I have to regale you with this little story of an episode of kindness and help forwarded to myself and my wife on one of our motorcycling adventures in the UK.

It was back in the 80s one Easter we were travelling to Cornwall from Suffolk on our lovely Motorsport BMW RS

to stay at a hotel at Harlyn Bay on the north Cornwall coast with members of the East Anglian section of the BMW owners club. Primarily to watch the section of the Lands End long distance trial at Blue Hills Mine just over the hill from St Agnes. This is the last section of the trial and has a particularly difficult hill climb to master for motorbikes.

Anyway travelling down everything was going great we had wiggled our way through central London (no M25 at that time)and on to the A30 our preferred route at the time with a proposed lunch stop at Chard. Just as we were approaching Shaftsbury the bike just died. Luckily we had enough speed to freewheel into an open farm entrance about a 100 yards ahead. After trying to restart nothing was happening so out came the tools and I started checking all the obvious signs of life. Fuel, all ok, spark plugs and no sparks so its an ignition problem.

While I was fiddling about the farmer come out to see what this motorbike was doing in his driveway and after a short discussion re breaking down he then ushered us into his yard and shelter so that we could work away from the road and offered the use of tools should we need them. So after much testing for the most basic signs of life I found that i could get a spark by flicking the Kill switch on and off but it it still wouldn’t fire up. I then thought that there was a fault with the electronic ignition unit on the front of the crankshaft. I had read previously that these units could fail without notice.

The farmer then offered me the use of his telephone and I tried to contact a BMW dealership on the south coast being the nearest to us. Funnily enough someone answered the phone even though it was Easter Friday and the shop was closed but they couldn’t help. We resigned our selves to calling the AA and ending the trip. The AA wouldn’t send transport because they have to send a mechanic 1st to make the decision that transport is needed and he would be an hour away.

Our saviour that day the farmer, then offered to cook us a breakfast while we waited for the AA and chatting about our plans for the weekend over breakfast he then can you believe offered us the use of his then current Rover car so that we could carry on with our plans and return with the car on the way home and sort out transport for the bike at that time, unbelievable but so true.

We elected to wait for the AA mechanic who duly arrived and eventually agreed that the bike isn’t going to start and agreed with my diagnosis and so we needed transport to either Home (the sensible option) or to carry on down to Cornwall. We had already phoned the hotel to relay our predicament and there was already some of our friends at the hotel and they are suggesting that we get transported to the hotel and we can sort it out there. The AA transport arrived and we elected to go to Cornwall. The AA driver warned that we wouldn’t be able to get it repaired down there and the AA would only offer a one way trip and going to Cornwall would still need us to get home at some stage. We still insisted on going down.

WE said our goodbyes to the amazing farmer that had looked after us during the day and sat back while we were transported down to the hotel. Unbeknown to us a second amazing offer of help was being sort. A couple from Bristol who were participants in the Lands End Trial on their BMW off road combination and were due to be staying with us for the rest of the weekend after the end of the trial about Saturday lunch time. Contact had been made with them whilst we were travelling down and they had agreed without knowing us at all that the electronic ignition unit on their bike which was the same as on my bike as they shared the same engines could be swapped over so that we could ride home at the end of the weekend and I could then post it back to them after we got home.

We arrived at the hotel after a long day at about 8pm The hotel staff had saved us a meal and we were then told about the offer of swapping the ignition unit. The next morning we watched the Blue Hills section of the trial transported there as pillion riders on various peoples bikes. We watched our soon to be new friends launch themselves successfully up the hill after which they retired to the hotel put their bike onto their trailer and we all proceeded to swap over the ignition unit onto my bike after which my bike fired up straight away, much to our relief.

