Started riding in 1976 on a Puch Maxi and then graduated to the heady power of a Yamaha YB100. Main bikes since then, in rough order of appearance, are as follows. Some of them are pictured here.

Honda CB175, Honda CJ250, MZ250, Suzuki GT500, Suzuki GS400, Honda CB125, Honda CB750F1, Moto Guzzi Spada, Honda CB550, Yamaha RD350 power-valve, Yamaha XT600E, BMW R100RS, Kawasaki GT750, Honda CD175, Ducati 750SS and Jawa Combo.

Some of my bikes are pictured here. The Yamaha XS650B I restored in early summer of 1996, and reluctantly sold a year later when Chateau Murray's central heating needed a new boiler. The Moto Guzzi Spada I owned in the mid-1980s and sold when Anne was pregnant with Jamie, replacing it with a Yamaha RD350F2 (rather different!). The Honda CD175 was my shopping trolley and commuting vehicle for eight years until I sold it in late 2001. I just didn't use the thing any more as I now work 40 miles from home. I bought it five years ago for £35 and it's never let me down. The BMW I ran between 1994 and 1996. It was an early R100S with an RS fairing and other bits. Brilliant bike but rather single-minded. The Kawasaki GT750 pictured here was a test bike and is shown here while on holiday in Spain. I currently own an identical version. The Suzuki TS250 I bought a few years ago just as a summer fun commuter bike. It cost me £450 and I sold it for nearly £700. Wish I'd kept it! The Moto Guzzi V50 was Anne's some years back, and the Honda CB400 Four is her present steed. It's an F2 model, utterly original, and completely immaculate. The Jawa sidecar combination was acquired a few years ago, sold when we moved house, re-acquired in a swap for a small Suzuki, swapped with a mate for a laptop computer for jamie, and presently resides in the hands of another mate who's semi-dismantled it and can't put it back together. I have a feeling I'll end up owning it again one day. Finally, the Ducati 750SS is my present main bike (second from left, in this group shot taken at the Bol in 1998), although in November 2000 I bought a new Yamaha XJ900 Diversion. I'll get around to taking a pic of it one day. I've also recently acquired a wondrous old 1977 Honda CB500T in glorious metallic brown (well, it was cheap) and I'm working on that. Pic here.

I've also owned, at one time or another (deep pause for recollection): Honda: CB125J, CG125, CD175 (innumerable), CB200, CB250N, CB360, CB400N, CB650, 1000 Gold Wing, 1100 Aspencade. Suzuki: GP100, GP125, TS185, TS250, GT185, GSX250, GS550, GT380. Yamaha: RS125, RS100, RXS100, SR250, XS250, XS400, XS750. Kawasaki: KE175, Z250, Z400F, GT550, GPz550, H1E, KH250, KH400. Moto Guzzi: V50, Monza. MZ: ETZ250.

There are probably more to add to that list but I can't be arsed to think any more. Suffice to say that my life has been, since the age of 18, inextricably bound up with bikes.

Oh, and Jamie used to have a little Italjet! Sold it when he outgrew it.

I'm a fanatic for the Bol D'Or. For the uninitiated, this is a 24-hour endurance race held every September at Paul Ricard circuit in the South of France. I first went in 1981, and have since managed another 12 visits. Not quite one a year, but pretty good. You'll find a couple of pix here, but they're quite high-resolution (total about 150kb together) so it may take a few seconds to download.

UKRM

I hang out on this newsgroup, and you might like to click here for some pix of a recent thrash in France.

Or here for some pix taken at a recent ukrm piss-up