h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've been thinking about the beginnings of my bike addiction over the last few days. I can tell you the exact date (March 22nd since you asked so nicely) when I first cocked my leg over my mates 50cc scrambler, all of 36 years ago, the exact place and probably the time to within half an hour.
Earlier memories of things two wheel related come popping up unbidden from the depths though ; most of my favourite toys as a child involved bikes, Dinky, Mechano, Action Man, hours spent pushing bits of metal and plastic across the floor making daft engine sounds. Heaven!
As I hit my teens, I remember finding an American bike magazine in the bus depot where my granddad worked, what an eye opener, people actually built and rode these big customised things called choppers, how cool. That was it, hooked.
There was a shop were the kids liked to gather on a Saturday, sweets, pop, crisps, a bit of flirting. But three doors down was a second hand book shop which to my delight had trashy 'biker gang' novels, English as well as American based. My pocket money was more often than not spent on Hunter S Thompson, Peter Cave and Mick Norman. One of my favourites, I've still got the tattered remnants was Steve Wilson's, the Lost Traveller, a mix of sci fi , American injuns and biker gangs!
A year or so later there opened, right next door to my favourite bookshop, a brand spanking new motorcycle dealership. Their centrepiece display was a jet black Triumph Bonneville , customised beautifully, it sat there and silently possessed my young soul. My mates laughed when I told them I'd have one of them someday. (Took a while but I eventually proved them wrong!) I used to spend hours, literally hours, standing slack jawed, imagining the freedom that bike would give me, head spinning off down thousands of highways and adventures as I cursed the " please do NOT sit on this bike" sign!

So all in all I think this little tumble through time shows me it wasn't that first chaotic ride through the local woods on a borrowed blue and white bike that had me hooked, I think my brain got there well and truly before my body!

Please excuse me now, I'm off to go and stare at my latest Triumph custom for a while, Zafod's waiting patiently for today's adventure!

FWR

That sense of adventure and freedom is a big part of being a biker, I think.

[Amy P]

Wait til you see what I have to say about motorcycles in today's and tomorrow's episodes of <The Lost Isle of Arborvilla."