Treasured Memories.

[Tinkicker]

A post about riding tests brought to mind a memory from the days of yore.

 

I would be about 14 and a lot of my older mates were 16 and riding Fizzies, AP50s ect in a large group, maybe 12 of them.

 

When they were not hanging out, outside Hanging Heaton post office (popular meeting spot for ped riders) they gathered in the garage at Skitties just down the road from my parents house.  I would be there most evenings, on my pushbike, just hanging out. Various bike maintainance tasks went on in that garage.

 

I was accepted into the group because I had a Montesa Cota 247 trials bike and basked in the glory of being a " big bike rider".

 

I remember Skitty of course, he being a long time friend well before motorcycles became an interest.  He got me into bikes when he bought an old step through Motobecane moped for £6 when he was about 14 and we hammered it around the local fields ( until the drive belt got wet and it was going nowhere).

My fizzy was actually Skitties.  My dad bought it for me, for when I turned 16,  when skitty bought a bigger bike when he was 17.  It was £150.  It seemed an eternity from getting my fizzy and my 16th birthday. Sold it 18 months later for £150.

 

Skitty was a curly, ginger haired, half Italian with buck teeth and an italian mother who spoke little english and put the fear of god up me every time she spoke.  Out would pour a torrent of italian, obviously very, very angry with us; before going back inside. We shrank back in horror.

Skitty would translate.. She says she is putting the kettle on, does anyone want a cuppa?

 

Then there was Marma.  He was the debonaire one with a long term girlfriend that he was " getting it on with".  I used to look at him as some sort of superhero.  I was very shy at that time where girls were concerned.  He rode a popsicle purple fizzy.

Daz, rode an AP50.  Good mate I remained friends with him for a long time after this.  The only one who stayed in the area. 

A few others like Kellet who were kind of non descript members of the group who had fizzies.  I forget their names.

 

And one lad, the focal point of this memory.  Rode a Honda SS50 5 speed with a lime green tank and a cable operated front disc brake.

He was tall, gawky looking, fair hair, pimples and really, really long neck.  He rode with a white stadium open face helmet. 

He looked like Plug out of the Beano.  Aha, remembered that was his nickname.. Plug.

 

Anyway one day, we were in the garage and Skitty was holding forth as usual.  He had bought some stuff for his visor that was supposed to shed rain, I suppose it was like rain x.

Plug hit upon the idea to improve disc brake performance in the wet by applying it to his front brake disc and shed the water from it.  The experiment was on.

Potion applied liberally to disc, front disc splashed with hosepipe, out onto the avenue, point downhill and give it the beans.

 

30 yards further, approaching the T junction at the bottom of the avenue... Brake light illuminated.. Not much seemed to be happening. At the T junction, rear wheel locked up.  Still not much happening.  Up the far kerb and into the low garden wall.

 

Honda stopped immediately while plug continued, his legs and backside seen to fly over the rose bushes on a ballistic trajectory onto the front lawn.

 

Thing about peds was you get get away with the most amazing idiocy with little or no damage to bike or rider.  His bike had a few scratches and he was unhurt.

 

The tale around biking circles in Dewsbury evolved into that plug had applied copper grease to the front of his pads instead of the rear in an attempt to stop them squealing.  Nope I was there.  Even Plug was not that stoopid.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 19, 2024 by Tinkicker

[skyrider]

yes brilliant things were fizzies i still have mine bought in 76

[manxie49]

I remember the Fizzies well, and even more so the SS50.  My uncle bought me an old SS50 when I was 14, I couldn't ride it on the road, but was allowed to ride it around the farm fields.  He told me if I could ride it around the farm fields without falling off it would make me a better rider when it came to going on the road.  Needless to say I lost count of how many times I fell of the the thing, great fun, great learning experience, and regardless of how much punishment I seemed to give that old Honda, it still kept going.

[Simon Davey]

What a brilliant story/memory.

Thanks for sharing.

I couldn't afford a Fizzie, but I did get an ER50, great little bike, and then when I was 17, I bought my mates unrestricted KE125, jeeez, that frightened the life out of me the first time I rode it.