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MY GARAGE: Too many toys, the following is a 'heads up' for parents to hopefully recognize the early warning signs and plan now to stop young 'Johnnie' from getting involved in those 'awful' Motorcycle things..... WHERE IT ALL STARTED: Dad loved cycling, having ridden around his home Country, Ireland. So, he developed his own version of Bicycle Carriers when my late brother and I were young, (that's me in the 'Carrier'), tricycles and peddle cars developed into bicycles and billycarts and for me at least it just seemed a natural progression to Motorcycles. Much to my Mothers disgust and against the advice of Car driving Workmates and my Apprenticeship Teachers, that only made me more determined to pursue Motorcycling, funny eh! Dad actually liked my Motorcycles, I think?
CYCLING: I loved Cycling, even today. In hindsight my first Bicycle was an indication of where I was heading, my Bicycle in an era well before today's proliferation of Chain and Kingwheel gear systems was heavily modified. It ultimately had a Three Speed Sturmey Archer Hub Gear System, Dual Rear Sprockets with Derailer, (14 and 22 Teeth), a huge jump for the Derailer selector and dual Kingwheels. Three Gear Shifts, two on the handlebar and one on the Seat down stem. The overall lowest gear offered the ability to climb any hill and the overall highest gear offered effortless pedalling at 60kmh on the flat, a huge overdrive! Oh, I traded my Bicycle on my first Motorcycle!! MOTORCYCLING - YEAR 1: It all started with a Honda (red of course) CB175 Roadster, within weeks the handlebars were rotated to 'dropped bars' the exhaust ends were 'drilled out' for performance (really) and valve guides were replaced regularly by my Honda Dealer as I continued over revving, over riding and generally endeavouring to kill myself at every opportunity! I learnt a lot, had a huge accident 'head on' with a Sedan and survived somehow. Hello Motorcycle Rider Training, cough, this was 1967!! MOTORCYCLING - YEARS 2 ~ 5: Clearly the CB175 wasn't keeping pace with my superb riding ability (huh), so the choice of new machine in order of preference was a Triumph Trident T150V, a BSA Rocket3, or a Honda CB750K1. Sadly I had the list the WRONG WAY ROUND, in fact there really should have been only one machine on that list, the Four. Suffice to say I bought the Trident, what a disaster. Reynolds Triplex Primary Drive, Borg and Beck Dry Plate Clutches, Amal Carbies and Prince of Darkness (Lucas) Electrics remain very 'unfondly' remembered. I traded the Trident on a BMW R60/5, a step down in power but a huge step up in reliability. A lovely Motorcycle, slightly under powered, I should have bought the R75/5. I fitted Craven Panniers (Bags) a Topbox and a locally made Touring Screen, I went all over the southeast of Australia with good rideability and comfort. Hang on, after some three years I traded it on a Car, a Datsun 240Z, I know stop laughing. I loved the car and upgraded to a 260Z 2+2 some years later! MOTORCYCLING - YEAR 6 ~ ONWARD: The 240Z and 260Z were great for the 'wet weather' but I needed another Motorcycle, woohoo the BMW R90S was just released, I bought the original Smoked Grey job with the Sporty Screen, whilst the 'S' certainly had good power I was less than impressed with vibration levels, somewhat peculiar to my machine. I traded it, went through a Kawasaki KL250, Honda GL1000A, Honda CX500A, Honda XL250, a GM 'Peter Brock' HDT Commodore V8, and back to HONDA, the rest is history. MY HONDA FETISH: My Honda collection peaked with a GL1500SE, CBX1000C, VTR1000SP1, CX500 Turbo, CX500C, XL250RC, TL125S, XL100, Z50J, HT3813 Ride On, Honda Brushcutter (Weed Wacker), ES4500 Generator etc etc, you get the picture. Oh and a CRV part time 4WD! TRADE SUPPORT: I acknowledge here the considerable help, free advice and quality maintenance given to me willingly by some great people in the New South Wales Motorcycle Trade. Mr George Pyne and Mr Ric Andrews, (CB175 problems and smash repairs). Mr John Galvin, (Craven Equipment, Belstaff Clothing and great Metzler Tyres), Mr Don Wilson, (R60/5 maintenance) and Mr Bob Pressley, (R60/5 modifications). As for the main Triumph Dealer in New South Wales in the late sixties and early seventies, one very big raspberry! They had no idea how to tune the Amal Carbies, fix never ending primary chain problems and the big one, the constant oil contamination of the dry plate clutch.
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I LOVE NEW TECHNOLOGY, TABLETS, LAPTOPS, DIGITAL CAMERAS, MOBILE PHONES/WIRELESS BROADBAND, GPS, ETC. ALL SO COOL AND 'PORTABLE'......
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