This is the history of Alan's bikes, starting with the latest and going back in time.

I bought her, with only 4000 miles on the clock, from a young lady in Kent and on the way home, not long after riding through the tunnel, along the A13, I suddenly became aware of flashing blue lights!

I pulled over, it was a plain clothes police car, and the officer invited me to look at the read out on the VASCAR on his dashboard.

He said "I have followed you for more than two miles, average speed 91.8 mph!" "Oops" I said, "sorry about that." He replied "you don't have to be, I'm letting you off".

He ended up praising both my riding and the bike and I live to own a blemish free license.

Other highlights of my ownership so far include a track day at Cadwell Park where I managed to scuff up most of the sidewalls of my Bridgestones, a new personal best, the least said about that, the better and the run from Falaise to Quistram during this year's ('98) annual trip to France.

To date the sensible mods on this bike extend to a Scott Oiler for the chain and a full Nonfango Luggage system, as I have finally managed to entice my wife on to the pillion and I look forward to including her on some of my future adventures. ^

And, as she was prepared to let me have it for £1,500 down and the rest monthly without interest, I could afford to pay the £2,950 asking price.

Another in-line twin, each cylinder being 250cc, at low revs this felt like a "real" motor cycle, and then, when it smoothed out, real power.

We're talking 130mph and 0 to 60 in 4.4 seconds, together with more than adequate brakes and suspension and up to 60mpg, why doesn't everybody ride one?

Highlights of my time with this bike include passing the I.A.M. test in May '96, soon after buying it, touring through the Loire valley, to La Sable de L'or, near Bordeaux with Tony and, allegedly, achieving 120mph.

Amongst some of the sensible modifications I made on this bike was a centre fairing, the GPZ comes with only an upper and belly pan faring, and a rear rack and box for carrying luggage etc.

In order to buy this bike I had told my wife that it would see me out but how was I to know that early this year I would unexpectedly come into some money.

For a number of years my son has owned and ridden VFRs, generally accepted as the best bike in the world, a kind of grown up GPZ I suppose, And so having ridden his several times I of course lusted after one. It therefore seemed perfectly natural to buy M617 NKO and then put L385 WKO on the market. ^

It had only done 11,000 miles from new and was in excellent condition so I didn't mind paying £950 for it.

At that time I had it in my mind to keep the red one for spares and as it turned out it was just as well I did! Not for any mechanical reason, I hasten to add, but because I had a crash! Not serious. It came towards the end of a hundred mile plus run with Tony, I was following him and when he entered and exited a roundabout at almost thirty miles per hour, I only entered it! I found myself just over half way round, travelling too fast for my ability and to compound the offence I slammed on the anchors. Needless to say the inevitable happened and I skidded straight into the barrier and ended up on my side underneath the bike. Apart from my pride the only damage was to the footpeg and brake lever and so really I got off lightly. In fact the worst thing about the whole episode was lying on the ground seeing my son ride off into the distance and knowing he wouldn't come back for me, and he didn't!

I found out later he had got home, My wife had said " where's your dad" and he had told her that I had either gone another way, or stacked it, probably the latter! Nice one, son! ^

It was a bike I hadn't heard of before, a VF 400, and one quick ride on it and I had to have it. I think I paid £550 for it and it's V-four engine layout meant that although it could rev to 13,000 rpm, it was also smooth, and seriously quick.

Because of it's light weight it could keep up with almost any other bike on acceleration and it would happily cruise at 100 mph.

I also went to France on this bike and she behaved impeccably but a week or so after I got back I went for a weekend ride to North Wales and in the early hours of Sunday morning, after mixing it with a Fireblade and a sports BMW, I was trundling along at about 90 when the engine went bang and smoke poured out of the exhaust and left a screen that a World War II destroyer would have been proud of.

She had done 56,000 miles and I shouldn't have over-revved her, so only had myself to blame for the journey home on the back of an RAC truck.

Upon inspection I discovered a piston totally missing and as Honda don't make a triple it was time to look for another bike. ^

However it was never fast enough for him and so when my previous purchase from him prematurely expired, he sold me his 250 and moved on to a two stroke 350.

The 250 N is a parallel twin and as such it has the same engine configuration as my old BSA but there any similarity ends.

Although the Honda was already about 10 years old it had electric start, disc brakes front and rear, adjustable rear suspension, 3 valves per cylinder and, compared to the British bike, sharp handling and performance.

I had four years unblemished pleasure from this bike, including touring in France with my son, he on his VFR, I might add and it was on this bike that I joined the Essex Advanced Motorcycling Group.

By now I had also joined The Workshop, a like minded bunch of bikers who meet up at the Community Centre workshop on Saturdays to work on their bikes.

At this centre I had kept my bike in first class order, replaced worn out parts and made sensible modifications such as Goodridge braided hoses and so when I sold it, I got £420, nearly double what I had paid for it in 1989! ^

Only one fifth the size of the BSA, 100cc as against 500cc, the Yamaha is 10mph faster, accelerates almost twice as quick and both stops and handles like a thoroughbred compared to a cart horse.

It is, of course, a two stroke and so you get double the firing strokes but even so we can see in the small bike all the attributes of the modern UJM (Universal Japanese Motorcycle)

Built to very tight tolerances in the running gear and the engine, it is totally oil-tight and runs to very high revs and, under all normal circumstances, is 100 % reliable.

However I had bought the bike from my son Tony, who had thrashed it unmercifully for two years and unfortunately I was then stupid enough to cane it even harder. Needless to say after about six weeks it blew a hole in the top of the piston about the size of a tenpenny piece.

As far as I was concerned it was uneconomic to repair and so I sold it to our local dealer for £80 and moved on to bike number three. ^

This was in April 1964 and I think the bike and sidecar, which was over ten years old at the time, cost in the region of £38! But that did represent more than three weeks wages at that time.

However, on the way home I managed to burn the clutch out, it took a fortnight to repair and the very next day I wrote it off in the local barbers shopfront at about 50 miles per hour. They thought it was an airplane crash !

When I came out of hospital the reconstruction of the shop cost nearly one hundred pounds and took some paying off and whilst none of the aforementioned put me off motorcycling in the slightest it was to be many years before I was to own another one.. ^