The Early Years

The Suzuki AP50 had been great fun as a first bike, but after a year and with friends on bigger capacity machine it felt slow. I wanted something that would cruise at the speed the Suzuki's top speed.

So after looking around all the man dealers in the area and finding Eddy Grimstead's had the best prices and that they had the bike I wanted, a Yamaha RD200DX, I traded in the Suzuki in and pretty much got the same money I'd paid for it new the year before.

People ask me why the RD200 and not the RD250, which was a faster bike. The answer was simple, the RD200 had an electric start and was a fair bit cheaper than the 250.

This was the bike I passed my Test on back in 77 and used it daily for about 18 months before I purchased a Suzuki GT380.

I didn't have or use a camera back in the days of my early motorcycles so pictures are limited. I have none of my actual AP50 and only a couple of my RD200. Same goes for the early days of my GT380, but did get a camera a few months after I'd got it so do have a few more of those to share.

No pictures were taken of the bike when I first got it, but it was completely standard excepting front & back crash bars and a rack. The bike is a 75 model M which only had 1400 recorded miles when I got it . This picture was taken a few months after I got it.

Being 19 at the time it wasn't long before the mods started. By this stage I'd got a different 'cut down' seat, replaced the from mudguard, taken the crash bars and rack off and had painted the forks. Lots of other modes made during my ownership before all being put back to standard as it is today.