As daft as this bike looks, it is the biggest selling motor vehicle in history (nearly 100 million sold). It gave me my first taste of freedom whilst all the other “cool” kids on the block hung around on street corners smoking and making mischief!

I decided that I needed a bit more umphh than 50cc, so being a "fully experienced" 16 year old biker I splashed out on a Norton Commando 750.

In those days (early 70’s) passing a test on a Honda 50 qualified you to ride a 750 – without a helmet!

It was a baptism of fire swapping out my 49cc for a 750... picking it up in the rain from the dealer, down a slippery cobbled-stone street in Liverpool UK.

I remember many occasions "doing the ton" - 100 MPH - without a crash helmet.

Also, the foot brake was on the left, and the foot gears on the right with a one up 3 down shift... which was opposite to today's convention of brake on the right and gears on the left with one down 4 up as standard. On many occasions I would stamp on the brake instead of the gears!

I don’t know how, but I survived!

It went like a bullet. But after only a week it was stolen – lifted onto a van wheel lock and all by 4 yobs. The insurance company paid for a new bike, and I bought a BIG heavy chain.

In the 70’s, it was "cool" to get drunk and wheelie out of the pub car park on your bike. One day I did a spectacular wheelie impressing the patrons – when I got home I realised I had not taken the heavy chain off first. I found the chain outside the pub the next day. The wheel snapped the chain clean in two – and not a mark on the bike!

Old faithful. This water-cooled V twin was my workhorse. I ran up a huge mileage commuting (at one time 240 miles a day between London and Bournemouth on the coast) riding often at over 100mph with my feet on the back pedals and nose to the tank... and it never missed a beat.

When I first visited New Zealand 35 years ago, I hitch-hiked around the country trouble free, until I got to Blenheim on the South Island. I spent all day on the road-side without any luck.

I was opposite a bike shop, and I thought, if I don’t get a lift by the end of shopping hours, I’m going to get my credit card out and buy a motorbike! Once I bought it, I had to get my back-pack and guitar on the back, but I will never forget that feeling of escape and freedom riding out of Blenheim towards the mountainous South!

For only a 600cc with 4 carbs and 6 gears this pocket rocket was devilishly quick. The power band kicked in from around 7000 rpm and it became a monster! I bought this in the UK and transported it 12,000km to New Zealand.

The first day on it in New Zealand, I took it for a ride and took a bend at well over the 70kph recommendation.

To my horror I just about made it - then remembered my speedometer was in MPH not KPH! So I took a 70KPH bend at something near 120 KPH..... idiot!!!