In 1975 at the tender age of sixteen I had a sudden urge to sell all my worldly goods in order to put a deposit down on this, the worlds most desirable object, my "popsickle purple" (official colour) Yamaha FS1E.  It cost me just under £300, and it was new and very, very shiny.  It had the reputation in the local area of being the fastest Fizz in town.  This could have had something to do with the immaculate mechanical condition I kept it in, or the fact I weighed 8 stone dripping wet.  I even passed my moped test on my Fizz so I could legally carry passengers.

As soon as I was old enough, back on went the L plates and I said goodbye to the Fizz, and hello to nice red 1974 Honda CB125S.  I thrashed the hell out of it for 18 months, seized it three times, and by the end it smoked more than a two-stroke.  But I loved it.  Although I could legally ride a 250 on L plates back then I couldn't afford it so when I had the chance to buy and old 250 for £75 I jumped at the chance.

What a crackin' lookin' bike I hear you all say.  Well this model was not my bike.  It's what mine should have looked like if I hadn't just hauled it out of a breakers yard in South London.
Mine was a wreck.  I stripped it down to the frame, rebuilt the engine, re-bored the barrel and put it back together.  It's the only bike I ever had that broke down on the way back from it's MOT.  Character, it had buckets of it.....so I sold it to Kev Web (a mate from years back) for £50.

Then came the Yamaha YR5. A 1972 orange and black screaming, smoking beast..!  How many spark plugs did I get through..?  First bike I had that would top the ton.  It even had a steering damper, and you needed it.  The electrics were appalling so at the first hint of rain it would splutter and turn itself into a 175cc single.  Oh happy days..!  This is also the bike I used as a dispatch rider in London complete with ex-police fibre glass panniers.  It's also the bike used to lose my licence for a year, 60 in a 30 limit whilst overtaking on a corner (a slight bend in the road really).  £50 fine and a year ban.
After arsing about with the Yamaha for that year, putting a Bill Roberts racing fairing, tank & seat unit on it ended up by holing a piston on the way up to Yorkshire, and I turned up at the Guardroom on posting to my first RAF station two hours late and covered in oil.

Then came my first Suzuki GT 750 "kettle".  A 1975 model, four years old when I bought it for £500.  The rot had set in on it bit so it got the full treatment.  Shiny shiny bike..! 
Good for 125mph sat bolt upright but it did have a horrible speed wobble that would start at around 95 and disappear at about 105.  The trouble was you knew it was there waiting for when you slowed down.  Wheel bearings. swinging arm bearings, steering head bearings...I changed them all with absolutely no change in the handling.
It was at this point that I started thinking that if I carry on at the sort of speeds I was doing I'd end up losing my licence (again) so I had a rethink what bike to have. 

During the GT ownership time I had to rebuild it so I needed cheap transport.  Introducing "The Blue Slug".  A badly abused Honda CB 175.  The "sports" model because it had two carbs.  It used to blow one litre of oil out of the oil breather pipe every 25 miles.  I sorted this out by having a bottle on the end of the pipe and stopping every 25 miles to refill the engine. 
Eventually it died in a mass of molten seizing piston ring and valve stuff.  All very messy.  I did rebuild it in a very budget way (cleaning the head & valves with a wire brush in an electric drill) and slapping on a second hand set of barrels/pistons.  Then I sold it very quickly.

Enter the glorious Yamaha XS 650 SE.  At the time these were about £1500 new.  I got this one with 2000 miles on the clock for £1100 I think.  Grin factor ten.  Huge wide rubber mounted California Pull-Back bars that would try and turn your arms inside out at speeds over 80 mph.
I'd had this six months when I got a posting to Germany, the home of the Autobahn, and my mind turned to faster bikes again.


 

I picked up this 1977 model Dunstal Suzuki GT750 for £900.  What a bargain..!  It also came complete with all the original equipment. 
No speed wobbles on this bike at all.  Still slow by todays standards but it went and sounded superb.  The 3-1 expansion pipe would never have got through an MOT today, and my neighbours at the time stopped speaking to me for some reason.  There are a lot of strange people about.
The bike just loved the Autobahn but the German insurance companies at the time didn’t like bikes so it was bye-bye to the GT after just a year.  It’s the only bike I’ve ever owned that I sold for a profit, I made £100 on it.

I bought this Kawasaki KLE 500 so I wouldn't use the Blackbird so much.  Well that was the plan anyway.  Unfortunately the Bird is just too nice and the KLE is ignored so it was bye bye to the KLE.

I haven't mentioned the cruddy field bikes and boxes of bits that I've owned.  TS185, Cagiva MotoX 250, Kawasaki KX125 (I will get it going this year...don't hold yer breath). 
There's also a C90 that sneaked in from somewhere.  And a Honda 550 hardtail chop....and a go-ped...and a step thru AY50.  Oh dear oh dear...it's all gone horribly wrong..!