AJ Mick
13th November 2016, 12:54
Been getting around on two wheels for a while, starting out on a bicycle on a King Country farm when I was about seven in 1961. Went flying over a barbed wire fence and landed up in a blackberry bush the same day, I picked myself up, had a cry then got back on the bike….. and my mates showed me how to use the back pedal brake. I have been cycling ever since, and my daily ride these days is a bicycle cost me about $150, new, 13 years ago.
I first rode a motorcycle in January 1966 (summer holidaze), on a Honda CT90. My father showed me the controls (including the brakes) and set me off riding in a figure eight on a flat piece of land near the wool shed. He came back a few minutes later and chided me for still being in first gear….. Well, he hadn't told me about gears, so he did. That was my second, and last ever motorcycle riding lesson.
I got my m/c licence in 1969. Got 24 out of 25 multi-guess questions right in the written test, and did ok in the oral test, so was given a provisional licence. Went back a week later on said CT90, rode about 150 metres up the road, did a feet up U-turn, and back to the testing officer. That was the road test, and I had my full road licence at the age of fifteen and a couple or three weeks.
Since then I have ridden the breadth, and most of the length of Aotearoa, and in about 15 other countries, on and off road, covering some 500,000 km in all. I have ridden bikes ranging from 50cc to a litre, and have come to prefer the lightweight end of the spectrum.
I have owned only seven bikes, most for quite a few years. In NZ the first bikes I owned were couple of Honda CB350s, then a Suzuki TS185 (7 or 8 years). The last one was a Honda MB100 which I bought to see me through 3 years at Massey University, but used when I was in NZ of and on for about 20 years. In the end I gave it to some young fellows who wanted a bucket racer, I gather.
In the UK I had a Yamaha RXS100 for a couple of months until it got stolen. I replaced it with a Honda CB250RS, my favourite of the bikes I have owned. I had it for about five years, and touring much of the UK, Ireland, and parts of central Europe before it too got stolen.
My current high days and holidaze ride is a 1997 100 cc Honda Dream, an ex rental, which I picked up for about $600 back in 2003. It has done 255,000 km so far, and should be good for a good few more….. but hopefully for someone else before too long. 'Tis nigh on time for a return to Godzone.
326151326150
I first rode a motorcycle in January 1966 (summer holidaze), on a Honda CT90. My father showed me the controls (including the brakes) and set me off riding in a figure eight on a flat piece of land near the wool shed. He came back a few minutes later and chided me for still being in first gear….. Well, he hadn't told me about gears, so he did. That was my second, and last ever motorcycle riding lesson.
I got my m/c licence in 1969. Got 24 out of 25 multi-guess questions right in the written test, and did ok in the oral test, so was given a provisional licence. Went back a week later on said CT90, rode about 150 metres up the road, did a feet up U-turn, and back to the testing officer. That was the road test, and I had my full road licence at the age of fifteen and a couple or three weeks.
Since then I have ridden the breadth, and most of the length of Aotearoa, and in about 15 other countries, on and off road, covering some 500,000 km in all. I have ridden bikes ranging from 50cc to a litre, and have come to prefer the lightweight end of the spectrum.
I have owned only seven bikes, most for quite a few years. In NZ the first bikes I owned were couple of Honda CB350s, then a Suzuki TS185 (7 or 8 years). The last one was a Honda MB100 which I bought to see me through 3 years at Massey University, but used when I was in NZ of and on for about 20 years. In the end I gave it to some young fellows who wanted a bucket racer, I gather.
In the UK I had a Yamaha RXS100 for a couple of months until it got stolen. I replaced it with a Honda CB250RS, my favourite of the bikes I have owned. I had it for about five years, and touring much of the UK, Ireland, and parts of central Europe before it too got stolen.
My current high days and holidaze ride is a 1997 100 cc Honda Dream, an ex rental, which I picked up for about $600 back in 2003. It has done 255,000 km so far, and should be good for a good few more….. but hopefully for someone else before too long. 'Tis nigh on time for a return to Godzone.
326151326150