1997 Honda Dream 100
I copped some flack for having the audacity to even mention the word motorcycle in the "Post a picture of your car, 2013" thread.... I don't own a car, and have seldom owned one; the last time I did own one (for 18 months) was about 12 years ago. Now to redeem myself.....
I have been getting around on two wheels for about 51 years, starting on a bicycle when I was 7; I well remember the day I started. Self taught, I learned how to go, but didn't learn how to stop, so went flying over a barbed wire fence and into bramble bush.
I started motorcycling about 4 years later on a Honda CT90, a trail bike variation of the Cub that my father bought to use on the farm. I did get a couple of minutes of instruction from the old man; "This is how you start, this is how you change gear, and this is how you stop". From there on it was just the School of Hard Knocks, similarly softened by the odd bramble bush or swamp.
I got my provisional licence a couple of weeks after my 15th birthday, in 1969, and my full licence a week later, after a road test of riding about 150 metres up the road, doing a feet up U-turn, then returning to the cop watching from the side of the road.
I reckon that all this MSF and CBT nonsense is no substitute for learning some handling skills off the road, and applied common sense on the road.
Since then I have owned just eight motorcycles (all second hand, none costing more than $US 1,000), each one for several years, and have ridden in about 15 countries, covering the best part of 500,000 km. The only accident I have had on the road was back in 1976, where I was not at fault, but I realised that I could have avoided the crash if I had been more aware of what was going on around me.
My current ride is a more recent incarnation of the Cub, a 1997 Honda Dream, an ex-rental which set me back 16,000 baht ($US 500) in 2003. It has now done over 211,000 km (130,000 miles). I had the engine overhauled at 180,000 km; I reckon it should see 300,000 before it needs the next rebuild. It gets better than 100 mpg (US). I only use it a couple or three days a week; my daily ride is a bicycle.
Last edited:
