On my 17th Birthday, way back in 1978, my Provisional Motorcycle Licence dropped onto the Mat.
In our back garden, ready and waiting for that moment when I could legally take my Honda TL 125 (PTT760R) out onto roads. I had bought this small trials bike from a friend of a friend, with little knowledge of bikes, having not gone through the ‘Moped stage’. But in the few weeks that I had it sat there, I had done the basic servicing, chain, oil, plugs, points etc. All very easy and simple on this engine which ran like a ‘sewing machine’. At the time, I was an apprenticed Printer in a large material manufacturer down in Tiverton, Devon. So, I was very practical and ‘hands-on’. I had cobbled together some kit, a new helmet and gloves and other kit. So out onto the roads I went… Sure, I could ride a bike, what would be difficult about that… Afterall, I rode a bicycle, so what was the difference?
After a ‘jolty start’ with several stalls, somehow, I was underway. Braking and not dropping the bike was definitely a plus point, and the bike went where I pointed it! So, my first ride took me out into the local countryside, and all was going well, but I felt this bike getting very warm, hot even… I was probably only travelling at 40mph, but the bike was struggling. You see, I just didn’t understand the gearing and my ‘incorrect’ thinking was the higher up the gears, the faster I would be going… So ‘thrashing’ this poor 125cc in 3rdgear, was the reason that when I stopped, the bike was so hot I had fuel coming out of the top of the carb! I waited by the side of the road and after letting it cool down, I managed to get it back home by travelling even slower. Of course, when I told Dad (An Ex RAF Airframe Mech), about the bike, he then took a bit of time to take me over the bike and explain a few of the fundamentals… “Bloody lucky it didn’t seize”, I well remember his words. So, the next time, out and ‘listening to the engine’, changing up and down the box as needed, the bike was fab, and, well I WAS HOOKED…
After a few more months, the need for a little more power was required, so I chopped the bike in and bought a new Honda XL185. I can remember riding this bike out of the dealership, a farming supplies outfit, that also had the franchise for ‘Hondas’, which included Motorcycles. The smell from a brand new bike and being so careful not to over rev it and run-in my new ‘pride and joy’ properly. The XL185 based very much on the previous, but updated and once run in, would ‘pull up the front wheel’ with ease. But then the first of two, and what could have been fatal accidents…
I had passed my bike test and also then RAC/ACU bike course. I got on well with the instructors and, with additional training, joined them myself as an instructor. Not only did this include the actual bike riding with ‘pupils’ out on the road, and with guidance from the local Police Motorcyclist, but also instructing small groups in bike maintenance and some of the basic riding theory. I do seem to remember that this was where I met my first real girlfriend, but back to the biking…
So, the first ‘accident’. It was November the 11th, a clear and dry Saturday night, a mate riding pillion on the back on the XL185. We had been to a Bonfire party and travelling back on the M5, at approx midnight and virtually on the Somerset / Devon border, little traffic on this motorway at 23:00Hrs, but coming up fast behind me, and then crashing into the back of the bike was a Peugeot 504 estate, the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel, came across from the middle lane and swiped us, clean off. My pillion later told me that he saw me ‘go first’, directly up and off the bike, and himself a moment later. As I ‘came around’, This lady looking down at me, ashen faced with shock, but very relieved to see me awake. We got up slowly, both of us, not sustaining any broken bones luckily, but some friction burns and the ‘colourful bruises’ to come out in the following days. Then to the bike, my ‘pride and joy’. Well, the left wing of the car had impacted into the bikes back end, and the 185 ‘wedged’ into the wing, and had been pushed along, still vertical for several metres. We pulled the bike out of the wing and pushed it into the verge off the hard shoulder. Climbed into the back of her car, after pulling back a bit of her own mudguard to clear the wheel.
