Motorbikes

My first ever bike was a Honda CityFly 125cc. I bought this after passing my CBT in 2006. I didn't actually have the bike that long before a move from Essex to West Sussex meant that due to other commitments I had to sell it. Sadly I didn't get to ride again for a couple of years.

I soon got back into motorbikes with the purchase of a cheap Chinese 125cc bike that I bought via eBay. It wasn't a bad bike for the £600 that I paid for it! The only problem I had with it was a sticking throttle cable. This resulted in a wildly revving engine that I could only stop by killing the engine. A simple adjustment resolved that.

It was when that bike was stolen from outside my house that I decided to take the plunge and do my big bike test.

The day I passed the test I collected my shiny new Suzuki GSF650 Bandit. I loved it. Unfortunately it was written off when I was knocked off by a driver pulling out of a side road right in front of me!

I was lucky that no bones were broken. My left leg was squashed between my bike and her car and resulted in a very swollen ankle/lower leg and also lost my big toe nail! Tragedy.

I was without a bike for a few years then, until I moved to Cornwall and my old Fiesta failed its MOT. I bought a used Suzuki GSX600f from Cornwall Kawasaki Centre. My love of motorbiking was reborn!

When the (admittedly rather rough) GSX failed its MOT I decided to treat myself to something a bit newer and nicer. I was also about to start a new job that was about an hour commute, which would mean racking up some serious miles each week. So I embarked on an extensive research and test-riding scheme. I knew I loved the look of naked street bikes so had in mind the Triumph Street Triple, Kawasaki ER6n and Suzuki Bandit type bikes.

I took out these, plus Suzuki Gladius, Yamaha MT03 (gorgeous looking bike, horrible to ride!), Suzuki SV650, and I have to say I loved the Street Triple way more than any of the others. But it came with a price premium that I just couldn't afford.

My local Kawasaki dealer convinced me to have a go on a Z750, which I did, and at the deal they offered me I snapped up straight away!

This is the bike I owned until 2016.

I had heard of this hobby called "Green Laning" and wanted to try it out. i bought this old beast Suzuki DR350 but it was in pretty rough shape. I think I got out on it twice before scrapping the bike!

I eventually sold the Zed to fund a new purchase. I bought a dual-purpose machine from Thor Motorcycles in Bodmin.

This is my new toy. It's an AJP PR5 250cc trail bike. A lot smaller than my old Zed, but also much lighter and suitable to the dodgy Cornish roads! I also plan to take it green-laning.

After getting through a few sets of off-road tyres on the PR5 I decided I had to get myself a road bike, for the commute to work and the odd-ride out with the missus. As it turns out, she had her eye on a new bike and bought a Royal Enfield Classic. Quite a nice bike it is too. This meant her old Kawasaki ER5 was up for grabs, it's a bit tatty so not worth much to sell on, so we decided to keep it and it became my commuter bike.

Sadly I was involved in an incident just before Christmas in 2016. This resulted in the ER5 being classed as a "write-off" by my insurance company. So the ER5 is now gone. To see details on the bike damage click here.

I eventually bought a new road bike in July 2017. After umm'ing and ahh'ing for months over what to get, I was undecided between a special edition Suzuki SV650 or a Kawasaki Zed 650.

Having owned a Zed before, I was leaning towards the SV... but then I was shown the 2018 colours and fell in love with my new bike. It is called Vintage Khaki (which sounds a bit naff) but it's a lovely matt green colour, quite unlike anything I've seen on a bike before.