So there I am, stood on the hard shoulder of the M5 kicking the hell out of a bent jockey wheel, how the hell did I get here?....... November 2003, nowt on T.V, channel hopping when WHAM! Billy Connolly tearing down some Ozzy beach on a purple trike. I must admit my youth was cut short by the arrival of my first born then 2yrs later twins, so I missed out on quite a bit of fun. Motorbikes never really appealed to me but this Trike thingy, yeah I'll av some of that, and the Mrs liked it too, (but that's another story).
So where do you get a trike? Scoured the local corner shop for the usual selection of bike mags and drew a blank, then I discovered BSH. Oh, it had articles on bikes but it also featured trikes and it had a For Sale section too. A couple of issues later and there she was, Kawasaki KZ1100, 2yrs old and 2 owners.
Straight on the phone I get......"sorry" she says, "he's not here, but I'll tell him you rang". I leave my number and wait and wait and wait for hours and no call back.
Next day and I ring again. "He's away all week, but I told him you're keen and he says you've got first refusal".
That week seemed like a month, but finally it ended and after borrowing a mates Transit van and hiring a trailer, off we set to Liverpool to buy a trike that I knew nothing about and had only seen 1 photo of. Well as they say, a fool n his money, so an hour later and I'm the proud owner of a Trike.
All the way home I'm thinking "I'll never ride it, I've never even had a scooter before". Yes, I did test ride before handin over my hard earnt, and I stalled it 4 times!
After a few nervous trips round the block and not getting out of 1st gear I decided the only way to learn was to go for it, so in the cold month of February 2004 "The Bitch" as she had now become known was my regular ride to n from work, and slowly but surely I learned how to ride a trike.
Since then the only thing I've done is replace the rear lights with traditional Maltese Cross ones and lubricate the clutch cable which was stupidly stiff.
And now I'm totally hooked, as is the Mrs. After enjoying trips on the back of "The Bitch" I've decided to get her a trike of her own -but thats a different story.
- T Bone