While we're reminiscing…
My earliest motorcycle memory is sitting on my father's lap as he took me down our road (and back) on his 350cc single. A BSA, I think, but he's not around to ask anymore. I must have been two or three years old. I still remember the warmth rising from the engine, the wind on my face, and the throb of that single cylinder engine.
However,
the formative memory was going to Stonehenge on a family picnic, sometime in the early '60's. (My gran: "It's just a pile of old rocks, Am. Get the kettle out and we'll have a brew up.") So, sat on this "old rock" and munching a sandwich, I heard, then saw, a Vincent 1000 burble into view. It swept past, two-up, and was gone again in seconds. I must have been thirteen. A biker was born.
In my teens I had an AJS single, a Norton and a couple of Triumph twins, but the 1000cc V-twin has always been my ultimate (but then-unaffordable) motorcycle. As the bug bit from time to time, I bought a Honda CX500 (new), a Moto Guzzi Mk IV Le Mans, and now the Raptor – all V-twins.
And I've got a sneaking suspicion that Phil Irving would approve of the Raptor. (Well, the naked ones!
)
Phil Irving?
http://myvincent.co.uk/people/phil_irving.php
Rambling old fool signing out…
[/img] Thought i would share this picture of my Grandad on his bike, it dates from the late 1920s. I did some research on his bike with help from my old boss who has a number of vintage bikes. It was a James 500 V twin & was regestered in Brighton.It would of been an expensive bike to buy in those days. The frame was made by james them selves and the parts sourced from other manufactures including the jap engine. Extras on his bike included lights , horn , & the finger crusher pillion seat. (if my gran held under the sprung seat as they went over a bump.... ouch).I especially like his thought for personal safety, goggles.This picture was the inspiration for me wanting a V twin. 
