1969

[Kandor]

I didn't get my first bike until I was 8, it was an old mix and match like no doubt we all had back then,
I remember it never even had a saddle, going over bumps was a real bitch but at least it put a smile on my face..
I remember my Dad getting hold of a dirty big Policebike..One of those ones with the funny brake rods, not the cables we have today..
It weighed a ton..I could hardly reach the pedals as I was pretty small back then (I was only 5ft tall when I left School, I'm 5ft 11 now)
By peddalling fast and furiously, I could get it all the way up to 5 mph coming down Alum Rock..and all my friends laughed at me..
It was a crap bike but my Dad gave it me..I loved it, and that was all that mattered....

I bought my first Motorbike,
It was a 'G' reg BSA Bantam..POB 807G
I loved that bike, it had a top speed of 80 mph and to start it, you just turned a switch on the headlight then gave the little button for the fuel a few presses, kicked it off and away you went.
I remember it used 2 stroke fuel and it held about a gallon and a half.
I crashed twice on the bloody thing, once at 40 mph and not a scratch on me....then again at 5 mph, I had stitches in my bum, cut my knees, arms, hands and cut a big deep groove in my crash helmet (whatever possessed me to buy a bright green Stadium crash helmet is beyond me..I looked like Kermit the frog on a day trip.

 

[Jean]

When I first met Dave (known as Sam) Cookson from Nechells, he had a noddy bike. Can't remember how that one bit the dust, but the next one was a BSA Goldstar 500 single, which we called "The Rocket", and which fired every other telephone pole. I lived at the Ansells end of Vicarage Rd at that time, and you could hear him coming from the bottom of Portland Street. Not easy getting on and off with tight skirts and spike heels! We would go fishing on Sunday mornings with frying pans, etc. tied on the back and got many surprised looks from passengers when we passed Midland Red busses. I think we blew the big end at 115 miles/hour on the M5 in about 1963. Tales of a lost youth - but the old ears still perk up at the sound of a motorbike, so its not entirely lost. 8)

 

[colinwilliams1]

my first bikes

First cycle was a big old sit up and beg me under 10 could reach the seat so stood on the pedals and pushed round and round the garden.

Roller skates dad taught us out on the street and if me and me sis both wanted to play we had a skate each .

Then i have a scooter hard rubber tyres.

Dad couldnt afford a bike for us so bought me firts one at about 14 put cowhorns on it and painted it purple with white ivy leaves on ..

Second bike bought for £3 was a Freddy Grub frame racing styel bike .

First motorbike was a BSA BANTAM D7 on my 16th birthday
Next VELOCETTE VENOM 350 cc

Next was a yellow Reliant Robin COL 130C (Ithink) i onky bough that one cus it had my name on the reg.

First Car was a Blue FORD ANGLIA bought for £150 off a mate . Later scrapped when the rear suspension came through the floor

First sportscar BRG MG MIdGET

and i been having fun ever since

 

[Kandor]

Double drat.

See? You guys had real motorbikes, my second bike after my Bantam was a Honda SS50,
That had to be the slowest bike in history, you didn't need a speedo to measure your speed, you needed a Calender.
It did a top speed of 54 mph, why I bought it is beyond me.
I can remember now racing down Alum Rock as Milk floats burned me away.
Snails flashed me to pull over and let them through.
It was also that light, Ant spit sent it into an uncontrollable slide..
I was forever replacing the indicator stalks from when my bike blew over..
I kissed my first proper girlfriend while she sat on the back of my Honda.
God...I loved that bike.

 

[colinwilliams1]

The beeza Goldie was a classic and is highly colectable now would cost £4k or more i think .

The noddy bike would have been a VELOCETTE LE .. they were water cooled used by the police.

I had a friend who worked at velocette as a designer and had been made redundant .He told me that Velocette had a whole rnage of experimental bikes including bikes set up the way modern bikes are now .I believe that Triumph were similar .

At least triumph have survived and produce some very good bikes based in Hinckley now.They even brought out a Bonneville recently styled just as they were in the 60,s

We were brought up on motorbikes as me dad had them all of our childhood .he only went onto a car in the late 1970,s

 

[Villan]

Unfortunately I never owned a cycle though I coveted the Raleigh Chopper. I lived near the factory in Handsworth. I spotted a gang breaking into the factory, nicking the bikes and stashing them away to be collected later. We (me and a mate) informed the cops half expecting a bike as a reward. The copper who arrived gave us the third degree before warning us about being out so late. I never heard a sausage from Raleigh. So began my utter contempt for the boys in blue. I now own and ride a Vespa GT200. Raleigh are also relaunching the Chopper I might ask if I can have my reward 30 years late!

