Not very illustrious, but this is my biking history.

Kawasaki KH100

My first bike. A 100cc 2 stroke doesn’t sound like much - and it wasn’t to be honest - but the amount of fun it provided was out of all proportion to it’s size and performance. Mind you that didn’t stop me trying to improve it. The bike was already fairly well worn out  when I brought it so it didn’t take long before I had completely stripped and rebuilt it, including a nice new paint job. My mum redid the seat for me, with studs all round the base -  I thought it looked fantastic. Sadly my performance enhancements weren’t as successful. I spent hours removing baffles and drilling holes in the exhaust inners, then testing up and down the road much top the annoyance of the neighbours. . I don’t think any of us had heard of expansion chambers at that point or we may have realized why nothing we did had any effect at all, apart from increasing noise. The other mod was to shave bits off of the disc valve to try and encourage a bit more fuel into the cylinder. I think this may have worked, although barely noticable when riding apart from the new tendancy to shear the woodruff key that held the altenator leaving you stranded with no sparks miles from home. After a six mile push I took to carrying spares and tools to do a roadside replacement.

Not mine, but this is what it looked like, at least when new.

Link to picture

Kawasaki Z250Ltd

What a bike! Brought cheap from a mate it must be one of the ugliest bikes around. A small bike trying to pretend to be a chopper - never going to work is it.  Surprisingly it was very comfortable to ride despite the ridiculous ape hanger handlebars. The engine had no real umph to it, but being a single it delivered reasonable torque in a nice relaxed manner. It proved reliable and a great commuter machine, probably as the styling meant you rode it in a way that never exposed its handling shortcomings.

Link to picture - similar to mine with drum brake, but doesn’t show off its true style

This link shows the profile in all its glory. ( Stop laughing ! )

AJS 18s

Brought from an old bloke who ran a bike shop in a nissan hut. Last of the real bike shops, full to the roof with bits of every british bike you could imagine, and many you couldn’t. Stan Haysom ( I think ) was also an old school mechanic, the sort who used a vice, a big spanner and a six foot scaffold pole to replace big end bearings!

Anyway the bike I brought was actually a pile of bits. Well most of the bits. Unfortunately it has stayed pretty much that way ever since, and still sits in my garage, 25 years on,  hoping one day to be put back together.

One day ....

Bultaco Sherpa

Following on from early experiences with old scooters ( Honda C50’s with most of the body work ripped off ) that we used to mess about on in our local woods I decided I’d have a go at doing trials properly. So equiped with the Bultaco and a few days practise in the local woods I went and joined a trials club. It didn’t take long to realize that I didn’t have the skills or natural ability to make it to Kickstart, but it was fun just messing about on the beginners courses.

Link to a picture of a sherpa

Ossa 310

The Bultaco clearly wasn’t good enough so I got an Ossa to take me to the next level. A mean looking machine, in bright yellow, with a tiny seat you were clearly never meant to sit on, steeply angled rear shocks to give much more travel and a very loud expansion chamber to boost engine power. All very good, but I think the bike was really better at faster things such as motorcross than tip toeing around a trials course. Indeeed the most fun I had on it was on all the tracks between the actual trials sections. Once in them it had too much power for me on up slopes - frequently flipping over backwards, while on the downslopes I found its lack of an effective front brake a bit of a handicap. ( No amount of fettling ever got that brake to work properly)

BTW I’m sure by now you will have realised that my trials abilities were limited to say the least!

I’ve finally found a picture of it. Apparently it was an Ossa TR 80 350 Gripper.

Link to a page with photos, including the bright yellow 350.

Honda CB500T

Back to road bikes. Yes this was very very cheap -surely the only reason to own one?

It felt a big heavy beast with only a modest turn of speed and no great shakes in the handling department either. Solid would sum it up. But it got me to work and back for a while with only the minor excitement of all the electrics cutting out at unexpected times. Mainly on the motorway at 1am I remember. Usually a few minutes spent wiggling the ignition switch would restore things, but it was always a worry.

It’s other big problem was spares. At the time the Japanese spares seemed to be horrendously expensive and frequently very hard to get hold of.. I guess this was before Japanese machines started be be collectable and pattern spares started to become readily available.

The bike dissolved into a rusty heap in my back garden after the engine expired when one of the torque spring arms snapped. It was amazing how fast it deteriorated.

One of the kinder reviews

Suzuki SB200

Replacement for the Honda. Back to a 2 stroke. For some reason I just couldn’t get on with this bike. It seemed to have less power than my old KH100, used far more petrol than I expected and had unpredictable handling, although that may simply have been down to worn out shocks. The worst aspect was its brakes. Although weak they did work in the dry, but in the wet you could grab a full handful with no effect whatsoever for a while before they suddenly woke up and grabbed. Not ideal. In fact this is the only road bike I’ve come off of - touch wood -fortunately at walking pace in a traffic jam when the front brake did nothing  before suddenly locking.  No wonder people use disks these days!

Link to a picture of an SB200

Muz Skorpion Traveller

My latest toy. So much fun it has its own page! 

==> MuZ Skorpion pages

What’s next?

Tricky. The Skorpion is so much fun it would be hard to replace, but there are a couple of dream machines.

Firstly I much prefer the cafe racer look. I also prefer torquey motors that can pull from idle, oh with not too many cylinders. Something you can feel. So for looks I’d have to go for the Hyde Harrier.

A proper engine but with modern suspension and brakes. And it just looks fantastic.

http://hydeharrier.co.uk/index.html

Sadly I’ve also learnt that I am too old, or the wrong build, or both,  for the cafe racer riding position so I need something with a more friendly cockpit. Something like the new Norton Commando 961 perhaps?

http://www.nortonmotorcycles.com

Bike gear pages .....