Our Vehicles

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Its interesting to see the number of times a thread in a forum drifts off into chat about members vehicles.  As we see on here over the last couple of days.  So rather than continue to keep someone’s thread in the weeds I thought we could have a separate thread where we could post some pictures of our pride and joys.  Consequently here is the contents of my current stable:

A 2017 Moto Guzzi V7 Anniversario

A 2017 Triumph Bonneville Bobber:

A 1954Triumph Tiger 100:

And a 1930 Royal Enfield GL30:

 

 

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Beautiful machines Richard and absolutely immaculate.

Do you polish them every day?

Colin

[Fred Ellis 1Participant @fredellis1]

Lovey bikes Richard.

Nice to see a Guzzi,

This is mine, a 2000 Ducati 900SSie

[Colin Bishop]

On Colin Bishop Said:

Beautiful machines Richard and absolutely immaculate.

Do you polish them every day?

Colin

They certainly get pampered and don’t see a wet road.  They live in a garage with underfloor heating and a dehumidifier through winter, so I just go and have a chat with them occasionally!

[Fred Ellis 1]

On Fred Ellis 1 Said:

Lovey bikes Richard.

Nice to see a Guzzi,

This is mine, a 2000 Ducati 900SSie

 

You can’t beat a Ducati for looks.

[Fred Ellis 1Participant @fredellis1]

Thank you Richard,

Mine had to work for her garage space, she was my daily ride, unless it was snowing.

Fred

[Fred Ellis 1]

On Fred Ellis 1 Said:

Thank you Richard,

Mine had to work for her garage space, she was my daily ride, unless it was snowing.

Fred

In my college days I lived in Manchester and attended college in Liverpool and commuted every day on an old Triumph 250 single, in part on motorways in inches of snow with lorries thundering past in the dark spraying me with slush!  One day I went down the slip road to exit at Stockport and, when I pulled the clutch in to change down the engine raced off as both the clutch cable and the throttle cable were frozen and seized.

Good old days.

[Dave Smith 17Participant @davesmith17]

My biking days started around Stockport in the mid 70s. I have only just admitted defeat (to osteoarthritis) and sold my last bike. I have ridden from south east Finland to the UK a couple of times, one the first occasion non stop except for petrol coffee and comfort breaks. After 30 hours on the road, it gets quite interesting!

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Sorry to hear that Dave.  I know I will be absolutely gutted when I can’t ride mine any more.

[Dave Smith 17Participant @davesmith17]

Thank you, Richard – it wasn’t an easy decision to take, but I just didn’t feel safe with a dodgy left hand. I have also had to give up playing in bands as I can’t hold the strings against the frets of my bass guitars any more. I managed to clock up over 50 years of active gigging, though.

So far, I am still able to build and sail my models, and I have more time to indulge myself in this wonderful hobby without the call of the open road or the lure of the stage.

 

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

I guess we’re all on the same path, just at a different point.  I went through a lot of serious heart issues three and a half years ago so took the heart breaking decision to sell my beloved VFR, as I’d decided that a sports orientated bike was a little too risky. I’d had it from new for 22 years and it was perfect.  I’ve regretted selling it ever since and now think I would have been happy to keep it just to enjoy polishing it!

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Yes, and things change fairly quickly. Didn’t ride the bikes much last year and virtually nil this year due to working on my son’s flat. I’m quite tall at 6’1″ but recently I’ve become more aware of not being as strong as I was and with that confidence starts to go particularly as a couple of my bikes are pretty heavy.

Bought the 1200 Scrambler three years ago and thought nothing of riding it but I’m now wondering if I did the right thing? I will be selling my CCM 644 Dual Sport anyway to give me more space.

Chris

[Dave Smith 17Participant @davesmith17]

I thought I’d reached the end of the rod on bikes when I was run down on a roundabout by a driver who was looking at the bike behind me (so the other biker told me). Weeks in hospital, home in a wheelchair, took 8 years before the urge returned, and before long I was back on a Harley (I know they’re not universally popular, but they’re the bikes that did it for me). Sadly, that was sold a few months ago and unless someone comes out with a cure for osteoarthritis, there won’t be another.

