Still continues

Well, I found myself in a spot today.

I live near the sea and a lot of people like to do rock fishing. In the last day or so, five people have been washed off the rocks near here. All part of the same group - the whole group actually. Two couples and one son of one couple.

Then I found myself talking about this to my sister-in-law. Her partner is an avid fisherman. He loves the sport. He will tell me that rock fishing is safe as long as you take care and have an understanding of where you are fishing. I think he's wrong and that rock fishing should be banned.

The more I thought about it, the more I saw a link between rock fishing, what my sister-in-laws partner says, and what I said in regard to speeding and the young man named Gerard who was killed while driving wrecklessly in his car last week.

Do I have double standards? Well I did what I did on the road 30 years ago. I don't now. I don't agree with street racing now. Only that I did it and wasn't killed.

I think my standards are safe.

And it continues

The beginnings come and go at some point - I don't know when but there is a change from something being a beginning to some other part - the middle maybe - the golden years - who knows what you may want to call it.

I was flicking through some bike magazine all those years ago, when I came across a full page advertisement for a Norton Commando 850. I don't know what it was, but I knew I had to have one. I couldn't afford anything new at that time so I would just have to wait.

Sometime much later, I was driving to work and I passed by this motorbike shop as I did every other day. I gave it the usual quick glance that was as long as the traffic would allow, and low and behold, there was a big black Norton 850 in from of the shop for sale. I'm surprised I didn't have an accident right there and then. I did go back to the shop as soon as I could. It turned out that the shop was selling the bike on behalf of some guy who needed money to pay his fines. I asked how much it was, and to my amazement, it was a price I could afford.

I became the owner of a 1973 Norton Commando 850 that would change my life forever.

Beginnings Continued

It's easy to be diverted... but anyway, I met a guy who was to become a friend from the beginning to the present, and hopefully long into the future. He taught me a lot about riding, one way or another, and we rode a lot together in those days. We did what a lot of young guys do, we broke the law - speeding, street racing - all on our bikes. The cars we had were never good enough to do anything serious, but our bikes could always go well. We spent a lot of time on piece of road called locally 'The Mountain'. If you were a local and had 'local knowledge' you were unbeatable. The only person worthy of challenge was another local.

Nowadays people, mostly young men, come to this piece of road from long distances. They come for the same reasons my old mate and I did. The problems arise quickly and stupidly. Only a few nights ago, a young man of 22 was killed on this road along with his mate sitting next to him. They were in a Mazda MX5 and this young man was driving. They hit a truck head-on. The car ended up no higher than it's wheels and the injuries they received were horrific. His young girlfriend following, was at the scence moments after the accident. What the sight of it all has done to her is unknown. The young man was named Gerard. He lived quite some distance away and was sadly known to my family. The police have said it was all Gerard's fault. Driving too fast and on the wrong side of the road. The same thing my old friend and I did every other day.

Unfortunately, this is the legacy we have left others.