motorrad zschopau

one of my mates dropped me a load of bike magazines off at work, he's sold his bike, a lovely, late model honda 600 sportsbike, [don't ask me which model, it's the one with the underseat exhaust pipe, very tasty], he has decided to bail out after three years of motorcycle ownership, a combination of pressure from his nearest and dearest, [regarding the dangers of riding a bike, the death toll and horror stories of ruined lives, orphaned children and young widows] and lost income, driving ban's, ridiculous insurance premiums and perhaps, the fact that riding a bike just isn't as cool and trendy as it was two-to-three years ago, [my mate suprised me when he told me he was going to take his compulsory bike training and buy a bike because 'everyone who is anyone rides a bike now dad!' fuck me, how times change, a series of un-connected events as a boy led me down this path, the greaser on the fair at butlin's holiday camp with the knuckle tattoo's, my mate, mark wileman's dad's panther, tradesman outfit, blasting around on the field's where we lived, chris goodall, who lived across the road who had a beautiful vespa scooter, the lad's who waved at me on the way to the osmaston manor races when i was sitting in the back of the car my dad had borrowed off his foreman at work, the pulp biker novels i swapped on a geography field trip to aberystwyth in welsh wales, 'chopper' mama' 'button's-the making of a president', dicking about in the shed with a long list of cast off, small capacity commuter bikes and scooter's, it's how you learned, snapping off bolts by overtightening, getting wheel spacer's the wrong way round, boiling battery's, dropping circlips into the crankcases, [ahem], making leather patches with the legend 'black eagles mc' getting filled in for wearing a backpatch with the legend 'black eagles mc', being asked how old you are when trying to buy a copy of easyriders magazine, buying one of those paul something-or-other backpatches mail order out of the back of the new musical express adverts, getting filled in for wearing a paul something-or-other patch, yep, it's been a long, hard road, has the bubble really burst with bikes?, no, i don't think so, i just think things are reaching that natural equilebrium and that it will weed out the people like my mate for who it's more about the image than anything else, i'm not saying that's a bad thing, it just mean's that there's more bikes available for the rest of us to buy at a reasonable price, here's a few fact's for you, in the past three year's he reckon's he's spent, [at a conservative estimate], twenty thousand english pounds, holy shit batman, that's a lot of disposable income, when quizzed further he add's it up, his original training, test, licence, two set's of leathers, three helmet's, insurance, servicing, [by official dealer], aftermarket exhaust can, trackday's, tyres, magazines, fuel, chain and sprockets and a hundred and one other bit's and bob's that we spend on our, uum?, our lifestyle?, hobby? blah, blah, blah, when you add it all up that's a serious amount of filthy lucre, no wonder people are bailing, so where does that leave the rest of us? well me, i'm happy dicking about in the shed with old air-cooled stuff, building half decent bikes out of scrap and just having a good time, which bring's me back to the original post, mz's, brilliant, i really want a 250 trophy, a four speed or five speed ts or an etz, i'm also still after a copy of the jan leek 'mz racer's' book, money's waiting, bail out now, you know motorcycles are just too dangerous and expensive.........