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sirch345 wrote:I had an old Ford Anglia that Dad gave me to drive around the fields on the farm we lived on. Before that I had the chance to drive the tractor under Dad's supervision for light jobs.

Chris.

Chris that is Scary, that is too close to my story!

I was driving on the farm from a young age, 1st in the tractor with my Dad in control, but me using the steering or the hand throttle. Once I could reach the pedels, I was driving them by myself. That was followed at about 12 or 13 with...............a Ford Anglia! which was push start only and we raced it round the fields and the single track [public!] roads that ran through the farm land.

About that time my dad then got a farm bike to try out............a Suzuki TS100, but designed for farms with a high / low gearbox, a single seat and a huge back rack that you could get a hay bail [or a sheep!] strapped onto.

My dad didnt like the bikes much and started getting the Balloon tyred ATC's [trikes and quads] for getting round the hill farm, but it was too late, me and my younger brother were hooked on bikes.
Then followed a range of 2nd hand bikes that got used as field bikes......XL100, Ossa motocrosser, Beamish RL325, DT175 ...........anything we got our hands on......and all ridden till they fell apart [mostly due to lack of maintainence and crash damage].

So since I was 14 I have always had 1 motorcycle in the garage, although I stopped riding on the road for about 10 years when I got into roadrace and then enduro. Then when I got enough money, I decided it was OK to have more than 1 bike and now have 1 for each type of riding............well except road racing.

AMcQ,

Even more spooky when you hear me say I had a Suzuki TS100 as well
Although to be fair that wasn't a field bike, it was one of my road bikes later on.

One of my younger brothers had a mate of his who had one of those TS100's with that high and low ratio gearbox that you had, so I do know what you're talking about.
I thought that idea was a brilliant one, low gears for off road and high gears for ordinary road use, perfect, I'm surprised that didn't catch on with more bikes and other manufactures.

I never got into road racing or enduro, but I did have had a few scramblers before being old enough to ride on the road legally. They include a Greeves 250 and a Rickman Montessa 250. Below is not the actual bike I owned but looks almost identical to the Montessa I had. I had other field bikes too, but these two were the only real scramblers:-



Chris.

sirch345 wrote: I never got into road racing or enduro, but I did have had a few scramblers before being old enough to ride on the road legally. They include a Greeves 250 and a Rickman Montessa 250. Below is not the actual bike I owned but looks almost identical to the Montessa I had. I had other field bikes too, but these two were the only real scramblers:-

Chris.

That looked like a great bike..........The problem we had with the real competition bikes [the Ossa & the Beamish Suzuki] was it took about 1 hr to get them started. spent more time changing plugs than riding!

The Jap trail bikes were less cool, but far more practical

AMCQ46 wrote: That looked like a great bike..........The problem we had with the real competition bikes [the Ossa & the Beamish Suzuki] was it took about 1 hr to get them started. spent more time changing plugs than riding!

That sounds more like the old British bikes my brothers and I had for going around the fields on
Still good fun though

The most hardest bike to kill off around the farm was the Honda 50, it belonged to one of my brothers, it didn't matter how much abuse that bike got, it always kept going an amazing bike, no wonder it's the Worlds top seller.

Chris.