Riding Motorcycles

My father says that when I was 2 years old that I insisted he put me on a motorcycle so I could feel what it felt like to straddle the seat and feel the handlbars in my little hands. At the time I was riding a tricycle and 4 wheel little cars through the driveway with little peddles inside then in 1950 when I was 2. I enviously watched my older cousins, one 5 years old and one 7 years older riding bicycles. But always my passion was to drive a motorcycle, a car and a plane. Anything that moved fast suited me from birth. Anything that would put me into the wide open wilderness places all over that I always loved from the time I was born in beautiful Seattle, Washington. So, when I was offered a friends Vespa to ride when I was 12 out in the desert in California near Yucca Valley I enjoyed it so much I decided it was time for me to own some kind of  2 wheeled motorized vehicle. I searched in magazines and newspapers for what I wanted (the internet didn't exist until the 1990s and this was 1960) So around age 12 I purchased with my father's help what was then called a mini-bike which was a motorized 2 1/2 horsepower Tecumsah engine mounted on a  2 wheeled vehicle  about 2 1/2 feet to 3 feet tall that was capable of going about 30 miles per hour which had a centrifugal clutch and a wide piece of metal that covered the wide back tire to stop the motorized vehicle.

What it lacked in ultimate safety (by todays standards) it made up in pure unadulterated fun. At age 12 we had moved to within 1/2 block from the nearest public High School that I would eventually go to (Glendale High School in California). So, after school (when no one would bother me) I rode my mini-bike all around my high school wherever it wasn't locked up. I even had a place where I could go over jumps near the High school Swimming pool. I was fine until one rainy day I rode all over the main baseball diamond and someone saw me doing this and I got called before the vice-principal of the High School for the first time. They made me rebuild the pitcher's mound that I had been doing jumps with my mini motorcycle over on that rainy day which was an okay punishment I thought. Another time I was riding about 30 miles per hour across the main parking lot on a Saturday when the throttle stuck and I was heading right for a tennis court with high chain link faces. I thought I might lose my face so at the last moment I put my feet down and threw the front wheel up into the air so the little motorcycle hit the fence wheels first and took the blow with my chest and popped my neck. But luckily I didn't hit the fence with my face. So after I started to breathe again I could laugh about the whole thing. So, my friend who had been watching me didn't have to faint from me being injured or have to carry me away on a stretcher. However, my ribs hurt the next few days so I likely had fractured ribs. But those days you didn't talk about stuff like that to parents because they might punish you or something. So, I just bore my pain in silence.

This above photo is the closest to it that I could find. it doesn't have the same engine or breaking system but it was these same wheels, frame, style and color, and this likely will do about 30 mph like mine did. Also, the hand throttle looks exactly the same as well. I soon tore up the seat so my father made me a new one out of synthetic leather and a large piece of foam sponge material.

Years later when I was in my early 20s I still had the little Wren by Bird mini-bike stored at my father's desert house along with my BSA 500 from World War II north Africa that I also owned by then. My cousin who was 5 years older than I from Seattle had gotten out of the Navy and was now working at Boeing in Seattle Building their jet planes so it had to be about 1968 when I was about 20. He brought his new wife and baby and proceeded to tune up the little 2 1/2 horsepower motor like it had never been tuned before. However, he made one mistake. He rode down the desert dry wash dirt roads at about 30 to 40 miles per hour both barefoot and clothed only in bathing trunks. He was so very happy he had tuned the motor to its maximum performance as he was a mechanical genius. However, the little wheels at that speed flipped him into the sand at that speed and peeled him head to toe. It took him about 2 months to not be in pain anymore and to get all the desert sand completely out of his wounds. However, he was always proud of getting that little minibike to really haul like it never had before.

I had a British Hillclimber motocycle that had been modified for climbing up hills and cliffs. It was a Matchless 600 motorcycle

Quote from wikipedia under "Matchless"
Matchless is one of the oldest marques of British motorcycles, manufactured in Plumstead, London, between 1899 and 1966
My motorcycle looked a lot like this one. It had the same engine, the same color, a straight pipe with no muffler, a huge modified rear sprocket, but it had the same headlight. The only thing was with this rear large sprocket was that the top speed was only about 40 miles per hour. Any faster would blow up the engine and would take it deep into the red before it blew up. Also, because it was geared so very low if you tried to drive it in first gear the torque was so very high most of the time you would flip the bike back upon yourself on the ground. So, it usually was better to start off in 2nd or 3rd gear so you wouldn't get hurt. I was young and foolish still and one day I got angry at my girlfriend and wound it up too tight without thinking and the bottom of the engine blew out of it. I was lucky not to lose a foot or a leg when the chain snapped off and wrapped up on the front sprocket. The worse that happened to me was that I got burned on the oil as it exploded out of the crankcase and then had to push the bike home a couple of miles. I think I was about 19 when this all happened.

BSA M20 500cc Motorcycle World War 2

Vintage BSA Motorcycle.
Though this one looks a little worse for the wear, this looks exactly like what I had during the late 1960s through the 1970s and into the 1980s out at my Dad's house in the Desert. I found this thing would start up no matter what. It had no battery but only a magneto to generate electricity. However, this was enough to not only run the motor but to operate the headlight as well. I found it great to drive over the desert roads on the high desert of Yucca Mesa near Yucca Valley during the 1970s and 1980s and before. As long as there was gas in the tank I found I could eventually start it either with the kick starter, by pushing it in 2nd gear in almost any weather. Truly a remarkable and reliable tank of a motorcycle. It was 2 or three times as heavy as most off road motorcycles now with no rear suspension at all except the coil springs in the rear seat. In the front there was an unusual suspension I just don't see anymore but it was enough for most bumps to survive them without injuring your spine. If you knew a bump was coming you stood up a little on your foot pegs so it wouldn't hurt your back or spine. And once or twice while starting it with a kick starter it backfired and threw me over the handlebars. When it did this I just push started it because being thrown over the handlebars once was enough on any occasion.

 One time I was racing my cousin on another motorcycle across the desert dirt roads. I looked back a moment to see where he was but when I looked back I lost control of the motorcycle in deep sand about 6 inches to 1 foot deep. I had no choice but to lay it down and to climb on top of the still moving bike. When I laid it down I was traveling about 45 mph and somehow got my left leg out from under it before it fell completely down and was skidding along the sand. So I stood upon the now skidding bike on its side until it suddenly stopped and rolled a couple of times  like an acrobat to slow down. I came up laughing that I had not been seriously injured in such a fall and only had a few scrapes on elbows and knees. My cousin slowed down and was very pale because he thought I was going to get seriously injured. But after he saw I was basically okay he started laughing with me that I had survived  basically okay.