My bikes

I got my first motorbike at 17 - a reward from my parents for doing well in my "O" Level exams at boarding school in Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe). A Portuguese friend had taught me how to ride a year or so earlier, and it was all I could talk about - I had a bicycle, and the terrain where we lived was pretty flat, so that was not an issue, but a bike would give me some freedom I yearned for.
There was an old BSA motorbike that had been handed down from generation to generation of expatriate kids, and currently was being used by my best friend, whose father happened to be in charge of the engineering workshop, but now had a Suzuki 50cc engine fitted (the sugar estate we lived on had a huge fleet of Suzuki 50's so parts were easy to come by). Flash, as that was the BSA's name, was very tatty and didn't run that well, but we all wished we had one!
Leading up to "O" Level year I was not doing too well academically, probably due to the change in curriculum caused by the move to Africa, but I was also struggling to adapt to boarding school life - at 14 I had never spent a night away from home and suddenly was at boarding school in a different country for 3 months at a time! I think my father thought that offering to buy me the bike in exchange for passing my exams might challenge me, but in the end it was a cakewalk! Unfortunately the results came from the UK, as we followed the UK syllabus, and that meant (in those far-off days pre-internet!!) that the papers had to be posted to the UK, and we might not get them before the end of our Summer holidays - the results used to be sent to us by Telegram - which was the case, so I had to wait till the following holidays to get my bike!!

My Suzuki K50D

Shortly after I got it my friend had Flash replaced by a Honda 50, which was a 4-stroke unlike all the 2-stroke Suzuki's, and Flash was passed on to someone else. We used to zoom around everywhere, and back then there were no restrictions on bike engines, so these little 50's would easily hit 50 mph (80 kph) - and riding as I am in the picture with no protective gear it was a great adventure.

Heading to Chinde - me in the shorts!

Unfortunately life in Mozambique came to an end and I had to sell the Suzuki, and it was several years before I returned to biking.

1978 I returned to the UK from South Africa, and decided to renew my relationship with 2 wheels. I bought a Yamaha XS250, not a stunningly fast machine, but a reliable mode of transport, that would hit 85 mph (136 kph) in favourable conditions, and could cruise all day at 60 mph (96 kph), but returned a remarkable 120 mpg (42 kms per litre) while touring. I had to take my bike driving licence for the UK, and passed it during a rainstorm, despite my misgivings as to how well the disc brakes would fare during the Emergency Stop!

My wife-to-be (I don't think either of us realised it at the time) was at college in Eastbourne, so my first big journey was Norwich to there, and I soon realised that long distances by motorbike in the UK were cold, and wind resistance was an issue, so I had a "sports touring" fairing fitted, and that made a huge difference to riding comfort.

Yamaha with fairing and top-box

I also bought some faux-leather throw-over panniers and was ready to travel. I did a 350 mile (560 km) trial run round the UK, and then headed to Denmark to visit family there (my mother was Danish), crossing by ferry to Belgium (though I had thought Zeebrugge was in Holland!) and then up through Holland, Germany and into Denmark. My initial plan was to stay only for a couple of weeks, but that turned out to be a 6 week vacation! On the way back I realised that a 250cc bike was a little under-powered for touring in Europe, especially on the Autobahns in Germany where you were constantly under attack while overtaking by high powered cars travelling in excess of 100 mph (160 kph) who hooted and flashed at you to get out of the way.

Upon returning to the UK I started researching bigger bikes - we are still pre-internet so it was a case of motorcycle magazines and trips to local bike dealers! I narrowed it down to either the Yamaha XS650, or the Honda CB650 (price was a limiting factor so ideal tourers like the BMW were out of my league!), and finally bought a Honda CB650 (marketed in the USA as the Nighthawk) - hugely discounted from a dealer in Middlesex, and for £25 they dropped it off on my doorstep!

Compared to the twin cylinder Yamaha the 4 cylinder Honda was hugely powerful, and had to be treated with respect, as acceleration was stunning - it had a reputed top speed of 140 mph (224 kph), but I once took it to 110 mph (176 kph) and that was fast enough for me! With the extra power came extra wind drag, so this time I bought a full touring fairing for it. Perversely the higher revving 650 cc 4 cylinder engine created more vibration in the handlebars, so was not as comfortable to ride long distances, and I used to have stop more often to rid myself of the "pins and needles" it caused!
I was riding to work one early winter's morning near Harlow and hit a patch of black ice on a roundabout - and had my first major spill from a bike! Fortunately it was only around 20 mph, but the sound of my helmet scraping along the tarmac, and my bike bouncing and crunching will haunt me forever. I have always ridden (in the UK) with a helmet, but had an open face one on that day, which had studs for the attachment of a peak - those studs were completely worn away in the few yards I slid, and would have been my face/head had I not been wearing the helmet. Luckily I just suffered a few scrapes and bruises, but the bike required major cosmetic reconstruction, and I was without it for 3 months - during the worst winter that area had suffered in decades, so it was a blessing in disguise, and I borrowed my father's car during the snow!

The only photo I have of the 650, in front of our bakery van.

I no longer worked in Harlow by the time the bike was repaired so had to go down by train to collect it and bring it home. It was a beautiful machine and a delight to ride, but I had to go easy on the throttle as it did tend to run away with you!

I have always been a cautious rider, and ride with my headlights on, and with some protective clothing - helmet, gloves (or gauntlets), boots, and thick clothing (I did have a biker's bodysuit, not leather but padded and reinforced) - which was just as well because in late January 1983 a truck driver ignored a "give way" sign and crossed directly in front of me, resulting in a huge impact, I had no time to react or avoid him. My bike was destroyed - and I ended up sitting on the truck's wheel arch until he stopped a few yards down the road. My injuries - three (of four) left knee ligaments ruptured, and dislocated left thumb - were caused by impact with the handlebars as the sudden stopping catapulted me forwards, and one gauntlet and one boot were ejected during the collision and found in a nearby field. The upshot was I spent 10 days in hospital and 10 months recovering, 5 of those in plaster while the ligaments healed - and a promise to my family to keep off motorbikes!

I still yearned for biking, and every summer when the "dry weather bikers" emerged I used to envy them, but I kept my word to my family - I was married by then and shortly after my daughter was born. However after I moved to Brazil in 2009, now divorced and with a grown-up daughter, and after my mother passed away I decided to take up biking again, at least locally in the area I lived, well away from heavy traffic. So in 2011 I bought my Honda 150 Bros.

Honda 150 Bros

As I hadn't ridden for many years I spent hours on a derelict football pitch familiarising myself with the handling (our roads here are dirt or cobbles for the most part) and balance, before venturing into the small town where I live. The road from my house is steep and meets the main road at a T-junction with poor visibility, so I rode up the hill, keeping well to the right side of the road (we drive on the right in Brazil), paused at the junction and put my foot down - only to find I was alongside a rain-water created gully and the distance to the floor too great, so I toppled over! No damage except to my pride, but it helped explain why motorists here hog the centre of the roads!

I have made a couple of trips (45 miles each way, or 70 kms) along the major roads here, but heavy trucks make the roads dangerous, both in their disregard for the rules of the road, and the damage to road surfaces, so I have limited my riding to local trips on the dirt roads.

On the way to Barro Branco

 My first stay in Peru I borrowed a motorbike from a friend - well, the original intent was to purchase it but irregularities with the paperwork made that all but impossible. It was a small 150cc Chinese bike, a Ronco, but was adequate for my needs (after a few necessary repairs!), and made me decide I would buy a better one upon my return to Peru in 2014. Initially I had simply wanted a bike to get me out of town to remoter local beaches to fish, but having ridden round Trujillo (a town of some 700,000 people) with no mishaps in 2013, my appetite to tour some more was whetted, so I was looking for something a little bigger than the 150cc.
Peru, like most of the world these days, is digitally connected, and internet speeds throughout Peru tend to be better than in rural Brazil, but commerce is still in its infancy - most businesses have little or no web presence, and many adverts on local sites are woefully out of date. I tried researching what to buy before I travelled, bearing in mind that it also had to be locally to where I was going to be living - and came across a series of adverts from Trujillo for big foreign bikes, at remarkably reasonable prices. One in particular, for a Honda 700V Deauville, which is a dedicated touring bike, really interested me, but my repeated attempts to contact the vendor (even trying through other bikes he was selling) received no response, and further research tended to imply that the adverts were fakes! I also like the look of another bike, the Regal Raptor 350, but this was only available in Lima, and did not appear to have a very widespread network of mechanics for servicing needs.
Based on my experiences the previous year with the Ronco I decided to look at the Chinese bike market, and was surprised at how good they looked, and how reasonably they were priced - but disappointed by how little the salesmen knew about them. "Top speed? Yeah, 75 mph (120kph)!" But the manual says 55 mph (90kph), "Tank capacity? 5 gallons (these are US gallons so 25% less than Imperial)!" But the manual says 3 gallons. I was concerned about both these figures particularly - top speed as if I was going to tour on good roads I needed to be able to "cruise" at 62.5 mph (100 kph, the speed limit), with a little in reserve to keep out if danger - and fuel capacity as I did not know at that time on availability of fuel in rural areas, because a 3 gallon tank will only carry you around 180 miles (290 kms). As it turned out almost all the bikes had relatively small tanks, with 3 gallons amongst the largest, so I had little choice.
As I was looking for a bike that would take me off-road to fishing spots, and I also was uncertain what the roads were like in the interior, off the Panamerican Highway, I decided on a trail bike, and purchased a Ronco 250 Demolition. The paperwork was a lot simpler than I was led to believe, and I rode away on the bike the same day!

Ronco 250 Demolition

I was still concerned about the size of the tank, and the lack of a fuel gauge (meaning I had to keep a mental note of how much fuel I thought I had remaining), so I had a carrier built, that would hold a 2 gallon fuel can (which I never needed to use!), but also would hold tools, and a few other necessities. I wanted it removable, so round town I was not hampered by the extra width and weight, and this proved challenging for the mechanic I chose, and I was not totally convinced by his reassurances, when he finished, about the strength of his workmanship. My fears were well founded, and two of the four welded bracket mounts sheared off three days into my first trip! Fortunately I was carrying bungee cord, and managed to strap the carriers firmly into place before gingerly returning to town, where I found another mechanic, who, under my guidance, welded reinforcements into place, and I had no more issues.

In the Maranon valley

In all I rode almost 5000 miles (8800 kms) in the 6 months I was there, and apart from shedding a few carrier mounting bolts (was unable to find locknuts!!), and one incident involving a young man on a bicycle who turned across the front of me without looking, resulting in us both lying in the road, but fortunately without serious injury, my travels were remarkably drama free. My bike is currently being stored at a friend's house, and I will be re-united with it shortly to continue my adventures!

"Oli" loaded for travelling - I was carrying beach fishing gear as well here!