Where the road started (legally) for me

My AP50, looking a wee bit rough after running through a Winter. December 1978 was when I legally hit the road, there might have been a few earlier excursions, on my 1977 Suzuki AP50 in blue. I was up at 6 am and headed out for a very cold ride round the town for about an hour before having to get ready to walk to school, they (school) wouldn't allow me to ride it there! At the time I thought it was a rocket, well for a few months anyway. It soon got to the stage of being ridden flat out every where, and surprisingly stood up to this treatment. I used it for 18 months, mainly due to the low wages I was getting as an apprentice mechanic I couldn't afford to put my Honda CB200 on the road (a bike my Dad gave me when I was 14). After passing my bike test not long after my 17th birthday I used to take Jacquie (then g/friend now wife)out on the back of it. I think just about every time we we're out the Police used to stop us, or so it seemed. It was a good wee bike and one of the few that I didn't keep, but I don't feel the need to go out and by another as some people seem to do with their first bike. Jacquie also had a red one at the same time, which was faster!!!

Jac on her red AP50

Merry Christmas

More Board Track Racers

A while back I did a post on Board Track Racers, Interesting bikes ridden by mad men on slippy wooden tracks in the early part of the last century sort of sums up what it was about. I came across this blog, which shows the interest in the board track bikes, and the velodrome pacer bikes, is alive and well.

Also noticed this on their site, a Harley Davidson fore and aft boxer twin, a bike I never knew they built.....

Wullies Indian Motorcycle (s)

The other day I bumped into a friend I hadn't seen in a while. We soon got on to the subject of his Indian motorcycle, which one he said. It turns out a few others have joined the family over the last couple of years, with him getting two projects and his son buying another (thats his Indian/ Well bike in the pics). So that makes five in one family...

Benelli Six Racer

W 650

Just spotted this W650 with a W2 tank, just one little change and its so much better looking, I think anyway.

Honda CL350

This wee Honda CL 350 arrived a few months ago, bought by my mate who owns the Honda 400/4 I've been slowly restoring in between my own bikes. Its a 1972 model, bought from DK Motorcycles about ten years ago by the previous owner to restore but he never got round to it. Its fairly original with only a few minor parts missing, most of which we have managed to pick up. Work on it will probably start next Spring once the other bikes are totally finished. Hope to have a couple of up dates on the BMW R75/6 and the Honda 400/4