

They all had Suzuki 'fizzies'

Surely you mean Yamaha 'fizzies', as in FS1E. Like this one...



My brother had one just like it.

[ricasso]

Re: motorbike memories

wasnt the Suzuki moped the AP50?

[airfix]

Re: motorbike memories

wasnt the Suzuki moped the AP50?

Quite right. Suzuki had a few that I remember; as well as the AP50 there was the ZR50 (or X1...I had one of those in 1979) and the tiny tralie moped the TS50. I think there was also a small cruiser job but not sure what it was called.

[mark1970]

Re: motorbike memories

Remembor boys! P reg mopeds may of had pedals but they didn't have to be restricted! Hence the early Suzuki GT50 was a sales disaster.

Remember these "sports" mopeds?

Honda MB/5 + MT/5,
Honda MBK50 + MTX50,
Kawasaki AR50 + AE50,
Yamaha RD50 + DT50,
Honda SS50?

[Roxxy]

Re: motorbike memories

My sister's first boyfriend had a 1971 BSA Starfire, 250cc- smallish bike, but made enough noise to wake the dead, and weighed a ton nonetheless. We could hear him coming to visit us from several streets away!!

I bought an '82 Vespa P200E when I was 17 with a sidecar on it- my Dad (who can't ride a bike for toffee apples) insisted on riding it home with me in the sidecar, and we had a terrifying crash, down a grass verge and into someone's front porch. Very traumatic, I was lucky to escape serious injury. Ever since then I've been terrified to get on a bike, which is a pity as I'd love to ride properly. I've currently got a '76 Honda CB500T twin cam which I bought a few years ago to save it from being broken up for spares, but I can't do anything with it but look at it and am trying to sell it on to a collector. It's very rare.

[grhaffdd]

Re: motorbike memories

I started out swapping a flick knife for a mobylette.
The problem was when I rode it to school, someone grassed, I think it was probably the kid who had
been the coolest kid, longest hair and he rode a mobylette[or similar mop] without an engine and
with apes[easyrider had only just come out] and a tall backrest.
I bought an A10 chop nearly finished for £30 quid or so. I was still to young for a license.
a lot of british bikes followed, one of my faves was a 700 royal enfield, bought it from a Teddy
boy in Ewell and it burst into flames just the other side of Epsom Downs! I had to leave it in
a Funeral Parlour over night and go and push it to a mates caravan on Boxhill the next day.
Lovely bike, even if it had no wiring;-) I swapped it for an A10 engine for my chop, that
would be 1974. I was speaking to some girl in ~1990 and it turned out she was married to
Chris who had the bike. It was still stood against the wall, were I put it in 1974! Everytime
I go through their village I am tempted to go and knock on the door and see if I can have it
back. But he would probably want more than the £10 we agreed on for the engine before he
acpeted the bike.