Toe in the Water

Other Bikes

Other Bikes

This is more like an addendum to the previous post and it’s more about motor bikes. So, if my Ducati post didn’t interest you, don’t bother with this one.

While writing said post, I was going to say that the Ducati was the only motor bike I’ve ever ridden. But then I remembered that it wasn’t. There was a Honda 50 that my father bought for delivering stuff from his chemist shop. On occasion, I was dragooned into making deliveries on the thing.

After the Ducati, it was a pretty disappointing machine. Speed was not its metier. Oh, it was fast enough for most things, but that was never going to be enough for a teenager who had ridden a racer.

Worse, it was an automatic. No playing with gears then - just the jerky clunk to get moving and then it did the work for you. Buzzing along at thirty miles an hour - it was good at that.

Mind you, I am prepared to bet that anyone having a Honda 50 as their first biking experience would be hooked. It’s that two-wheels thing that does it.

Then there was the Lambretta scooter that someone gave me as transport when I got married. Poverty is a great teacher and I was grateful for that old, tired machine. Anything beats walking, after all.

But it was a death trap. Clumsy, slow, and poorly balanced, that machine made me feel really vulnerable when I rode it. I was not sorry to see it go when I could afford to buy a clapped-out but charming and aged Morris Minor. And that, too, is a story for another time.

Anyway, that explains why I couldn’t claim to have only the Ducati on my motor bike resumé. If you count the Honda and the Lambretta as bikes, that is. They are two-wheeled after all.

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