Motorbikes
How, why and when
From about the age of 12 I wanted a motorbike. At school, I used to take Motorcycle News every week. This was in the golden era of Barry Sheene, Eddie Lawson, Freddie Spencer and others, but I was most taken by two particular things: one, an image of Barry Sheene taken from 'above' as it were (i.e. cranked over in a tight turn) with the petrol tank looking vast compared to the rider, and the second was reading a report of a BMW R80GS, with the tester doing a "feet up powerslide" at 80mph. That struck me as really cool.
Anyway, I got a bike when I was about 21, at Oxford, a Honda CB200 belonging to Jeannette Winterson. It was a beast of a bike and would break down at least once on every trip. It was very hard to start and many people around Oxford very kindly stopped to help me out on my expeditions. Incidentally, Jeannette also introduced me to photography by lending me her Canon AE-1 and a 50mm lens, so I have much to thank her for.
I then abandoned bikes for many years before getting a scooter in about 1996, then moved back into 'proper' bikes in 2000 when I bought first a Kawasaki W650, and then a year later, a BMW R1150GS. I can't really think of any other bikes I'd really want, though I am occasionally tempted by getting a small dirt/dualsport bike like a Yamaha XT225 Serow and, at the other end of the spectrum, a Kawasaki ZX-9R or a ZRX-1200.
Current bikes
- Sir Geoffrey - a Kawasaki W650
Former bikes
- Von Runicke - BMW R1150GS