Page 26 - Shining On Newsletter - Autumn 2022

Ba’s Bikes

We’re hearing the serialised tale from our editor Barry Croft of the numerous old wrecks “classics” he’s
owned during his many many revolutions around our Sun, drawn from his ever-expanding CV (Cycle
Vitae). Last issue we read about his first Italian bike, and his second Honda. Perhaps due to the many
flaws in the Guzzi vs Japanese perfection he next entered a distinctly Honda-ish phase!
By 1979 I was a fully qualified Microbiologist and still free of kids and a mortgage, so I was rich enough
to run a THIRD motorbike for the first time. Still feeling the warm glow from that first 400 four I chose
another Honda four – a Honda CB550F.

The Guzzi was a great touring bike, but not a very good short range commuter. For a start it needed
about 30 miles to properly warm up! Not to mention to keep the battery charged. So when I moved flats
to live only 4 miles or so from work it kept suffering flat batteries. I clearly needed something smaller as
well for routine commuting and running around town. Mine was originally that awful lurid orange they
made for a couple of years, but that was probably why I got it cheap. I soon re-sprayed it myself, in my
fave classic black with gold coach lines.

This was actually not as good performance-wise as my friend’s older CB500-4, but it proved to be a
great all-rounder, and I actually ended up keeping it for 5 years as my back up bike. There’s not much
more to say about it, although I even toured Europe on it after I sold the Guzzi. It was never very
exciting, but it always did what I needed and never went wrong. I commuted on it for years, it survived 2
years parked outside under a flimsy cover while I worked with VSO in Kathmandu, then I dispatched on it
for a year before going to uni. A very worthy all-rounder, rather like it's similar cousin the Kawasaki
GT550. The only niggle was that on slippery roads the rear would sometimes break away, spinning up
and sliding about! Avon TT100s were the best you could get then but tyres weren’t great in those days.
At first I still had the Guzzi, but when its gearbox return spring snapped AGAIN I finally got fed up with it
and sold it to a pal in the Mid Kent MCC. At the time there was a big Honda dealer right opposite the
hospital I worked in, and one of the mechanics there was selling a bike in the window that he’d built in

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