First, here is a link to Mr Chadwick's excellent site, which includes a brief history of every British manufacturer.
And, now, a look at the motorcycles I've owned, over the years 1953 to 2004.
This is a long list, gosh; but I must abjure, with feelings of inferiority, any
claim to be a motorcyclist. Such a claim looks superficially feasible:
I've been to the Isle of Man four times by motorcycle (Honda 400: 79 TT,
BMW R75/5: missed Manx GP,
Velocette Viper: part of 98 TT with Bob Cox, and Velocette Viper:98 Manx).
And, I rebuilt my Matchless G12 engine, did the forks on my AJS 18S, stripped
& rebuilt (then replaced!) my BMW gearbox.
And so on...
But, ... (complex analysis to follow one day) ...
And now, the list:
Good grief, all those bikes, and all that money - still, easy come easy go, as we contract programmers say.
And now (July 2004), at the age of 71, I'm looking round on eBay for a
middle-weight in addition to the Honda 90, which I see really as a
push-bike replacement (although I did ride it down from Scotland,
with an overnight stop at Amy's).
(August 2004)
I 'won' the Suzuki above on eBay, picked it up 5-8-04, rode it from
Halifax to Glasgow, then two weeks later Glasgow to Farnham
in one 430-mile wet day.
It's a new thing for me, the 'mega-scooter', in fact I was hoping at
the end to be outbid. But now I find it quite compulsive, 1200 miles
in 20 days. It readily does 70, and a bit more, though 65 is good
cruising. The 400 version must be really quite fast.
(November 2006)
Enamoured of the Yamaha, brisk & reliable, good mpg, good handbrake.
Now these
scoots are getting so heavy, a reverse gear would be nice.