Teenage kicks
By: Web Editor
After getting the June issue of CMM, I quickly scanned the front cover, and went straight to the showstopper, the Honda CB125S. Drooling time over, I went to the Dyno Day feature at Gibson Exhausts and was greeted with some tastily restored Fizzies – and a blatant lie, as I think I could have been CMM’s youngest reader...
Steve Cooper remembers his youth. Through the haze...
It all started a few years ago when the bike bug bit me after looking at a well-restored green five-speed Honda SS50 (the owner of which introduced me to CMM and who is also a member of a fundraising moped club).
I just had to have one and went straight on eBay to find a bargain, armed with the logic that as the SS50 is only a small bike, it couldn’t be very expensive. Oh, how very wrong I was. I could only just afford to restore one, but it wouldn't be very well done.
After looking around for alternatives, I came across a CB200 that was very close to home, but it was a bit of a dog and needed lots of work and I'd never get my money back out if it. Then I opened CMM April 2009 with the feature on the Honda PC50. After being told it was eligible to ride in the moped club as it had pedals, I had a look for one, and after a few months, I was the proud owner of a red 1974 model.
It was brought home on the day of my birthday: my 14th. It may only have 1.7hp, but the law says I still can't ride it yet. It’s now just over a year later, and after forgetting about it over winter and buying another one, the original PC is now in pieces and undergoing a full restoration.
I'm hoping it will be ready for the end of July, where it will be ridden on a charity run (in fancy dress, of course), raising a lot of money for good causes along the way. It's not been too much of a challenge so far, although getting parts for it has been hard: I've even sneaked on eBay in school to catch the end of an auction!
I've still got a year to go before my 16th, and can't wait to hit the road pedalling!
I’d also just like to say that there's too many people out there that have got it in their head that all young people are just ‘scallies’ that cause trouble. When everyone else is out at parties, setting moors on fire etc, I'm in my shed trying to figure out how the hell Honda managed to fit the headlight into the headlight bowl.
I'm doing without many luxuries to fund this project but still have high hopes that the end result will be a good 'un.
I'd like to say thank you to CMM as you have helped me so much with the rebuild (especially the Chappy restoration feature).
I will send you pictures of the finished bike, and keep up the good work.
Lewis Wiggan
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Redrider Says:
August, 28th 2010 at 08:07 am
Lewis great work. Many years ago I started motorcycling on an NVT 50 pedal assisted moped which I must admit my mum paid for but living out in the sticks of Bedfordshire it was a lot more easier getting around than cycling every where. My friend Richard had an old velocette moped. Although they were not a patch on the SS50 or FS1E's other had we were still mobile. My next motorbike came out of an army transport crate. An old Honda CB125S. That I did have to put together and is probably why I still like working on m/cs today even though I do a paper pushing job. Well done. The Honda will serve you well.