After passing my bike test at the age of 16 in 1971, I stopped riding road bikes after about 3 years. I did 3 seasons of Motocross in 78 to 81 and then had no contact with bikes until 9 years ago when a friend asked me if I could teach her to ride a bike. As neither of us had one that would have been a bit difficult so I had a look for learner legal things and found they were damned expensive and gutless. So I bought an old 600 Diversion that I found on eBay. I taught her the basics on that and she then went off and did her DAS course. I rode the Divi about a bit and scared myself to death just about every time I took it out. Said friend suggested I contacted the place where she had done her DAS course as they also did what they called a Rusty Rider course for people returning to bikes after a long time away. I booked myself on that course and we started by the instructor telling me to ride while he observed from behind. When we stopped, he could barely stand for laughing! His comment was that I knew how to ride a bike, knew the rules of the road but had been driving cars for so long that I couldn't do both at the same time. I was, in his words, the man the course had been named after, the ultimate Rusty Rider.
After doing the one day course, my confidence came back, I learnt all about things like road positioning, counter-steering and numerous other tips. After a very short time I was giving the Divi a big handful of throttle and finding myself thinking, c'mon then, get on with it. So I bought the Fazer which is still faster than me so I think I'll be keeping it for quite some time (unless I follow all the other Mk1 600 riders who seem to be throwing them down the road with almost monotonous regularity).
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