Where It All Started

At the start of 1977 I was 15 years old, still at school and up to that point had never really shown any an interest in motorcycles. I knew of Barry Sheene, everyone knew about Barry, and I’d watched some of the racing on the very few occasions it had been on the TV, but that was about it. None of my family or friends had or were into motorcycles and there were no bike shops locally. My older brother had owned a Honda CB100 for a year before switching to four wheels, but I was only 8 or 9 at that time so didn’t really pay attention much. Then in the last year of school some of my older classmates started to get mopeds and I started to see the possibilities. I eventually persuaded some of them to let me have a go around some local fields and I thought yeah this is fun!

My parents could see I was interested and unknown to me at the time had apparently been planning for me to get a moped to help with travel when I went to college in the September. In April of 77 I went off with my farther to Eddy Grimstead Motorcycles in East Ham to have a look round. Fairly large dealership for the time and had most of the main Japanese manufacture’s options to look over and sit on. Amongst the various models they had both the Blue and the Red AP50 options. I’d briefly ridden a Honda SS50 and also the Suzuki AP50 on some open fields and I had really liked the Suzuki, so settled on a nice shiny Red one for the princely sum of £310, which included a Rack, Topbox, Crashbars, Road Tax and even Insurance for 12 months to start when I turned 16 in June.

A few weeks later we picked the bike up on a trailer, but as I wasn’t 16 for another 6 weeks I could only ride it around the field next to my parent house. In hindsight that sort of worked as it let me get to know the bike its controls and balance away from other drivers before getting out on the roads. A visit to Halfords in Romford secured my first crash Hat, a Griffen Clubman, and also got a Belstaff Wax Cotton Jacket but can’t recall where from. Boots were black DMs.

Then the day came, I had the bike, I had petrol (and 2 stroke), I was 16 and legal with a lid and a jacket, the ‘L’ plates were on (sort of!) and off I went. I had no idea at the time what a profound impact the experience would have on me for the rest of my life nor that almost 50 years later I’d still be riding motorcycles.

That little 50cc bike not only allowed me and easy commute to and from college every day, it also opened up an incredible feeling of freedom as now I could go pretty much anywhere I wanted and whenever I wanted, albeit it at a max of 50mph! I no longer had to rely on my parents taking me somewhere or use the bus or have to cycle, it was a fantastic feeling. It meant I could meetup with friends from college that previously I could only really meet in person when at college as now I had the means to travel the 15 or 20 miles to meet them. I could also get to meet other people or groups at venues all over the area.

At college there was a larger group of people with mopeds, a few with the same model as mine, so inevitably the predictable happened as you need to see whose machine was the fastest. Mine was fairly quick, but some of the Italian machines I met up with had a bit more power so got the inclining I should try some tweaks. I didn’t have much cash so couldn't fork out for rebores or expansions for the like, but got speaking to some people who suggested uplifting the jetting in the carb. So armed with a basic service manual, some jets I’d been loaned and some tools off came the carb and striped it down into bits. At this stage my farther came into garage and basically freaked out, which in hindsight I guess he was right. The primary purpose of the bike was to commute and if I’d knackered it with mods then I was stuffed. This also planted a seed that maybe it would be better not to have just one bike but a few as that way you can fiddle with one and still have the other to get around. But that takes money and I didn’t really have much of that in those early days.

As you'd expect I did have a number of spills on the bike as did most people really. The tyres in those days we awful and felt harder than the road surface and slid around in even mildly wet conditions. My first accident was probably 25mph slowing down to turn into my road. It was wet, I was slowing down to turn into my road and my first realisation that anything was wrong was when the rear end started to come round and a bag I had bungy-tied on the rear seat overtook me and then down I went. No real damage to me or what I was wearing and the sum total of damage to the bike was a scuffed and bent pedal, handle bar grip and one indicator was scratched. Those crashbars worked. Coming off right in front of bunch of people was so highly Embarrassing and I faced the micky taking for quite a while. There were other tumbles but in truth those bikes were pretty well built.

I did manage to get two punctures in the same day at one point and luckily managed not to drop the bike. I'd just had the Suzuki shop fit a new rear tyre and picked the bike to go home when 2 miles down the road the tyre came off! I'd been slowing down for some traffic lights and the tyre litterally slipped off the rim on one side at about 20mph. When I stopped the tube was actually still fully inflated and it appeared the tyre had just come off due to the greasy stuff they had used to fit the tyre. Managed to use the phone from someone's house (no mobile phones in those days) and the dealer sent out a van to pick the bike and myself. They fitted a new tube as by the time we'd got back to the shop it had blown, and they refitted the tyre. Once refitted I got on the bike a rode 8 miles home. While I'd been waiting for the refit I'd bought a set of 'Ace Bars' from the dealer and fitted these before going out later that afternoon. Rode around a bit with friends but on way back a few miles from my house the rear blew again. This time around 45mph which was a bit of fight to not lose control having the Ace Bars fitted. It was on 4 miles from my house so had to park the bike in someone's front garden, take the rear wheel out and got my farther to pick me up. When we got home we went into to garage and took the tyre off to see what was going on. Turns out they'd used some very hard rim tape cut to size and had managed to pinch the tape into a sharp edge just by the valve and this had cut into the inner tube and burst it. The next day I called the dealer and got them to come out pick me and the bike up. At the shop a few words were exchanged about my unhappiness about the situation and that I wanted not only a new tube but also a new tyre (it had already come off twice!). Also asked to inspect the rim tape before the new tube or tyre we fitted. Thankfully it all worked and no further problems, but never did use them again for tyre changes.

This first year was an insight into lots of things motorcycle related. Most days during college lunch breaks we would take a ride to the local motorcycle dealers in Grays (Essex). The Suzuki dealer was called James in London Road where we looked at the bikes and also where I bought the various supplies and replacement bits like from.

There was also a Yamaha dealer called Lesley's in Southend Road (I think they later became South Essex Motorcycles), also useful when I got an RD200DX, and then there was a Motor Cycle Centre in the same road as the Honda dealership.

Slightly further away were dealerships like Daytona Kawasaki in Hornchurch with Johns and John Brown Wheels (for skidlids and gear) over Romford way.