Why motorcycles?

Big speel here but give it a chance.

Why motorcycles?

My love for motorcycles started at an early age, my first memory of it was my dad riding his Suzuki A100 round a car park at the old library, if I can remember he was showing one of my uncles who was doing there CBT or test how to ride. After him going round in circles he allowed me to sit on the back and the love instantly hit! He bought me a helmet, gloves and an old second-hand leather jacket and I felt like the coolest kid on the planet. Shortly after we went out a little ride on his old Honda CX500. I can remember the speed, the noise, the smell of it when I jumped off the bike when we stopped. I was hooked, we had only ridden about 4-5 miles to visit my grandparents. Soon after this we would attend bike shows, bike rallies and of course the bike racing.

One of my dads close friends Ronnie had an old Honda express 50cc, as soon as my foot touched the floor (well very close to it) he left it with us for a few weeks, this meant endless hours of riding up and down my garden with this old twist and go, my confidence grew with this and soon after I was trying skids in my parents back garden leaving marks all over the grass. My dad took me and my cousin along with my uncles down to a bit of land where I could go faster with it, I seen my dad having a carry-on riding which I found hilarious at the time and seen my dad smiling whilst riding like some one from the purple helmets. This sparked another love of trying stupid things on bikes, from jumps to doughnuts but that is something for a different time. A yearly routine for us was to go to the bike show in Edinburgh where we would see stunt riding, the purple helmets, race bikes and where I saw Minibike racing! If I can remember it was £10 for 10 mins on one of those which I happily tried. My dad was not with us this year, so I was with my uncles who were all bikers. They handed a form out which said something like win a mini race bike for a year. This was before these Chinese copy minimotos were even thought about so no one had ever really seen them except at the bike shows.

               We filled out the form and went for the try outs, well over sixty kids tried out and they were only giving out twenty bikes, ten for juniors and ten for seniors (over 13) my dad could not make the start of the try outs as he was picking up his new car that day. I went out and tried my hardest and to be honest, I did not think I had done any good, but I stayed on so that was a bonus. My mum and dad came to the track as McIntosh minibikes called the parents in to a room. My mum and dad sat me down after that to explain how costly it would be and how much time I would need to put into it. I had won a bike for a year. We went up to Tranent to pick up the bike that night after they semi prepped it, we took it down to john Welsh’s who agreed to sponsor us that year and Dougie and my uncle done some other bits to it to make it ready for the following day where I was riding up in Aberdeen on a Karting track. We walked in to see a kid called Muzz who I can always remember having a Dennis the Mennis helmet on, we referred to him as Dennis for a long time until we found out his name. He went flying past us hanging off this little pocket rocket with his knee on the ground going round the bottom corner of the track, this was a lot faster than we had seen any minibike go. My first thought was just to load the car back up with the bike, its too fast for us. Me and a boy called Lee both went out, the split the session for faster folk and beginners, it was only me and lee with these new bikes, we were both out on the beginner group ourselves. Over the sessions Tosh was giving us hints and tips about getting fast and building our confidence up on the bikes. By the end of the session I were in the group with the fast guys and getting my knee down, unfortunately I had knee pads that they gave people to try, the rivets that held the straps were sparking like mad, this did not stop me getting passed and lapped many times but I was just happy to get out with the faster guys.

As the season went on people were getting rid of the free bike for a year and buying the faster and better handling bikes, unfortunately for team Dick we never had that budget and had to give up at the end of the year, it was years later when me and my dad became close I found out how much stress and upset this caused for him and my mother as when I was young racing you never thought about budgets. To this day I am eternally grateful they gave me a chance and sorry for the things I put them through being a grumpy teenager when it was concerning bikes.

I went back to just being a pillion passenger and seeing if I could get a ride of anything available before getting on the road myself.

When I was around 14-15 we were going to a bike rally in Kelso, the one weekend of camping and motorcycles that still blows my mind to this day, we even seen Eddie Kidd going round on a quad bike in the arena then watched as he was lifted to his chair, A true legend of motorcycles, unfortunately this was one of my dad’s last motorcycle rides for a long time. For years my dad never told me why he sold his bike and gave up until we were having a drink and it came out then, when we were going down the Deauville he was riding was on the heavier side and with me on the back, we went in to a corner just after passing a tractor, nothing to fast but the bike didn’t handle right at that point, my dad managed to get it round and to be honest I never really noticed anything but for my dad this was enough. He admits if I were not on the back, it would not have bothered him or gave a second thought but because he had his kid on, the bike was sold the following weekend and for years I never knew why.

Sixteen young and dumb, I done my CBT and had a SR50, we had a group of about 8 or 9 scooters where we went everywhere, Unforturantly the scooter is the only vehicle I have been done for speeding with and only vehicle I got points on, meant fun for insurance after that.

I started buying dirt bikes to play on and two guys from my work had them also, this meant every Sunday we were going out playing with the bikes, I loved going through puddles and just pinning the throttle on the CR250. It was a deep sense of freedom free roaming on the bike, it did have its downsides, the bike blowing up in the snow or chain pinging off when you were in fourth going for it.

I went back to the minibikes not long after my daughter was born. My dad was back on the tools, and I was back chasing speed. Going back as an adult was hard as the old body does not bounce like it use to, I spent many days after a race meeting in a lot of pain recovering to race the next again Sunday. I met many friends from who I had raced against before to young and up coming stars who are now competing in BSB, Moto 3 and 2 and WSB riders, also unfortunately lost a friend as he succumbed to his injuries when out on his big bike, James Williamson will always be remembered by me and my dad as I rival and a good friend. The minibike racing is an excellent platform for young racing hopefuls who want to make a career in motorcycling.

I played about with bikes back and forth, either fixing them in the unit me and my dad were in or having a shot back and forth but the love for bikes had slowly become less and less. I think it may have had something to do with fixing them with no fun at the other end or my group of friends were not really into bikes at the time, how everything changed again when lockdown happened. We brought out the little 100cc my dad passed his test in all those years as it was in the hut in between our driveways, we stuck fresh petrol and two stroke in it and it fired up 3^rd or 4^th kick. We stuck it in for a MOT and it passed, after riding this about for a little while I went and bought a Deauville, the same bike my dad had when we went to Kelso and a pan which is the same as what my dad rides now.

In a way it has went full circle as I now take my son on the back of my bike and hoping to have more adventures with him from wild camping, to food reviews when camping with him to other daft things he wants to do hopefully bike related, we also hope that my dad can join us as well as my uncles all those years ago can come with us as well and start to pass the torch on to him so he can have a life when motorcycling is a big part.

I hope to do a blog on the minibike racing and why the importance of it, the good the bad and the ugly side of racing..