When did you first know you wanted to ride...

MikeG said:

Perhaps Hondas ad was because of movies like this? Hollywood screws everything up

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Agreed. While it may be true that the nicest people rode Hondas I would have preferred to meet any of the Norton girls who were to come along later in the ad world …

Richard Tool said:

Honda’s ad campaign in the 60’s had much to do with motorcycles ( and their riders ) becoming less threatening…
” You meet the nicest people on a Honda “

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Also the TV series "Then came Bronson". In most episodes he improved the life of someone he met all while riding a Harley Sportster. I don't know if Harley had anything to do with the show, but I'm sure many Sportsters were sold due to that show. I was way into British bikes, but I wanted a Sportster for a long time just from watching that show - nope, never even test rode one - cost too much.

marshg246 said:

Also the TV series "Then came Bronson". In most episodes he improved the life of someone he met all while riding a Harley Sportster. I don't know if Harley had anything to do with the show, but I'm sure many Sportsters were sold due to that show. I was way into British bikes, but I wanted a Sportster for a long time just from watching that show - nope, never even test rode one - cost too much.

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"Then came Bronson" had a special meaning at the bike shop I worked for. My boss said that in every episode he would throw the Harley down but pound out any and all damage with a rock he found beside the road. The "Bronson Rock" became the stuff of legend. You might say something like "I was traveling light with only two packs of cigarettes and a Bronson rock." Or "I got that bike fixed but it took a Bronson Rock to get it done."

Big_Jim59 said:

"Then came Bronson" had a special meaning at the bike shop I worked for. My boss said that in every episode he would throw the Harley down but pound out any and all damage with a rock he found beside the road. The "Bronson Rock" became the stuff of legend. You might say something like "I was traveling light with only two packs of cigarettes and a Bronson rock." Or "I got that bike fixed but it took a Bronson Rock to get it done."

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I remember the episode where someone took off on his bike and bent the forks. No problem for Bronson - more or less like you said, he needed almost nothing to straighten them!

Richard Tool said:

Honda’s ad campaign in the 60’s had much to do with motorcycles ( and their riders ) becoming less threatening…
” You meet the nicest people on a Honda “

Click to expand...

In 1969 I was working on a tobacco farm near Tilsonburg On. Canada. One Saturday after work my friend Richard started reading the cars / motorcycle for sale adds from the local paper,'' For sale 350 Honda, female owner must sell, am pregnant, You meet the nicest people on a Honda. ''

marshg246 said:

I remember the episode where someone took off on his bike and bent the forks. No problem for Bronson - more or less like you said, he needed almost nothing to straighten them!

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I remember the Bronson show - Michael Parks or something like that ? Three things stick in my mind - knit watch cap ( no helmet )
toothpick in mouth and bedroll on forks .

My Mother and uncles were into Brit bike beach racing (South Island)...when she was younger and shared the stories etc to us kids..(other family relations raced bikes in Europe in the 70's)...and by the time my older brother was riding large capacity bikes...I was licenced and rode my first 750 Bonnie at 15....and brought my first 750 Commando when i turned 19....Hooked

I was a very poor university student in 1969 in Ontario. I bought my first motorbike, a 1968 Honda CD 175 . I bought it solely for cheap transportation but now so many years later I can call up the wonderful feeling of riding through sunshine and dappled shade and the smells of everything. I got bursitis in my clutch wrist because I just could not stop. I was hooked and some years later bought my first British bike, a 1970 Triumph Daytona. Sold that to buy my first Commando (should have kept it). Many years and bikes since my current ride is a 2001 Triumph Sprint but looking forward to putting one of my 3 Commandos back on the road.

marshg246 said:

Also the TV series "Then came Bronson". In most episodes he improved the life of someone he met all while riding a Harley Sportster. I don't know if Harley had anything to do with the show, but I'm sure many Sportsters were sold due to that show. I was way into British bikes, but I wanted a Sportster for a long time just from watching that show - nope, never even test rode one - cost too much.

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I was well into the Bronson thing. Had the beanie and all. And yes, every show had a moral message in it. Yes, there were some goofy things in there, but He projected motorcycles in a very Positive light. Didn’t understand why it wasn’t renewed for a second season .
Read years later that the producers wanted him to get edgy or more biker like the 1%’rs.
He refused and they cancelled the show.
He has all my respect for walking away from the money on principle.

When I was 16 my mum sent me to the ”chippy” I was waiting at the bus stop when my mate pulled up on his recently acquired NSU Quickly. He asked where I was going, then offered me a lift. We must have topped 25mph at one stage and I had tears streaming down my face, but I was hooked.

my uncle dropped in on his new Black Bomber, and revolving visor ( about 1967, UK) and I got a brief pillion ride at age 11. Then fast forward to first year at university, and fellow engineering student Tudor couldn’t stop talking about bikes, so getting one and joining the Uni. bike club followed within a year…..

I remember those revolving visor things - whoever dreamed that one up? Saw the adverts for them on a board outside the local bike shop while walking to (primary) school.

I've heard those revolving visors did actually work
Until the bearings got a little worn
I can imagine it buzzed your head like spin dryer!
Not that I've put my head in a spin dryer!!!

I imagine there is a fine line between "bloody daft idea" and " thats a stroke of genius". Revolving visors would have been on that line.

When I was 4 years old, my 10 year old friend had a push bike. On Saturdays, he used to sit me on the bar and dink me to the picture theatre. It was during WW2, and the high-light was the Movietone News. It showed the gun camera footage of enemy planes being shot out of the sky. So I learned what an adrenalin rush is. My uncle had a Triumph Thunderbird when I was 13. He took me to see Geoff Duke race the Gilera 4 at Fisherman's Bend. Until then I had wanted to become a Spitfire pilot. When I race, I only go there for the dogfight - it is always excellent fun. My father was a soldier, he would not allow me to join the air training corps. However 10 years after I began working, I got a job running a laboratory in an aircraft factory - it was a lovely place. - I have always had fun jobs.
I love firing guns and rocket motors- is that strange ? My motorcycle is just another development project - I think I have achieved another result.
We all need a sense of achievement.

I have come to realise, I need to make an on-board video with my Seeley 850, just to document what is and what it does. So I am going to work towards doing that after Christmas. When it gets towards the end of May, the weather might stabilise.