While clearing out a garage for a relative, my father found a motorcycle hidden
away in the back. He brought this machine home and probably unwittingly started something which has
stayed with me for most of my life. The bike was a Velocette 350 MAC and at the age of 12 years, I learned
to ride.
In those early days most of my riding was done in the drive in front of our house, or more likely in the fields around
the farm. (Anyone who knows the Velocette will know it’s a bit of an unlikely beast to try and throw around
off-road!)
This is not a photograph of my bike, as unfortunately I can't find a photograph
of it, but I do remember the registration number:- FJY 483. This particular photograph doesn't show the pedestrian
killer numberplate or the black front mudguard either.
When I was 15 years old, I got two BSA Bantams (£25 for the pair) and managed to make one roadworthy machine out of the two.
A few days after my 16th birthday, I sat my driving test, (failed – no road experience!). I attempted to pass again twice after that, but on the first occasion, I did so with no rear end in my trousers after a slide on the way and on the other occasion, while attempting the emergency stop, the front brake cable came loose from the nipple in the brake lever, resulting in me skidding to a stop with the back brake only - I do remember the examiner attempting the high jump record!
Again, not mine as I never did take a photograph of it.
Without a full license, I went through a succession of two wheelers,
As I got older I got perhaps a little wiser (?) and decided I’d better become legal, so in 1999, I did my CBT in Stirling and promptly had to move from the area due to work (or lack of it), so the DAS went out of the window for the time being.
In the Summer of 2002, when it looked like I had some long term work in one place, I decided it was about time I finally got that DAS test out of the way. I was living in Kingston upon Hull and at random picked a training school from the Yellow pages (or whatever they call them in Hull!) Unfortunately (for them), no-one answered the ‘phone, so I had to make a second choice which happened to be ACE Motorcycle Training in Hull. These guys were excellent, very professional, patient and understanding. I had to do my CBT again, my first one having expired, but three days of lessons after that and one driving test later, I held that long awaited pass form in my hands.
Patience? What’s that? I want a bike and I want one NOW!!! Not having a lot of cash to hand, I went off and bought the first bike I found – a Honda VT250F on which someone had dropped the cam chain into the sump. Well, since I bought it, I got shipped to Aberdeen to work, came back at the beginning of summer 2003 and promptly did my back in. In the end, I sold the VT because I didn't see myself ever getting around to fixing it, and didn't want it to rust to pieces. I sat down and worked out what I wanted a bike for – and came to the conclusion I didn’t want a sports bike – (not yet anyway), I wanted a bit more riding experience, before I attempted to break the sound barrier, I didn’t want a “small” bike – something around 500cc and less than 750cc – cheap to insure, reliable and had to have a fairing - Oh! and shaft drive - no more messing about with chains and oil for me!
The VT250F.
With much encouragement from my partner, I dug into my savings, much consulting of various bike magazines, searching MCN and BikeTrader, I bought a 1999 Honda Deauville.
Deauville.
Most of the transaction was done over the Internet, as the bike was 250 miles away in Essex. A friend and I drove down there one weekend, me with a wadge of cash burning a hole in my pocket and the transaction was done. Up until this point, my longest ride on a bike had been about 35 miles and that on quiet roads with an instructor behind me – now I had to drive 250 miles in pouring rain and at the same time get my first experience of riding on a motorway.
I will take this opportunity of saying a public “Thank you” to Lell, who encouraged me not to be so Scottish (i.e. buy the cheapest), but to buy something decent – boots, gloves, etc. Without her advice, the trip would have been a nightmare, as it was, despite the downpour, I arrived in Hull warm, dry and grinning from ear to ear!
The next “0-SH1T” error was the bike despite my “careful” measurements beforehand, would not fit into the garden and I wasn’t about to leave my new baby out in the street for any druggie or spotty little kid to fornicate about with, so it had to be stored a few miles away in a friends garage while I got a hole knocked in the wall and a garage door installed.