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi All,

I’m giving up dinghy sailing as I am not enjoying the challenge anymore @ 69 🙁 I suppose  the smaller boats will do from now on , my last Laser sold , I think I’ve had 4 over the last 50 years (sort of a vehicle 🙂 )

Regards Ray

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

You have done well to keep sailing as long as you have Ray. I sold my boats a good few years ago now. The first one, a Jaguar 25 before I took early retirement 19 years ago. After retiring the bug bit me again and I bought a Jaguar 21 which I kept for a few years. It sailed better than the 25 but was a bad buy with various problems plus a lot smaller and less comfortable to live aboard.

I probably would have kept on sailing longer but Mrs B was not a sailor and I felt it unfair to spend a big chunk of our income on maintaining and berthing the boats which were basically money pits just for me and not being used to the extent that could ever justify the amount of use I was getting out of them.

The money we saved was spent on overseas holidays including road trips down the US Pacific Coast Highway, New Zealand (both islands) and Canada, Rockies and Icefields Parkway plus adding to our driving around Greece which we have now visited 25 times. A couple of Nile cruises added to the memorable mix.

I was sorry to give up the boats but they left me with some great memories. The foreign travel gave us both a new set of shared memories so I have no regrets. So it has all worked out OK. Life is a balance after all.

Like others of my generation, it is noticeable that physical strength often falls off significantly as you enter your late 60s and things you took for granted become a bit of a problem. This gets progressively worse and at 76 I no longer fancy climbing up on my garage roof anymore. In my younger days I would happily stick up a ladder to the sloping flat house roof, clamber down to the lowest point and repaint the barge boards by just leaning over the edge.

Doing so today would be suicidal!

Colin

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Nice boat Colin. I’d thought about having another one since retiring but as you say couldn’t really justify the expense for the amount of use it would get. We were spoiled when we were younger as my parents had a house on the River Avon so no mooring fees!

We’ve done a fair amount of travelling but I bought the Audi TT roadster before retiring so that we could do some European trips. Unfortunately the Covid pandemic reared its head just after I retired and so it didn’t happen and my wife then said that she no longer wanted to spend hours sitting in a car so that was that – those missing 2/3 years were at a critical time. No reason to complain though all things considered. Still got the TT but like the bikes hasn’t had much use.

You are bang on about the age Colin, it was a couple of years ago when I was 69 and started losing muscle mass and therefore strength. And about the roof! We’ve got some grass growing out of the main roof gutter and I never used to think twice about climbing out of the bedroom window onto the tiled porch roof and clearing out the gutter. I still go up ladders to some extent but am very wary now.

Chris

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Chris,

Yes, you can’t be too careful with ladders and stairs. They are a major cause of injury and death at our age. It is too easy to make that fatal mistake! But it creeps up on you so you don’t immediately appreciate the increased risk. Some things you only do occasionally and the next time it happens you suddenly find it is way more difficult than last time! It comes as a shock.

Covid has been a disaster for those of our generation. We only had a limited number of active years left and we have effectively lost three of them and life is suddenly a bit different now.

Colin

 

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Interesting we all seem to share the same feeling over the lost covid years!  My other toy was a Boxster, which I loved but which I was becoming increasingly concerned as regards the government constantly hounding owners for road tax.  The last time it increased it went to £715.00/year and I usually did around a thousand miles in it.  Plus the missis is complaining more of back ache so she didn’t like getting in and out of it, or even very much when she was in it so it became a toy purely for me.  So I ‘compromised’ and went for a car that was that bit more comfortable for her, but almost the same performance as the Boxster for me.  Road tax is around £200.00 and consumption is significantly less as well.

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

My practical car, a Volvo XC40 is almost as bad as that as I have to pay a luxury car element as part of the VED. It was never designed for family cars like that but due to governments’ usual tactic of fiscal drag by not increasing thresholds inline with inflation they are making a killing from motorists as usual. At least it does get used fairly often, though as I’m not commuting anymore, the mileage isn’t that great at 4 to 5k. PA. Sorry about the politics!

Can still get in and out of the TT Ok but the day will come!

