Very many years ago, I couldn't afford to buy and run a car. So, at the age of 17, I bought my first motorbike (years 55 years ago). It was an ancient 1937 BSA 250cc hand change.
I then graduated to 2 Nortons, all completely reliable.
The love of motorcycling was well ingrained in me!
After we started a family, my wife and I had to have cars and I thought that my motorcycling days were over.
I was diagnosed with MS in 1980, and the time soon came when I could no longer walk.
I didn't want to be stuck in a wheelchair all the time. And anyway, as a farmer I loved the open air. So I bought a Susuki quad. Superb!
I've ridden very many miles on the bike since then, although these days I can only do so by placing my 'good foot' on the footrest and getting my wife or son to lift me on and off the bike. Then I'm away, as the bike is operated via hand controls.
It's just sheer determination that I will not give in to MS.
Last week I had the bike serviced and it was running great. But when I was about 4 miles from home in a narrow country lane, it stopped running. I tried to start it a number of times but it wouldn't move forward at all. Fortunately, I had my mobile phone with me and phoned home for someone to come and collect me and the quad (in a trailer).
When we arrived back home I asked my son if he could see what was wrong with the bike. After a quick glance he told that there was no oil in it. This was strange as we had checked the oil before starting off. So my son went to put more oil in it.
That's when we found that the oil was going straight through the engine and out of the sump, as the sump plug had fallen out!
I phoned the motorbike dealer, explaining what had happened, and he came straight out to our farm to check it. I was worried in case the engine had been damaged. He took the quad back to his garage, and brought it back a few hours later, assuring me that the engine had not been damaged and the reason that the sump plug had fallen out was because they usually have an apprentice to do simple jobs like oil changing, and this particular apprentice hadn't put the locking washer back on the sump plug!
But all's well, that ends well!
