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Son's first long bike trip
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One of Jamie's best mates is holding his 17th birthday bash today (his
Dad has got his birthday 125 stashed in the garage!), and Jamie was
invited. Mate is in Cookley, near Kidderminster, so maybe 160 miles
from the Chateau.
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Boy will go far.
Like his pere.
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[snip]
Well done to Jamie.
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Coincidentally, I spoke to said mate's dad this morning. I'll be
picking up that 125 lump this evening.
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Cool. Do you want to do an Oxford Services RV, or are you coming down
here anyway? I'm free Good Friday. Gissa call.
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Christ that would be handy. I'll take you up on that.
And I won't be late this time :-)
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In the past I've done a sort of Spy Swap at Oxford Services, where the
two fathers meet up and hand over teenagers.
This time, he wanted to travel yesterday (Wednesday), and both myself
and The Doctor are working, so I told him: "You've got a bike: use
it."
"But I'm not allowed on motorways...."
"Nor was I when I was a learner. Main roads all the way: I reckon it
should take you at least four hours."
"But will the bike do it?"
"It's a Honda 125 Benly. It's indestructible. Of course it'll do it.
It'll just take a long time."
Told him to follow the South Circular/North Circular signs out to the
A40, gave him a map, scribbled the roads and towns to aim for on a
piece of paper, and he set off. Four hours later, no sign of arrival.
Five hours later, ditto.
Six hours after he set off, he made it. Seems he got rather lost in
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Commiserations.
Mind you, he still has to get back :-)
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London and wound up at White City. Still, he's rather chuffed at
having made the journey, all on his own, and the last hour or so in
the dark.
Fair takes me back, that does. It's a long time since I did any real
distance on a small bike.
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I used to do London-Leicester on a 12bhp XL125. Not the highlight of my
biking career..
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Aye. Slightly different but similar experience happened to me and a
mate back in about 1979 - his Suzuki 810 Kettle had holed a piston
(again) and we were stopped on the hard shoulder of the M6 around
Morecambe area. He'd come prepared with a rope, but also had his
girlfriend with him, which would have made towing him, err,
interesting. Anyway, some guy in a Hillman Imp pulls over, saying "I
know that bike, I see you around in Leicester all the time, can I
help?" and ends up taking the girlfriend, tent and the rest of the
luggage back.
It was still an interesting tow all the way back to Leicester, mind,
but my XT500 was well up to the job. John didn't like it when I went
over about 50mph though...
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Well, us pre-125cc limit riders probably never did, depending on what
you call small. I did a trip to Torbay, Devon on my RD200, which isn't
far, but I did the return journey with no RHS foot peg!
The longest trip I've ever done in one go, was Coleraine, NI to back
home in Alton, Hampshire on a GS550E.
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I did Swansea to Manchester and back a couple of times on a GP100.
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This is the point, innit? I used to travel Brighton-Oxford to see my
girlfriend. It's amazing the hardship you'll put up with, as a
teenager[1], in order to to get a shag.
[1] And beyond....
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I still recall riding my Z200 from Gloucester to London, a month or so
after I got it, when I'd just turned 17. It seemed like an awfully
big adventure.
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Yes I remember our first 100 mile run. It took us hours to calm down once we
returned home. I haven't seen the other school chum for years but when we
would meet it always came to mind.
A year later I was commuting weekends Glasgow-Manchester with an RD250 on
L-plates. That explains my A6 over Shap comments elsewhere BTW.
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Ditto when I went to London (from Bath) on my 250. Mind you, I used the
M4 since I didn't feel the need to have L plates on my bike.
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First longish bike ride I made as a 17 year old was Doncaster to Pebble
Mill, Birmingham on my KH 250 with L-plates. (I was a cast-member of 'The
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Do tell. Who were you? Did you get to bone Caroline?
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I was Terry Barford, supposed to be from Leeds but a bit of a "wrong 'un".
From about 1974 ish to about 1981 ish, can't really remember, though I still
should have a box of scripts and transcripts somewhere, or my mum has.. ;).
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Archers'), again without motorways etc. Mum and Dad made me call home as
soon as I got there, before I set off, and halfway home... ;)
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Sorry mate, you can't just drop in a fact like that without details.
When was this, and who were you?
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After the first one it was easy and I made the trip twice every month for a
couple of years.
Longest ever (as a 21 year old) was to St Tropez and back in six days on a
KH 500. Costa Fortuna .... ;) Bike never missed a beat, with absolutely no
maintenance en route, but I got sunburned pretty badly though.
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Well picked up. Did *all* the KH500s have electronic ignition? I
thought they varied.
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Can't remember but now it's mentioned IIRC that one had CDI..
I _think_ the KH 250 I had, had points ... BICBW. ;)
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All the 250s did. The only triples that ever got factory electronic
ignition were the very first H1, the KH400 and the KH500.
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The original H1 had some bizarre transistorised jobby which they
dropped in favour of points on subsequent models. My H1E was points
(well, it had a Boyer kit in it, but you get my drift), and the they
went back to electronic on the KH, AFAIK.
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