 

[Pomgolian]

All this talk of Motorbikes takes me back. I could not tell one from the other (bit like cars these days), however if a guy had a 'Bike' I was smitten and the faster it went the better, I just loved riding pillion 8) . My friend Val from Wimbush's was in quite a bad accident though, her boyfriend was riding on the engine with Val on the seat (No pillion seat no that bike), they crashed and the lad was killed. Even knowing that I still liked speed and to my detriment still like fast cars.

 

[colinwilliams1]

Aye they always used to say that your not a real motorcyclist until you have had three accidents.

I had my first when me and Roger Marshall borrowed Alan,s side valve beeza and sidecar.
Roger was riding, me on the back and Bugsy in the chair.
We were going fine until we went to a left hander The side car came up Roger put the front brake on and we went straight across the bend hitting a lampost ,You remember the ones with a curve at the top and an arm sticking out about 7' up .
I was catapulted up and landed on the arm then fell to the ground banging me knee no major probs with any of us .

The second was on newyears eve and we had gone into town to dance in the fountain outside the Town Hall when the road was still open.

After all this I went home with me mate on the back and took the corner into broad street far to fast and slid off on me bottom taking all the skin off me bum and half way down me leg its called gravel rash.
( I was extremely drunk at the time )
My sister treated me bum and it was vpainful for weeks and weeks.

I never had the third accident and I still ride a bike now for pleasure.

 

[spooner]

Lambretta

View attachment 10238View attachment 10239
These pictures were taken in 1964 and show my 1961 Lambretta LD125. It was a bit of a rarity, because it was built in Paris, and its scarcity meant that even the most basic spares were sometimes hard to come by.
When I got it, (paid £30 for it), the previuos owner had already attempted a repaint, so I stripped it all down and did it the dark red and silver grey scheme here. I did many miles on it, and had quite a few spills too, you didn't stand much chance on icy roads, once she started to break away. The baldy spare would get me into trouble these days, but you didn't have much spare cash on a trainee's wage!
The fashion at the time was to chrome or copper plate the side panels and cover the front with lights. The lights were out of the question with this baby, it only had a magneto, and the solitary headlight was only just adequate. I wasn't a 'mod', so the plated sides never appealed to me.
Incidentally, the Vespas were a lot lighter and faster, but more prone to damage in a spill. The Lambretta had a very sturdy tubular frame.
Spooner

 

[Langstraat]

I'm only a few years out for the 1969 thread but after reading the lastest posting about the LD 150 it prompted me to post this:

Coming Out.

