Bikes Bikes Bikes!

Today I feel like sharing some of my thoughts about riding on the metal horse, motorcycling or as some call it, motorbiking.

I started young, not even sure how old I was now, perhaps 13-14? I remember pestering my parents for a very long time for a motorbike. Finally I managed to get one, actually ended up getting a job, doing lawns and other assorted chores for neighbors and even some factory work to scrape up the funds to get my first one.


The Baby.

It was a Honda, XR80. Which means it had an 80cc engine, rather small but it was a four stroke so it would chug chug along quite nicely, and you could rev it anywhere in the rev band and it would still go 'ok'.

Unfortunately for me I had absolutely no idea of how to maintain the thing, I knew oil had to go in somewhere but where? I knew I had to check levels but how? There was no dipstick on the oil filler so that was the first thing to get replaced. A whopping $10. (This was big money to me back in the day)

I got a book, started to read it back to front many times and by the time I had finished learning about what I had to do. I decided to have a turn at maintaining the thing myself. Stripped the head off and had a whole bunch of parts strewn around the garage and little to no idea on how to put it back together. Time to panic.

Many hours later I had replaced the piston and rings, changed the oil, lapped the valves and seated them, checking shims / clearances as well and learned a valuable lesson. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. In the end I rode that bike for a number of years, finally getting rid of it for about half of what I paid for. Another lesson there, and one that I would use later on in life. Buy low, Sell high.


The Workhorse.

I picked up a mint 1980s model TS185ER after that. It was an 185cc two stroke road trail bike with about 3000kms on the clock and still original paintwork. This one I had much fun on, it was a reliable low revving two stroke that would chug all day on a tank of fuel. Oil was injected into the engine and fuel at the same time, meaning that you could stop in at the station and just fuel it up without having to worry about measuring out exact amounts of oil.

Did I mention it had blinkers? well it did, and this started my enjoyment of seeking new places and riding on different trails. I would take this bike everywhere for a number of years, discovering new places to ride and seeing new sights. It was fun. But I required more. So I picked up a GSX250F and had a turn of that, keeping the more off road bike dedicated to afternoon fun, and the road going one for commutes back and forth to my job and the occasional blast down the twisty roads. I loved this solitary time on the tail end of the week, it felt like freedom from all things, a time where I could do whatever I wanted. Anywhere I wanted.


Enter the KTM LC4 640 and the FZR 1000 Genesis.

After selling the 250cc and 185cc, I decided it was time to go dedicated role bikes. So I picked up the FZR and KTM. I have never, never in my life experienced something like that KTM, you could drop it back a gear and spike the throttle a touch and it would cough and bark and throw flames. It was an angry beast and the only time it was happy was roaring. You could tap it out in any gear and it would just go sideways and as soon as it gained traction the head was shaking at the sky. (wheelstands for days). Some of the most fun I had on that thing was pointing it up the steepest hill I could find and just holding on for dear life, asking for as much as I dared from that motor and showering anyone unfortunate enough to be behind me with missiles.

Hurtling through the forest and dodging trees, moving the body weight forward as far as you can in an attempt to stop the front from lifting as soon as you cracked the throttle. Some great memories on that thing. And picked up some skills that would serve me well when I entered the urban jungle and hit the pavement.


Lethal Weapon.

This bike was a monster, 125HP of straight line weapon. The first thing I did was replace the air box and rip the exhaust apart. See I knew it wasn't allowed to have a modified exhaust but if I just ground off all the rivets, disassembled the pipe, cut the baffle down and riveted it back together. Who's gonna know? Well the car alarms it would set off certainly had an idea.

I wasn't obnoxious about it though, I would ride very sedately around town and the only time I would stretch it's legs was on the lonely roads where nobody else could get hurt if I made a mistake. To me riding was like going to battle, it was you versus the road. Man and Machine vs the finest of lines on the asphalt. There was something to the mathematics of having to balance the lean angle and the speed with the amount of grip available on the road surface that just made me happy.

One of my favorite moments on this particular ride was cruising along the freeway and having a guy in some super fancy $100,000 car come up alongside, pop the clutch and give me a lets go kinda motion of the hand. I held up my left hand (clutch side hand) and went 3, 2, 1 and did the whole lets go wave. Bringing my hand down to the clutch and popping it as I dropped back 2 gears and tapped out the throttle. Wheel standing from 110km/h all the way to 180, but perfectly lifted and only a slight portion off the road surface. By the time I was done shifting through two gears and holding it there I let my eyes slide over for a moment to the rear view. Welp, where was he? Gone gone gone.

I'm not the kinda person to speed for long duration's so afterwards I backed off and enjoyed the angry song of the engine winding down. Only to have this fellow blow past me like I was standing still 10 seconds later. He was hunting big time and I figured it wouldn't be long before he got in trouble. And what did I see after cruising along for a little bit? Flashy red and blue lights. This guy leaning against the side of his car with head in his hands, obviously not a happy camper.

I talked a lot about my experiences here, I guess to me my passion for riding feels so personal and so powerful that I just want to share that for a moment with you. I loved and love riding each and every one of those machines and will ride till the day I die.

I hope you enjoyed coming for a ride with me today. Take care, stay upright and much love. <3