Chris

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

With the talk of trials/scramblers on another thread here is my CCM after some green or should I say brown laning! I love the look of these type of bikes and fancied doing some green laning so bought it new in 2003. It cleaned up to virtually like new after that but being virtually a 650cc it was a handful on the really nagery stuff, particularly clay and so I bought a Suzuki DR Z 400 which was quite a bit lighter. I used that for a few years but following the unjust loss of many green lanes I sold it. Kept the CCM but put the super-moto wheels on and it was a hoot on the road. Haven’t used it for a few years and the mileage is still under 3k!

Chris

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

I must confess I have never been tempted to buy a bike as I observed early on that everyone I knew who had done so had  fallen off it at some point. That said I do admire them as machines and am not anti bike as responsible skilled bikers are courteous road users and good at positioning themselves to be seen by vehicles ahead of them.

However, the only serious road accident I have ever been in was in the French Alps when we were pulling onto a mountain road from the side road from the property were were staying in when a French biker came round the nearby bend very fast and piled into the side of us. Fortunately he flung himself backwards before the collision so he and the bike hit us separately. His helmet left a nasty dent in the nearside door and the bike wiped out the car side frame. Fortunately Mrs B and my two young daughters were unharmed. The rider suffered a broken shoulder and wrist plus minor injuries. Lucky man. The consequences were a bit of a nightmare as the Gendarmerie were biased in favour of their countryman and somewhat hostile. especially as two of his mates who were following him appear to have claimed to see me pulling out in front of him when they were actually so far back that they only came round the corner after I had got out of the car to check on him. It’s difficult to make a statement in French when you have a poor command of the language. To cut a long story short I wasn’t charged, but the car came home on a trailer and we were given a huge Renault hire car by the RAC to get us 800 miles back to the ferry port where we travelled as foot passengers and then had to cram into a Vauxhall Astra at Portsmouth for the drive home. Our car was a Primera and a lease car owned by my employers. It was eventually repaired with a new side frame but never drove properly afterwards. My employers dealt with the insurance issues and it was apparently very expensive!

More recently, earlier this year, my Nephew was doing some moto cross on a hired trials bike when he hit a tree root, was thrown off and broke his back. Fortunately his spinal cord remained intact but he sent me copies of the X ray of his broken vertebrae which looked very nasty indeed. He has spent months in a back brace and is slowly recovering but with that sort of injury you are never the same again. He was lucky not to end up in a wheelchair.

So, for me, bikes are nice to look at but just too vulnerable for my liking. No matter how good a rider you are, some idiot can easily ruin your life through no fault of your own. The odds have always been too great for me!

Having said that, I must confess that while I had the boats we had a few hairy moments of a different kind altogether. The sailing experience can be summed up by a reasonable number of sublime moments (often involving a glass of wine in a picturesque anchorage at sunset), a lot of regular discomfort such as when plugging the tide in driving rain with the wind against you in the western Solent and a few, but unforgettable, moments of terror when things could have gone fatally pear shaped very quickly but somehow didn’t.

Colin

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Bloomin’ heck Colin, with this and your falling from height comments you’re a harbinger of doom!

Seriously though, you do have to ride very defensibly but as you say it’s not always in your own hands.

On a positive note, like a lot of us, I had a long break from motorbikes, though used to ride a friend’s now and again, but got one again when I was 40 and so glad I did. Opened up a whole new world and friends and did loads of trips including touring the UK and Ireland and numerous European tours with as you say lots of great memories. I shall reduce the fleet over the next few years but will keep one in the garage if only for the smell of oil and polishing it!

What about this beauty? Probably not for the keeping and polishing though, that will be my 1973 Triumph Tiger 750.

Chris

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Chris.

Sorry to be a misery. I live in SW Surrey and regularly drive down to Sussex where there are frequent motorcycle accidents and several roadside ‘shrines’ to deceased bikers. Not sure if this is exceptional but it is a frequent reminder that two wheels are not the safest means of transportation.

Colin

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Aforesaid Tiger 750. Did a trip on this with friends in 2018 to Northern Spain/Pecos Mountains – that was a great trip. My wife took to four wheels for that though in a friend’s Moke.

 

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

My other bike a 2003 Triumph Thunderbird Sport and my scooter a 1962 Lambretta TV175. Had a 1963 as my first legal two-wheeler so when I had the opportunity to get another it was manners not too!. Passed my test on it and bought a BSA 650 Super Rocket as you could in those days!

Had a number of nice bikes since I got back into them including more Triumphs!

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