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Plouto aged 7 starting early
Hi all from sunny Shropshire UK and thanks for having me.

Im a cliche. 11 years after putting the F4i to one side (and eventually selling it) having moving to ‘the country’ where it snows, I recently bought a 99 fx over the phone, travelled across country with van to get it and retuned to bike ownership.

The bike had had only done 10,000 miles but had allegedly been stood for 9 years - thankfully indoors. It was, therefore, still shiney on the outside.

Undeterred I serviced the carbs, fixed the fork tubes with razor blades, wire wool and super glue (yes it works), replaced seals, Indicators, mirrors, final drive, tyres, battery, hoses, pads, filters and of course the oil and would you believe I have sweet machine 😍

The cliche is I’m male, a dad and 49 - that makes me a ‘returning biker’ which is yet to be seen as cool on this island.

However, I spent 9 years through my twenties and early thirties as a motorbike despatch rider in London. Every day, all day, all weathers, every type of bike and every type of ‘off’. I got used to being hated by everyone but the other couriers and the fallen rate was about one a week. What a bad ass I thought I was. Eventually though I did end up hating motorbikes; what started as a dream getting paid to ride became a stressful ‘crying into your helmet in the rain at 8pm, 100 miles from home. Petrol goes up, rates go down and then to top it all, THE INTERNET and the now common digital conveyance if all that artwork, legal and banking stuff that paid the rent. Still I was Top Rider for a bit, but it killed my love eventually.

So, after a wobbly start I now do 500 miles a week. Last weekend I did 200 motorway miles in the rain and it all came back to me; the focus, the zen, the internal dialogue about the benefits of risk in an increasingly risk averse world.

Im glad for all that past experience and I wonder what sort of rider I’d be after such a gap we’re it not for those years of slicing and dicing traffic and escaping only with the almost mandatory tib/fib fracture.

For some reason. I sensibly kept my beloved Sidi Couriers and my leather legs - they fit as well now as they did then! I must be doing ok.

But what hat can I say? I have one if the finest bikes ever made before fuel injection. It amazes me that I turn a grip, a cable moves and fuel is just sucked in. That’s all. No trickery, just engineering. Every morning I leave at 6am and fall in love. Every day at 6pm I get to do it again, 50 miles each way.

Im sure a current version would be awesome but this bike I can dismantle with a set of alan keys, 4 spanners and a screwdriver- what’s to go wrong?

What’s different about biking 11 years later? Gear is cheaper and better, the roads are better, there are more cameras and cars can accelerate quicker - even the small ones!

I salute you all. The best bike ever made. Mine will soon be 20 years old but you’d never tell. As my chicken strips get thinner I wonder why I’d want anything else (maybe a vfr 750). To get a bike licence in this country now is harder than anywhere in the world and I congratulate anyone who makes it through. I’m just glad I got mine before you had to undergo the trial it is now.

Keep it upright. Here’s a picture (I hope) of my daughter sitting on it after I pulled it off the van.

Peace x

Thanks Tim buc 👍