OT :
Onq, so its like that now ?
In my time on two wheels, 80 was the magic number.
Bike did 80 MPH, gave 80 MPG and cost £80
'Motorcycle Sport' was the only mag worth reading then ( and what a read it was with recollections of Norton, Vincent and Velocettes doing - what seemed - impossible feats [ of course the Japs changed all that ] ) .
Will never forget a review that it printed of what was the latest Triumph model at the time - described as being 'available in seven self peeling colours'
Nope - it was like that then!
A few years later in my day it was 60, 60 and a multiple of 60.
My CD175A [spine frame model] did 77 once [66 in the other direction], regularly gave 60 mpg and cruised at a steady 60mph between stops. And cost 300 quid. I had life changing experiences on/off it - twice.
Motorcycle News was the bible, with Superbike for drooling over unattainable forrin and jap metal - and wimmin.
The crunch came for me in Thesis year, with a site in Carraigaholt in Clare, site visits in the middle of winter and a choice between a one year old GPz250 - 85 mps, 65 mph and two grand and a ratty Renault 4 L.
The car won, my learning curve went vertical on the trip down and the car paid for itself on a bumpy blind bend coming into Kilkee that had a 12ft long, road-wide puddle in the middle of it, and an ambulance coming the other way at speed.
On a bike, that would have been it for me.
But on even the humblest of 4 wheels, with ineffectual wipers [slow and slower were the two speeds] and a good memory for the shape of the road ahead, I drove through the puddle most of which had landed on my windscreen from the passage of the ambulance and arrived at my overnight halt.
Which was strange, because one fo the locals had died recently and that night back in 1989 the whole town of Kilkee was out in a funeral procession at 5:00pm on a dark winters evening.
"That could've been me..." I thought. And that was the end of the bikes.
I'd had a good run - CD175, CB125SJ, RD350, RD400, a couple of bad crashes but didn't end up with bits missing or a limp - I'd been lucky.
'Nuff said.
ONQ.