Well, as this is the funstuffpage, anything goes. I've dug up some pictures from my desk, scanned them and here they are.

These pictures show how it all started. The first picture shows me, riding a trike years before they became fashion. That's me - Mister Cool- in the second picture, on a bike with a real licenseplate.

The bike in the picture on the left is not a bicycle with "racing" bars, it actually is a "Munch Mammut 1200 TTS E", as anyone can see ( I could ). For those interested in "the real thing", click the picture

The moped on the right is a 49 cc Benelli . While everybody was riding around on Yamaha FS 1's, Kreidlers and Zündapps, for me there was only one bike, this one. It had a 18 mm Dell'Orto, a bigger exhaust and some work done to the cilinder and could reach the incredible speed of 90 km/h ( just kidding mom and dad, 40 km/h tops ! )

When I was 17, I bought a 350 cc '53 Matchless, just to work on. I couldn't ride it (!?!) because you have to be 18 years to get your driverslicense. When the piston seized ( while just working on it? ) I sold it. Wish I hadn't, but you can not have it all, can you.

After this first bike, the second was an improvement. It was a Honda CB 250, I bought in 2 boxes, one guilder per cc. I put it together with the help of an uncle who "knew" about motorcycles. This meant handing him the spanners and screwdrivers. This is the only picture I could find of it, but you know what they look like, don't you. I finished and sold this bike before I had my licence.

Talking about improvement. I bought this bike new in 1976(with financial help from my parents) when I turned 18. It was the thing to have, a Kawasaki Z650, the quickest bikes in it's class, even faster then any 750,except for Suzuki's "kettle". Mine was number 13 in Holland (Didn't bring me bad luck though).

This is what it looked like after one year. Fairing, Janton 4 into 1 and a Janton swingarm. Luggagerack was for holidays to Italy. Later that year I changed the frontlegs around to get the calipers behind the legs, put a Guilliari "sportsseat" on it, cut off the rear mudguard and got rid of those big indicators. ( Notice the proud mother in the background ). Rode this one around for 2 years, then insurance became to expensive for a young man on a motorcycle, so I had to sell it and get my carlicence. This meant the end of motorcycling for a couple of years, not counting all my friends bikes I kept on riding. Can't remember what that black stuff on my head is, haven't seen that for a long time.

After this last bike I started to build and ride "special" cars. If you want to see them, click here !

Last Updated: December 27, 1998