The drive back to Tiverton Hospital was surreal. The two of us sat in her back seats, a ‘weeping and apologising’ driver, and a couple of crates which contained her ‘Show Cats’, noisily ‘meowing’ away… It transpired, that ‘Clair’ had been up at 5am, leaving Okehampton to visit a Cat’s Show in Bristol, and 18hrs later had ‘collected us’…. So, a week off work as getting dressings changed for the ‘burn’, later scar on my hip (Which occasionally still itches today!), a claim for bike repairs, and all my biking kit. The driver getting a 3 month driving ban and a heavy fine. Obviously, I got that ‘Shouldn’t you be driving a car’ lecture from my parents, but a car hadn’t, and still doesn’t, really do anything in comparison to getting out on two wheels…
So, although the bike was back on the road, and wanting to do more with the RAC/ACU course, I traded this Honda in for a CB400Four (STR821R). It was White, which was unusual, and someone had replaced the exhaust for a ‘Dunstall’ and the air filter for ‘K & N’s. At the time, there were ‘Harris 400F’s’ produced as specials’, but this was a ‘home modified version’. But with a nice ‘cockpit’ fairing, it was much quicker than my previous bikes. By now, I had met several bikers, and between us, we setting up a small biking ‘club’. Good fun and I’m still incontact with a couple of those guys now. Bike shows were becoming more interesting and we had a couple of great ‘hill climbs’ close to us at Wiscombe Park and at Hartland Point on the North Devon coast. Early ‘touring’, packing up the basics of a small tent to go off camping in the Dunes around Croyde Bay.
All was going well, and Motorcycling was my main hobby. Useful too, as my transport for taking me to Exeter Airport on weekends, to fulfil my roles as a ‘Staff Cadet’ in the ATC. Assisting Cadets ‘in’ and ‘out’ of ‘RAF Chipmunk’ Aircraft, whilst sitting on the hardstanding their engines running(!), to save valuable air time and get maybe 20 Cadets up into the air for their ‘Air Experience Flight’. Sometimes two aircraft operating (WP833 and WB560), so, you had to have your wits about you. As ‘reward’ for volunteering, most days I would get a 30-40minute flight at the end of the day, and over a period of a couple of years, added about 40hours flying time. Other than only being allowed to ‘follow through’ on the aircraft controls, (lightly holding but not affecting the Pilots inputs) on Take-offs and Landings, the rest of the flight was ‘under my control’, even being taught how to fly aerobatics, so I was very lucky indeed.
I was midway through my apprenticeship, and a part of this was spending 3 weeks, every 3 months at the Exeter College of Art and Design, which also housed the Printing Department. I would use the 400-4 to commute from Tiverton to Exeter each day. But one sunny early morning nearly ended my biking (and me) for good. I had been travelling at probably 60-70mph on the main A396 road, which at one point rises over the top of the hills, with twists and turns and just miles of farms and green fields on either side of the road. So ‘pushing hard’ towards the summit of this next rise, the front wheel ‘lifted’ just a few inches as I went over the top. Dropping down on the other side and quite suddenly, the steering ‘got heavy’, and then worse the bars started to ‘oscillate’, with a corner approaching and the effect of touching the back brake to slow not helping, I had no option but to head towards the hedge….
I have no idea how fast I was going, and very lucky to have found a ‘soft’ bit of hedge, and no ‘five bar gates’ in the way. The long and short of it was, that the girl (Lorna) in the car following, that pulled up in the road behind, assisted me with a lift to the college. The bike was collected by a garage, and on removing the tire, the inner tube had split, but on a ‘seam’. Dunlop, the tube makers paid up, after I had made a visit to a solicitors, and some compensation for the ‘distress’ the bike and kit came my way. As for that ‘chance meeting’ with ‘Lorna’, well we married a couple of years later! Accompanied me to Germany after I had joined the RAF myself, and we were together for some 25 years in all. Fate, plays a funny part in our lives sometimes. This was my 2nd, and thankfully last ‘close call’ on two wheels…
So, with the 400-4 repaired, and having just been accepted for service into the RAF as an Aeronautical Cartographer, based at RAF Northolt, (Feb 1983) time for me to change the bike for something with a little more weather protection and shaft drive… No, not a BMW, far too expensive for a young printer, just out of his apprenticeship, but another ‘Honda’, this time a CX500 (FOD71V). This ‘Plastic Maggot’ as they were known, actually served me very well. Water cooled and much less maintenance for the regular weekend ‘48Hr passes’, to and from Devon on the M4/M5. So after finishing my RAF Trade training course, I had applied to go onto the ‘Oversea list’. Fate, again seemed to come into play. Whist doing my day job of producing Minor Airfields, Helicopter Landing Site and ‘En-route’ Charts, I became aware that the printers of these charts, (mis-employed and retrained RAF Photographers) also based at AIDU (Aeronautical Information Document Unit), were under pressure. So I simply offered my previous skill sets to my Senior non-commissioned officer (SNCO), and within days, I was not only printing charts myself, but also training other young ‘Air Carts’ so they could assist. I’ll never know for sure, but it would be reasonable to suggest that my assistance had somehow, pushed me up the list of ‘hopefuls’ looking to get an overseas posting. My PV (Positive Vetting) clearance for what was to be a very interesting and secret role, Mission planning at RAF Laarbruch within the COC (Combat Operation Centre) and on XVI and XX Squadrons, operating Tornado Aircraft. Sadly, the casualty of this posting, was that the CX500 had to be sold. Having the chance to buy a tax/ VAT free car on ‘export’, we needed the funds and so it went…
