You Know You're Getting Old When........ (1 Viewer)

skybluetony176

Well-Known Member
£60 for me fully comp for bmw 800, £505 tpft for nearly 18 year old son's honda 125
I remember when I brought a 900 having just passed my test 30 years ago. Could only find a couple of insurance companies that would touch me, couldn’t get fully comp and none of them would let me pay in instalments. Cheapest was £675.00. I had to park the bike up for 2 months/2 pay days to save up for the insurance as I’d spanked my savings and sold my 125 to finance buying the big bike. It was so galling having to push bike everywhere while I had a motorcycle in the back garden.
 

ovduk78

Well-Known Member
I remember when I brought a 900 having just passed my test 30 years ago. Could only find a couple of insurance companies that would touch me, couldn’t get fully comp and none of them would let me pay in instalments. Cheapest was £675.00. I had to park the bike up for 2 months/2 pay days to save up for the insurance as I’d spanked my savings and sold my 125 to finance buying the big bike. It was so galling having to push bike everywhere while I had a motorcycle in the back garden.
Ahhh those days pre CBT when you could pass your test on anything upto 250 and then go and buy whatever bike you wanted. No training required!
 

ovduk78

Well-Known Member
Not forgetting of course rider policies where you could ride anything upto the cc limit of your insurance.
 

skybluetony176

Well-Known Member
Ahhh those days pre CBT when you could pass your test on anything upto 250 and then go and buy whatever bike you wanted. No training required!
I’m not quite that old ;)

Still had to do a CBT but once you passed you’d passed, no A1 or 2. I went straight from a DT125 to a GPZ900R. Not sure how I never killed my self to be honest.
 

duffer

Well-Known Member
I am...
I passed mine on a Yamaha AS3 in 1973, and then bought a new RD350 (and then a new Bonneville T140V).

I started riding on my 17th birthday (Honda C90, oh the humanity!), and kept going on and off until finally passing my test in my thirties. Without admitting too much, I may have been stretching the boundaries of legality on occasion, cc wise. 🙂

I'm now back down to a 250 dirt bike just for the hell of it, maybe 70mph flat out! I'm tempted to pick up something like a cheap Bandit 600, for a bit of A/B road scratching.

Remember always though:

There are old riders, and there are bold riders, but there aren't many old, bold riders. 😄
 

ovduk78

Well-Known Member
I started riding on my 17th birthday (Honda C90, oh the humanity!), and kept going on and off until finally passing my test in my thirties. Without admitting too much, I may have been stretching the boundaries of legality on occasion, cc wise. 🙂

I'm now back down to a 250 dirt bike just for the hell of it, maybe 70mph flat out! I'm tempted to pick up something like a cheap Bandit 600, for a bit of A/B road scratching.

Remember always though:

There are old riders, and there are bold riders, but there aren't many old, bold riders. 😄
I've been riding since 16 when I bought my FS1E & have spent most years (1989-2016) on 600s. I bought a BMW F800 to get away from sports bikes but am now thinking of dropping to something more lightweight like a KTM 390. I was out on my son's Honda 125 last week and surprisingly enjoyed it.
 

skybluetony176

Well-Known Member
I've been riding since 16 when I bought my FS1E & have spent most years (1989-2016) on 600s. I bought a BMW F800 to get away from sports bikes but am now thinking of dropping to something more lightweight like a KTM 390. I was out on my son's Honda 125 last week and surprisingly enjoyed it.
I like a little bike myself. Favourite ever bike to ride is a CB400 four. Still the best sounding bike ever in my humble opinion too. I’ve had 2, 1 was a complete dog which I used as a winter bike for getting too and from work. The other was mint, brought of a guy in London before they were big money, it was his first “big” bike and he’d brought it new and then threw a load of money at it, dresda swing arm, campagnolo alloys, yoshimura exhaust and big bore kit etc. it’s the only bike I’ve ever truly regretted selling.

Talking of C90’s they have a big following now and there’s a fairly big scene in customising them. Honda are still making the cub too and I must admit that I quite fancy the CT125 trail cub. You have to get them imported though from Thailand as for reasons no one can explain Honda aren’t selling them to the UK through the dealerships.
 

duffer

Well-Known Member
I've been riding since 16 when I bought my FS1E & have spent most years (1989-2016) on 600s. I bought a BMW F800 to get away from sports bikes but am now thinking of dropping to something more lightweight like a KTM 390. I was out on my son's Honda 125 last week and surprisingly enjoyed it.

Yep, to be honest I don't need to go that fast to have a laugh, and I'm certainly not as brave/stupid as once I was.

