I was born and bred in Devon. Apart from a few years over the border in Cornshire, I have lived in Devon all my life.
I started my two-wheeled adventure with field bikes pre-16 yrs old, anything that the local motorbike scrappy Francis Cann (Tedburn St Mary) would let me have for about a £5 that would run - usually Villiers-engined things that you could repair head gaskets with cardboard and the rest with baler twine, wire and sticky tape.
Sadly, I went in a wrong direction then with a selection of Lambrettas - boring them out, porting them, fitting Ancilotti silencers, Amal carbs, the lot - even built a "kneeler" with a mate with clip-ons on the front fork legs. Anyone that knows Lambrettas will understand that WAS low...
I saw the light and changed to a motorbike at about 17 years old and started with a BSA A10 Golden Flash – hence the nostalgia element in my recent purchase. Sadly I can’t find any photos of my first A10. I ran a big end on it and put the con rod out through the crankcase - sold it for spares for £17 10s.
I think that was the last bike for decades. My next motorcycle was a Suzuki T250cc 2-smoke twin Hustler that used to scare me on the twisties out around where I lived. Fearing for my life I parked it up.
I then got into dirt bikes following a spin (almost literally!) on my mate's evil Maico 400cc single 2-smoke - absolutely mental - scared me to death but I wanted more of the adrenalin rush. I started with a Husky WR250cc 2-smoke, then XR200, Suzuki RM250 (scary fast), KDX200, and then a succession of Yamaha TTR250s. Initially I used to just ride enduros but then got into trail riding and joined the Devon TRF Group ending up as their RoW Officer for many years. I also competed on the TTRs in LDTs and am the proud owner of an MCC Triple Award.
My current trail bikes are a TTR250 with a Thumper Racing 325 big bore kit fitted and a Yamaha WR250R.
It wasn't very long after I bought my first TTR that I found there was very little information available so I started a Group on Yahoo in June 2001. Any information gleaned from the Group, or learned by doing jobs on the TTR myself, got put into a simple web page which I called the TTR250 FAQ –
www.ttr250.com . It looks very dated now but is kept up to date as best I can.
I became aware of the friendlier (a huge step up from the old Yahoo Groups) Activeboard forum software and started a TTR250 forum (
http://ttr250.activeboard.com/p/recent/) in July 2011 and I reckon it works pretty well with a great bunch of owners contributing both questions and answers. Currently 1,680 members and nearly 4,000 views a day. I also started a business selling parts and accessories for the TTR (and later the WRR/X models) and built up a selection of bespoke parts made locally such as bash plates, tail tidies etc. –
www.totallyttrs.com. I sold the business to a friend earlier in the year ahead of collecting my OAP.
I foresee having a bit of time on my hands and wanted a break from TTRs so grabbed the chance when a Golden Flash came up for sale locally. It is being delivered next week. I am looking forward to doing a bit of fettling on it and going on some rides with like-minded folk looking for a gentle bimble into the countryside with a good lunch stop at the other end!
I will add some photos when the beast is delivered.
Sorry to have rambled on but you did ask
Brian
