For some reason, I always wanted to ride on motor bikes when I was a kid. No idea why this was so, as to be honest, they are in so many ways vastly inferior to cars, but they do have something about them.
For me it started when I was 16 – which in those days was the earliest age you could ride a motorbike in the UK. So with the reluctant agreement of my parents, shortly after my 16th birthday I found myself the proud owner of about the smallest motorbike you could buy in those days, a BSA Bantam.
It cost all of £50, by the way.
Me on my Bantam ( No idea why the fancy costume), and David on his Tiger Cub…..
This thing with its 2 stroke 150cc engine could just about manage to achieve 70 mph downhill with a following wind.
It had a headlight that would have shamed a firefly, so at night I had to try and keep up with cars going in the same direction as I was, in order to be able to see where I was going…. Otherwise the feeble glimmer from that headlight just about allowed me to see my front mudguard. And given that she could could only just keep up with very slow cars, night-time driving was awful.
At about the same time, a good friend of mine David acquired a “real” bike, a 200 cc Triumph Tiger Cub…. Ahh.. the name alone… Tiger Cub versus Bantam…. Not happy about that.
Continue reading “Motor Bikes And I – A Calm Marriage By And Large”
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