- Sun Sep 11, 2016 8:50 pm
#62419
My first bike was a 150cc swingarm Bantam field bike which I bought for £20 in the summer of 1976 when I was 11 years old. I earned 40p per hour helping on a neighbouring farm to save up for it. I made a bad job of making a good 175 engine from the tired 150 and a tired D7 motor and it never ran again. Some other lads at school insisted they could get it going and bought it for £15, but they never did get it going. A few years after leaving school, one of the lads told me I could have it if I collected it, otherwise it was going to the dump. I didn't drive back then, so pushed it nine miles home. I have kept those sad remains of my first bike, until a couple of years ago, I was offered a very rusty Bantam 175 with a seized engine. I now had enough parts to make a good D7 engine and just needed a replacement for the mangled and rather rare D3 swingarm. I was half way through butchering a Tiger Cub one to fit when the real thing appeared on ebay for £20! Long story short, my Son now has the Bantam and sometimes he lets Dad have a go for old time's sakes!
When I needed a replacement for the Bantam at just shy of 13 years old, I bought a 1958 Triumph Tiger Cub in late 1977. It was all original, with tax, mot and matching engine and frame numbers and it set me back £50. I still have this machine and since being mothballed for nearly 35 years, it is on the road again. These two live with a few other bikes which have been in the family for nearly as long and there is a Norton navigator, which kicked it all off by becoming Dad's first bike after myself and my sister were born and old enough for school[Ian was a long way off back then]. Must get round to tidying the Norton up one day. Hmmmm ...
