After spending all my apprentice money on a pos SL 125, I sunk more money in a fitted an XR 200 motor I bought from Mt Eden Motorcycles ( probably now a café ) It was a real sleeper, an SL 125 with a stomping great 200 motor in it, I don't think anyone noticed or cared. One day it blew up and I found myself back at Mt Eden Motorcycle Wreckers doing a trade.... On a huge 500cc power machine. Picture is not mine but you get the idea. This is the bike I picked up the girlfriend on, went to work on, spent more money at Bill Russells ( now a knife shop). The cam chain rattled, so got a new one and found that you could pull the sump off, split the rods and take the crank out the bottom. Fitted new can chain and it was like new....for about a week. 500's do that as they have no tensioner...ah well. "In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream " ...well actually just cruised around in a Post Office van but that sounds better. We went to the South Island on it for 3 weeks when the South Island was considered a different country....they had different beer and chips and stuff. Got pulled over by the fuzz ( cops) and they asked how long I had it for...um...umm....a while but I have not ridden it as I was on my learner.... I remember riding up to Mt Cook and some Grebos on some Triumphs saying " Awklund..thuts a long way to come on a five hundred" I was impressed that knew numbers that high. The sidecovers on mine were black and I some a painter to do them in 'Candy Apple" I think it was called...." In Candys room...there are pictures of her heros on the wall" BS. Right back to the shed... Next 1985 " we're heading for Venus, but still we stand tall"
We going into double digits with this? My 2nd bike was a 1951 B31. I found the starting problem with my Bantam was the flywheel, it was loose on the boss and polling. I was told the mechanic at John Hempleman Motorcycles had a puller, so I pulled the engine out and walked into the workshop out the back to get it pulled off. What a dump, motorcycle mechanics worked in some real shitholes compared to us car mechanics - we had concrete floors and light coming into the workshop. Anyway, there was this bike back there that drew my attention...and he said it was a B31. Fuck it was ugly as hell, with a huge dent in the brush painted tank - but I knew about B31's, I read magazines and had some motorcycle manuals. ''Do you want to hear it running?'' he says. Then came the most dazzling display of sound, smell, noise and thunder...it was a life changing moment, a revelation, struck by the hand of God on the back of the head, transfixed like I'd just seen a naked girl (I was 16 and had seen no such thing.) Levers to move, whiring and clicking, the smell of petrol, a big lunge on the kickstart, kickbacks, flames from the exhaust and carbutettor - I was gone, I wanted into this world. So I bought it for $175. My mother took me to pick it up one winter night, and followed me home....sitting in the car as I pushed it along Church St after I stalled it and couldn't remember all the things I had to do to start it again. Somehow I got it home, left it out in the rain and it wouldn't start again. It was an intense learning curve, but I eventually learned how to start a British single. It's a whole ritual which has to be done in the correct order....and even then they don't start. It was magic, and I was apprenticed to a beast of mystery.
Second bike was a BSA A7 500 which was total crap. Third bike a 1936 750 Sports R17 BMW. I've stuck with German bikes since although a few Hondas and a TY Yamaha have shared the workshop both road and dirt. Whilst I was the NZ Guzzi importer I knew too much to ever want to own one.......I saw how they were built. The German bikes I have will be the last however long I keep riding. My CB500 was the same colour as the one above.
Why I wanted a B31 was because it was almost the same bike as a B32, otherwise known as the Goldstar. Same frame, forks, wheels, gearbox etc, it was just the alloy top end that set the Goldstar apart from the budget B31. So I set about finding Goldstar cams, high compression pistons, porting, big carbs and began my endless experiments with exhaust systems. Fun and sometimes frustrating learning times - young guys of my age were riding shiny Japanese bikes that didn't break down or leak oil, I felt sorry for them, they were just playing with bikes - I knew I was onto something that I'd spend the rest of my life pursuing.... 20 years after I was out of BSA singles I'd go to a Classic meeting, and in the 350 and 500 races 19 of the 20 bikes would be BSA singles, and 15 of those B31's or B33's...and just a handful of Goldstars. The cast iron bikes often beat the fancy alloy ones. People used to laugh at me for riding these old singles, but it looks like they finally found out what I'd been doing all those years ago was a lot of fun.
1974 Norton Commando, it was 10 years old and seemed ancient to me in my early 20's. It is still in the shed although now a bit like Grandads axe with all the upgrades over the years.
My second bike was really the first one, because the first one went maybe 20 miles in the few years I had it, trying to make it run properly. Matchless G9 500 twin (second bike) was more or less reliable once I learned how to assemble the BTH magneto properly (the insulators around the bearings were a bit tricky). The first bike was a bitsa, Velocette swingarm frame, AJS 350 model 8 engine and some unknown brand of forks.
A G9 was maybe my 5th bike, it was a horrible thing. I played around with the mag, but like most Lucas mags was about 10 degrees out between sides, so fitted a distributor to it. Um...I got that out of a VW, but it was a Lucas dist, used 2 of the HT terminals. That made it start and run much better, but to run a dist you need a charging system, and that was another thing I had to get into....but the clutch was always a problem. A nice over engineered engine compared to other British twins, but then they hung Lucas ignition and charging systems onto it.
Hey, your jumping ahead here, this is second bike. British bike owners are slow to learn as they kept on buying them.
We might have to get into the double digits before I can join you in the Jap bike worship.
Well...my next one was the last Jap bike I had for 13 years.
Nah, my 4th bike was a brand new Yamaha CT2...I read every motorcycle magazine that existed at the time, so I had to do the dirt bike thing too. A very important part of my learning to ride phase. Stripped it down, bought a truck to cart it with. I had to decide whether to keep the '38 Chev Coupe, or the '57 International AS110....I kept the truck so I could haul bikes. I used to tow my VW's with the truck too....kept the VW's and sold the truck. Life on a whim.
I got rid of my AA110 as it was rather fond of gas stations. Didn't exactly have Lamborghini handling either.
Yeah, even with the cheap fuel of the time, 4 mpg didn't leave much change for hamburgers and pool on apprentice wages. After the weekend I had to supplement my fuel to make it to payday, wandering the streets with a 4 gal tin and a piece of hose.