I came 'out' in 1972, now before you get the wrong idea 'Out in this context refers to me switching from being a scooter rider to a Motor biker' After 6 years of Lambretta scooters I bought my first Motorbike. I had originally chosen the scooter as my choice of transport after leaving school because I was a Mod during the swinging sixties. I had had four scooters starting with a Li150 Special before finishing with a GT 200. In 1972 I needed a more reliable form of transport to enable shift work and the extra money that it brought. The decision to switch to a motorbike was made easier by the introduction of the Honda CB 250; here was a motorbike which was as cool as a scooter and was still shunned by the true blue Rockers who rode Norton’s and BSA's. The Honda had an electric starter, 5 gears, loads of chrome and could out run most oily 650's. It was reliable and so clean you could have kept it in your front room without fear of it leaving a mark and upsetting your Mom.
It was shortly after getting the Honda that I went to ‘Vale Onslow’s on the Stratford Road for the first time; talk about stepping into the Lions den. I wanted a half ‘fairing’ and had noticed them in their window. I went one Saturday afternoon, slightly intimidated by a gang of Rockers and their oily stead’s. I was convinced they would damage my bike so rode onto the pavement adjacent to the shop door. I expected some sort of derision when I asked for a fairing for the Honda but was pleasantly surprised when it was explained that they fitted most types of bikes. Everyone took an interest in the Honda as if it was the first one they had seen close up. Vale Onslow's collection of bikes was entirely British, each with a baking tray beneath the engine to catch the oil drips. I bought a fairing from them and that was the last time I ever went into the shop, the writing was on the wall for old bangers and his shop only carried on because of the devotion of those of that era. I had a Honda 400 Four briefly, it was far too small for me but I was sold on the four into one exhaust pipe and the silky smooth sound.
My last bike, a Yamaha XS 750 was bought from Percy Tate's at Small Heath he was the UK team manager for many years with many TT races to his credit. I had been passing Tate’s when I saw it in their window. I did a u-turn and slapped a deposit on it. Impulse buying at it’s finest.
The Yamaha was a hybrid; they had to change over from two-stroke engines to four strokes to comply with American legislation and commissioned a Dutch company to design a bike for the challenge. The XS had the best bits of their competitors: Honda electrics, a Norton feather bed frame, and BMW shaft drive. They choose the Triumph Trident three cylinder motor and stopped its inherent oil leaking problem by fitting a Suzuki ram air cowl on the top of the cylinders to force cool air down the back of the cylinders to stop it expanding and leaking (shame Norton hadn't thought about that earlier). It had triple disks and alloy wheels for the first time on a production bike. I was stopped a few times in the first few months by Norton Commando Police riders just so that they could have a closer look. It was a beautiful bike but after the silky flow of the Honda 400, which I had traded in, this one was a noisy banger like the British bikes I had tried to avoid. I rode it for a few years until the day I lost my bottle. I'd been working night shifts and after finishing the Friday night shift couldn't sleep on the next night. I decide to take the bike out and at 1.00 a.m was on the M6 heading north towards Stafford. It was a clear night and unlike today’s traffic congestion there was hardly anything on the road. I opened her up after the Motorway services crouched forward over the handlebar dials. I slid back along the saddle and placed my feet over the rear indicator stalks to reduce the wind resistance and get a few more M.P.H’s it was whilst I was in this ‘Ironing board position’ willing the speedo to pass 115 that I wondered what would happen if a tyre burst. I didn't wonder about it too long before slowly sitting upright and placing my feet back on the pegs. I turned round at the next exit and returned home at a more leisurely pace. My ‘bottle’ had gone as common sense prevailed.
During my two-wheeled experience I had a few minor accidents, a broken collarbone on a scooter and a broken leg on a motorbike.
It's true what they say about bikers falling into one of two categories: 'Those that have had accidents and those that are going to have them'
I haven't been on a bike since, do I miss it? ……..Do I heck.

 

[GER22VAN]

My First Bike

My first bike was an ASP in other words " All Spare Parts ".
I got pulled over by a Policeman in the 1940's in Great Lister Street as he suspected that it was not my bike as he said it was too big for me.

 

[Astonian]

morning ger22van
i,ve just logged in early this mornings and i read yourthreadaboutyour first bike, and it made me smile, and it brought a memory back to to me
of an incident ,where my younger brother brought his first motor bike
off a kid whom was one of the french family whom was the fruit and veg
shop owner on the lichfield rd aston,this was 1951
the bike was a bsa 125 ,any way he just bought it and he asked me did i want tohave a ride with him on the back seat ,
so i said yes and on the back i got , we travelled up the old park lane to the
top and reached the old six ways aston high st as we turned to go down the high st towards newtown just as we got to hawkins the cockles and fish bar
a copper was walking up and he stepped out and pulled us in
he asked my brother had he got a licence and he told him he had a provisional one and he told us it was agaist the law to carry passengers on the back
and he said i,vejust seen you trying to jumpoff i said no i was not
any way he made me walk home back down to lichfireld rd
we told our mom and she went barmy at us
any way he eventualy passed his test and he got a bigger bike
thanks for the memory have a nice day astonian ,;;;;

 

[GER22VAN]

That Matchless 125 ( I loved it.)

Astonian. I rode a Matchless 125 around the army camp in 1956, that is untill the CSM (WO11) flagged me down going around the parade ground on my way to dinner. Never again ( had not got a licence although I dont think he knew that, I still hope.)

 

[GER22VAN]

The Triumph Thunderbird

Astonian. Yes I even tried one of them once on a dis-used airfield in 1957. Just a very short run although it did not seem like it at the time,with me hanging on in the slipstream.
The Airfield by the way was Witchford near Ely, Cambridgeshire, a Lancaster Bomber base where a lot of brave pilots and crew did not return.
99 Bombers lost from this airfield dueing the war.

" Lest We Forget ".

 

[GER22VAN]

My last Motorbike ride.

Astonian. That was along Great Lister Street in early 1958 going towards Saltley Road. I was on the pillion seat , my mate in the side car.
What happened next you might well ask. I went to the Left of the "KEEP LEFT " sign and the sidecar with my mate in went to the right.
I always fancied a Motorbike but never had one, I get a little fun riding my wife's disability scooter these days.