Day out in the past

Rutland Water, my TR1, Pat's GS500E, Nigel's CB750 chop. Good times.

Introversion

Having a clear out of one of my draws and found a load of old pics, including some I thought I'd lost. It was really good to find old memories. Prepare for a few old shots to appear. This is a few of my bikes from growing up.

The RM80 Big Wheel was my first bike, bought at 14 with tips from my paper round. £80 i paid for it as a non runner. After some (a lot) of help from my Dad it was a runner again, and I used to tear up and down the lanes and railway track between Holbeach and Gedney.

The TS125ERN was my first road bike. Bought in a working, but rough, state when I was 16, Dad helped me again to get is a bit tidier. He painted the tank, I did a lot of the cleaning and engine painting. It ended up having a new Gianelli expansion chamber and DEP silencer fitted, as well as a new seat cover after this pic. It was a cracking bike.

The CB250 was built for the Horncastle Youth Bike show, and I got a 2nd place trophy for the paint which I was well chuffed with.

The TR1 can be seen mid-build between the orange paint job seen in a few previous posts, and the green paint in the next one.

Way back when...

I was a teenage hoodlum in 1999 I built this-

I'd inherited the bike when my Dad had died a year earlier. When he had it it was a relatively clean Yamaha TR1, but he'd already bought the FZR600 wheels and worked out that it needed TZR125 discs for the front wheel to fit into the TR1 calipers and forks. The tank came from Newark autojumble and cost me a stonking £17, and I still have it. The seat is a spare from a CB250RS I had.

The exhaust was my first attempt at making one, before I knew about pre-drawn bends. The engine had been to Edgar Hedley, who was competing a very quick TR1 in Supertwins at the time. The heads were ported and flowed, the carbs were flowed to each head, the cams were Megacycle, the bores were 1st oversize with the pistons ceramic coated, the barrels ad heads were teflon coated, the rods were balanced and polished, and it made a big difference. With changed gearing the bike would pull 140mph.

It's currently in the back of the shed, on the list to be worked on when I've got a few others out of the way. I'm looking forward to it.