Seeing what looks like a lovely bright blue BSA Bantam 175 cc 2-stroke motorcycle (a D14 or D15 perhaps?) - featured in a fellow Member's profile 'picture slot' reminds me of fond memories of my early motorcycling days. At about age 16, I was very keen on the Raleigh Runabout , a simple 50 cc, 2 - stroke moped with back pedal rear brake, a side pull caliper front brake and rigid front forks from a bicycle and Continuously Variable Transmission - priced at 44 guineas available for sale at the local Halfords store in Aylesbury. However 44 guineas was far too much so my Dad sourced a second hand NSU Quickly moped for me at £12 and 10 shillings and it was much better than the Raleigh. The NSU had a 50 cc 1.3 bhp 2-stroke engine, leading link front suspension, drum brakes front and rear, a hard tail, a 2 speed gear box with left hand clutch and twist grip control. A top speed well in excess of 35 mph, brisk acceleration and fairly low fuel consumption of pre-mixed 20:1 petrol to 'self mixing' 2 stroke oil. The NSU knocked spots off my (only marginally heavier) best friend on his 'brand new' silver Mobylette moped which used the Raleigh style of tilting engine with continuously variable transmission, a rubber 'V' belt drive with centrifugal clutch and spring loaded cones. The only snag with my NSU was that it smoked quite a lot and the exhaust pipe outlet was via a 5mm diameter hole at the end of the silencer /muffler and it required to be poked clear every 70 miles or so to release and restore the full 1.3 bhp unrestricted!
That bright blue Bantam (fondly known as "Bessie") was mine! Not my first bike, I bought her as a "hobby" in my early-ish 20's. She's a D7, 175cc that was bought as a "scrapper", which I brought back to running condition, then completely stripped down for a full restoration - about six weeks before my first daughter was born. That was 26 years ago, and due to the fun of fatherhood (another daughter came along a few years later) I never got her put back together. A few years ago I reluctantly sold her on - and then, recently, I was sent to a farm in the middle of nowhere as part of my work - and there she was, old Bessie, lovingly rebuilt and running like a dream. Unfortunately she wasn't for sale... My first bike was a yellow Suzuki TS50, then there was a CB250 (which I think was the most memorable bike I had, reasonable performance, practically indestructible and so easy to ride) - and my last one, which I didn't have for very long, a VF1000 F2, just a bit too big for what I wanted it for, but a really great bike. Happy days!
