Hang on, just wiping a tear from my eye! So enjoyed your video. First bike I owned when I turned 16, was a brand new, purple FS1E. I had to stare at it sitting in our garage for a month, until my 16th birthday and my first ride. I was a diehard Yamaha guy, I owned an RD125, followed after passing my test, by an RD250 and finally an RD400, all air cooled 2 strokes. That was more than 45 years ago, seems like yesterday. Wish I’d kept them all, I’ve just the photographs now. Happy days.
I had an rd250f, 350b and a 400f all air-cooled, I had two lc 250s and an lc 350 and a dt175mx on the road and 175dt mx on the track..... happier days 😊
I still love the styling of 1970's & early 80's bikes. In fact prefer the look over what came later. Performance, Handling & reliability is something else though
This takes me back to 1976 when I bought a brand new Suzuki AP50 at 16 years old. I got it because everyone else had a fizzy. It was a great bike and as my parents would allow me to have one I saved up and bought it myself. It cost me £225 brand new. How i survived I don’t know but I’m still going on bigger bikes at 63 I wouldn’t change anything other than keeping every single bike I’ve had, they’d be worth a fortune now
Andrew we are kindred spirits same age and same bike. Bought mine P registration for $225 pounds in Hayes outside London. Regularly did 50mph and put over 10,000miles on it. Sold it to a buddy’s girlfriend friend a year later so I could buy a Honda 175cc
Exactly the same as me , bought my AP50 in March 1976 just turned 16 , got it from Trevor Goodalls a Suzuki main dealer in Didcot Oxfordshire , had 2 months left at school then that boiling hot summer .....halcyon days indeed , i owned many bikes after that went through a race bike phase then a Harley phase now got a Yamaha T Max 500 best bike i'v ever owned .
It was brutally hot that year Was in whales with my parents, you couldn’t walk bare foot on the sand Would have preferred to be buzzing around on your puch I think
As a 16 year old Brit in 1976, I can assure you that the AP-50 could achieve 63 mph. All you needed was a very steep hill, riding down it with a death wish, which was common behaviour for that age with first bike. 1997, place the Leaner plates on a 250cc and carry on. Sometimes I wonder how most of us survived, but it was a blast !!
Must be a very steep hill, never got near that on mine I have to say. My sons 50cc scooter could but was much modified it must be said. 60 would have felt bloody fast on one of those things mind
AP50's were generally quicker than fizzies due to the 5speed gearbox. I had both, and whilst the fizzie went around corners better, the AP was definitely quicker in a straight line. Unfortunately my AP ended it's life burrowed into the side of a brown Mk1 Ford escort. (Hence buying a fizzie).
Pushed a friends AP50 as hard as I could with a GT550. Could not get above 58 mph until he pulled his clutch in. Then managed over 80. The engine was just acting as a brake. I previously had an FS1E as my first bike, and I would say that the AP50 was a better bike than the FS1E, by a very small margin, in just about every department.
Great vid. For me it was the Puch VZ50, they we're sort of nerdy but went well. The AP was great, very underated except to those more into the bike scene rather than fashion. Fizzys and SS tended to be owned by kids who's parents had bought them. The one everyone really wanted was either the Puch M50 or the Garelli X. Cheers brought back a few memories.
I had a new yellow Honda SS50ZB in 77’ (around the £350 mark) it was 100% reliable and as you said fuel economy was out of this world, I had a 25mile round trip to work each day, never let me down once, I even took it green laning, trips to wales up to see friends, slipstreaming coaches on the A5 to Telford 🙈 then my brother-in-law took it off my hands and used it to commute to the Land Rover works for quite a few years, poor thing was crashed and bashed on a regular basis , it then lay in a shed for years before my sister gave it to the scrap man 🤦🏻♂️ I think the Reg was RUK767R or similar , happy days 😁
Had an FS1E, but always wanted the Gilera 50 trials. Surprised it didn't feature on here as I saw more of those than the German peds. The Gilera was simply beautiful.
