1965

The 15 year old boy swore.  The fifth set of new contact breakers on his 1953 BSA Bantam 125 had again moved so the gap was incorrect!  Each time he set it carefully with feeler gauges at BSA’s recommended .015”. The bike would run perfectly for a few hours and then splutter to a halt.  Nothing would make the gap stay still, and the five spare sets of breakers added up to half the £5 he’d saved over six months to buy the machine in the first place.  He loved the bike to bits and rode it round and around the farm on which he was working during the school holidays.  The year was 1965 and he was determined to learn to control the Bantam and pass his bike test on it immediately he was 16. 

A week later the farm manager looked at the Bantam’s contact breakers and spotted that the pin mounting the breaker rocker was loose in its casting.  He showed the boy how to fix it more firmly into place, and the problem became history. 

Over the next few months the boy rode the bike non-stop, its smelly two stroke fuel mixed by hand trailing a stream of blue smoke wherever he went – wearing “L” plates which required no training whatsoever, but forbade him a “bird on the back”!  Finally he rode to Chertsey Test Centre, where a brave tester walked a town route of a mile or so observing the Bantam Boy each time he passed – even stepping out in front of him to test his Emergency Stop!!   20 minutes later the fully qualified Biker stripped off the L plates and rode home touching the bike’s maximum 55 mph.  10 minutes after that he set of with a Bird on the Back!  

 1966
Bantams were Bantams, but real rockers needed real bikes and the boy put his life savings into a Tiger Cub.  A fortune at £15 and already ten years old, but a real four stroke which sounded like a bike and came, like every Triumph of that era, with a free oil leak!  A top speed of 75mph.  A noise which was legendary.  A brand which was the base machine for every police force in Britain.  A gleaming mass of paint and chrome, this was surely a machine which would pull the Birds and cost him his virginity! 

For a year he rode it at every chance and took numerous Birds on the Back, but sadly failed to achieve his ultimate goal!  Frustrated conversations with mates suggested that cars were better than bikes.  Safer.  More comfortable.  Warmer.  And with a back seat!

1967.
The young man passed his car test two weeks after his 17th birthday and immediately paid the £30 he’d saved forhis first car – a 1953 Ford Anglia with a 10hp side valve engine and vacuum wipers which went slower and slower as he went faster and faster!  Never mind.  It was safer.  More comfortable.  Warmer.  And had a back seat!  No time to lose, and it didn’t take long.  But it removed him from biking!! 

2006
The 56 year old man walked into Triumph in Three Legged Cross and admired a brand new Bonneville T100.  A dream machine to follow his Tiger Cub.  Had that Examiner in Chertsey in 1966 realised that his 20 minute test would qualify the pupil for the Direct Access test.  To ride an 860cc machine at 100mph – with no training and a gap of 40 years?  The Triumph salesman suggested an instructor, so the man set off for Dave at Ace Motorcycles in Ringwood, to book five days of one-to-one training over a two month period.  The first day, stuck on a Honda 125, he trained with Maisie – a 26 year old beauty with a 24” waist who looked stunning as she rode along on front of him on a 500cc Honda.  Distraction which almost proved disastrous and infuriated Dave the instructor!  Three more days followed.  The man by now on a 500cc Honda, with Maisie already through her Direct Access test and gone!  On the fourth day Dave told the man that he would now pass a Direct Access test, even though he didn’t have to take it!  This was the moment, Dave suggested, for the man to buy his Triumph and have two more days on the actual machine.

 What a decision!  The man had set aside a significant sum to buy his new bike and wavered from Triumph to Honda to BMW and back again.  Finally he heeded a comment from a biker at work – “whatever you choose, you’ll change in a year” – and followed his heart to the Triumph.   It cost £6000 more than his old Tiger Cub!!

Three Cross delivered.  Tangerine and cream with chrome wire wheels and every imaginable chromium add-on.  Dave delivered, and spent two days trailing the man around Bournemouth as he got to know his new machine.  Finally Dave said “you’re done”, but your interest in motorcycling is such that you’d better join SAM and continue to improve your riding with the IAM test.

 2007
An immaculate BMW Tourer sped past the man’s stationary Triumph and u-turned in the narrow road.  Not a foot went down.  Not a wobble in sight.  The bike pulled to a stop in front of the Triumph and Nigel Grace began the man’s programme of observed rides. 

To be continued.  Training.  Observed rides.  Slow riding.  Group rides.  The Mock test.  The actual test.  And finally a replacement for the Triumph!James Graze

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