My Life with Bikes
Howard Anderson
BMF’s Finance Director started riding aged 12... now supports son Shaun’s racing Photography: Philip Macgowan
“M
y mum and dad didn’t drive, and I had my first bike, a James Captain, when I was 12. I didn’t publicise that at home as my father was the local JP... “Bikes were cheap back then in the 1960s, early ‘70s, and you could pick them up, including the old British stuff, for very little money. One lovely thing I had was an 80cc Suzuki with a four-speed box, high pipe, a grand wee thing. We thrashed that around the fields until it stopped – lack of 10
Motorcycle R I D E R
oil I think. My first 100% legal bike was a CB125 Honda in around ‘72 when I passed my test. The test was so easy then, just ride around the block and put your arm out if you were turning right or left. For the emergency stop the examiner would step out in front of you. As long as you stayed upright and could answer a couple of questions on the Highway Code you passed. “Once I passed I bought a Norton Dominator 88 with a Wideline frame and straighthrough megas, so you could hear me coming from four miles away! I didn’t use it for big trips, just going to work and back, riding around the countryside and down to the coast on a Sunday. I didn’t know much about bikes then because nobody in the house had a mechanical background, so everything I’ve learnt has been self-taught. Things like the ignition timing on the James, I learnt by doing. I didn’t own a car for a long time, and only learnt to drive because I was working for Post Office Telephones as an engineer. “I’ve had lots of bikes over the years. I’ve always liked different things – I had a CZ once – but really anything with two wheels and an engine, I must have owned 100 bikes over the years. Odd things, like a Raleigh Wisp. I did do the Joey
