How it all started, the bit in the middle, the here and now

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In the pre-snowflake 60s as children, we would roam, get into mischief, stay out late, have airgun fights in the woods with no eye protection. We would build little wooden carts using old Pram wheels and go down 1 in 4 hills with no brakes with inevitable consequences, i was one of the lucky ones who lived next to an old lady who was a retired Doctor, our GP was miles away and my dad never had a car, he would cycle to work until I wrecked his bike, then he would walk everywhere, carrying his builders tools ( his bike was a tradesman, the one that had a box on the front with a little wheel ( later relevance ) was heavy and can’t remember if it had gears but if it did it would be 3 ). So no hospital nearby to go to the first time I got ill with drink, buses to town were only one or two a  day, it certainly wasn’t the push button age, if you wanted to pop into town you couldn’t, so it was an all day job. Life was very real, we weren’t well off. Anyway this is all supposed to be about motorcycles. At age 10 and a few of us were at the house of another lad from school, the other side of the village, which was large in area but low in its population. His parents had a large house with much land and he had got a small Triumph or BSA motorcycle, most likely a Tiger ( 200? ), think he was/is a year or two older. Anyway, I got a brief go on it without falling off and the rest of my life was shaped, I became hooked on bikes. I didn’t get my own for another two years when I was given a Raleigh scooter with a 100cc 2 stroke engine, was really Italian with a Raleigh badge, though I believed for years that it was British built. When I got it home I still hadn’t ridden it properly, there was a large park nearby with enough space to open it up and use all of its three gears, operated by a twistgrip on the left handlebar. Was going well until I hit the biggest rut on the mainly flat grass, throwing me over the top and onto my helmetless head. Stunned but not deterred, my life was now shaped and was never really interested in much else. There were many small bikes to follow that were either free or only a few pounds, the second bike that came from the same shed as the scooter was a BSA 250 C11G but most of the others were 50cc but I do remember riding a 500 speed twin in the woods, complete with its teeth rattling and vision blurring vibration. Never really saw a dedicated off road bike, a few friends got the bug also and we rode whatever was to hand, including an older lad who didn’t mind getting his new Kawasaki S3 dirty. No, he didn’t have loads of money, he saved it up by doing gardening jobs, including mowing the grass at the village Church and he still has it, a stones throw away from here now. Fruit picking would figure as we had to buy petrol. 16 and we took to the road. TBC

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The father of a lad at school had a cycle shop that also would sell the odd moped, one was a Puch MS50D, only a few months old with low mileage. I think it was probably about £90, the FS1E or SS50 had just come out but that was £165 . Still didn’t have £90 but the shop gave me a little card and I would pay bits when I felt like it and it took a year or so, but I hit a car within a fortnight and got it repaired on the £5 insurance, by the shop. It did involve a trip to hospital and there was a fee for the Ambulance, I also got a speeding warning on the road to school within the first week. The BMW riding copper was fair really, telling me to buy some mirrors, but his first words were ‘ who do you effing think you are, Agostini ? Riding along with your head down and bum up in the air’ . Well I was racing another lad who had a 2 speed Puch maxi who had challenged me to a race. Over the years I found the police to be very fair when it came to this behaviour, preferring to lecture and make me/us think about the consequences and send us away with just a warning. Including when I got my first Blackbird, and that was only on the test ride, the speed would land me in jail now and he said that he knew that the speed had been much higher still but wasn’t able to back that up with evidence. Anyway I’ve grown up a bit since then and only ever had one speeding conviction ( huge fine, no points ) and that was in the IOM when they hardly had any speed limits, in the mid 80s. That was strange, when I got home the same 2 speed trap police were pictured in a bike mag, at the same spot with no caption or text on page 3 in the contents section. My first proper bike on the road was a Puch M125, most of my mates were younger and most didn’t go straight to a 250 as a learner so we experienced a lot of different sub 250 bikes, learning to handle one on the road in small jumps. I did know of a classmate who was on a Z1 at 17 and he nearly died on it in a crash where I got pulled at 16, his mate chose a GT750 and didn’t fare much better. Bit by bit though, we leapfrogged each other, some still ride to the MOT and back but for the most part am on my own with no other interest in life and I wouldn’t have it any other way, even though it keeps me broke.

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Am now the happy owner of an excellent example of a 4LO and whatever other bikes come and go, this is my main focus. There may be changes, but not to it’s appearance, may have to buy a steering damper though.

[earthman]

The pre snowflake comment made me laugh, you are obviously older than me but I say that when I think about my life in the 80's. Sad that things seem to be getting worse over the years, makes you wonder what the next generation will actually be allowed to do doesn't it.

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Some are brought up to believe the world owes them an existence and spend their life on benefits, provided with everything including a new car every few years that their only responsibility is to add petrol. Some people are genuinely in need of assistance, at least until they get on their feet. It’s not helped by now everything and everyone having to be politically correct. Don’t think middle class social workers help. Most of the recipients of this vast amount of money are alcoholics who also have a drug addiction and in the past hated Thatcher because she wanted them off their lazy arses and working, they partied away while others grafted and had to pay for everything themselves and didn’t get free dental treatment and bus passes. The shirkers quite often came from prosperous families . I semi retired a few years ago so won’t get a full pension unlike those that never paid into the system. For a while I lived in a caravan in a wood yard and worked for a pittance, a predecessor had a bad accident working a saw bench receiving serious injuries such as loss of an arm and a massive head wound. After recovery he went back to his job, refusing to be a burden and determined to do his bit, they don’t make many like that anymore.

[earthman]

I were brought up to have a good work ethic, so much so that I had 3 part time jobs by the time I were 14 or so,.....I dare say that the PC brigade nowadays would scream child labour/abuse at that. Lol
Maybe it's because of that but I really don't get folk who don't want to work, apart from the money aspect of having a job, how do they deal with a lack of routine/structure I wonder? I'm thinking that their self esteem must be at rock bottom??

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I think actually there is increasing mental illness, but why? Still think some of it is making themselves ill with the thought of having to work, the other thing is expectation. A young relative would like help with the cost of driving lessons, turns out as she would like to be able to drive to school which is a short walk away, it will cost £5 a day to park there! Partly blame social media. A lot of broke people can afford tats and piercings and expensive clothes and household goods . Being on the sick pays more than unemployment benefit, mentally sick is what I have in mind, they seem to be together enough to play the system though. A few years back I bought a vf1000 project from a household that had several bikes, it’s a house of multiple occupancy, one who I remember from school and is on some kind of benefit but has a business, his girlfriend lives there but has her own place ( provided )and is on benefits and sub-let’s hers. Even though she is a chronic alcoholic ( expensive ) is was found out she had £40000 in the bank. One of the others ditto and ditto does not have spare money but that’s only because he spends the excess on 3 expensive holidays a year. The other one is working it to become a carer for someone, that is very lucrative and even more so when they milk their‘patient’ who may not be in a position to protest. A neighbouring property that wouldn’t leave much change out of a million is occupied by a woman that is on some kind of benefit though her dad bought her the place, she drives a new £50000 4 wheel drive, fosters young children but rents out rooms to transient working adults. How can that be? There is more to it than that but don’t want to be arrested for using selective free speech.

[earthman]

What I don't get, the government has cracked down on who qualifies for disability benefit over recent years so how come all these fakers are getting away with it??

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May 18, 2020 8:05:28 GMT 1 earthman said:

What I don't get, the government has cracked down on who qualifies for disability benefit over recent years so how come all these fakers are getting away with it??

He who shouts loudest, plus the being in the system already and knowing how to play it. Ashamed to admit to having a few relations like nephews who supposedly come from decent stock, and many lifelong friends, that seem to feel entitled. My immediate family were probably the poorest but the most honest. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell who’s who, I worked for 20 odd years alongside a chap that seemed to come from a very decent family but was money driven, if he was paid by productivity you couldn’t stop him, if it was by the day he was lazy and would help himself to anything he fancied from the company, as a perk.If I wanted something would ask and pay for it. Everyone thought he was honest Joe, very friendly to your face but 2 faced, would slag off any extra marital activity among villagers but made it his mission in life to cheat on his wife, while also never trusting her, who was as far as I could tell beyond reproach. Due to some inequality I suggested to the boss that I had it in mind to move on, he said ‘what can we do? A pay rise? ‘. I said that’s not fair, even though I was probably on less anyway. He said ‘ he doesn’t have to know’ . I stayed a few more years but with it mind that what was there that I myself didn’t have to know. 

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Was drinking with 2 friends who have spent their lives getting out of their faces and non stop parties. One said that the other who I had always worked on his bikes, if D had had your money then he could have gone to the TT like you. He would never have done anyway as his town was and still is the centre of the universe, and couldn’t miss it for even a few days. If he had have come he would have been a nightmare and a liability to travel with, he wouldn’t have seen any racing or ridden his bike around, just park it up, drink all night and sleep all day. Plus probably smash himself up over there, revel in the legend, get an insurance payout be tended to by nurses and have morphine, then once mended ( all the while saving up his benefits) would repeat the process many times. Fake suicide attempts while missing hospital appointments, moaning about his lot in life. You can buy decent bikes for peanuts, just £10 out of his beer money per day could have done it, the bike and trip, I would have to spend a year doing without something to afford my treat for working hard. 2 of my bikes are not worth £3000 between them and because I have to earn every penny and if one developed a fault, I didn’t blame the bike and kick it over like he would. When I have a windfall I would even give him a bike to use as his own, then when he was broke I would take it back until the next time, they were never looked after and included zx9s, r1 and fireblades. Perhaps that’s why the other mate? Thought I should do more. Perhaps I’m a mug, I don’t care, I have my beliefs and standards, would help anyone but when it’s needed, to be like a brick wall.

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If I had £60000 to buy a camper van I would prob think sod it i live for the moment, buy one for £10000 then use the other 50 and buy that Ducati MotoGP bike on eBay and worry about running costs later.