The following day we elected to go and see my cousin who were farmers near Liskeard and as we were riding out of Bodmin on our way there there was a chap pushing a Suzuki sports bike up hill in the direction of Bodmin maybe still a mile to go. After the generosity shown to us over the previous couple of days we Just couldn’t go past and leave him. So we turned round and stopped to offer help and it appeared that he had just run out of fuel. we said don’t push it anymore I would go back to Bodmin and get him some fuel which we quickly did. The garage we got fuel from lent us a can and we asked the chap to just return it when he went bye the garage and he was soon on his way.

Yet another act of sincerely meant gestures came from another guest and member of the club that I knew only in passing on the odd occasion at club meetings who did take me to one side to enquire and offer finances should we need it to sort our predicament out to get home. Needless to say we have become very firm friends until this very day even though we live 300mls apart currently and really enjoy our putting the world to rights chats but covering mostly motorcycle topics.

We returned home after a great weekend of kindness, help and camararderie way above and beyond what could be expected of people unknown to us which restored into us that human kindness is alive and vowed to pay back at any opportunity if possible in the future. We have since mended punctures, refuelled and towed several riders that just needed that someone to come along and offer help.

Following on from mr previous post i thought it might be of interest to share with you my unremarkable bike history. I say unremarkable because after about 1980 i got hooked almost on a single make whose engineering and innovation was at that time 2nd to none. There were of course other makes that were superbly engineered and innovative but the boxer engined BMWs just caught my imagination. I did at the time did aspire to owning a BMW because they were considerably more expensive than the British motorcycles and the booming Japanese offerings of the day.

The engineering interest was enhanced by my being an engineering apprentice at age 16 to a Company in Ipswich called Reavells. They were manufacturers of compressors and exhausters and their biggest clients were The Royal Navy and British Rail. They had departments covering pretty much all of the engineering skills. I subsequently didn’t follow a career in engineering but retrained as a plumbing and heating engineer.

Ipswich back then was a massive engineering town employing absolutely 1000s of men, women and boys. There was the Famous agricultural engineering Co Ransomes. Famous for its ploughs. Ransomes Sims and Jeffries that made the Dragline Excavation machines, Cocksedge engineers, Cranes famous for making steel pipe fittings and of course Reavells as mentioned before. Sadly all gone now. Nearly all of that workforce went to work on cycles or motorcycles. when that hooter went off at knocking off time the town was a flood of 2 wheeled chaos.

My 1st motorbike or Autocycle aged 13 was a 98cc Excelsior with a Villiers engine. ridden in the garden or on local heathland. Transported there on the drop down boot of the family Standard 8 Car with a blanket between bike and car. I was pretty much left to tear about on the heath on my own while the rest of the family picnicked. That 2 wheeled experience lit a flame that for me has never died. I refer to motorcycling these days as a disease that I never recovered from.

There is a long list of motorcycles owned but the ,obsession with BMWs stands out as I have owned 15 of them since 1980. There have been an assortment of BSAs including 2 B33 500cc one was a 1955 in Maroon (loved that bike) and the other was a 1957 in Black and a 1959 B31 350cc in Green and of course the ubiquitous 150cc Bantam D3. A couple of Yamaha trail bikes, a big Honda 1300 Pan European, couple of Greaves 250cc one of which started life as a trials bike and ended up being a sports bike that my then girlfriend and I embarked on our 1st adventure in 1966 by travelling from Suffolk to Cornwall to stay with relatives. That bike had no lights and a very sporting stance and was quick for its time. That journey of 320miles took 13hrs well before any dual carriageways and motorways. We visit the same relatives today some 59 yrs later and can do it in 6 hours, maybe 7 with a break.

There has been an odd assortment of British things as well including a couple of small Excelsiors, a Francis Barnet, a Trojan Cyclemaster, a nice ( regret selling) Triumph T20s trials bike. in there somewhere were a couple of European bikes namely a175cc OHC Bianchi and a dreadful CZ motocross bike that just had to go before it killed me.

Ive also been privileged to ride but not own pretty much everything from the Japanese manufacturers and Italian Ducati,s.

