My first bike was an ACME 125...in very ratty condition: just an old paddock-basher. My Dad arrived home with it one day in 1966: I guess he figured I could learn some basic mechanics by trying to get it going. He was right. My sisters learnt alot about pushing it too, since the kickstart wouldn't work on it, and it seemed to like lots of revs before it would start (probably because the mufflers were missing - no back pressure, as I realised some years later). The hand gear shift seemed normal at the time.
Soon I needed transport to get to school in Lismore for classes that ran earlier and later than the normal bus.
The result was the acquisition of a VESPA 125. The classy blue metallic paint was soon covered in KillRust canary yellow enamel - my Dad's effort at giving me safety through visibility, and a metal ex-army ammunition box was bolted on the back for storage. I learnt to ride on the highway and acquired my license on this evil little thing. The tiny wheelbarrow wheels gave it a great propensity for falling over at the mere smell of gravel. As a result I crashed it on my first turn back into our driveway, and later on the Tatham road corrugations (all gravel in those days). Fortunately the damned thing could never develop enough speed for these events to cause much damage. At least I'd graduated to a machine where gears (still only 3) could be shifted without taking a hand from the bars, even if it was by twisting the clutch-side grip. It had a spare tyre which was never needed, and a muffler which regularly fell off.
Meanwhile some schoolmates had gotten hold of a hacked about MATCHLESS G80 500cc single which they decided they didn't want. It became the paddock-basher.....even my Dad would occasionally have a ride on it. It was a bit of a basket case - we had to make a seat, and fabricate an exxhaust pipe and a clutch cover. But at least it had a footshift.... on the right-hand side!
Moving out of home to the University of New England (Armidale,
NSW), I found I needed something a bit better than the Vespa to travel
the 200 miles each holidays. So we went to Brisbane and bought a BULTACO
METRALLA 250. This was a very early Metralla - it had the
Amal Monobloc carburetor, slightly higher rising handlebars, a little oil
tank and plunger for easy mixing of 2-stroke oil and a velocity stack on
the carby - I suspect some porting work had been done too, as it was quite
capable of spinning the rear wheel if care wasn't taken, and once I dropped
the clutch a bit too rapidly at an Armidale intersection and left my mate
Tom Graf sitting on the road with a sore arse!
It had had a hard life - one rear shock rod was bent
and we had to pull it apart and hit it hard with a hammer (*G*) to get
it straight and get some travel in the rear suspension. The paintwork was
bad, and it had a big slab of filler in a tank dent, so (this being in
1972) I went mad with metallic brown and candy orange spraycans - sad when
I think back on it now. Still it went like the clappers, and every term
break I'd look forward to the run down and up the Bruxner Highway from
Tenterfield to Casino, and the thirty miles of tight mountain corners.
This was never attempted at night, due to the large number of 'roos
and wallabies on the road, and the notorious "candle in the wind" that
passed for the Bully's headlight. But in daylight hours this bike was never
beaten by a car on that road, and the few bikes that overtook were piloted
by far better riders than myself. At the end of my four years at
Uni., I got the weird idea that as a beginning teacher I'd better have
a car instead, so I sold the Bully.
I was appointed to Bathurst, and fell in with some other
beginning teachers, several of whom were into bikes, so only six months
went by before I bought another second-hand METRALLA...
this one a Mk2, with the full fairing that many were sold with in Australia.
It too proved reliable and great to ride (except at night).
And living in Bathurst near the Mt. Panorama circuit had its advantages...
I kept this little number for quite some years and travelled
up and down the Pacific and New England H'ways many times on it. The full
fairing made for pleasant and fast touring, although the vibration could
become tiring after a few hours. The biggest problem I found was probably
the planning of appropriate petrol stops, because like all 2-strokes it
got quite thirsty at speed. and the mixing of oil in the tank was tedious.
In 1978 I put it in storage and went travelling overseas for a year, making
sure to call into Barcelona along the way.
When I got back to Australia, I still had some money ( are YOU old enough to remember when the A$ was worth more than the US$, and teachers actually received a decent wage?), so I went out and bought a brand new black and gold DUCATI SD900 DARMAH. My first big road bike.
The Ducati had great style, reasonable performance and
good handling ( tho' after the Bully, I'd been spoilt regarding handling).
It was a bit big for throwing around twisty mountain roads, and I was living
in the Blue Mountains, before the highway "improvements".
