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In 1977 I rode pillion on a GT750 kettle to the Earls court bike show. That 2 stoke sound is like no other, along with the smoke and smell. My arms burned so much from holding on. Great times.
 
RD400 another class act. Funny how I have so much empathy for 2 strokes now when all my road bikes were 4 stroke, apart from my 'ped. Another outstanding memory is changing chain and sprockets for a friend who had a GT380. Of course a road test followed, that was a scary bit of kit. As in a lot of times back then the owner flew the bike off the road and into a field, he survived but alas the bike did not.
I grew up at the peak of the sports moped era, if you did not die at 16 you graduated onto a 250, then unlimited. A lot of guys didn't make it.

I was looking at the skinny frame tubes on that Millyard six the other day and thinking yup, show that a corner and wallop !
 
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I forgot about my Fizzy...... Everbody who's anyone started on one of those.

My RD400 was a proper cafe racer, clip-ons, rearsets, expansion chambers, full fairing, racing seat etc. I was going to convert it to twin front discs but I never got round to it. It was Maroon with the fairing painted the same colour as the tank, with Yamaha's powerblocks painted on the fairing to match the ones on the tank. I'm sure the powerblocks made it 10mph faster on the top end, and a couple of seconds quicker 0-60. I wish I still had that one.

After that I moved on to big Suzuki 4 strokes.
 
Just had a look on DVLA and my RD400 is still on the road, tax runs out the end of this month. I wonder if it's still a cafe racer....
 
I don't have a clue where or if any photos of bikes survive from that era, shame. Even reg numbers are hazy now.
 
My first road bike was a blue AP50 MLJ220P. I went through the strict training schedule (One down, four up, here's the keys, ride on the left) rode it for ten days then crushed two vertebrae and split my collar bone because someone left a barn too close to the side of the road :)

Then I had a GT185 (XJT511M) for many years, loved it and even managed to tear around the Isle of man TT course on Mad Sunday - still remember that :)

I also had a GT380, GS400, GS550, 1947 Triumph speed twin, and a monster of thing called a GS1100GK.

Always wanted a Z1 though, ever since I saw one in 1975 - I remember it if it was yesterday so managed to buy one - in 2014 (ok a 1976 KZ900)

Richard
 
My first and last excursion into motor bike ownership wasn't even a motor bike but a Solex bought at about 11 years old then highly modified by me, Rode lots of real bikes including RD's Ac's Waterbus was interesting and long list more of interesting bikes as all my family and extended family have always been motorbike crazy From Brit, Jap, Italian of every brand.
 
I forgot about my Fizzy...... Everbody who's anyone started on one of those.

l coveted a Fizzy but would have liked an SS50 as much. A mate had an Italian(?) sports job which l can never recall the name of. Quite a large frame & red, he was the envy of the school boy racers but ended up in a plaster cast for six months after a car got too close & gave him a compound fracture of the leg.
l ended up with one of these:

Screenshot_20200329-122801_1.png

I emptied my post office account on parts in the local Puch specialist but still never got it on the road before my dad got me an Anglia & l passed my driving test. I've still got the bikes old green log book. I do recall taking the rack into metalwork lessons to twist the mounts & make a pair of supports to level it up for a topbox. Mr Harris the metalwork teacher gave me a hand, he had an old 650 Panther with a hand-painted tank which obviously accorded him top position in the cool stakes.
 
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Here's another bike I had. (Pic's not of mine as I don't think I ever took a pic of it. Only difference from the pic is mine had a turbo fitted to it.....)

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l coveted a Fizzy but would have liked an SS50 as much. A mate had an Italian(?) sports job which l can never recall the name of. Quite a large frame & red, he was the envy of the boy racers but ended up in a plaster cast for six months after a car got too close & gave him a compound fracture of the leg.
l ended up with one of these:

View attachment 15281

I emptied my post office account on parts in the local Puch specialist but still never got it on the road before my dad got me an Anglia & l passed my driving test. I've still got the bikes old green log book. I do recall taking the rack into metalwork lessons to twist the mounts & make a pair of supports to level it up for a topbox. Mr Harris the metalwork teacher gave me a hand, he had an old 650 Panther with a hand-painted tank which obviously accorded him top position in the cool stakes.

Aha
My 'ped was a Puch M50 Sport, hateful thing, never did run right for more than five minutes at a time.
 
my last bike, TL1000, lightly tuned it was a monster, sure it didnt have the 14,000 rpm BHP for a GSXR1000, but man it still had some 150bhp and a huge load of grunt, with K+n, air box mods, full yosh exhaust, and power commander it sounded like thunder and went like it too, it saw off a good few Ducati. i went up the mountain mile on the TT course at 170mph two up!
 

Yep, 1983 1100. At the time it was said that the 1000 was the best one for proddy racing because the slide carbs could be made to give more power within the rules than the 1100, but I never raced it, and the 1100 was just fine on the road.

These were all back in the days before speed cameras were even thought of, let alone stuck up on every nice bit of road...

If I had kept all the bikes I've ever owned I'd be sitting on a nice little pension pot now....

The Rickman was a bit of an animal, not helped by the fact that I was a lightweight at the time.
 
Late primary school I went on a school trip to the IOM. We flew from Speke, as I was a northerner then, in a Vickers Vicount ( it looked huge then, but I have seen one since and they are tiny ) The pilot came on the intercom and said would we like to see the island ? everybody roared, and I swear he tipped this thing on its side and did a circuit, you don't forget that stuff !

Anyway it was immediately pre, or post the TT and I remember loads of bikes everywhere and all of the sandbags around hard stuff on the corners.
Twas a great trip, I bought home a sheath knife, image that now !
 
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