I have been riding motorcycles since 1971 which in those days was a Lambretta LD 150 and a Raleigh Runabout. Having miserably failed my car test twice in 1972 and then failing to produce a current license for the third one and having a driving offence hearing at court for the fourth one just as my friends were passing their car tests. Though I still drove an Austin A35 illegally until 1973 when the police picked me up for not having a license, mot, and insurance etc...I was banned for only three months but the funny thing is that when I sent my old red license off the new green style one arrived days later which meant I could of still driven as a leaner, though I didnt as the local police knew me and also I lived too near the nick!

For the next two years I had another Runabout, a Puch Maxi and another Lambretta until October 1975 when I passed my bike test. I thought the examiner looked familiar and he told me that he was my old BSM driving instructor. He passed me of course as I had been riding for years on L plates and he told me to get a car! Well he would wouldnt he?

If I had passed my car test in '72 then I would never of got into big bikes and I would not be here today talking about this...well thats fate

( I eventually did pass my car test in 1980 as I had started to work for Bob Thomas motorcycles of Finchley as I had to drive the pick up truck but I was banking that I would pass.....I just had four refresher lessons and I did pass at last. First thing I did when I got back to the shop was to ask Bob where the lads where and he said they were at the pub, so I drove the truck to the Queens Head just minutes away to have a drink with my mates!)

Back to '75....I already had a Triumph in sight though it was in Nottingham where my friend was at university. I swapped the scooter plus 25 quid for a pre unit cafe racer Speed Twin complete with metal coat hangers which held the exhausts on. I rode home to London just in time on the M1 as there was no lights though I had mastered riding a real bike by the time I got home. A few days later it completely seized but I had already seen a Triumph T100C at Rex Judds of Edgware a few weeks before so asking my dear mum to act as guarantor, I got HP for two years and became a proud owner of a very nice 1971 Triumph.... I had started to go to rock and roll clubs and pubs by then and it wasnt long before I went to the Lewis leathers shop in London as well as the 59 club in Hackney.

Actually a Lewis jacket was out of the question as even then they were too expensive for me so I favoured a Mascot jacket and I still have the one that I bought from Slocombes in 1978. I did eventually get a Lewis jacket and so did a lot of a new younger crowd that I had started to get to know who were all part of the post punk / new wave / Blitz / rockabilly scene as we knew a mate at the Lewis shop who got us all one for only 50 quid...no names please!

So my whole lifestyle has now become my full time job and here I am at 54 still with my third Triumph which I got in 1978 and I have a family now of course