Tuning it was a nuisance (desmo heads and shims etc),
and it used to attract lots of police attention. Maybe it was the blackness
of it, or the Conti's.......*Grin* .... I got most of my bookings on this
machine. One day while stopped at a pedestrian crossing I was run up the
rear by a Saab driver...no injuries, but a broken rear half of a bike.
I got it back on the road courtesy of the Saab driver's insurance and some
nice work by Gowanloch's, but I'd decided I wanted something less fiddly
for tuning and I hated the drive-chain maintenance. Rumours were surfacing
about how the alloy wheels were cracking on this model, and heretically
perhaps, I was finding it a bit boring.
I sold it and bought a second hand MOTO GUZZI LE MANS MkI.
The Moto Guzzi looked well suited to my requirements....screw tappet adjustment, shaft drive, and every thing easy to get at. Great looks and good performance. The ram-tubes on the carbies were replaced with K&N filters. Some aftermarket Conti-imitation silencers were gotten cheaply. Piranha electronic ignition replaced the points. Marzocchi rear shocks replaced the clagged originals. It seemed to eat the very expensive universal joint in the drive shaft, despite careful alignment, but otherwise was a pleasure to work on and ride This was the only motor I've done a full strip and rebuild on: more for the enjoyment than the necessity. I did my best ever times between the Blue Mountains and the North Coast on this bike....via the Putty road, New Egland H'way, and Summerland way...before the speed laws became so draconian. After some years sadly I had to sell it to get a car : not by choice, but life can be like that...
Meanwhile I'd also spent a little time doing up a HONDA CB77.
I found the external look of the motor quite aesthetic,and the instrumentation was fascinating, but the frame design didn't excite me. Once I had it tidied up I took it for a run from the Blue Mountains down the F4 freeway to Mt. Druitt where I was working. I didn't like the vibrations or the overall feel of the bike: had I been pre-programmed or was I really experience the famous "Honda hinge"? As a result I soon parted with it, along with some spare CB72 bits and pieces. My first Japanese bike...and not an inspiring introduction (even if they are now objects of veneration for some people).
When the Le Mans was sold I was down to the faithful Metralla for some time. Then the urge arose to buy another Guzzi. The MOTO GUZZI V65 SP looked like a sensible choice, but cash was scarce, so I made the silly mistake of selling the Metralla, tho' I heard it went to good home. The V65SP wasn't a bad bike in some respects... it was very pleasant to ride to work from Lismore to Casino, but it just didn't have that much character, and certainly not the grunt or robustness of the Le Mans. More importantly, when I moved out to the country, the suspension soon proved unequal to the notorious North Coast potholes. Logic dictated something more comfortable and practical, so the Guzzi had to go before it knocked itself, and me, apart.
I had become a firm devotee of V-twins and shaft drive, so I bought one of Honda's ugliest products: the XLV750 which seemed just the bike for these roads. The XLV750 proved reliable as well as comfortable, and required minimal maintenance: just very regular oil changes and a continual diet of tyres. The hydraulic tappets, electronic ignition, and shaft drive were a lazy person's dream: just as well, because everything was very crowded in that frame, which seemed to have lost the dreaded "hinge". The air-brake that passed for a front mud guard was rapidly replaced with a road-going fibre-glass item, and when the mufflers rusted through, a new system was fabricated at a fraction of the cost of genuine parts. I found that road tyres designed for Harly Davidsons gave the best mileage, but the combination of shaft drive, V-twin torque pulses, the rough roads, and (I have to admit it...) a regularly heavy throttle hand, meant that tyre costs were adding up. One day I did the sums and realised a little Diahatsu Charade would be much cheaper to run, and more practical for family purposes. I realised that if that made sense to me I was getting old! I took the XLV to Sydney and sold it.
Several years later the urge to get a bike arose again.....I realised I was getting MUCH older..old enough for a mid-life crisis: a.k.a the perfect excuse to buy a bike!
A 250 made the most sense: something cheap to register,
and fun to ride on sunny days down the back road to Byron Bay where I work.
After hunting around in vain for a really good SRX250 or BR250, I made
a radical departure from my previous mechanical philosophy of keep it simple,
and picked up a
SUZUKI GF250:
4 watercooled cylinders, shimmed valves dancing around at 13000rpm, and
six gears crammed into a neat frame. At least it has an O-ring drive chain!