A Fork In The Road - Part 1

 

                                                                Old Pacific Highway

 

The year is 1984, or possibly the beginning of 1985, and in the next few months I will start my undergraduate degree, Bachelor of Science (Biology) in a few months. So  a significant chapter of my life was going to start, but right now I was a lot more excited about buying my first road motorcycle. I had ridden dirt bikes since I was 8 or 9 or so, but this was a big deal, I was about to follow my best mate Greg Dunn into being a road rider. I had read all sorts of reports in Two Wheels and AMCN, and had my eye on a few bikes. As an aside I had enough for a deposit saved up, but a loan would be required. A loan!!! I had never had one. Greg had a shiny new VT250, and I must admit it was a fine looking bike. So I, Greg, and my old man went all the way to Warren and Len Willings dealership in Wyong to look at some bikes. Why we went that far I'll never know, as Central Coast Motorcycles was less than 2 miles from home, but perhaps it was Dad who thought it was a good idea, as the Willings were legends of bike racing and definately knew thier stuff. Just a short note about licensing; in those days in New South Wales you got your learner permit and L plates after a written test and that was it - you had 2 years on a bike up to 250cc (ANY 250) and then you had to hand it in, renew it, or take the proper bike test. As a learner you could not ride faster than 80km/h. 

The first bike I looked at was an SRX250. Being pretty short, it was low, narrow, fitted me perfectly and looked good and I fell in love with it at once. It was just perfect for me to learn to ride a bike on the road. 

Dad thought it was a good choice although to be fair he was really not keen I ride on the road at all. 

Then the salesman introduced me to the RZ250. His patter was that I would get bored with the SRX and the RZ would last me a lot longer, sounded like a Grand Prix bike, and was just so much cooler. It was lot more powerful no doubt, nearly double the horsepower and a genuine ton up bike no problems. 

This was the height of sophistication I tell you!! Powervalves! Twin disks!!! Bikini fairing!!! I'll admit I was tempted, but the SRX was still first choice. It just fit me so much better. And yet..... 

Anyway, crunch time had come and I sat down with the salesman to talk turkey. I can't remember the money details, but the RZ was significantly more expensive in the repayments. The SRX was more affordable, but still the idea of making payments for 3 years was freaking me out a bit. But I really loved that bike. In the end, I took the loan details and brochures for both Yammies and went home. 

When we got home the money worries really got to me, and Dad didn't help, as remember he didn't want me riding on the road anyway. After about 2 weeks I made up my mind that as a student on $65/week grant even if I sold my crappy Mini Moke I would have to get a job to make the payments, and frankly I thought I had enough on my plate with a BSc (what a true prediction that turned out to be). So I hatched the idea to buy a second hand bike. I had over $1000 deposit to spend on a second had bike. After a week or so scanning the classifieds I found one of these up the road in Killarney Vale;

It was far from new, had a ugly bikini fairing, and a pig ugly spotlight mounted off the side of the main light. Dad and I travelled up and as I didn't have a learners permit yet, Dad took it for a test ride and pronounced "it'll do". Dad rode it home and I had my first road bike, a GSX250S that felt huge compared to the SRX250. 

The first longer ride I did on it was down the Old Pacific Highway to Berowra and back and I put down the funny cornering to me being very new to this road stuff. Over the next few weeks I rode it quite a lot, and never gained any confidence in the corners. I even did couple of days touring and a rally and while they were fun the corners were a problem. Any corner over 40mph and the bike would wobble all over the place. Again I put it down to my inexperience. The critical moment was riding back from a long weekend tour that had some great moments, such as the Cafe in Dunedoo and 100mph indicated way out west, but a low point between Bathurst and home in Gosford. Coming along the Bells Line Of Road, I could not keep up with the pace of Greg and his old man Kevin (BMW R80). I fell behind all the time. At one stop Kevin basically said I was not cut out to ride bikes on the road, and the safest thing to do was to sell the bike to "someone who can handle it" as soon as I could. I was devastated. I took the GSX down to Uni in Wagga soon after but my heart was not in it, and I decided to sell it . A guy I was at uni with wanted to buy it for his girlfreind, he already had a CX500. So he took it for a test ride and came back and said "there is something wrong with it mate". I asked him what he meant, and he said at speed in corners it wobbled all over the place, and no way could let his girlfreind ride it. I arranged to have it looked at by the main dealer in town, and they measured the frame and of course it was bent.  The dint in the rim of the front wheel rim that I had missed was probably a sign....I sold it for half what I paid for it. At the time surfing was important...so that was that.

I then gave up road bikes for 10 years. 

What if I had taken the other fork in the road - the SRX250? Well, they were very sweet handling bikes, and as I now know after 25 years on the road it wasn't me. I might have had a great 15 years riding on the road in Australia, all over the place, and not lost 10 years. Might have gone to a lot of rallies. Might have had a hell of a good time. Would I have made the payments? Based on how much bikes have been a part of my life since 1995, I reckon I would have. Made freinds too probably.