Scary.
'ME' or course.
About seven years ago I did some work for a film company. I supplied an old Triumph motorcycle and sidecar for a T.V. advert for an insurance company. My friend and I were stand in 'Doubles' for the actors. The main actor was the late Robin Bailey, he was the one 'Riding' the bike but unfortunately he couldn't ride a bike for toffee so my mate had to do it. The close-up shots were done with two of us pushing the bike past the camera with Robin Bailey steering it (The engine sounds were dubbed in after). I doubled for an eight year old 'Child' actor named 'Luchiano'. These two actors did a series of adverts for 'Equitable life insurance company', (This was one of them). All I had to do was sit well down in the sidecar, wearing a 2nd world war gas mask, open face crash helmet, a large pair of boxing gloves and get bounced up and down as my mate rode the combo along the bumpy road of a private estate. (You've just brought back memories of a couple of funny things that happened during the shoot, they can be the subject of another one of my 'Ramblings). Easiest money I have ever earned.
I didn't get 'Discovered' and didn't make my fortune as an actor. Mind you, it isn't surprising, as, with all that clobber on, you couln't see any part of me. It could have been anyone in the sidecar.
Your comments always appreciated. Thanks. M.S.
MS.. I, for one, find your 'ramblings' very interesting.. I love to hear abart yr escapades...
Like Scary says,I think you should write a book! After all, not EVERBODY reads BikerMatch!
Besides.. you've re-opened other ppls memory files, its good to read their remininces too... keep rambling !
M.S Great postings, I have heard the triumph test rider one before and couldn't help having a giggle when It cropped up in your posting. My Friend Mark Jenkinson and his dad both worked at Meriden and have plenty of tales themselves.
My first legal road bike was a brand new black and red Kawasaki AR125B7 in 1990. My dad always had bikes so I suppose It was inevitable that I would grow to love them.......still remember the rides down the street sitting on the petrol tank of my dads Honda 125....probably get done for it now!
Thanks to everyone for your 'Positive' comments. It must take a lot of time to write enough to warant publication but I am putting together short stories now and again and I am starting to really enjoy it so you never know, one day, there may be enough to do something with it.
Chocolate48. I have already written a few of my memories (Warts and all) but have not yet let anyone read them. In some of them 'The names have been omitted or changed to protect the innocent or more to the point, prevent recriminations' but personally I don't think that anything we 'Got up to' was that bad(Well only slightly).
For a short while I worked a night shift at a local parcel firm, unloading container wagons. I had been self employed (Full time) for the previous 25 years but needed the money so I took the first job I was offered. Some of the workforce were complete 'Morons' with a mentality below that of kids I went to infants school with, the like of which I thought no longer existed. During our tea break, being the new guy, some of these guys started asking me what jobs I did before starting at the parcel handling depot. Being the straight forward person that I am, I told them that I had run my own business for the last 25 years, I had supplied bikes to film and advertising companies and also done a bit of 'Stand in' film work. 'BIG MISTAKE'. By the end of the week I was starting to be the brunt of their 'Piss takes'. Why would anyone who has run their own successful business for 25 years and been on T.V. want to work unloading parcel containers. (Because I needed the bloody money, that's why), they obviously did not believe me. (I may give details leading up to this event in future posts). Still, 'No skin off my nose', I don't have to prove anything to anyone (Especially 'Morons'). I just kept myself to myself (As best I could) and got on with earning my wages. All my 'Ramblings' are true accounts of my memories however 'Colourful' any of them may appear.
Anyway, I could go on for ages but I will save the rest to make up another page of my 'Memoirs'. (Fancy word ,that).
Catch you later and thanks again. M.S.
Another snippet from my 'Autobikeography' (Thanks Scary).
