Rose Tinted Glasses
Through rose tinted goggles.
Looking back and thinking about my favourite bikes…
sometimes I think I must have had rose tinted goggles on, a bike I loved and remember having quite a lot of fun on was a GT380 Suzuki, I owned 3 of them at once. Well recently I had the chance to take one out for a spin after 25 years, what the hell was I taking in those days!! It was an awful bike, didn't go, didn't handle, and more importantly it didn't stop. So why do I remember it so fondly?
I then sat back and thought about my favourite bikes that I have used, the ones that stick in my memory the most, so here are just a few…
Suzuki GT380, no idea why this model has stuck in my mind, I'll have to think about it some more.
Honda 750 F1 1978, 186,000 miles in 6 years, handled well enough for despatching and very reliable with good economy, easy to fix with cheap parts. Downside? It ate chains until I converted to F2 chain and sprockets.
Suzuki GS 550E, lighter in town and better handling than the honda, unbreakable engine, but harder work on long runs and not so good on petrol.
BSA 441SS, not a victor!! I did 120,000 miles on this bike in 6 years, it was my first proper (legal) big bike, god knows how many times I rebuilt it, it went through 5 sets of needle roller bigends. Bored out to an horrendous size in its last days, it was running a modfied piston from a car (no, I can't rememeber which) and we worked out the swept volume to be around 605cc although that was probably wrong, it was fitted with a four valve CCM competition head and a reverse cone mega with no reverse cone, my dad reckoned he could hear me coming from Chelsea Bridge when he was in the Latchmere pub! I also stuck 250ss stickers on the side panels, early jap bikes would stop alongside at the lights and get a shock when this thing took off on the back wheel, top speed was around 100 (I saw 110 on the clock down the A3 once, but it took a looong time to get there) but the acceleration was something else top speed in first was about 35 and would hit that in a under two secs… then it took 3 minutes to get into second gear! It destroyed 3 gearboxes before a friend made me some bearings for the shafts after that it was fine. Chains, drive and primary, would not last long either.
Triumph T140V, Fabulous bike, light, fast (for its day) and reliable if you kept up the maintanence, It would out handle any foreign bike in its day, we used to turn the exhaust clamps so the edge would hit the deck first giving some warning before the solid footpegs dug in. I once wheelied one for 1/2 a mile on an Isle of wight seafront with a bloke with a broken leg on the back. One modded one I had hit 140mph on the speedo coming down the M1 at 3am one night, unfortunately seconds later I ran into the back of a mini doing 30mph in the fast lane with no lights on driven by a woman who was 3 times over the drink drive limit. The impact pushed the forks through the engine so far one was in the gearbox.
I then sat back and thought about my favourite bikes that I have used, the ones that stick in my memory the most, so here are just a few…
While we are on the subject of the 'rose tinted past'
what has happened to rebellion in this country?
what has happened to rebellion in this country?
Is it me or do young people have no gumption nowadays? Up until the late eighties we used to rise up and fight back everytime the government tried to step on us, witness the poll tax riots, I know they got hijacked, but lots of ordinary people tried to make their voices heard from the young to the old. It used to be the young that stood up to be counted, but where are they now? All the time I hear young people whinging about this, that and the other… well not so much the other! Mainly it's to do with the fact they are bored!!!
I listened to a group of early 20's punk‑looking blokes last month, in a bar talking about Tony Blair, slagging him off, going on about the war and how no one does anything for the youngsters, after listening to this for about 20mins I asked them what they were going to do about it, the blank stares told me a lot, they didn't understand why 'they' had to do something, they thought sitting on their arses complaining would do it for them. One of them had a t‑shirt with the anarchy symbol on it and I asked him what it meant, he replied 'no rules' so I asked him what would he would do if I hit him, he looked worried and his mate said he would call the police, I laughed and walked off.
All youngsters today seem to do is get a) drunk b) stoned c) pregnant d) lazy, I did my time as an 'activist' and don't see why I should have to go back to it to help these lazy arseholes, but I do worry that no one is really questioning what government is doing any more, take the smoking ban, I agree with it to an extent but the number of people who have been complaining about it is huge! So why haven't they done anything about it? No marches no dissent… nothing! Is it because they are all stoned?