The next 4 years at RAF Laarbruch, then promotion and a ‘cross posting’ to BRIXMIS in the Berlin Brigade HQ, another very interesting and ‘secret’ job (check out on Google), watching the ‘Wall’ come down in 1989 (right in the middle of my ‘Tour’), and thus, with the end of the ‘Cold War’ posted back home to RAF Northolt. I had missed the motorcycling greatly. Having taken up some gliding on the RAF Station, and the opportunity to travel around much of Europe, there just wasn’t the time. So after joining the Oxford Section and joining them with Fiona, my ‘new wife’… for a visit to the Rhine and Moselle, it was just so good to be back in Germany and this time, on a BMW. Before joining the Club approx 2007, I had got back into biking via a couple of yes, you guessed it! – Honda’s, a 650cc single Vigor, and then a 900cc Hornet. I really liked the acceleration of the big 4 cylinder, and had joined the Honda Owners Club, but that led to another twist of fate, that I won’t bore you with… Suffice to say, that when the K1200S came onto the market, it was perfect for me. Not only did it have my on ‘initials’ in the title, but it just ‘felt right’. I was really ‘in-tune’ with this bike and loved every second out on the road with it. So much pure and usable power. So it made sense to join the Oxford Club, and an interesting group you were, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride-outs and club nights, and, hopefully, will do this again. I had also decided to get some further training in, and thus completed the IAM training and test. Whilst with the BMW Club, I ‘volunteered’ along with the then main UK club Treasurer (Based in Devon), to do the RoSPA Biking course based over in Wales. I was unhappy that I only came away with a ‘Silver’, after missing a 40 to 30mph sign, and David also scoring a Silver, after dropping his K1200S on the ‘U’ Turn, ouch! I had just changed to what is still one of my two bikes, my trusty RT1200SE, now over 50K Miles / so 13 this November! Also in Wales and at the ‘BMW Off-road skills’ centre, I did the Level One Off Road, and should have gone back for more, as definitely the best two days Bike training I’ve ever had, with skills learnt that can be transferred onto ‘normal’ roads.
So my ‘Old Girl’ (the bike, not my wife,,,, don’t tell her please….), is going well. For a number of years, I have planned trips up to the West Coast of Scotland, sometimes for groups of 5 or 6, all local Guys from Witney (other than one from Wales)… And hoping this nasty COVID episode is out of the way for my next planned minitour 6-10th May, but for a larger group of 8. Fiona and I have toured around a few of the Islands: Skye, Lewis, Harris, Uist and Arran on the RT, and the change from the K1200S to the RT, was primarily down to having the more comfortable and happier pillion! Although to be fair, when first ‘dating’ Fiona, we did pop out on the ‘K’ a few times, and it didn’t put her off, but we have had so much pleasure from motorcycling in general. Not least, was another trip down to SOS in Southern France. Many of you have visited, and possibly at the same time, as us. The converted ex French Railway Station, owned by the wonderful David, cousin to Catherine Moxey. Always such fun, and the last time, we had the South African department with us – You know who you are, and although many years ago now, so much fun and happy memories, so thank you for those.
My other ‘trusty steed’, is my G650GS Sertao. You may have seen some of the adaptions and additions that I have made to this simple 650cc single. But what a ‘hoot’ to ride. I use it for the commuting in the summer, as cooler than the RT. It’s also so much fun for local rides around the Cotswolds, and down as far as ‘Exmoor’, which is always a great reminder of those learning experiences so many years ago. It’s just about ‘right’ now, and I have a bespoke bike lift, that is mounted onto our Motorhome. A clever device which travels on two ‘caster’ 10” wheels, so the correct weight loading (it’s been onto the weighbridge to check it – of course). So this has extended the use of the ‘Baby GS’ as I call it. So it’s been up to Scotland with us and other locations around the UK, as ‘supplementary transport’.
In the request to write this, there is some ‘guidance’ given of what to include, and so you will have noted that I’ve not gone ‘title to title’, but mixed, well, my experience of motorcycling, the fun that I have had from it, some ‘close calls’ I’ve had, some friendships made and places visited. Far too much other detail to write here for a short article, which is where I shall end, before any readers go too ‘Grey’…