Having left school and having a ‘Full time’ job, I now had a regular wage coming in so I decided I wanted something with a little more power. I looked through the local paper and found a 1955 Triumph Thunderbird for £55; it was a bit of a ‘Rat’ but in my price range so I bought it. Again, when my Dad saw it, he went ballistic but fairly quickly got used to the idea. The Thunderbird was fairly standard although it had a skinny front guard, 12 inch (Welded slug) over-stock forks, ‘Cow horn’ handlebars and a ‘Dennis the Menace’ red and black ‘Dulux’ paint job. I felt a million dollars riding it around town.
I was 16 years of age and riding a 650 Triumph, I didn’t have to ride like an idiot to prove anything, everyone already knew that a 650 Thunderbird could shift if you opened it up so I just cruised around the local towns and gave it a blast on the open main roads between towns. I would pull up outside the local café, the young girls would ask if it was a ‘Bonneville’ (It seemed that ‘Bonneville’ was the only bike they
knew the name of) but either way, I was never without the choice of a female pillion. Big Triumphs were ‘Fanny’ magnets.
One sunny summer’s day saw two lovely looking young girls walking up the main street of our town. They were dressed in thin, low cut summer dresses revealing all of their bumps and curves (How could I resist). I soon started chatting and set up a date with one of them for later that day. (I will leave her nameless to avoid any embarrassment but just in case she ever reads this, your name begins with ‘P’). We met up, went for a walk, then down to my mates house. He had to go out so we stayed and watched the T.V. This was the 1960s, time of flower power, bells and free love so it wasn’t long before we got ‘Down to business’ (My part toward the ‘Free love’ bit). I think that the following day, she had regretted what she had done and started to become worried that she might be pregnant. (The following day?). She waited impatiently for her ‘Monthly's’ which should have been only a week away, it didn’t happen. Three, four, five weeks past and I was starting to ‘Brick it’. She was 15 years of age and I was 16. I did not want to start a family (At my age), I also didn’t want to get ‘Locked up’ for underage sex. I did not know that she was only 15 years old when I met her, young girls always seemed to look and act much older when they are dressed up. After eight weeks it finally happened and to say I was relieved is an understatement. It turned out that she had been worrying so much that it had upset her ‘Cycle’ which later returned to normal. She was my ‘Sole’ girlfriend into her 16th year but due to the scare she had put herself through, although she enjoyed much foreplay, she would not let me actually ‘Perform the act’ for the rest of our relationship. She was a bit of a hippie and would regularly dress up in hippie style clothing. One day I gave her my spare leather jacket to wear, it would be a little more in keeping whilst ‘Hanging out’ with a ‘Rocker’ type guy. She took it home and the next time we met, my jaw dropped. She stood there in a mini skirt, wearing my (Formerly) decent leather jacket that was now covered in multi coloured sequins that she had meticulously sewn on the night before. It now looked like something you would find a circus performer wearing. God! What an embarrassment. One evening, we were walking from my house when some form of argument kicked off between us. She was ‘Spitting flames’, I could not ‘Get a word in edgeways’ so I told her I had had enough and turned to walk away. I took two steps, then heard a loud ‘Pop!’ in my left ear and felt a sharp pain in the top of my left shoulder. As I turned back toward her and looked over my left shoulder, I realised that the metal ‘Tail’ comb that she always carried in her pocket, was firmly embedded in my shoulder. She burst into tears, put her arms around me and ‘Sobbingly’ apologised for her uncontrollable actions and asked how she could possibly make it up to me, (Probably due to the fact that I could have had her arrested). The first thing that came to mind was obvious but probably out of the question so I told her that if she really wanted to make it up with me, the first thing she could do was get her bloody ‘Tail’ comb out of my shoulder as it was starting to ‘Smart’ a bit. It’s surprising how easily half an inch of stainless steel comb handle can be pushed into ones body but is much harder to pull out. I was on my knees with this thing sticking out like a parrot sitting on my shoulder and she was tugging like mad but eventually, (After what seemed like an eternity), she managed to get it out, (It hurt more coming out than it did when it went in). I thought, ‘Thank the Lord’, I could hardly have gone back home and ask my Dad to pull it out without him starting to ask searching questions could I? That was both of my leather jackets she had defiled, not to mention one of my white ‘’T’ shirts that was now red on the left shoulder. I had to go straight back home and rinse it before putting it in the wash (And before my parents saw it) but the stain never came out completely. An 'Elastoplast' covered the hole in my shoulder till it healed.
