Where did it all start for us eh? For me it was when I used to see my cousin on motocross bikes popping wheelies and watching Chips on TV. Then one day we saw a PUCH magnum 50cc in a bike shop window in Urmston town centre, next thing I knew my parents had brought it home! My Mum brought this picture round to my house a few months ago, just before she passed away......I thank you Mum for encouraging life's passion's. You were the best x Here I am aged 8 on the PUCH!
Rode my first bike at the age of 9. Dad bought us a minibike, and i rode that thing everywhere in the neighborhood. Was so much fun! Grew out of that bike, and did not ride until i took my 50cc licence when i was 16. Rode my Aprilia RS Tuono 50cc for about 2 years. Sold it to get a car at 18. At 21 i got my full licence. After that my life changed, it is all about bikes now. I measure cost in normal life against bike parts / bike prices. For example, had a huge bill come in last year, and i remember i thought to myself, "bloddy hell, could have bought some new rearsets for this price"
I used to bike ride (bicycle) 100 mile round trips on a weekend just for fun. I guess the natural progression was to motorcycles. When I was 16, I would ogle BSA Thunderbolts in the police barracks. Unlike Paul, I had no motorcycling in the family. However, 3 of my brothers later bought bikes. I bought a CB 175 (gold/white) in 1970 (6 years before PauloHRC was born) and traded up to a red CB 750 K1 in 1971. Took to racing that in 1972. Bored out to 820 using CB 350 pistons, running on Methanol (before it was a nightclub favourite) factory aluminium tank and twin discs - which only factory bikes had at the time. Also reduced front wheel from 19" to 18 with both rims alloy Boranni. Sold the lot to enter the arena of marriage and family and had nothing until 1984 when I bought a new VF 750. Had that for a while until divorce took everything except a kettle and a pair of worn Adidas. Had crap runabouts for a while - the likes of Kawasaki 250 single four stroke, but didn't re-enter scene until April last year when I bought a second-hand CBR250R. That served to rekindle the flame, and 6 months later, in October last year, I bought the 2011 Blade. The dealer told me it was the BEST colour. Of course I agreed. It suited me as I already had its brother in the same paint - see pic. More than happy with the Blade. The acquisition of the MV has been told - I merely sought out a pic to post on a forum members 'What shall I put in my man cave' post. Copied and pasted the MV from the Auto Trader website, and then thought: 'Hang on - that looks friggin' great.' A week later I drive from West Midlands to Glasgow and buy it. Some might say I'm impulsive.
At 14 we could have a 100cc bike here in the Channel Islands - a lot of us had bikes to get to school - TS100, GP100, DT100, CB100 - all those small two strokes (and the Honda !). I had an A100 then a TS100 - and a speeding ban - whilst still at school. Bikes got no bigger than CB250 and CB250 RS D which I took to the IoM TT, then broke my leg on it later that year. The idea was that for local riding a 250 was plenty for me, and knew I would likely get killed on anything larger - this is a seriously dangerous place to be tearing around on a bike - lad in my class at school was killed on his bike. So bikes stayed small capacity for getting around and to get to work - couple of Vespas, KMX 200, DT125, X-Max 250 - and then the Long Way Round series came on TV - and the idea to get bigger bikes to go off-island was born - bought an XT660x. Anyway managed to keep a lid on it and bought bigger capacity bikes to take to Europe regularly as now getting 5 weeks annual leave meant regular trips to Europe were/are viable. Dad raced bikes so he was keen to get me on one same as him.
My dads a skinhead so I grew up with a house full of lambrettas and vespas. He still thinks they are the best 'bikes' out there Got me a little monkey bike to play about on the local fields at about 8 year old. Main memory of that thing was my mate riding straight into a wooden fence and inherited some of it right between 2 of his fingers. The sight of him pulling it out will never leave me Ended up being a typical chav on a 50cc hairdryer at 16. Terrorising the streets in a small group in all weathers, unbelievable that none of us were seriously hurt! I upgraded from a piaggio zip to a gilera dna with 70cc mallossi kit. Was a flying machine at the time except it would overheat every 3 miles It eventually blew up, had it fixed and it blew again within 2 mins of leaving the garage. Ended up selling as parts. From there i left it till i was 25 where i bought an aprilia rs 125 when pissed on ebay. Hooked again and went straight in for DAS. Picked up a zx6r which i used for 1 summer before changing to the blade!
Yeah I went through a fence on the PUCH, I was tearing round the back garden in the snow and I'd made this kind of snow hump to ride over, back wheel bogged down into it and I got stuck so I began revving the bollocks of the thing and then it gripped, flew across the garden straight through a 6 ft fence, I swear there was a perfect whole in the fence in the silhouette of the bike bike and my body. My Mum could tell the story better than me as she watched the whole thing unfold whilst looking out of the kitchen window with a horrified look on her face
Found some old pic's of a youthful PauloHRC earlier. Here i am looking all lanky and pastey in my very early 20's! On this day in had just traded in my first bike, a GSXR 600 SRAD for this brand new Yamaha R6, I think it was an 01-02. As you can see I was very impressed.......couldn't wait to get it home and make the usual mod's and of course......obligatory stickers!
Good history Paul. Strange you mention R6. I went to view one at an auction in Ledbury yesterday, a bit after yours, a 2005 Rossi 'Sun & Moon.' Shame was it had been bastardised, even the good Terminigoni pipe had been taken off. Yours looks great in the pics!
My first bike was a little mini-bike with a 5hp lawnmower engine that my Dad bought at Sears. I believe I was around 8 at the time. I fell off it so much they gave it to my cousin. I then went without until I was 19 and bought an 1992 CBR600 F2 that I hid in my shed so my parents wouldn't see it. From there, it's kind of blurry as I was all over the place riding odd machines whenever I could during my career. I owned several Suzuki TL1000R's and a few RC51's. I got into Kawasaki ZX-12's for a bit as well. But it all started with that little mini-bike that they took away from me.
FS1E with noooo brakes, got through lots of wellies ,it taught me how to carry speed through corners up to the point of O SHIT NOT GOING TO MAKE IT ARGHHHHH
