Worst first bike or scooter?

Will you be telling tales of derring-do?

Surely you've got to keep it for that same reason? What's it worth, a
couple of hundred quid?

 

Ben Blaney says...

Oh yes, he already knows. When he phoned up about it I pointed him to
swellers website.

Yea about that, but I really need the space in the garage now Stephs
bike's in there and TBH I'm unlikely to ride it again.

 

Not coming to North Africa? Chimay?

 

Ben Blaney says...

I'm planning to do Chimay on the CBR. North Africa, if it ever happens I
think a 4 stroke is the way forward. Though I do have strange urges for a
DT175 or similar.

 

Is this actually happening?

 

probably just in time for pictures of the run to appear in that year's
ukrm calendar.

 

simonk wrote:

Yes, and you're coming.

 

Ben Blaney says...

Are you?

 

Naturellement.

Actually, I've just been looking at how cheap secondhand cars are here
(40K sterling for a 2000 model Ferrari 360) and am toying with the
idea of getting something impractical and driving it back to the UK
for a laugh. Could meet you there and do the return journey.

 

that's pretty cheap. However, you're contemplating buying a Ferrari,
yet you were advising Ken not to buy an Aston because of the running
costs - do you really think Ferrari are much better?

There's a guy parks his 360 around the corner from me (on the street),
and it's on my way to the shops - I've had a chance to have a good look
at it as I walk past - even to a casual glance, the build quality looks
shit.

It's not helped it's appearance that the owner has kerbed the **** out
of the side skirts (ground clearance is less than kerb height on those
fuckers).

I always fancied owning a Ferrari, but have gone right off them - I'd
assumed that when you're paying 100K for a car, the build quality would
be good, but AFAICS they're no better than posh Alfas.

I used to detest the things, but I'm coming around to the idea of
2nd-hand Porsche Carrera ownership.

 

I'd just drive it back to the UK and sell it. If I got the purchase
price back I'd be happy. It's just an adventure. Something to tell
the grandchildren: "I drove from the Middle East to England in a
Ferrari".

A lot of the reason for that is the weight-saving demands. My mate
Dave's one is okay. But his is fully loaded.

I want a 911 for a day-today usable supercar. That's what I'm going
to get for my next permanent car, I think.

 

ah - when you put it that way - and as long as the italian piece of
shit manages 5-6K miles with packing in, you'll be laughing. Seriously,
a Ferrari was always "the car I'll own before I'm 40". Having seen a
few close up now, I'm really unimpressed. Having said that, if I found
an 80s-vintage 328 GTB Qv. I might still be tempted, as that was the
Ferrari I originally lusted after (well, I really *really* wanted a 288
GTO V8 twin turbo, but they were always la-la land money).

Seriously - this looks like a fucking kit car - even the Maserati Coupe
GT that's parked a couple of streets away looks better bolted together.
Speaking of Maserati, I've never seen one before, but I saw no less
than *3* of their new-ish saloon car at lunchtime today - weird.

I used to hate the old 80s-style 911s - but the newer ones have really
grown on me.

 

Yeah, I hate the 80s ones. Like the early 70s ones, though, but
they're not very fast ~200bhp. And I like the 993, 996 and 997.

 

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the

"And only 3years of that was spent chained to a Beirut radiator."

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19 COSOC#10

 

I commuted Aldershot to Guildford on a Nova for what seemed like
forever but was only 1/2 a year or so. I realise that I even had a
picture of the POS.

http://www.blakeley.plus.com/millhouse-1/images/Bikes/Nova.JPG

 

I claim the absolutely worst possible first bike. A BSA Dandy, made in
'59 or so. £9 in 1965, reduced from £11 for quick sale by a tweedy
retired gentleman round the corner. 70cc two-stroke. Pull- rather than
kick-start. Two-speed pre-selector gears. No damping anywhere in
suspension. Rode it home with front forks sadly askew after falling off
it first time I ventured to Guildford and back. £2/10/- for another, at
least the forks plus a bit, brought back on buses and train from
Greenford to Woking. Never ran cleanly after.

Bits of it presumably still in the rubble of a soakaway under what was
my parents garden.

In mitigation, I plead penury and being unable to find a Bantam or
afford a Lambrettra..

 

NNNGH! You've brought it all flooding back, in not so glorious technicolor.

I only had mine as a stopgap... sold it to the brother in law who had it
ages, and who sold it to someone else I know, who sold it to someone else I
knew...

Try as we all might, it, to its credit, refused to die.

 

*cough*

I've been passenger in a Koenig tuned Ferrari-engined MK3 (Ithink) Golf
- totally mental, agreed.

however, I'm talking about one if these:

http://www.koenigsegg.com/

not the same badger, whatsoever.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, darsy

806BHP in 1180Kg.

Yes, I can see the attraction in that.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"