First motorbike

David Asquith · April 22, 2015, 03:34:44 PM

A BSA Bantam 175. Bought off my brother in law. Found it very hard to kick start. So. Bought a Honda CB 175 with electric start off my brother in law. Next was a Honda CB250. Used to travel from Colchester where I was stationed to Barnsley every weekend rain, blizzard or shine. God did it get cold. When I arrived back in Colchester I used to park the bike just inside camp and go to the pub next door for a couple of brandies to warm me up. Didn't half get strange looks in all the bike gear, except helmet. Also used to ride from Barnsley to Shrewsbury over the Snake Pass regularly. Met a blizzard on the way once but managed to stay on the bike only skidding once just turning into the camp gates. Had a Honda CB 500 twin for a while but had to sell that as I was being posted to Hong Kong.
A few years ago I turned to two wheels again as I had to start paying for parking. Bought a Piaggio Hexagon 250 to see if I
could get back into it. I did but the Hexagon was unreliable so I got rid and bought a Vespa 200 GT. Nice little machine but no soul. Swopped that for a Vespa PX 125 with a Malossi 166 cc kit on it. God the neighbours hated that at 7 each morning. Got rid of the kit and put a 150 head on it which made it so much more civilised. Still got it with all the Mod chrome attachments and trying to find time to respray it.
Wow didn't I ramble!

GrahamB · April 22, 2015, 07:23:12 PM

Here is my current ride

25 years old this coming September.
Imported in 2006 as a non runner.
100k miles covered.
I do all my own maintenance.

BLOKEY · April 22, 2015, 10:29:23 PM

My first bike was a puch grandprix in John player colours. Next a suzuki gt 185
GT 380,last a GT750 water bottle.

lil chris · April 25, 2015, 11:26:27 PM

My first Bike in 1964 was a Suzuki 50 followed later by a Honda CB250.

Komata · April 26, 2015, 07:22:38 AM

Apropos the Honda 50, and FWIW:

Many years ago a friend and his girlfriend (both in their teens) travelled from Auckland (New Zealand's biggest city, located in the country's North island) to Mt. Ruapehu (Mt. Roo-uh-pay-who) and return on his Honda 50 Step-through. The round-trip distance: 658 km (approx 394 miles). They travelled in the middle of winter as they wanted to go skiing!! The journey took 8 hours ONE WAY and was largely along New Zealand's State Highway 1; a very heavily graded highway and the busiest roadway in the country.

Apparently, although the the journey was an absolute nightmare in respect of the weather and the trucks (some very close encounters, and a lot of 'wake turbulence' - especially from the logging trucks and long haul rigs), the '50 didn't miss a beat - even on the steep sections.

For some reason though, the journey was never repeated....

Newportnobby · April 26, 2015, 09:33:50 AM

Has anyone read 'Jupiters Travels' by Ted Simon (round the world on a 500cc Triumph), later repeated in 'Dreams of Jupiter' (not on a Triumph)
Interesting reading

Toneeze · April 26, 2015, 09:40:39 AM

My first motorcycle was a C50L stepthrough,then CB100N ,CB250N ,CB900F,GPZ600R,KH250 ( x2 ) GSXR1100,CBR1100-Blacbird,GSXR750,Also had a classic Triumph. Sadly I no longer ride :'(

MinZaPint · April 26, 2015, 05:15:51 PM

Quote from: newportnobby on April 26, 2015, 09:33:50 AM
Has anyone read 'Jupiters Travels' by Ted Simon (round the world on a 500cc Triumph), later repeated in 'Dreams of Jupiter' (not on a Triumph)
Interesting reading

I found "Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance" good reading, I skipped some of the mystic bits

Komata · April 26, 2015, 07:31:13 PM

Yes, I'll admit to having read the 'Simon books. Interesting works.

gjhimages · April 26, 2015, 09:25:13 PM

Started in 1991 ns125r,cbr600,
Break of 4/5 years got bug again
Tzr250, fire blade,gs750,srx400
Break of 10 years bug bit again
2013 Yamaha ybr125
Just been out today bought 2007 Kawasaki er6n , one previous owner,872!!!!! Certified miles
Bargain

Bad Raven · April 27, 2015, 10:02:32 PM

My first motorised bike was also a Mobylette, also "B" reg, also bought for £2, but it didn't have leg shields. Impoverished student friend had run it on paraffin..................

