Aahh!! brought a lump to me throat and a tear to me eye that post...my first love at fourteen years old and a lifelong love of motorcycles was spawned from owning that little beauty, cost me 50p and robbed a carb from a mate to get it going, had loads and loads of laughs on it too, as well as the missing carb it also had no exhaust so I pressed my engineering skills into action and sawed some bicycle dropped handlebars up and made my own, there was no peace to be had in the sleepy villege of Hadfield anymore The trick to start it was supposed to be pull in the handlebar mounted de-compressor and with the bike on the centre stand pedal and the let the de-compressor out...All well and good but I didnt have a decompressor cable and handlebar lever...nor a centre stand so it was push in the decompressor valve on the cylinder head...just pretend it isnt hot, no its not burming me really ...FFS start, start I say effing start Aaaaghhh!!! all this while paddling the bike forwards in a penguin like waddle, then as the de compressor valve was let go...a frantic grab for the handlebar as the beast roared into life and shot forwards with a crackle and the odd flame spitting from the home made zorst....Happy days indeed!!!
Actually mine mas a much more modern one as i first got it, what...with its tele front fork and everything, as i remember it was more like this
but then when travelling home on the train from Glossop to Hadfield one day I saw an old bike frame dumped in a field so being into all thing motorcycle I went to investigate...couldnt believe my luck when it turned out to be a mobylette frame with a swing arm instead of the rigid arse end that mine had...much more street cred, no youre right 'cred' hadnt been invented then, I mean 'Kudos' ... so i lugged it home, gave it a lick of the finest dulux and made me a proper bike...complete with a handlebar mounted de-compressor. looked more like this one then...like I say . A proper bike.
If youre wondering what that is behind the bike....Thats the wifes transport
Still got a soft spot for these old peds now...Havent I drewpy??...