Show us what you learned on

[tricol]

I once had a quick ride on a Cagiva Planet which was running the full 33bhp. It felt rapid! Well for a 17 year old.

I learned on a Yamaha Aerox 50, then and MBK Thunder 125. I took my first ever lessons on an old Yamaha 125, can't remember the model. It was tiny and as rough as a bag of spanners, that was maybe around 2003/4.

This time around I learned on a GSX-S125. Quite liked it actually for a 125 learner.

[BBB]

I was allowed anywhere near motorbikes as a youth, the odd ride round a field on a friend's AE50 was as close as I got. Went to Uni in the mid 90s and it became apparent that it wasn't for me. Before leaving I signed up for a 3 day guaranteed pass course. The school had a mix of CG125s and an NSR125, I went for the NSR.

Came home and got a job delivering pizzas for domino's so really learned on a C90. Bought a CB250RS off one of the other delivery riders.

Mum is not fan of bikes and doesn't know I've bought another one.

[Count Steer]

One of these (but not this actual one), a 1959 Motobecane moped.

20220101_182914.jpg
I was 12 at the time, and a mate had a Mobylette that he let me have a go of. I was hooked. The Motobecane cost me £2 and 50p for a can of petrol, and was the same age as me.

Had a succession of unloved bikes bought for next to nothing, which were dumped at the sand pits when they broke.

Had a Puch Maxi at 16, as saving for a proper bike. Passed my test aged 17 using my brothers Honda SS50 (drum brake model) with the pedal assembly removed.

The next day I bought a GoldWing K1, which is another story.

Tell us! Tell us!

[Zimbo]

Suzuki K10, I was 14, must have done thousands of miles on it, all on dirt roads, before graduating to a TS125ER at 17.

[Taipan]

Something like this one. Battered to fook and barely ran, but it was movement without pedaling and I was hooked!

[David]

Have you still got embarrassing photos of the bike you learned on ?

Me aged 17 on a D10 Bantam
Bantam.jpg

This was obviously before your female to male sex change ....but a non centre plug Bantam?

[Horse]

Something like this one. Battered to fook and barely ran, but it was movement without pedaling and I was hooked!

Isn't that pic from your 'my next bike' thread?

[Taipan]

Something like this one. Battered to fook and barely ran, but it was movement without pedaling and I was hooked!

Isn't that pic from your 'my next bike' thread?

Nah, no one recommended me one. There is a notable push towards another Harley though!

[David]

One exactly like this...(in 1989)



Went to work and college on it every day for a year and out with my mates every night and every weekend.
I bet I put 30,000 miles on it that year.

30,000 divide by 30mph equals 6,000 hours (ignoring start/accelerate /stop.
6,000 divide by 24 = 250


That was a busy year then....

[Yorick]

Something like this one. Battered to fook and barely ran, but it was movement without pedaling and I was hooked!

Isn't that pic from your 'my next bike' thread?

Nah, no one recommended me one. There is a notable push towards another Harley though!

*plonk*

[mangocrazy]

'I learned on a Honda 90'. As soon as you say this, most people expect that you learned on a Hondo 90 step through. But in the 60s Honda also produced a pair of real 90cc motorbikes. One, the S90 OHC single, was the one to die for, the other was the more prosaic C200 OHV model. That was the one I learned on. This is what it looks like (not my bike, a stock photo).

Honda_C200.jpg (226.83 KiB) Viewed 205 times

As a pretty much penniless 60's teenager, prices in the dealers were way out of my reach. But one day I spied a bike like the one above in a front garden, but with no cylinder or head, and the piston and con-rod poking out of the crankcases...

My immediate thought was 'I might be able to get this cheap'... And so it proved. After plenty of horse-trading with the owner I eventually got him down to a figure of £9 for the (clearly non-running) bike.

Nine pounds. Yes, really. Nine pounds.

Before this, I'd had to clear the purchase with my Dad. His response was brutally simple. 'If you can fix it, you can have it. I'm not helping you with it'.

And so began a lifetime of bike-fettling.

Thanks, Dad.

[GuzziPaul]

I got one of these at 16 in the 6th form

puch-mv_93413.jpg

I had similar but in yellow and the area under the fuel tank was filled in with a tool box fell of it several times After that a brand new RD250 with a loan from my Grandad and Granma

[David]

My first bike ( in my early thirties) was a YAS1 125 twin....quick but no brakes. Replaced by a B25 goldstar ss on which i passed my test..

[GuzziPaul]

One of these (but not this actual one), a 1959 Motobecane moped.

20220101_182914.jpg
I was 12 at the time, and a mate had a Mobylette that he let me have a go of. I was hooked.

I had a brown Mobylettte at a similar age, dual seat model, with all the unneccesary bits removed or cut off, which used to be pushed to a local frendly farmers field or waste land a mile away. Never actually rode on on the public highway, but did get stopped by the police pushing it along the path. We were told it couldn't be on the street so would have to get a trailer for it or carry it Two of us picked it up and carried it ubtil he was out of sight.

[David]

For the record i should add that my gair waaat least as bad as inewhams...plus a beard.

[Horse]

I have about one photo of me with it. However, that pic shows me wearing a hi-viz waistcoat (no surprise, eh?) and the bike has a matching headlamp cover (remember them) but - worse still - me with an affro!

We need to see that afro^H^H^H^H photo

But I have posted the pic (from about 30+ years ago) after the hair had been surgically shortened (but 'tache added), looking like one of Harry Enfield's scousers. Will dig it out some time.

norton.jpg (15.96 KiB) Viewed 231 times

Did a favour for the Met at Hendon. Couldn't be paid, so had a go on the Mk1 rotary Interplod as a thank you.

[Horse]

Did a favour for the Met at Hendon. Couldn't be paid, so had a go on the Mk1 rotary Interplod as a thank you.

Wow, what was it like?

Unfortunately, I only got to use an access road, not on public roads.

But, to quote from the officer: "It's an 'ooligan's bike - but no good around town." IIRC they ran on just one rotor at low revs (so a surge when the second came in), plus (or minus) they oiled up if not 'used'.

[Also got a go in an SD1 on the skid pan]

[David]

SD1's were magic...especially the vitesse, and a plod one would have had more oomph.....

[David]

SD1's were magic...especially the vitesse, and a plod one would have had more oomph.....
Great engines too...I took a TVR 3500 back to the factory in the eighties...company demonstrator, so well prepped. At 146 mph with the roof down, it drowned out the radio so I slowed down a bit...for the time that was f*****g fast!

[Horse]

SD1's were magic...especially the vitesse, and a plod one would have had more oomph.....

Irrelevant in this case - bald tyres at high pressure on an oily skidpan, surrounded by a concrete wall



2:00 in, think it was the same guy with me.

Hendon had two skid pans, both now built over. ABS ESC etc has now sufficient.