I blame the New Romantics, before them we had punk, rock & roll, OI and Ska, all types of music designed to make you feel something, go back far enough and you will find songs that stirred the blood, marching songs that called everyone together and helped them fight as one! What song have you heard in the last 20 years that made people stand up and be counted? Ones that hit the news! I'm not talking about the odd song that a few people get up and dance to, but about songs that hit the headlines, the last song I can remember that caused some proper consternation was 'God save the Queen' by the Sex Pistols and how long ago was that? Since the New Romantics came along and made everyone go a bit wishy‑washy music has become bland, exicting music just doesn't get the chance it used, most money is made by churning out pap for the chav generation, rebellion is being choked for the sake of cash and our kids are letting it happen!
What happened? did the whole country go to sleep and never woke up? Where is the gumption, the tenacity, the sheer bloodymindedness that the British were famous for? Even we as bikers are letting things slip, little groups arguing amongst ourselves and not pulling together, what would happen if every owners club in the country decided to have a day of action all at the same time? We could paralyse this land of ours. 'Land of ours'? not any more, you are all too lethargic to do anything but moan.
Well, at least thats what it feels like to me; were the 70's and 80's the last decades of rebellion? Are you all now rebels without a clue? Then fuck you all, you kids on your scooters, chavs in your Saxos, just you let your freedoms get eroded away, I did my bit and now I have no cause left worth fighting for, my generation is either deserting the country for pastures new or being ground down from lack of support. But I still sling my leg over my black rat of a bike, I still shout the odds when I can and most of all I know I can say that I once stood my ground for what I felt was right, can you say the same?
Read this while you are allowed to…
I listened to a group of early 20's punk‑looking blokes last month, in a bar talking about Tony Blair, slagging him off, going on about the war and how no one does anything for the youngsters, after listening to this for about 20mins I asked them what they were going to do about it, the blank stares told me a lot, they didn't understand why 'they' had to do something, they thought sitting on their arses complaining would do it for them. One of them had a t‑shirt with the anarchy symbol on it and I asked him what it meant, he replied 'no rules' so I asked him what would he would do if I hit him, he looked worried and his mate said he would call the police, I laughed and walked off.
All youngsters today seem to do is get a) drunk b) stoned c) pregnant d) lazy, I did my time as an 'activist' and don't see why I should have to go back to it to help these lazy arseholes, but I do worry that no one is really questioning what government is doing any more, take the smoking ban, I agree with it to an extent but the number of people who have been complaining about it is huge! So why haven't they done anything about it? No marches no dissent… nothing! Is it because they are all stoned?
I blame the New Romantics, before them we had punk, rock & roll, OI and Ska, all types of music designed to make you feel something, go back far enough and you will find songs that stirred the blood, marching songs that called everyone together and helped them fight as one! What song have you heard in the last 20 years that made people stand up and be counted? Ones that hit the news! I'm not talking about the odd song that a few people get up and dance to, but about songs that hit the headlines, the last song I can remember that caused some proper consternation was 'God save the Queen' by the Sex Pistols and how long ago was that? Since the New Romantics came along and made everyone go a bit wishy‑washy music has become bland, exicting music just doesn't get the chance it used, most money is made by churning out pap for the chav generation, rebellion is being choked for the sake of cash and our kids are letting it happen!
What happened? did the whole country go to sleep and never woke up? Where is the gumption, the tenacity, the sheer bloodymindedness that the British were famous for? Even we as bikers are letting things slip, little groups arguing amongst ourselves and not pulling together, what would happen if every owners club in the country decided to have a day of action all at the same time? We could paralyse this land of ours. 'Land of ours'? not any more, you are all too lethargic to do anything but moan.
Well, at least thats what it feels like to me; were the 70's and 80's the last decades of rebellion? Are you all now rebels without a clue? Then fuck you all, you kids on your scooters, chavs in your Saxos, just you let your freedoms get eroded away, I did my bit and now I have no cause left worth fighting for, my generation is either deserting the country for pastures new or being ground down from lack of support. But I still sling my leg over my black rat of a bike, I still shout the odds when I can and most of all I know I can say that I once stood my ground for what I felt was right, can you say the same?
Read this while you are allowed to…
