How it all Started.....

In response to Gary from Flies in your Teeth", fame,here is how I got into biking.

This was actually my second blog I wrote, but at the time I only had two followers and about 6 page views a month, so it seems good reason to re post.


People often ask me how I got into motorcycling.   Well I was a bit of a late bloomer, I didn't even start thinking about motorcycles until after I was married (29). The reason being is that my wife was mad keen on them, and because of that I got interested.

When I met her I was 27 and she was 21, She had sold her car and was riding a bike everywhere. Her mother was not impressed, but I must admit I found it rather cool.  We dated for a long time and  a couple of years later we got married, she still had the bike but also a car. Not long after we got married I decided I was keen to learn how to ride a bike. So off we went to a deserted car park to give it ago.  I was not to know then, but it was the beginning of my love affair with riding bikes.

I learnt the basics pretty easily, and a in a fit of complete eagerness I went and brought a CBR 600, of course the fact I had no license, was of little interest to me, after all she had been riding for a few years and she still didn't have one, so I thought it can't be all that bad!

Fast forward a year, and she is pregnant with our first child, the CBR was sold, and we were bike less, the first time since I had known her.  After our daughter was born, I realised I was still passionate about bikes, I recommended to here that we get a little 250, cause one day when the kids are older we will want to get some bikes, and have no licenses.

So off we went and brought a 250. I got my license about 9 months later, she got hers about 15 months later.

By this time our second child was born, I had started a business, and there seemed no time to ride bikes, hence the 250 got sold, and life  progressed on..

Five years later our second child had started school, feeling eager to get into some sort of hobby and realising I needed her to do so also, I went and brought her a brand new ZX 636. It was a great bike, I got it delivered to her on a trailer with a big red ribbon on it.

Two weeks later it was over..........the marriage that is, she wanted some one else, and she wanted to be with him ,not me.   What followed was a very bitter and long divorce, after it was over I was homeless and bike less.

I moved into a two bedroom apartment, and I had my kids every second Wednesday till Sunday, but the weekend I didn't have the kids I was going nuts. Just nothing to do. My infrastructure of friends had broken down, and I felt very much the odd one out.

Remembering how much I loved the bike, I decided that I was going get back into it, and I did.   I brought a Triumph 955i, and as they say the rest is history.  I spent every weekend that I did not have the kids riding, meeting new people, and seeing the country from a new perspective. I have never looked back, nor will I.

When I met my new partner it was a requirement that they enjoy being on the bike....thankfully that is the case.

I know that riding can be dangerous, but for me it saved my life............

After all that my x wife has become very anti bikes,  her new partner hates them and it has rubbed off on her.....oh well....not my problem any more