My partner Lell had never ridden on a bike, so I decided to take her for a short run as pillion. Was this a mistake I ask myself? Immediately we got home, she was out buying a jacket and trousers and has since spent quite a lot of time on the back.
In the past twelve months, I've managed to increase the mileage of the Deauville by more than 10,000 miles and had a great deal of fun in the process. Due to my back injury (they're still debating what really is wrong), I can't drive a car for much more than half an hour without stopping and going for a walk, but I can ride for two hours or more on the Deauville and still not feel too uncomfortable, so the bike really is now my preferred mode of transport.
The Deauville is a much maligned machine - one of my main reasons for going for this machine (apart from the low
maintanance aspect) was I thought she would be slow enough to allow me to keep the points off my license.
Wrong! (Not that I have acquired any points through the bike yet, but she certainly isn't a slowcoach!)
She'll quite happily sit at the legal limit on motorways, two up and with my loaded 52 litre Givi top box on the
back and give me 57+ mpg! OK, she's not the quickest machine on the road, but that wasn't what I was looking for.
She's kind to tyres as well, I managed to get 11,000 miles from my original Mitchelin Macadams and now I have Bridgestone
BT020s front and back - they're a much better tyre than the Macadams and (in my opinion) are great in the wet.
The panniers are a pain on this model because I have to use the top box to carry my laptop - it just misses fitting in the
panniers by about quarter on an inch. I believe newer models have slightly larger panniers though.
After about a year, especially riding in winter, the finish is flaking off the engine casings. I've heard of this problem on newer
('02 Deauvilles) but mine seems to be the only older one with this problem - unless someone can tell me different.
This is despite liberal coatings of both WD40 and FS365 throughout the winter and not taking it out if the roads were
completely covered in roadsalt. I'm going to try some aluminuim paint on it and see what happens.
People have asked me what bike I would get to replace the Deauville - usually I jokingly reply, "A silver Deauville!"
That might be a joke, but it's not too far from the truth - I like the bike - she's very practical and I think she looks
very nice too. Maybe I would replace her with an FJR1300? Time will tell.
We now have a fully paved back garden, which is stage one on the way to the garage. Not only do we have space for my bike, it seems we have space for several of the neighbourhood bikes as well! Security has been uprated to include several CCTV cameras, ground anchors, large chains and some little surprises!
That’s the situation at the moment – watch this space for updates!
As far as clothing goes, I started off with a heavy Harley Davidson leather jacket which was great until it rained and then took three days to dry out. When I got the Deauville, the seller threw in a Buffalo jacket and trousers which I used for a good few months and had no real complaints although I've now upgraded to a Hein Gericke Master jacket - lovely and warm in the winter and seems to be 100% waterproof too. (I'm still using the Buffalo overtrousers though - just because they're handy.
Originally I had a Caberg J1+ helmet, but it seemed to mist up at the least excuse and was quite noisy, but liking the flip-front type of helmet I got a Schuberth Concept. This is a much better lid and certainly isn't prone to the misting problems the Caberg was. It's not much quieter, but it really does keep the ears warm and the ventilation really does work. The down side of it is I have an Autocom intercom system fitted, except I can't get the speakers into the Concept - when I try, they stick out too far and hurt my ears and anything more than an hour on the bike is really uncomfortable - after talking to Autocom, they'll "modify" the lining for me if I send them the helmet, so it's on its way to them now.
I'm unfortunate (or fortunate?) to live within two minutes walking distance of Hein Gericke in Hull, so most of my gear comes from there - it's reasonable quality and I have no real complaints - I bought a pair of PSX III boots but after a few months they started to leak - I took them back and I was given an upgraded pair right away with no problems. I bought a H.G. rain suit which began to leak at the crotch after a few months - that too was replaced without any problems. I have H.G. winter and summer gloves and have no complaints about either pair.
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