Ive called this lot unremarkable mostly because I have been blind sided by the BMW disease. Also I have a pal who has owned just over 100 bikes and counting whereas my little tally comes to just 35 owned but have ridden countless other bikes mostly for short journeys or test riding. As I said in my 1st ever blog at 77 yrs old, again unremarkable these days I have loved every minute of it and now with a new shoulder joint can’t wait to carry on riding and fiddling about with the 6 bikes currently owned. Signing off with a big grin on my face.

Well here goes with a little intro as to why.

My name is Rob Day I’m a 77 yrs old motorcyclist that hasn’t been without a motorbike since I was 13 yrs old. I was a builder prior to retirement and having worn out a few of my skeletal bendy bits I have now thanks to the great NHS in the UK a new left shoulder joint to replace the old arthritic one.

Im now laid up for maybe 6 months or more to recover from what is known as Reverse Arthoplasti shoulder replacement, more of that in a bit.

My 2 lovely sons now in their 50s and very computer literate told me who is generally a complete technophobe that while I’m laid up I should write a blog about my experiences of motorcycling and any other old stuff that comes to mind. So here I am with my 1st ever blog. I will make no excuses or apologies for my poor diction or writing skills. What you see or read is what you get.

Back to the shoulder stuff, basically because I am no medic and of the school of too much knowledge of medical stuff is is best left to those that know. However when a surgeon wants to start lopping bits of your joints away to glue in some Titanium and plastic bits as replacements I started to have a serious interest in exactly what that entailed especially the long term consequences. So what the reversed Arthoplasti job means in very simple terms is that the replacement ball of my of upper arm bone, (the Humerus), is now attached to my shoulder and the replacement socket of the shoulder joint, (Gleniod cavity) is attached to my Humerus (Upper Arm Bone). The reasons for reversal was because a I had damaged tendons that couldn’t properly hold the replacement together but the reversal is much more stable being held together with muscle and this gives me the longest pain free outcome after a discussion with my specialist orthopaedic surgeon. My ultimate aim from the outcome is to be able to carry on my absolute passion for riding motorcycles pain free. I have for the last 2 and a bit years been riding with progressive levels of pain to the point that at one stage I was contemplating stopping riding which made me a grumpy old fella for a while.

I have fortunately got some great motorcycling pals and a lifelong expert pillion that I have been married to for 57 yrs that encouraged me to carry on as best I could, which I had done right upto just 3 days before my op, I sneaked in just one last 75ml ride on my old 1978 R80/7 BMW “Harry” the one and only vehicle that i have ever owned that I have given a name to. The first part of its Reg No is ARY it just seemed right to add in a small H and an extra R making HARRY. Yup I know sentimental old Bloke.

I bought this bike 10 years ago as it is the exact same model and colour of the first BMW that I owned back in 1980. Its still a nice old lump to ride, soft, squidgy (The Germans call the old airheads as they are known GUMMI KOO translated as Rubber Cow) and it can still easily keep up with modern traffic conditions and it has none or very little aids to safety that modern motorcycles have by default. Just disc brakes up front and a stop light at the rear so it takes me back to the very basics of motorcycling that I grew up with. In fact its much more refined than most of the British bikes that I grew up with.

That old R80/7 back in 1980 was a revelation for me, it was the first non British motorcycle that i had ever ridden apart from a little 75cc Italian Bianchi that had cable operated gear changing like a Vespa. So the beemer had gear change on the left as all continental bikes had, brakes that worked and electrics that were 12 volt and worked all the time, not like the english 6Volt Lucas Electrics. Its well known that Joseph Lucas was known as the Prince of Darkness.

Well I think that will do for a first ever blog. It won’t always be about motorcycles but a lot of it will inevitably be as during those 64yrs of sheer joy, pain, friendship and wonderful memories of riding socially, semi professionally, sometimes like an idiot, sometimes off road, a tiny bit of track day stuff and mostly touring at home and in Europe and New Zealand. I guess I’ll get round to more it as memories come back to this 16 year old head on a much older chassis. Hope you like it.