Riding in the wet

[tommyardin]

Riding in the rain is a pain in the ar5e but you just put up with it. It's all those little coloured rainbows I worry about and I'm not talking about gay pride flags.

Damn that picture of fuel all over a wet road make me shiver, I recall coming off a Cotton Conquest  back in about 1968 because of a road surface just like that, and thinking about it I can almost smell the diesel on my clothes after being dragged up the road with my leg trapped under the bike. 5 hours in Guildford hospital while they patched up my ankle and cleaned road rash off my hip, knee and elbow. Foc the thought of it the smell of fuel and the stinging is as if it was yesterday. Thankfully I had a space crash helmet by then it was a Bell Helmet, no you dirty minded lot that is something completely different.

[darrsi]

It's funny when thinking back to my early days on a bike, passed test in 66. On a 175 BSA Bantam I bought brand new that year £129-19/11d. Bought it on finance, at the time I was an apprentice brickie earning just under 7 quid a week, bike tax and insurance, 2 stroke oil and petrol, bike repayment, and £1-10/- to my mum for keep, It left nothing for waterproofs or a crash helmet so I rode my first few years without either.

Wasn't law then to wear a bucket.
My first bike was in 1964 again a BSA Bantam 175cc a 1959 model

My brother passed his bike test on his 17th birthday in 1980 and had already bought a Honda CBX1000 which was sitting at home waiting for him, then had a Kawasaki Z1300 when he was 18.
Both beasts of bikes, especially for a kid!

[darrsi]

Happy days 

[YamFazFan]

Classic period pic there darrsi.


Was the bike brand new?.


Can't imagine what my mum would have said if I'd turned up with one of them at 17


Probably thought the RD350 was bad enough

[fazersharp]

Gave it a bit of a clean up for you

[darrsi]

Classic period pic there darrsi.


Was the bike brand new?.


Can't imagine what my mum would have said if I'd turned up with one of them at 17


Probably thought the RD350 was bad enough

Yeah, brand new. He'd already bought the bike on HP before he'd even passed his test, so it literally was already at home. He was a determined lad, who started working when he was 14 or 15 so just saved up for a deposit. All paid for himself.
He used to spend most Saturdays cleaning the engine so it was absolutely spotless.
I must admit even now I like the look of those bikes. He even used to race it at Santa Pod as well over a quarter mile.

[darrsi]

Gave it a bit of a clean up for you

I keep looking for a monster to be lurking in the background after my last photo 

[fazersharp]

Gave it a bit of a clean up for you

I keep looking for a monster to be lurking in the background after my last photo 

Your brother is holding the monster