I popped over to see some friends and in their front garden I saw this. It might not appear much to some, just an old bike, but to me I was looking at an old friend, one I had loved with a passion and enjoyed many a happy hour with travelling around London and the UK.
I've always liked Kwaks and we bought this when we were members of the Triumph Owners Club.
Yes, I know it sounds strange, but we did have a Triumph, a Tiger Cub, which spent more time having the points re-adjusted, the electrics fiddled with or the carbs clearing than it did running.
I remember one run we went on...all of us were in our leathers, proudly riding the Triumph badge on our backs.
As usual, we ended up at the back of the line. We were the slowest, the smallest and the newest members so we had little kudos in the club.
At the back we did our best to keep up but it wasn't long before we started to fall behind and our speed began to, how should I say, deteriorate?
Yep, the carbs again!
Pete got out the repair toolkit we carried everywhere when we were on this classic and I took up my usual position, bum on pavement, feet in gutter, sitting by bike which was, by now, on a side stand (centre stand had fallen off in the road somewhere a while back and we never found it! The original side stand had rotted off).
My bag, laughingly called a hand bag, was a small rucksack containing cleaning equipment for the carburetor, spare parts for the engine, rags, puncture kit and a spare inner tube. Oh yes, some cash for when we broke down (there was an inevitability about this I must admit. He called it an adventure), a comb and a packet of fags!!
Lighting up, I watched as once more the carburetor came off at the side of the road, it was cleaned out and re-assembled. The petrol stinking rags went back in my handbag, the points were adjusted once more with the possibility they might co-operate and I continued to sit there as Pete kicked the bike over.
I was never convinced at this point. Nope. This Tiger Cub had to go!
I think it was a matter of days after the latest breakdown and our missing of yet another bike meet, I went into Boyer-Branson in Plumstead and basically said, what have you got? I can't even remember if Pete was with me, probably not. When I make up my mind it happens instantly.
So, he showed me several, Suzuki....Yamaha....Triumph. Nope.
Then he showed me a GPZ550 which had just come in. It was less than two years old, had little mileage and was going for a reasonable price.
We haggled, I pushed, I got quite a bit off with the understanding we would be back for two sets of waterproofs (expensive but windproof and tear proof too), new lids (Aria, naturally) and of course gloves....he would throw those in free wouldn't he?!?
I did remind him I had lots of biking mates and would be back with them. He smiled, he knew a sweetener now could mean a bigger deal later (it did. I ended up buying four more bikes from him over a ten month period as my mates upgraded and I increased my credit rating).
Taking Pete into Boyers the next day, or weekend most probably, he smiled when he saw what I'd bought. We sorted out the final paperwork and I drove home in the mini whilst he, in his new crash helmet and gear, rode home.
He was almost crying with joy when he got back.
So was I!
I could have my handbag back, once the oil stains and petrol smell dissipated and we could go to the club and keep up!!
We went everywhere on that bike, and Pete dispatched around London and the home counties on it. It was perfect and suited our needs for many years.
