Cafés, Caffeine and the Motorcycling Collective

[Flip]

So going on from another thread that has got me thinking about how motorcycling has changed in the thirty six or so years that I have been legally riding and in that time never been without a motorcycle of some description.

I was lucky growing up I had friends who lived on a farm and often weekends were spent over there as their Dad would always have a selection of 'pedal and pops' to ride over the fields then when I was fifteen and saved enough paper round and river boat money to buy my first 'bike' a Suzuki TS50ER I was a) lucky we had a big garden and b) that my Dad persuaded Mum that it was a good idea for me to get used to it round there before venturing out on the road on my sixteenth birthday (no CBT back then).

Back then it was almost a rite of passage to go through the year long pain of 50cc riding but the feeling of fun and independence was all worth it, not to mention for those of us that either found work, went to sixth form or college at sixteen it meant transport other than train and buses. Plus there were all the girls to impress with clouds of blue smoke and clutch dump wheelies in youth club car parks.

The year gone, another December and finally seventeen, many of us are drawn to a car for various reasons but a few stick with two wheels and the canny choose a derestricted 125cc chasing speed over sexy looks of the newly introduced 12bhp limit bikes. For me it was a £70 saving on insurance meant a £30 TPFT premium for a 100cc which I immediately put in for my test on and by March I had done the laugh that was the two part test and along with a full licence I had a 50% share in an X7- I can still hear the crackle of those Swarbrick pipes on the over-run down Arundel High Street.

Back then we didn't go to cafés, a lot of pubs had signs out saying 'No Bikers', if you rode a two stroke you were a hooligan, if you rode a Harley or chopper you were (probably) a 'bad man' and most likely in a patch club ('The Sussex Reapers' down here then). There were still Brit bikes being ridden mostly by 50's rocker types but the thing missing now is that almost everyone and their Granny had a moped in the family (you could even buy Tomos 50cc's in the Littlewoods catalogue).

With more cars on the road the ratio to bikes has increased dramatically not helped by finance deals for new drivers and an over complicated licence system for motorcycles meaning not only are car drivers less aware of their two wheeled counterparts but there are less youngsters getting on them in the first place.

So the current crop of superbikes may well be beyond the ability of anyone this side of BSB to them justice, the demographic of Harley riders may have changed beyond recognition from back then. There are Adventure bikes that will never see an adventure past a daily commute or a weekend away, while a new breed of people are getting into the new wave custom/café racer scene.

I know many have taken some bikes that were never good in their day and done some tasteless things to them but like Charlie and Ewan they have also put bikes and bike building programs on telly bringing them to peoples' houses who might never otherwise be interested. Motorcycles now are a leisure pursuit more than anything, this Country is not blessed with the weather for year round riding for fun and without kids getting on 'peds new riders in any form has got to be a good thing for motorcycling generally don't you think?

[Tim88]

Flip's early days seem a bit modern to me! My first bike was a 1959 Vespa 125 which I bought from a school friend for £7 10 shillings around 1969. I hid this from my mum and rode it in the back garden in secret for a couple of weeks before my provisional turned up at 16. It managed to get an MoT and insurance and that was it, my school transport and street cred sorted. A year later and an Li150 was bought for £50 from Archer's in Aldershot, if I had had another couple of hundred there was also a perfect Velocette Thruxton available, but not for me I'm afraid. I passed my test on the Lambretta and also aquired a '58 or '59 Heinkel bubble car. I had to do a lot of work on the bubble to get it on the road but was lucky to find a much later Trojan 200cc power unit plus new rear screen and other parts. This car was much better for romance than the scooters (although I also got an SX150 to add to the stable) and I used it to practise for my car test. At the same time, I was 17 or 18 and still at school, I got my first bike a 1960 RE Meteor Minor as a box of bits. I still have this Enfield! A truly horrible thing but it saw me through the first year or two of University until a Wolsley Hornet (a 998 mini with a boot, lovely thing) did for me what the bubble car had done at school. At no time was there any nonsense with two part tests or CBT's etc. let alone the ultimate shame of a moped. Mopeds were ridden by girls and very old ladies and were only to be seen while on holiday in France! Since those great days I have always had a proper motorcycle as well as a car and will continue to do so, I hope, 'til I drop.

[Uncle Bob]

Well I'm not 'that' old, however even in my experience there a notable changes. For example, and also from that other thread, somebody recommended a 'biker cafe' in Bedford and I thought "Oh that's not far from me I might check it out".

But then I looked on their website, only to find it has a GROOMING section. Yes, flippin GROOMING products!! I mean, don't get me wrong, once upon a time in parts of the biking community taking a weekly bath was considered grooming, but this is just getting ridiculous.

It's bad enough that these days you aren't just accepted for being a rider, you arrive somewhere and you're immediately judged on what bike you've got, what boots you've got, and now what frigging hairstyle and beard you've got. The fact that biking is now considered trendy\lifestyle (again - as if millenials invented it) to me just makes it exclusive rather than inclusive. Shame really.

[alan s4]

Your average 16 year old will hardly leave their bedroom let alone have the get up and go to ride a bike.

At 14 I had a TS50ER as well, living in Glasgow there was a distinct lack of "pals with fields", however that didn't stop me riding around the back lanes without so much as a complaint from the neighbours. Image that now, I would be public enemy number 1. At 16 I bought a road going TS50ER and then progressed on to a NS125 at 17 and so on.....

I suppose kids tend to socialise on line these days, they just don't have that need for freedom that we once had?

[Grumpy]

Interesting reading the similar/different ways we come to motorcycles. Also the how motorcycling has changed.
My earliest introduction to the world of motorbikes was watching the Ulster GP as a fresh faced 5 yr old. The spectacle of standing be the side of the road with the sounds and smells has stayed with me.
This was followed by the HD wla my father purchased as a project ( which never got of the ground!) sitting at the back of the garage for several years.

Fast forward to starting college as part of my apprenticeship and traveling to Cambridge once a week. I started with a sports moped ( Honda SS50), then, in my 17th birthday a DT175.
The test at that time was turn up on a bike and ride around whilst the examiner observed you from various points on the test course.
Then, motorcycling around the Cambridge area was similar to the picture Flip paints. Pubs with bikers not welcome signs, guys who ride British bikes, thinking they were cool no matter how unreliable the bike was.
Local bike clubs wearing patches thinking they were hells angels.
The lasting memories of these early days are of riding through Cambridge at highly illegal speeds.
Silly stunts in the roads around the town where I lived. The local coppers slapping your wrist, but not prosecuting. 5 day producers!
As for the dealers, they ranged from back street lock ups to the local dealers for the big four who sold so many bikes ( an article I read last year have figures showing in the mid eighties Honda sold more CB250's in a month than the total sales of their top selling model for the whole of last year!!) They really had no interest in aftercare.
Motorcycling had changed so much in the past 30 years as to unrecognisable, but definitely for the better.