I had both an AP50 and a fizzie when I was 16. Both had pedals. I have never ever seen either the Zundapp or Kreidler bikes at all. However I did see quite a number of Fantic, Gilera and Puch machines. It's a shame they weren't included
This takes me back. Around 46 years, to be precise, when I was a spotty 16 year-old. Never been into motorbikes (and my parents wouldn't allow it, anyway), but everyone lusted over an FS1-E. Occasionally, friends would let me ride their Yamahas. Another friend, who was tall and looked stupid on a FS1-E (his father was also quite well off) had a Fantic Caballero. This was a bit higher and more suitable for taller people. Ah, memories ....
I remember the Fantic caballero's some kids had them & ( at the time) they looked absolutely huge, with a tiny engine & a 6 speed box with an incredibly close ratio gearbox.
@@merlin5476 sound expensive don’t they Think this is why I waited a year and started on road on a 125, once the 30mph limit came in I couldn’t see the point. Oh and I didn’t have any money and poor parents so something like a Fantic at 16 would be a fantasy for me
It always seems strange to me that the fizzys make so much money these days .Yes there were loads of them but they weren’t very quick and didn’t even look like a motorbike ,with the motor canted a long way forward and no down tubes on the frames.The ap50 was quicker but looked even worse.I was 16 in 1978 & virtually everyone I knew bought July 77 or earlier derestricted Italian peds-fantic gt’s,ti’s,or caballeros.garelli tiger crosses,or the gilera trail 50.All looked like proper bikes and were way faster than a fizzy,with the exception of the gilera that was about the same.
My first " bike" as a 16 year old in 1976 was a brand new yellow Yamaha FS1 DX, almost 50mph downhill flat on the tank with my feet on the back pegs.lol...the start of nearly 40 years of biking for me on a variety of off and on road to sports bikes ,from yamaha,kawasaki,honda and suzuki...from 50cc to 1000cc..loved every minute of every bike...rain or shine...lovin your nostalgic videos mate 😊👍👍👍
I'm nearly 62. My first road going bike was a Fizzy. It was pre registered so that it was a moped ie had pedals. If I'd waited until my 16th Birthday to buy it would have come without pedals but would have been restricted to 30mph. I wanted the earlier version which would do 52mph down a hill and keep up with my mates AP50.
When I got my SS50 in 1974 it was £210 and the FS1E was a little cheaper but an extra tenner for indicators. Those early gold ones were beautiful, 2 of the lads at school got them. Ours was the 1st year to have to stay on for a 5th year at school. The slightly younger one threatened to beat the other one up if he brought the Fizzie to school when he turned 16
We called them Fizzers. I left school in ‘74, and got a vacation job for the summer at the company where I was due to start my aircraft engineering apprenticeship in December. I had a nice Carlton Corsa race bike, so I caught the bus to the training school over the winter, and waited until I was 17 in the following May when I got a 1968 C50 (a ‘granddad bike’ according to my mates), thus bypassing the moped era and the extra costs. Many of those mates were paying off their Fizzers and SS50s for years on the never never, whereas I bought my C50 from a local evening paper advert, with the cash I’d saved from my summer job. And in a flat out race (over a straight mile with a long sweeping corner at the end), partially due to the mild tuning I did to the engine, I beat a lad on his Fizzer, for a bet - which the little creep refused to pay up! The whole world was a different place back then, and we were different people too. Ride safe
@Trafficsnitch. All along was under the impression under 17 you could not ride anything other than a moped 50cc or under and it had to have pedals! this was mid 1970s.
Great memories , I had a Honda SS50 5 speed with the disc brake in yellow brand new in 1976 , just about killed it in a year , a friend helped strip it down to have a rebore done at Mores in Hemel Hempstead . Probably the most miles I’ve put on a 2 wheeler in all the years I’ve been riding in a year somewhere between 6 and 7000 miles . I paid around £250 on the road all my savings, paper rounds , washing cars and other jobs but still think that was one of my favourite years racing around with friends .
