My First Bike.
1973, I walked into the Honda shop at Campbelltown to see if they had something that my younger brother might be able to use to get to work. He was not old enough for his licence, but would be able to ride on L's.
I saw this amazing gold CB450 Honda. It was in perfect condition: just 2 years old and about 3000 miles up. The price was $850. (As I was earning just $27 a week this was a substantial amount.) The sales guy was wise. A 19 year old with goggle eyes was no match for him and before I knew it I was signing a HP sheet at 27% interest.
Since I was a Uni student and lived in Sydney on week days, we arranged for the bike to be delivered to my home in Camden. I arrived home a week later to see this amazing bike in the garage. My dad was as goggled eyed as me. He had owned a BSA 500 gold star twin, so this brought back so many memories for him.
Now I was a complete novice. I had no idea how anything worked. Dad showed me the brake and clutch levers and then started to say "The foot brake is here." but stopped mid-sentence to say, "That looks like a gear lever, not a brake"
I looked at the accused lever and thought, "How do you change gears with that thing?" Dad helped me to work out what was where, but the gear and brake lever swap meant he was not confident that he knew much.
We found how to start the engine by trial and error. Even discovered the self-starter. The gears were an issue. Dad told me that you push the lever up and down to select each gear in turn, but he had no idea which gear was which. We played about with the bike for a couple of hours. Starting, stopping, taking off the stand and pushing it to test the brakes etc. But there was no helmet so riding would need to wait ‘til the shops opened the next day.
Dad went to bed at about 10 30. I stayed in the garage. I came up with a brilliant idea to find out how the gears worked. I put it on the centre stand and started the engine. I then gently pulled in the clutch and pressed the gear lever down. Releasing the clutch made the rear wheel spin slowly. I pulled in the clutch and pressed the lever down again. The wheel did not change. Clutch in again and pushing up the lever and the wheel speed increased. I had found second. I continued the lifting procedure and counted 5 gears. WOW. My car (any car) only had 4.
By 12 30 it was too much. I had been playing with the bike for 4 hours. I wanted a ride. I opened the garage doors. Pushed the bike off the stand and started the engine. Selected first and raised the engine speed. My heart was pounding louder than the exhaust note as I eased out the clutch. I was MOVING. I couldn't breathe from excitement.
Our street was short (about 70 m long) and very steep with a “T” intersection at the bottom. I stayed in first as I slowly rode down the hill. The engine noise and vibration was ecstasy. I reached the end of the street and turned left. The road was about 800 metres long. I revved the engine and changed gears. The wind rushed through my hair. The cold night air was sharp and added to the excitement. Rev and change: rev and change: rev and change. The engine noise, exhaust-note the wind in my hair and cold in my eyes, I was in heaven.
The end of the street approached. I looked down to see the brake lever and started changing down gears. I noticed to speedo fall past 80. 80MPH. My car wouldn't do 80 (I tried on several occasions). The bike did 80 in a short road and with no effort.
The high of the evening still inspires me.
That ride did scare me. It showed that this bike was going to need respect or it would kill me. Two things changed that night.
1. I treated the throttle with care. (for about 7 months anyway).
2. I was hooked for life on the power of two wheels.