There's something to be said for a simple, light bike, that you can move around without getting a hernia, and that makes the garage Tetris a bit easier to solve. KTM 390 is a good shout, though possibly out of my budget at the moment.

Not seen a 'fizzer' in ages, but if you were too cool for school you had to have one of those or an Suzuki AP50, from memory. Geez, I really am old. 😄
 

duffer

Well-Known Member
I like a little bike myself. Favourite ever bike to ride is a CB400 four. Still the best sounding bike ever in my humble opinion too. I’ve had 2, 1 was a complete dog which I used as a winter bike for getting too and from work. The other was mint, brought of a guy in London before they were big money, it was his first “big” bike and he’d brought it new and then threw a load of money at it, dresda swing arm, campagnolo alloys, yoshimura exhaust and big bore kit etc. it’s the only bike I’ve ever truly regretted selling.

Talking of C90’s they have a big following now and there’s a fairly big scene in customising them. Honda are still making the cub too and I must admit that I quite fancy the CT125 trail cub. You have to get them imported though from Thailand as for reasons no one can explain Honda aren’t selling them to the UK through the dealerships.

I was literally thinking of 400/4 when I was rambling on earlier. Loved 'em, but could never spring for one.
I did have a CB350 K4 for a while, (when, ahem, I really shouldn't have had!). I loved that bike, I'd love one now but they're way out of my range.

That C90, much as it got mocked, was absolutely indestructible. I went flat out everywhere, including off-road, dropped it any number of times, and don't remember even changing the oil!

Post-armageddon, Mad Max would actually be driving a Hilux and chasing down rampaging C90s, but that wouldn't have made such a good movie I guess. 😁
 

ovduk78

Well-Known Member
Yep, to be honest I don't need to go that fast to have a laugh, and I'm certainly not as brave/stupid as once I was.

There's something to be said for a simple, light bike, that you can move around without getting a hernia, and that makes the garage Tetris a bit easier to solve. KTM 390 is a good shout, though possibly out of my budget at the moment.

Not seen a 'fizzer' in ages, but if you were too cool for school you had to have one of those or an Suzuki AP50, from memory. Geez, I really am old. 😄
The coolest 50cc was the Fantic Caballero but I loved my FS1E. I had 2 friends at school with bikes, 1 was an AP50 and the other was a Honda SS50 which is the slowest bike I have ever ridden on the road and couldn't keep up with the other 2.

It's funny that I had no training & trained myself yet I am really nervous about my son going out on his when it passes the MOT next week & he's done his CBT.
 

duffer

Well-Known Member
The coolest 50cc was the Fantic Caballero but I loved my FS1E. I had 2 friends at school with bikes, 1 was an AP50 and the other was a Honda SS50 which is the slowest bike I have ever ridden on the road and couldn't keep up with the other 2.

It's funny that I had no training & trained myself yet I am really nervous about my son going out on his when it passes the MOT next week & he's done his CBT.

Don't remember the Fantic at all in truth, but the SS50 definitely rings a bell.

After not bothering to take my test and going from C90, to 250 (350, ahem), and then 125 (MZ 'Camel'), they brought in a law where if you hadn't passed your test in two years you got booted down to mopeds.

So, being unbelievably stupid (the bike test at the time was basically wobbling around the block, watched from afar, remember), I splurged my first and only student grant on a Honda MT-5, 'off-road' moped. 2.55 BHP, limited to 30mph.

I rode it to and from London (where I was supposedly studying) a good few times. It took at least five or six hours on A and B roads, and I swear that my hands were actually ringing from the vibration for an hour or two afterwards! Bananas.

I've already persuaded the eldest that a car is a far better idea than a bike. Do as I say, not as I did etc... 😁
 

ovduk78

Well-Known Member
Don't remember the Fantic at all in truth, but the SS50 definitely rings a bell.

After not bothering to take my test and going from C90, to 250 (350, ahem), and then 125 (MZ 'Camel'), they brought in a law where if you hadn't passed your test in two years you got booted down to mopeds.

So, being unbelievably stupid (the bike test at the time was basically wobbling around the block, watched from afar, remember), I splurged my first and only student grant on a Honda MT-5, 'off-road' moped. 2.55 BHP, limited to 30mph.

I rode it to and from London (where I was supposedly studying) a good few times. It took at least five or six hours on A and B roads, and I swear that my hands were actually ringing from the vibration for an hour or two afterwards! Bananas.

I've already persuaded the eldest that a car is a far better idea than a bike. Do as I say, not as I did etc... 😁
I wanted my son to do his CBT before he learned to drive to give him awareness of what it's like being on a bike & hopefully make him a better driver. He then never wanted to learn to drive so it kind of backfired but I will go out with him a few times before I let him loose on the 125.
 

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