More Memories (if anyone is interested)

Greetings from the other side of the North Sea, and an early Merry Christmas to any readers.
I have finally managed to bludgeon my computer into obeying me after it decided to stop me posting to the Blog last year.
After my hospital stay last November I have been told I have septic arthritis of the right hip and it will need replacing in due course, which will cause problems using a kick starter until then. Already, I have discomfort just sitting on the MZ. Since it is most improbable that the Morini will ever be repaired (though Hannah is sniffing around) I have been thinking of getting another (big) bike in due course.
This time I decided to go for electric start and shaft drive, after the starting and chain problems with the Morini.
Seeing a few of you seemed to think I was a BMW person I looked at the latest range but was repelled by the styling. I then looked at the Guzzi range and discovered they are shortly going to bring out a model with the Breva engine but ‘old fashioned’ styling.
But back to the past: At this stage I must point out that the joys of motorcycling far outweighed the occasional downsides.
The Velocette Venom Clubman which was purchased in 1973 proved to be a pig’s ear in some respects. I discovered that it was disastrously over geared (cured with the correct sized gearbox sprocket). Also, some bodger in its past had removed the bob weights from the ATD before welding it up solid, adding a prong to connect up with a Triumph rev counter gearbox. This I discovered going to the Great Yarmouth rally when the fibre teeth stripped. The RAC guy said ‘your fibre wheel’s teeth have stripped’, I said ‘I (should) have a steel wheel since I have manual advance\retard’?
Slightly later I went to Rolvenden in Kent to visit the three old ladies in whose house in London I had been born in 1950. The valve lifter Bowden cable broke trying to start the beast! Having got it started and having visited “Aunties Thorne’ I set out for home. It was a beautiful night with a full moon and I noticed the lights were failing. A quick check proved the dynamo was turning but it was also plain that the ‘fuzz’ would stop me if I tried to get home in SE London without lights. Luckily my sister lived quite close by and I spent the night there. The next morning Peter, my engineer brother-in-law, looked at the electrics with me and it became plain that one of the wires soldered to the VR had detached. By now, some of the cognoscenti will be thinking, the Velocette has lucar connectors to its VR. Not this one (snigger)! The bodger had struck again!
Eventually, the engine and electrics were returned to ‘bog’ standard and by dint of much work, only one oil leak remained. (Plaintively) Can anyone seal the tin primary chain case of a Velo single?
After the Fulmar fragged itself for the second time (the flywheel rim and boss tend to disassociate) I bought my first MZ 150, followed by another one after a few months when the first one telescoped itself against a car that turned right against the lights at a crossing.
After two years the lack of power started to grate, though it did go to the Elephant Rally in 1974 with a gaggle of old Brit bikes with sidecars, which included a very old Ariel twin which could run on paraffin. They had run out of petrol some miles short of Dover and only had paraffin! The ES150 was p/x’ed for a MZ 250 Sport which once went to Spain (and back). While in Spain some light-fingered dago stole the filler cap. The MZ filler cap has a measuring cup underneath for the oil and its lack was a sore trial going back to England, as there are no MZ dealers in Spain from which to get a new one.
Later that year I was visiting a MZ dealer in Thornton Heath where I saw an Indian Enfield 350 Bullet with only a few miles on the clock. I sold the MZ and bought the Bullet.
Bad mistake. The tale of woe and tribulation that followed was recounted in a letter to Motorcycle Sport in February 1982.
Having disposed of the (insert derogatory term) Enfield yet another MZ came along, this time a 125 Alpine. This one, though small, was capable of a sustained 60-65 MPH and returned almost 100 mpg. It lasted about 30,000 miles until late 1981 when it was replaced by the first MZ ETZ250 Luxus to be sold in England, well it’s worth having a least one record!
Hannah was born in 1988 and on the morning of her Christening day a new ETZ engine was supplied by my dealer, as the old engine had had several failures, main bearings followed by big end. I fitted the engine that morning before getting cleaned up for the Baptism.
After the engine was carefully run in the bike was stolen! Someone must have been sneaking around checking on the milometer reading.
If anyone is interested in other posts detailing mainly the disasters experienced by myself, please reply to this post. If not, ?.