Still no bike ..... Don't ask !!!

**selkirkgrace** Fri Apr 29 2011, 11:58

Hello,

I have been watching and reading bits and bobs on this forum for a wee while and find it very interesting and useful. Around February/March time then I had money, shaken hands etc on a private deal for a Thundercat .... only for it to fall through !!!!! as I say Don't ask.

At the time then in my excitement I had typed out a small introduction, only for it to saved to a file destined never to see the light of day again, however I found it this morning whilst looking for others things and have posted it nevertheless as it may be of interest to some.

In the meantime my bike fund has been reduced back to zero with family stuff .... but I am hopeful that " This time next year Rodney !!!! "

Hello there, I just wanted to introduce myself as a proud new owner of a Yamaha Thundercat. She is a 1998 model in the fantastic black silver and orange colour scheme ( a bit like Marmite !!! ) FSH, 13K miles minted . YOU LITTLE BEAUTY.

I have been looking at this site for a short while and have always enjoyed reading the short stories of other riders and their history of biking etc.

I thought then that I would take the time to sit down and write a bit about my biking history, which I hope will bring back some fond memories for all those similarly aged bikers out there. !!!

Firstly I do not pretend to be an experienced biker with loads of riding skill and knowledge but what I do have, and have always had, is a love of motorbikes and associated things, and whilst I have not always been able to own all the items I would have liked over the years, or commit the time, it hasn’t stopped my enthusiasm faltering.

It wasn’t until I actually sat down and started typing this that I started to recall bits of my motorcycling history from the depths of my otherwise foggy memory, maybe too much inhaled two stroke fumes, who knows.

Back in the day I spent the majority of my time on the back of a friends slabside GSXR 1100 ( blue and white of course ) where I seemed to find myself looking at the sky more often than was probably sensible. Now this guy could ride, but even he struggled with this bike from time to time and ended up putting a few different ones down the road over the years. His brother rode a black GPZ 1000 RX which I also spent a lot of time on and was almost equally quick I seem to remember.

Now sitting on the back is one thing, but riding is something completely different so we were a bit younger than GSXR owner, and subsequently started on less exotic machines. Another friend had a Honda MTX 80 which we used to have slightly illegal shots of around the roads where I grew up ( I still remind him that he used to charge us money !!!! ). Another friend then bought a brand new RG 125 Gamma, which had to be one of the best looking 125’s ever and would take on even the might of the black coloured RD 125 which lived in the nearby village, most evenings.

My first ever bike that I owned, when I say owned it was a one fifth share, in the legendary FS1E ( Fizzy 50 ) which we only used on a private dirt track until it finally gave up the ghost. We then had some sort of Gilera, don’t remember exact model but do remember that the throttle set up involved a set of mole grips attached to the cable, slightly tricky for fine throttle control to say the least, however it didn’t seem to matter much when the throttle was either full on or off, no half measures in those days.

Other bikes I rode were an old Montesa 250 trials bike with no seat and no brakes for a full summer off road, came off this thing more than any other bike, my friend drove it into a peat bog and by the time I got to him he was clinging onto the handle bars whilst the rest of the bike was fully submerged. We managed to get it out, rub it down, second kick, off we go again.

Brand new KMX 125 on holiday in Crete with the boys with flip flops, vest and sunglasses for protection. A minted white coloured RD 350 LC owned by a dear friend of mine who was ultimately a Police traffic motorcyclist ( sadly no longer with us having died tragically on duty ) amongst them.

The first bike I actually owned outright then back in 86 / 87 was that learner friendly machine the Yamaha DT 125, what a great bike, never missed a beat, did thousands of miles in it in all weathers, visited my friend in Thornhill near Dumfries regularly from West Lothian, and generally wore it out.

From then I had periods with and without bikes over the years, with the last ten years or so giving way to my family and two lovely girls. Highlights were a GPX 750 ( underrated ) , a brief encounter with a ZXR 750 ( remember the one with the tumble drier style air hoses sticking out the tank) and a borrowed original ZX10 ( still quick even by modern standards).

So there it was in a nutshell, I had an early love for Yamaha with the Fizzy and DT, I will always have a yearning after a blue and white GSXR ( doesn’t everyone ) but my latter years had seen me fall in love with the big Zed Kawasaki. I still have an old 1986 Gpz 550 in red with 20K miles, which I bought a few years ago with the intention of bringing back to full former glory, it’s a nice one but never really got round to it. I was then fortunate enough to be able to look at getting myself another bike, albeit with a limited budget.

After a bit of internet surfing, it came to me pretty quickly ….. The Yamaha Thundercat …… Someone at my work had bought a new black, silver and orange one a few years ago which I had lusted after at the time but could never afford. Now if money had not been an issue I still think my first choice would have been a Kawasaki ZRX 1200 R ( Oh yes Eddie Lawson colours ) or a Suzuki 1200 S Bandit in the special edition blue and white coloured fairing. However these things were out the price bracket, and given that I had been off the bikes for a number of years, probably not that sensible !!!

Another friend offered me his ZX9r a year 2000 E1 model in red, an absolute minter with 11K miles, Corbin seat, HEL brake lines, luggage etc etc but again I thought better of it given my likely skill levels ( isn’t it amazing what getting old does for you…… the flip flops and mole grips never caused me a second thought at the time !!! )

Finally after reading all the relevant reviews, and reminding myself of things I already knew, it had to be the Thundercat. Still looks fantastic, has a proper looking exhaust tail pipe, can’t get used to these modern looking short weird things etc, still quick if you want it to be, comfortable compared to modern sports bike, excellent brakes, good MPG, would be able to sensibly commute a bit on it, and also have some fun when time allows. I eventually found this one being sold by a guy who lives only a few miles away from me and was delighted to do the deal for under £1500 ….. Bargain in my opinion …..

So there we have it ….. I am looking forward to spending some time with my new Thundercat, I am realistic however and will not be able to start touring Europe every summer, but I might just make a few week end runs, a trip to watch the bikes at Knockhill every now and again, but ultimately enjoy the ownership thing again and possibly get to the Isle of Man for the TT before I retire !!!

Cheers

Graham

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**0ldcat** Fri Apr 29 2011, 13:58

Welcome Graham,

Glad you've been enjoying the forum. Hope your bike fund manages to build its' self back up again.

Very nice intro piece that.

**Rosco** Fri Apr 29 2011, 15:26

Hi Graham

Welcome aboard. Interesting read....Hope you get the dream bike soon.

We are in your neck of the woods tonight and tomorrow night.
Why not pop round and say hello?

We will be the big loud group with accents from all over the place.
My moby number is 0h heaven 970 Wan 3 Oh 991

Cheers
Rosco