It all started in 1976 with my first bike, a Fizzy 50cc Yamaha bought from Stockwell Motorbikes in London; it cost me £325. I came off nine times in one year being young and stupid!!! At 17, I decided to go for a RD250 Yamaha (with the coffin tank). This cost me £525.
Up to Chelsea bridge with the lads for a pie (we called it cat pie for certain reasons) and a cup of tea (dish water). This was the place to be for bikers in the 70’s, late at night. We used to do stupid things like, after the pubs had shut, all deciding to go for a ride to Brighton or somewhere bloody miles away.
Most sundays we all went to Boxhill, and all went flat out at the last dual carriageway to the roundabout to show off to the crowds of bikers waiting at the bottom. Lots of bikers lost their lives on that carriageway. I ended up in hospital after a bad crash and was on crutches for a few months and my pride and joy was written off. I then left bikes for a while and decided to go for 4 wheels, Ford Escort Mexico and then a Cortina 1600e which were the business in 70’s!!!!. In and out of bikes, RD350 YPVS, RD 400 etc. Then got married, years later a friend of mine had a Lambretta, he kept on saying “get one, get one”, so I took the bait and brought a LD1955 Lambretta. What a pig to ride, so I sold that and bought a 150 1963 series 3 which was very nice scooter.
Since then I have had about 7 in all, I now have a Series 1 1958 Framebreather. We go for breakfast most weekends and take part in rallies through out the year for charity. Just remember if you buy a Lambretta you must have AA breakdown and relay!!! And last but not least, people with scooters are not all mods (we are having a mid-life crisis), we are nice people really
I want to go faster, I want to go faster..