Oh! Miss ‘P’. If you are reading this. I found out some time later, that although I was not visiting your ‘Furry friend’ (Well, certain parts of me weren’t anyway), one of your ex-boyfriends ‘Parts’ certainly was. He took great pleasure informing me of this, probably thinking that he had ‘Got one over on me’. I should have smacked him in the mouth for his arrogance but instead, thanked him for saving me from a ‘Fate worse than death’ and a female that could not be trusted. I told him that it didn’t bother me in the slightest what the pair of them got or get up to, I had now found a decent girl who gave me her all and not just the leftovers. I should have realised at the time that something was going on. Miss ‘P’ would always tell me that she was staying in on Monday nights to wash her hair. Most Monday nights when I phoned her, her mother would tell me she was in the bathroom and could not come to the phone. Naa! Of course you couldn’t because you were bloody well out playing ‘Doctors and Nurses’ with your ex, and besides, your hair never looked that good anyway and if you had spent that much time in the bathroom you would have shrunk and your mother tells lies and you had a big nose and you always took plenty during sex and hardly gave anything back and you fu**ed up two of my leather jackets and you stabbed me but please do not take this personally.
M.S.
Ah yes, those four words (delivered in a slightly whining Manchester accent)..'I'm a fortnight overdue..'
Strikes a chill into the heart of any young lad. Though in my case, like yours, twas a false alarm.
hi guys my first bike was a kriedler floret 80cc! it was german and the only one ive ever seen! it was fast for a little bike it did 70mph!! i love the tales MS the comb must have realy hurt.i used to go out with an irish girl who threw things when she lost her temper,when she threw a kitchen knife at me and cut my arm i knew it was time to get out of dodge and i left the next day!!!
i was 15 when i had the kriedler and rode it round all the villages were i grew up. i had to keep it at a mates house as my folks would have killed me.i was lucky i never got nicked (no tax,insurance,mot or licence)oh the joys of being young and stupid
Excuse me folks there's been some confusion, Dangermouse started this topic asking for folks opinion on which bike his friend should get, not asking what YOUR first bike was lol
Dangermouse posted: A friend of mine is wanting to take her bike test but doesn't have a bike. She's asked me for recommendations on what to get as her first bike. As I passed my test over 20 years ago I don't have a clue but I'm sure someone on here can provide some good advice. Any ideas?
Kwak.
Are we doing something wrong? .
If so. (Smack on the wrist to me).
Should my/our posts be on a different thread?
Sorry if any of my posts may have offended anyone...
M.S.
I don't think I've ever been on a forum that hasn't suffered thread drift. I've known moderators who've gone absolutely berserk the second anything has gone even slightly off-topic, triggering the kind of flaming outbreak they're supposed to be preventing! (That's not aimed at anyone on BM, BTW).
I'd just go with the flow, as long as everyone's polite.
Just so everyone knows I'm NOT a moderator, my 'staff' status is cos I compile/co-edit the Biker Match newsletter with Matt.
M S thanks there was no need for an apology tho, I wasn't having a go, just trying to get the topic back on track cos Dangermouse asked a question and requested replies about it. Just trying to save him having to trawl thro unrelated posts to find his answers.
Hi ktm geoff you can join in any thread, or make a new one if you want to, we don't tread on anyone's toes here. We are just a friendly bunch of people who enjoy biking and maybe looking for a friend, partner along the way, so join away in anything you want.
Unfortunately threads do go off kilter at times but think as DM started this in January the question is probably not relevant now anyway. Would be nice to keep to topic though, where possible, so the originator doesn't have to trawl through lots of chat just to get an answer, but nothings 'wrong' and nobody is 'offended' so stop worrying MS
Mazza xx
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