Relections on a by gone era..or what was your first bike?

[Breva750]

Hi Jock, yes underpowered and overweight that was it alright!! Plus mine had a bent frame so it went into a violent weave at over 30mph in any corner - really destroyed my confidence as I thought it was me.

Some years later I rode a VT250s which is what my freind had - now THAT was a 4T 250!!! I can see why he went from strength to strength in the 1980s with a starter bike like that - it was fast, looked great, handled and stopped OK.

All the states in Oz have different learner laws, and my state at the time (NSW) had a 250cc rule - it could be any 250cc bike. I looked at RZ250, SRX250, but loans were needed and I went with the horrible second hand GSX250. If I had bought the SRX250 I think I would have had 10 years of unbroken fun and adventure....oh well.

[Nick24k]

When I was 17 a 2 year old xs250 first took me anywhere and everywhere then I progressed to a z550 (1982 and my first new bike ). After a 4 year break I found another z550, and after another 9 years found yet another one which I nursed back to life and still ride regularly, have also had a 2007 z750 and now have a ST3 which is fabulous and I will probrably change at some point, but the old z550 has a special place in my heart and this ones definitely for keeps.

[badgerKDD]

I had a VT250 after passing my test, agree with Breva, it was a great fun bike! Used to pass couriers in and out of traffic through Bristol regularly

[Breva750]

When I came back to biking in about 1995 I got a VT250 with 86,000kms on the clock to start back with. Yeah it was scruffy, leaked a little oil, but overall it was a great little bike. I rode it many times on "The Canobolas TT" a well known run in the local area a bit like "The Yorkshire TT" but this one only 20kms or so around....It helped that my farmhouse was right next to the "track".

[Scotty]

In June 1978 I took to the roads with a ubiquitous purple Fizzie, JVV 703N, pre-restriction, good for maybe 45mph in the right conditions - a bit scary that first winter was the throttle freezing open (disc valve engine, carb mounted in a case on the right hand end of the crankshaft, and the rubber grommet for the throttle and clutch cables had split so water running down it would freeze around the throttle slide) - it had no kill switch on the bars so when it happened I just had to pull over holding the clutch in, engine screaming, and reach below my right thigh to the key switch on the side panel to turn it off. Leaving it for a few minutes ensured that the engine warmth thawed out the throttle slide and I could continue.
I saved my pennies with a Summer holiday job the following year and bought a Suzuki GT250M (and got a rear puncture riding it the five miles home). The M-model had the Ram Air system that sounded fancy but its only achievement was to make plug removal difficult. Using points, the right set had a tendency to advance, which aided performance a bit (on the way home from a Sunday market near Brackley with my mate Mac on his X7 I saw an improbable 100mph on the speedo), but led to it holing the right piston a few miles later. A few years afterwards I bought a later 250C model (the last pre-X7 one) as a Winter runaround, and like its predecessor it obligingly holed its right piston on the first decent ride I used it for...

[Mervin]

). The M-model had the Ram Air system that sounded fancy but its only achievement was to make plug removal difficult. Using points, the right set had a tendency to advance, which aided performance a bit (on the way home from a Sunday market near Brackley with my mate Mac on his X7 I saw an improbable 100mph on the speedo), .

Yes i passed my mate on my RD250 doing 90 his Gt speedo was marking 103 at the time ,

[Dailaughing]

My family and I were walking through Falmouth when someone went past on a 2T 125. My son's reaction (not on bikes yet but well used to four strokes) was "I love that smell". Must be inherited! I had to explain that "when i were a lad" we all had two strokes as a first bike.

[Atomic]

Did a charity ride today - on a stop off there was chat about the great smell of two stroke. Did you know you can now buy candles that smell of it? Google it - there are a few. And the missus will think you're being romantic as well,

[Mervin]

you can get the smell of the old castrol R by adding a teaspoon of castor oil to the tank of fuel , a lot of old boys with classic bikes do that .but never mix R with mineral oil in a stroker it causes a rubbery gum that blocks things up in the engine , but a teaspoon in the fuel tank should not hurt