Graduation

My first ‘big’ bike was a black and gold Suzuki GSX550EFS bought in my final year at Oxford.  The dealer just gave me the keys for a test ride and said “come back later”.  No paperwork.  No proof I had a licence.  I just rode off and fell in love with C534CFC.  I still remember the number plate after all these years.    It had a 4-1 exhaust instead of the factory 4-2 which made it lighter and look more sporty.  Someone had put in braided brake hoses instead of standard.  It also had no lower fairing.  Probably I should have run a mile as these are signs of some enthusiastic previous riding.  But it was all I could afford and it was wonderful.

I also remember doing the maintenance myself.  I think the bike did 30+ thousand miles in my care.  Oil changes were frequent-ish. Setting the valve clearances with 16 tiny valves back in the day when cars had 8 and a Golf GTi 16v was supposed to be fast, was a pain.  The fork seals went and I learned how to change them.  The gear indicator broke and I soldered it back to work.  

The throttle cable broke when overtaking a car on a night out in Salisbury with a friend riding pillion, had to get a new one made up.  The clutch cable broke once as well.  I learned to tape cables to the frame so the next time one broke I would be on my way again quickly.  (Never needed to but I was prepared!).  The rear brake hose split as well, when I was visiting a friend in Leeds of all places, and I got a braided spare made up and fitted ready for the journey home.  

The chain broke whilst I was riding it soon after I bought it.  Could have been nasty but I was only riding onto Magdalen bridge in Oxford to so could pull the bike over to the pavement and walk to the store, which was miles away, to get a new chain. I recall sitting in the shade of the tree next to Magdalen college school on the bridge approach fitting the new chain as the sun shone and motorcyclists rode by and waved.  A couple stopped to ask if I needed help.  Shared misery.  We’d all broken down at some point.

Maybe if I had the money for preventative maintenance I wouldn’t have broken down so often.  Or maybe not given I did ride quite hard.  Following faster bikes wasn’t easy!

One last memory.  Out on a ride out of Oxford.  Friend’s friend in front on an RG250 two stroke sports bike, with a pillion.  Friend on back.  More to the point much taller friend on back, which is a higher seat.  Riding round a right hand bend over at quite an angle.  My head will miss the oncoming car but will be a little close.  At the last minute I remember the pillion and bring the bike up enough to avoid a sudden decapitation event.

Eventually I lent the bike, with a slipping clutch, broken ignition cover, leaking forks to my friend Jake who fixed it up using his considerably greater mechanical prowess.  His then girlfriend rode it on a European tour before I got it back and it sat outside our house in London, unloved, until someone bought it and took it away for spares.

More than 25 years later I am in a motorcycle equipment dealer in Switzerland and they have a blue and white version of my exact bike.  Well almost as my bike didn’t have the lower fairing when I bought it.  Someone clearly had dropped ‘my’ bike in the past and the fairing had been too expensive to replace.  I looked on and all the memories came back. 

Most of all the bike, that looked so big when I first bought it, seemed tiny compared to the one I had ridden to Switzerland on.