Motos Anciennes

[L Austin France]

To start off - Me in the early 80's in Amsterdam on my OH's Norton.

Respect !
Not a lot more sexy than little gal riding a big bike.

[Hotrodder]

Respect indeed! A friend let me have a go on his latest acquisition, an 850 Commando. It took brute strength to start the bugger and determination to keep from being thrown off.

[Char]

It's tried to break my ankle or throw me over the handle bars when trying to start it over the years - it's snuggled up in the garage at the moment. I'll find a more up to date photo of it later.

t'was much easier to ride than the first bike I had after passing my test. That was a Honda CB500T, it had a double overhead cam and was a pig to start, very top heavy and difficult for me to 'man'-handle upright after leaning over into corners until I got used to it. It was a real pig once you took it up over 80mph I'd have to lock my arms to stop the back of it trying to overtake the front. I'm trying to find a piccie of it 'cos I thought it looked really cool in those days.

[Blaze]

Bravo Char, brilliant piccy !
My biking days stopped a long time ago. Lost my nerve after dealing with too many accidents
OH is still at it but with a modern bike (12 year old Ducati) !!

[DominicBest]

The hot hot summer of 1976. A trip up to Dartmoor. I’m sitting right at the front on the footrest of the Honda CB400 Four in the first photo but my bike is the CB250G5 to the right of it. I’m sitting on the bike to the left of the center in the second photo. I picked up my latest bike, a Honda CB500X last week.

[Spectrum]

Lovely Pics I was a late starter 1982 first bike was a Honda 250 "Superdream" full fairing, side panniers, and top box all painted and with extra light at the rear, then in about 84, swapped for a Honda 750 KZ again full fairing, top box, stripped off all the ali covers and nut and bolts and sent them away for gold plating, after a long wait the company went bust, took a long time to get the bits back. Also bought a 1965 BSA Bantam in four cardboard boxes, spent a long time and money restoring it, could have brought it over here, but would have been too much hassle.

[DominicBest]

My first bike was a 1954 Bantam which I used in a local farmer’s fields for years. You should have brought yours to France, registering older vehicles is straightforward.

[Nomoss]

Fun vehicles we had in Miri, Sarawak, 1971 to 1977:
Honda Monkey Bike



Honda 360. I think everyone in town knew the number. It rained so much there (every day) the car rusted through in places within a year.



A Honda 100 each, with consecutive numbers. Great for the beach with the kids.



A Series II Land Rover, ex Shell, ex PWD, the chassis almost entirely made of patches. One of the earliest vehicles registered in 5th Division, as shown by the number. I bought it to tow my boat on its trailer. It was never the same again after it got stuck on the beach and completely covered at high tide.



A friend flew the Chief Minister to town and landed the chopper on our lawn. I couldn't resist parking the Escort between it and my Shetland 610 and taking this pic.



Our lovely wooden house on the river, built by Shell before the war, disappeared between 2000 and 2010, when the river was diverted upstream, the old course filled in, and all the old buildings demolished to extend the town over the whole area. The whole disastrous process can be followed on Google Earth. Miri has changed from a quiet jungle town into a tourist attraction for West Malaysia and Brunei, a Magaluf for the Far East.

[DominicBest]

I passed my test on a Monkey Bike, an ST70.

[Char]

Found her - apparently she appeared in a film but I don't know which film.

img-211027134906-001.jpg

My next bike after that pig was a KAWASAKI Zephyr 550 which was lovely compared with the pig.