Teenage Two Stroke Tearaway Tales

[Warren t claim]

I'm sure I can't be the only Wobber who caused mayhem in the neighbourhood when they were 16/17?

I had a pretty dodgy and very illegal start to my biking career by using a Suzuki GT185 illegally when I was 15. Back in 1985 you'd get away with such antics as long as both you and the bike looked the part. I still have fond memories of that Ram Air weapon and I'd love to have another but not to the extent of paying the stupid money that they fetch today. My plan back then was to go legal with a 50 when I was 16 but keep the Suzuki to use (with GT125 side panels) when I was 17 but fate and poverty dictated otherwise.

Somewhat mistakenly, just before I was 16 I bought a Yamaha RD50 for about £30 from the local breakers thinking that it'd be easy to derestrict. Sadly that wasn't true and as this was in 1986 and there was a plethora of pre '77 peds about that my mates were riding at the time meant that I was always at the back of the pack playing catch up which pissed me, and them off. Being both in school and skint limited my options. Fortunately, a lad called Smiffy who was a year older than me who'd already passed his test offered me a pre restriction 1976 Suzuki AP50 as a swap for my GT185. It was ratty as fuck but had a dodgy MOT so at least I could keep up with my mates now.

Punting on the RD50 was easier than I thought. I had a friend whose brother wanted it so all we needed to do was agree on a price. Easier said than done as the negotiations went on for hours, an experience I've only repeated once since when haggling over a Laguna 2 with Cavcraft! After several hours the baby Yamaha went off to its new home.

As you can imagine life with the AP50 didn't go quite as planned. I'd been running it on pre mix in the tank as the Suzuki CCI lubrication had shit itself. Sadly, the AP50 requires the separate oil system to lubricate the journals in the crank and therefore my ignorance, coupled with the CCI system being an utter cunt to bleed, killed it.

Desperate for wheels I cold called a house that had a Yamaha FS1E dumped in the garden. A deal was struck and I rode away on a tidy 1979 Fizzy. Although I was back to square one with it being a later restricted FS1M example the only way it was restricted was in the exhaust so a more liberal pipe was bought for a tenner from the local bike butchers and I was back in business.

[cros]

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My first bike in 1970 was a 3rd hand Suzuki Sportsman, but it was anything but sporty and I parked well away from friends who started on a CD 175 (pressed frame type) a BSA c15, a Spanish built Ducati Monza, and an Enfield Continental. Unlike the latter pair my bike got me to work each day- I think you received a 4 speed gear cluster with each new Redditch machine as the 5 speeder they'd squashed in was hopelessly fragile.
They hadn't got around to restricting learner bikes back then, with the Suzuki it wasn't necessary. I remember having to resort to 2nd gear on the long hill on the A15 south out of Lincoln. I got my test asap and bought a 1954 Aerial Red Hunter for £30 from the same dealer who sold those Mototrans Ducatis. It was the better bike too.

[mercrocker]

I had a rather delayed start to two-wheel tearawaydom. I turned 16 in 1975 between school and 6th form and I had saved up some money over the summer holiday (my 16th birthday was late August). However, realising that music was playing an ever bigger part in my life, I spunked all the money on a Garrard SP25, Sinclair amp and a pair of Celestions, putting paid to any idea of a moped.

By the time I turned 17 I had walked out of college, dossed all summer on the dole and had no money. However, good old Dad, on my 17th he gave me his Honda C102 so I went straight to four-strokery and limited social irritation.

However, I did end up with a Suzuki Invader and Yamaha YDS7 250, both of which enabled full-on smoke screen and popcorn-maker-through-a-megaphone antics. God knows why I didn't buy a trail bike, the amount of time both spent down muddy bridleways and farm tracks. I had to go back and fetch the Invader from a hedge one night after I got chased by a police HA van and abandoned the bike once out of sight. Why I thought the strategy of riding pissed through a field at midnight would attract less attention than quietly pootling along a B road I'll never know but getting a ban was equal in horror to getting a bird up the duff in my 17 year old world. It was a game little thing that Suzy, though and I managed to ride it to Cornwall one winter.

Before I got married the first time I had a moment of ephiphany similar to that felt by Little Richard when he threw his gold and diamonds into the Parramatta River and turned his back on Rock and Roll. I loaded up the Invader and an XS650 I had at the time into my van and took them to Gregg's Grotto - the infamous bike dealer and breaker in Southampton. The Yam ended up with a mate and then a mate-of-a-mate but I did see it several years later when I moved across town and was waiting for the tumble drier in a launderette - some kiddy rode up on it with a fringed leather and black open-facer. It was like seeing me 6 years earlier and I've never had a motorcycle since.

Sorry for the Kodak 110 thumbnails.....

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[NorfolkNWeigh]