I kept it four years, Station transport as too early start for buses. One day a neighbour was on the same train, he usually travelled later. He said "Your damn Moped.............." then went on to laughingly explain that he was just waking up as I left, and after a few weeks he started to get amused then eventually wound up by the fact that he'd hear my front gate go, it get bumped off the kerb and it ALWAYS started first "kick", summer or winter, wet or snow..........he said he was waiting for the day that it didn't start first time, and it never came.............

I sold it for £26................

And bought a Puch "Maxi".

The only bike I ever bought new and first true motor bike I still have, is a Honda CJ250T, the stripped down 2 into one silencer, no electric start, yellow peril. Its currently in my house loft (Yes, Really!). 1976, genuine less than 18k.

trainsdownunder · April 27, 2015, 11:32:34 PM

Started on a Puch Maxi, moved up to a Honda50 followed by my first real bike a Suzuki T250. (GTs were not around). Honda CB350 then a Norton Commando.

1977 the racing bug bit. One season as a Junior at Speedway on a Jawa - gave up couldn't stay on, so went road racing. Rode Suzuki T20 then Yamaha TD3 before moving onto newer machines with a TZ250 then my TZ350 which got overbored to make it eligible for the 500 class. Half a season on a Suzuki RG500

After a couple of years off, went back to the sport "Vintage & Classic Racing" with a BSA Lighting and a restored little "Itom" 50cc (ex Bill Ivy from the Chisholms workshop).

Dabbled in the big four strokes with a overbored Suzuki 750 doing the 1000cc championship rounds before deciding that tarmac hurt and not making work on Monday mornings was beginning to upset the boss. My biking days were over. Never bought anything since although still long to own another.

Bad Raven · April 28, 2015, 08:14:08 AM

Puch Maxi was a brilliant machine!

At the same time I was given the opposite extreme, a Honda P(I think)50, which had the engine in front of the rear wheel low down but as one casting with the rear hub, supposedly direct drive, but nasty nasty engineering and very unsuccessful.

ozzie Bill. · April 28, 2015, 11:18:23 AM

Hi NPN, sure did read Ted Simon, a long while back now. Fun book, and I seem to remember a short, but quite out of character, rant regarding the design for adjusting the tappets or similar.
Great thread this one, love hearing about other peoples bikes. I had a puch as well at some stage. prior to that had a proper bicycle which had a small motor mounted over the rear wheel. You could cycle it by lifting the motor up, or drop the motor onto the wheel and that would drive you along. The whole thing was a self-contained unit, including the fuel tank.
cheers, Bill.

NTrain · April 28, 2015, 11:39:24 AM

My best friend and I built a James/Villiers 100cc out of 2 broken ones, just to mess around in the local fields. It had a 2 speed gearbox, of which only high worked. We had lots of fun.

I then bought a Honda 50, 3 speed, which was in a Honda 90 sports frame. It was a none runner.

My friend and I spent time working out what was wrong with it and managed to sort out several minor problems, only to find we could get no spark at the plug. We finally worked out that the coil was not working. My elder brother offered to get me a 6 volt coil from a scrap yard and came back with an old car one.

We played around with connecting it in and finally got a spark. Being bigger than the original bike coil, we had to find somewhere to put it. We came up with the bright idea of jamming it under the seat. It still wouldn't kick start, so we tried bump starting it. It managed to fire up several times, but would not keep going. My friend finally decided to keep running and trying until it finally fired and kept going.

WoHooooo. He jumped on the bike, to ride it back to me, only to leap high in the air as his inner thigh came in contact with the end of the coil, sticking out of the side of the seat.

We tried moving the coil into various positions, but soon got fed up with the thigh zaps.

Tried putting the coil inside the frame, but it kept shorting against the frame. Decided to look in my dads garage and found some foam rubber. Great I thought.

Went to put the foam rubber in while the engine was running and was nearly thrown across the patio. When I told my Dad what had happened. After being told off about helping myself to his stuff in the garage, he told me it was a sample of experimental conductive foam rubber...............