NICK'S TWO-STROKE TRIBUTE

With the arrival of four-stroke GP bikes, I welcome you to my tribute to all things TWO-STROKE 

- PROPER PERFORMANCE BIKES

  I have always loved two strokes as long as I've been riding bikes, which has been nearly 18 years now. I first got interested earlier than that, when my Grandad gave me his old Suzuki Posi-force step-thru to mess about with. It never really ran properly but me and my mates stripped off the leg shields and jacked up the rear end using triangular plates that wedged under the seat and it looked quite cool for a step thru. Well, it did when I was 13 years old!

  When I was 16 my parents got me a Yamaha DT50M so I could ride around with my mates. I was heavily into cars at the time but this converted me, I was now a BIKER! This really planted the seeds of interest as we would buy big bore kits, modify pistons and get the files in the ports. It was all so easy to do, which is still a major attraction of two strokes. I'm not saying we were experts but we got ten out of ten for trying!

  My 17th birthday was looming and I saved up to buy the bike of my dreams- a Yamaha RD125LC. I got it a month before my birthday and it sat in the garage, teasing me till I was legal to ride it. Dawzie and I used to ride it up and down the street when my parents went out and I remember saying to him," don't open it up in first, you'll flip it, it's MENTAL!" It had an early Allspeed exhaust which was LOUD and it was gorgeous, or so I thought at the time.

 Remember the days when you used to ride your 125 about thinking it was the fastest thing around but didn't realise it wasn't till you were alongside a car and that gap you were going for is disappearing? Well have a listen to this and it'll all come flooding back. Just try not to wet yourself laughing!2taktare.mp3

  I passed my test and not long after my 18th birthday I treat myself to a brand new RD350F. I'd hankered after one ever since I'd seen them at the bike show the year before. It seemed ballistic and had awesome brakes and was my pride and joy. Well it was till six months later when some tosser taxi driver decided to try and park on my side of the road while I was heading towards him. One head-on crash, one written off powervalve.

  A lad I worked with had the same bike and he was getting old and wanting a car so I bought it off him. I painted the wheels and did a few other bits and bobs to it. I tried a set of Allspeeds but they didn't really make much difference, just made it look and sound better. I ran this for a year or so and loved it. My friends had four stroke middleweights which, although faster, didn't handle as good and weren't as much fun. Dawzie got himself an RG500 and it was absolutely manic! The only problem was that on bumpy roads it was pretty unstable and this put me off. The engine was awesome though and it set me off thinking about building something that handled but had that engine. Ever since I saw an RD500 I wanted one but after having a few test rides I went off the idea as they never really went as well as they looked. An FZ750 came up and I decided to go for it but it never inspired me the same as the powervalve. It was all too nice. I fitted a race pipe and the extra noise improved things but it just didn't seem exciting.

  A year or so later I'd had enough and traded it in for a brand new TDR250. I'd also set the wheels rolling to build my Spondon RG500 so now I was once again Mr Two Stroke, I think the wife was referring to my bikes! TDR's are absolutely fantastic bikes and I learnt so much about my riding  after I got one. The amount of big bikes that you could embarrass because of the excellent handling was something you had to witness to believe. My mate Groz wanted one as well so I sold him mine and bought another that was newer. I used to go everywhere on it, work, thrashes round the Lake District, two up trips to Donington for the GP, it did everything and I enjoyed every minute. Well that is until one sunny Sunday after watching a GP on telly I got a bit over-enthusiastic and flipped it pulling a wheelie on the way to the girlfriend's. She'd jinxed me a couple of days earlier by saying, "one of these days you're gonna go right over!" Thanks dear.

 Just before I got my first TDR I bought a crashed RG500. Some poor bastard had had a head-on smash with a car and had snapped the forks off completely. I only wanted the engine so I sold all the bits I didn't want and took the rest to Spondon Engineering in Derby and got them to build me one of their alloy works of art for my motor. You can see the various Incarnations of the bike on the 'MY SPONDON RG' page.

 I bought an old GT250 for going to work on at one time but it was a piece of shit so I got rid. I actually nearly ended up getting buried with it as I had a coming together with Groz in his car while we were messing about on the local slag banks. I came around a corner to be faced with a sideways Vauxhall Viva heading straight for me. We collided and for a minute or so no one moved. The car was not sitting straight and Groz assumed that I was underneath, possibly dead. It turned out that my handlebar had gone through his tyre which accounted for the attitude of the car. When I asked him what he'd have done if he'd killed me he replied, "Well I'd have buried you up here, there's no point in my life being wrecked as well, is there?" Don't know if the missus would have gone along with it though, I bloody hope not! Oh, and I also had an MZ250, but the less said about that the better.