I jacked in 6th form after only 3 weeks , but still 5 months from my 17th birthday and the only job I could find was in Aberystwyth, 20 Mike’s from where I lived. Had to get a 50, went to the bike dealer in Lampeter and they tried to get my Mum sign up for HP on a DT50, that was never going to happen. Then I saw aP reg FS1E DX in yellow , the dealer explained it wasn’t legal as it had a different piston and exhaust, also the pedals had been removed and footrests welded on. Luckily my Mum didn’t hear that bit , I handed over , from memory, £300 and a basic ACU course booked for the following Saturday.
The bike was already at the Police Staion car park on the Saturday when I arrived as it was a Copper that did the course. First thing he said to me was , “Theres no way this is legal for you to ride, let’s see how you get on this morning” A morning wobbling round cones and him following me round the town in his 2.3 Cortina Traffic Car ended with him deciding to let me keep it ! I think the fact I’ve never been small probably helped , any extra power was compensated for by my bulk. As he was one of only 2 Traffic Coppers in the area,I was pretty safe from getting pulled anyway.
Me and a group of 4 mates took it in turns to discover the cornering limits on the deserted but frequently cow shit covered lanes. Rob had a purple unrestricted FIzzy ( no disc brake though) , Glen a brand new restricted Suzuki X1 and Markku who was about 6 foot 7 had a new DT.
One of the funniest accidents was on a piece of freshly laid tarmac on a long sweeping bend, obviously taken flat out. When both Glen and I came off and tandem slid down the road. I hit the bank , but my mate went head first down an open drain, with just his feet sticking out. Luckily I was able to pull him out . How we survived that winter , I’ll never know. I , of course, reckoned it’d do 50, but one night with my Dad close behind in his company Ascona , so I could get the benefit of his headlights. He said at one point I was almost doing 45 on a downhill stretch, that’ll do for me.
In the January I hitch hiked to London when the Fizzy wouldn’t start and never rode it again. Just before I was 17 I blagged my way into a messenger job in an ad. agency and got a Honda CG125 and haven’t ridden a 2 stroke road bike since.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

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[Yellowperil]

My first bike was a Jawa Shopper, a peddle and putt thing that wouldn't do 30mph except downhill.
I was on a YTS scheme at the time and riding ten miles to work on a bicycle, I didn't get any help from my Father to buy a bike, despite him lending my elder brother the money for his FS1E four years earlier.
Anyway, someone in the village was selling it and I payed them £10 a week out of my £25 a week wages and after my keep that left me £7. I picked It up when I had paid for it.
It cost me £100 with a crash helmet thrown in for free.
The novelty soon wore off going everywhere at 25mph and the one thing I hated was wearing a crash helmet, just because I couldn't hear the cars coming up behind me like I could when I was on the bicycle, it used to make me jump every time one overtook inches away from me, which was every time one overtook.
Seriously whatever cunt who thought it was safe for one class of vehicles to be restricted to half the speed of all the others should fucking try riding one for a year. Dumb Fuck.
Anyway, due to my inability to mix two stroke oil or even to understand what it is for and complete lack of any mechanical knowledge it inevitably seized up on me after about six weeks and I went back to riding a bicycle.
I remember getting to ride a GP100 home from a disco in another village and being excited that I was going to get to go fast and my twin brother being so jealous, that on the only long straight on the entire five mile journey he swerved backwards and forwards across the road at 20mph to block me overtaking him, I never did get past and get to feel what 60 mph or more felt like.
The eighties were a great time if you had a bit of money in your pocket, (I didn't, I was too feckless)the 125 learner law had just come in and the RD125LC was king round our way along with the DT125LC and later the TS125X.
For those who got off their arses and actually passed their test 250s were dirt cheap.
One highlight for me was arguing with another friend about who was going to ride an older friends RD400.
We weren't arguing over who was going to ride it first, we were arguing about who was going to ride it last, because we were both terrified.
Eventually I just had to give it a go and it was everything I wanted a motorbike to be, every gear change was a mix of violence, terror and exhilaration as the front wheel barely skipped along the road and my arms were stretched so much it felt like I was being pulled off the back.
I.got home and casually remarked to my twin that I had got a ride on Tucker's RD... "What, on the back?"
"No, I took it for a spin."
" Oh, fucking hell! I knew I should have gone out. "
The whole evening was spent winding him up on how I had ridden a proper bike and he hadn't.


Revenge is a dish best served cold.



A small postscript to this...
In the nineties after all my mates had grown up and given up I had a few 350LCs because they were cheap and good, the last one I had cost £400 and was my winter bike, so I could take my good bike off the road.
By that time they were unloved and not yet classic, I had actually noticed people looking down their noses when you pulled up somewhere on one.


Last week I sold a frame, back wheel and a blown up engine, all of which had been sitting behind my brother's shed for over twenty years for £750, would have got twice that if the numbers had matched.

[mercrocker]

I do remember that period when even a small power increase felt like "Fuuuukkinelll". My mate had a particularly fast-for-its-type YR5 Yamaha. It was the 350 version of my 250 plus mine was fucked and his wasn't. Bloody hell let loose when I wanked it open the way I rode my 250..... Same when I got on his GT380 except that had the added ingredient of handling like a freshly-uncrated clown bike on bald Bridgestones.

Forty-five years on that mate still rides the life - got a collection of H1/H2 Kawas now.

[Yellowperil]

My mate has just bought a GT380, he is 50 today and is having a midlife crisis. He always liked two strokes and had a TDR250 for years, always crashing it.
He came in the pub one night... " I just crashed the TDR, on that bend near the bridge, hit some black ice."
About an hour later, "I just crashed the TDR."
Me... "I know, you told me.
Him... "That was the first time."
Me... "Twat, where did you crash it this time?"
Him... "On that bend near the bridge, hit some black ice."

I haven't ridden the 380 yet, but it will be nice when I get a go.

[DodgeRover]

This was my first bike on the road at 16

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Having ridden a 250 trials bike since I was 12 or 13 this was always going to be a disappointment, all the size and weight of a big bike with the power of a hair dryer.
Bought it from a mate with a failed stator for £50, sold it a year later for £115.
Any sort of a hill had you down to 19mph in first gear at about 9000rpm.
Would do an indicated 45 on the flat with a favourable wind and a couple of miles run up.
Did about 2000 miles over a year and I swear most of that was done pushing the soding thing. A friend had the same bike and a dad who owned a dispatch agency, he used to do about 100 miles a night on his up and down the A1 with no problems except the electrics weren't enough to charge the battery and run the lights so they were about as good as a candle after 20 minutes or so.

[Hooli]

I've never had a two smoke bike, from everything I've heard about them I don't think I've missed anything.