And while I’m thinking of motorbikes, I thought I’d do a heroes gallery of just some of the bikes I’ve been honoured to have owned. I don’t have photos for all of them, so I had to cruise the Internet for the earlier ones.
First up is the Yamaha RD350. Smooth-engine, five gears and a dream on which to hit every single pothole in the North Circular Road. I bought this immediately before I was posted to Germany. I’d literally just taken the ride over from a Corporal in JSATC MovOps and two days later my orders for an overseas deployment arrived. Marvellous timing.
About three months into my first posting I dipped into bikes again. This time I went for something that had some Italian panache about it. Tremendously fast, great to corner, but with a stopping distance considerably greater than a fully-laden supertanker (essentially, this 1,000cc bike had brakes off an old pram), I didn’t stick with the Laverda Jota for long
Then there was a long gap and much mucking about with cars, but my next real proper bike was the Suzuki Bandit.
I started doing a lot of pleasure commuting from Oxfordshire to Nottinghamshire; nippy little bike though she was, the Bandit wasn’t coping too well with the journey, so I thought I’d get something with longer legs. Enter the Honda VFR800.
Then there came the first of two Triumph Daytona 955i models. This is the better of the two, photo taken in Madrid on my round-Spain tour.
The Daytona was quickly joined by Bella, the ZX9R (and yes, I really did ride her in weather this cold).
Far too briefly, the Daytona and the ZX9R were joined by the ZX10R.
They’ve all been brilliant. Except for the Laverda which tried to kill me a little too often. I’d wind it up to approaching 130mph when some East German in his Trabant would pull out into lane three for no apparent reason other than testing how fast you can stop a near-supersonic pram.
I really miss the Daytona. And Bella (the ZX9R).
This time last year I was toying with trading in the ZX10R and getting a 2020 Yamaha R1. For no good reason.
But hey, we need things to change before I do make any decisions about changing bikes, because 500 motorcycling miles a year is really not good enough.
A mate of mine had a Laverda (are they still going?). I thought it was an ugly bike. Every Laverda I ever saw has been a colour that rhymes with Blorenge.
But, showing photos for every bike you ever owned, is a pretty lame excuse for a post, Bren. You nearly almost definitely might not see me doing such a thing. Possibly.
🙂