09-03-2011, 07:30 PM
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Talking Bikes
I used to love bikes, my first was a 1949 BSA Bantam followed swiftly by a BSA 250, I found them great bikes and easy to work on.These were followed by a Tiger cub, great bike but the big end kept going. Then a Triumph 110 became my love before the love of my life appeared on the horizon and the bike had to go. My sister gave me her Lambetta when she fell off it and broke her foot, That Lambretta became the fastest on this planet, 110 mph until it dawned on me that the wheels were only 10inch in diameter.
Had some great fun on the bikes and at the TT's, one horific memory was doing a wheelie on an Ariel Square four, I just could'nt get it to drop down.
OK what bike memory's have you got.
09-03-2011, 08:21 PM
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Re: Talking Bikes
Crikey AB, you are the first bloke that I ever heard bragging about doing the ton on a Lambretta, what on earth had you got under the seat?
As teenage bikers we all said that we'd done the ton on our bikes, but in reality I doubt they would have done that speed even if you drove over a cliff..
And a wheelie on a square four, that would be a sight to behold, with around 45 horses versus 500lb in weight, it sounds more like a circus act than a bike ride...
09-03-2011, 11:57 PM
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Re: Talking Bikes
My hubby and sons have always had bikes. Different types, makes and models. Usually dirt bikes. Hubby is looking at getting a new 'murder cycle' at the moment. It's a bmw thingy. Bet he kills himself. When I was 17 he tried to teach me to ride. I went to fast, hit a cyclone fence and ended up out cold, face down in the dirt. I woke to the sound of the engine screaming and a view of him picking up the b....y bike! Not me! That's when I knew it was true love and he should be punished, so I married him! Serves him right!
10-03-2011, 10:41 AM
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Re: Talking Bikes
I was a biker in my youth (we all were in those days, no-one could afford cars). All my dad's friends were bikers and they were always buying and selling, so I built up quite a collection. If I had known then that one day they would be classics, I would have put the lot in storage and waited for them to accumulate in value. Until I was about 25, I don't think I ever paid more than £10 for a bike. I had a Vincent Black Shadow which I soon passed on to my dad as I wasn't strong enough to keep the thing upright when it stopped:
I had a Velocette Venom - the 500cc version
I had loads of BSA BAntams - you could pick them up for next to nothing - ex GPO bikes
I had an Ariel Square Four for a while, but I had the same problem I had with the Vincent - too heavy for a skinny teenager
At one stage I had a 500cc single cylinder AJS with a sidecar - what a heartbeat that beast had - I've still got the scars on my ankle from the numerous times that the kick start "kicked back" and nearly projected me over the handlebars:
The bike I loved most and kept the longest was my BSA 650cc Goldstar. It was a pain mechanically, but I loved it. 45 years on, you can still see the oil patch on the pavement outside my parent's house where I used to park it. At weekends, I would put a sidecar chassis with a plank of wood for a seat and my mate Alan and I would go grass track racing. For a while the sidecar became semi-permanent as I got an after school job delivering groceries for our local Darvilles. The job came to a sticky end (literally) one evening when the front mudguard stay sheared off the mudguard and fell forwards onto the knobbly tyres we had fitted for grasstrack racing. As I was turning a corner at the time, the front wheel instantly stopped, the whole vehicle flipped leaving me on my back, pinned under the bike surrounded by groceries. I still have a scar on my leg from the exhaust pipe which was laying across it.
One of the biggest ironies at the time was that I was a "mod" - complete with parka etc, but having grown up with proper bikes, I hated scooters (the only one worth considering was a Vespa GS250 but even that was naff) and used to go on our mod "scooter runs" on my 650 Beezer. Whereas all the other lads had parkas with their names and "Lambretta L125" written on the back, I had "Mick - BSA 650" on mine.
Those were the days..................
Mick
10-03-2011, 01:17 PM
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Re: Talking Bikes
MickB, those are some wonderful looking old bikes. I've seen documentaries about some of them. I used to have converstions with an old security guard that worked for one of my employers. He talked of his youth as a mounted policeman on Indians and Harleys, BSAs and Triumphs. We never think of vehicles as classics when they are new otherwise we's cover them up in a barn as a future investment. Now that would be silly indeed.10-03-2011, 07:50 PM
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Re: Talking Bikes
Great photos of your bikes chaps, I lost virtually all my photos when my hard disk crashed and my back up disk was found to be corrupt!
My first bikes were bought for just a few pounds as well MickB, my first was a Francis Barnett Plover with a 150cc Villiers engine that I picked up for £3. I then progressed through an AJS G3L 350cc single, to an Indian Brave, to a BSA Gold Flash, a Sunbeam S8, a Triumph Speed Twin, an Ariel Huntmaster, a Triumph Trophy, a BSA A65 Thunderbolt, several more Triumphs and then pretty much finished my riding career with a BMW R80RT and a Kawasaki GT550.
I loved every one of my bikes, but the world seemed safer then and much less busy. It's a much more dangerous place these days and although I've lost a few friends over the years, I'm just glad that I survived it all.
10-03-2011, 08:20 PM
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Re: Talking Bikes
Originally Posted by plantman
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Great photos of your bikes chaps, I lost virtually all my photos when my hard disk crashed and my back up disk was found to be corrupt! Off Topic.
You should upload all Photos and Vids to a site like Photobucket.
http://photobucket.com/
11-03-2011, 12:41 AM
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Re: Talking Bikes
Originally Posted by White Raven
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Oh Yes, Boys and their toys. lol. Think I'd much rather have 4 wheels under me than 2. Yeah Yeah I know, Chicken lol.
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