Enjoyed that thanks for taking the time to put it together. The FS1E was the one to have amongst 16 year old daredevils with more daring than skill at that time, saw a good number of them crashed beyond repair.A friend of mine had a Garelli Tiger Cross which was a lovely looking little cycle and an object of envy.
s@@bikerdood1100 That's why I watched your vid but never mind. I had a couple of Garelli Tiger Cross' in yellow/black ( to N and a few P plates available) also an Agrati Garelli (available to R plate 1977) in black & red. Faster than all the rest until the RD50 came out & some lads derestricted them.
Brought back memories when I got my new Fizzie in 77, pre-restricted. I can remember riding it all day until midnight, then rode home and sat in the garage with it, I loved it. A mate got a Casal, a Portuguese make, it looked hideous, sounded dreadful and wasn't a cool bike. Another mate got a Fantic Supersix, that was very cool and would do about 60mph.
A trip to Holland in the 1970s made me crave a Kreidler or Zundapp. Unrestricted they were genuinely quick, and in racing trim could do over 100mph. There's at least one more episode where you could feature Italian, French and Eastern European super mopeds.
I had an ex race bike , a Ducati 50 SL2 that had been registered as a moped . Piston ported cylinder , Boranni alloy rims , Dunlop trigonic race tyres full expansion chamber and 6v battery lights . Capable of nearly 90 mph .
@@georgerobartes2008 sounds great, but how long did it last? Or rather, eat pistons and conrods... What I can recall, Italian bikes did not often have an air cleaner on, toe curling...
@@paulh.5691The engine featured in Cesare Bossaglias book '2 Stroke High Performance Tuning' of 1968 for its design features along with the Parilla kart engines he designed . The engine had a cylinder with hard chrome bore which lasted indefinitely , but had standard spares of course . Modifying standard cylinders to race spec meant a trip to the local friendly dentist ( friends Dad) to use his drill . The pistons were fitted with ' Dyke ' L section rings ,seals etc., and were readily available mail order from Mick Walker Motorcycles in Cambridgeshire after the dealer in Walthamstow dried up . The use of castor oil in the premix was a must back then as no synthetics were available . No crank issues whatsoever as it never ran a flywheel to load out the bearings , just a balance and ignition trigger with battery CD ignition . I had been building racing engines for some time before I could legally ride in the UK so had the kit to modify this and other engines etc. , plus I used school equipment during Metalwork later Technology classes to split cranks , O ring cylinder heads and machine up parts as needed . Your correct , the carburettor was a 20 mm Dellorto with horizontal throttle body , vertical float chamber and a simple ram pipe , tuned to length . The bike was slow compared to GP bikes by Honda , Suzuki and Kriedler in the early/ mid 70s , and peaky with poor acceleration but amazing handling and grip made up for this as bends could be taken much faster than anything else on the road and great fun .
Wow, good times! I had a Fizz, a Gilera, a Garelli Tiger Cross and a Honda SS50 five speed, my birthday was the latest in our "gang" so I was the last to be 17 and I bought their mopeds when they all went for the brand new Superdreams. Now I own a 1980 SOHC CB650 Custom, an 82 SOHC CB650 Nighthawk, a 92 750 Zephyr and a 2001 Royal Enfield 500 Bullet which I can no longer bloody start as its kick start only and I'm knackered.
I had an AP50, back in 78/79, what I liked about the AP50 was it felt more like a proper bike, to me the FS1E and SS50 felt like sitting astride a garden gate. I fitted a recon crank after one of the main bearings spun - a common problem I believe, fixed on the replacement crank by a knurl where the bearings are pressed on.
I had the SS50 Honda, gutless as you like but I later found out they were actually restricted by the use of a long throttle slide- when you thought it was fully open it was actually only 3/4s 😬 all you had to do was cut off the excess (there was a groove round the slide to guide) et voila you could keep up with the 2 strokes. If only I'd know at the time...
Without any warning the UK abruptly raised the motorcycle licensing age from 16 to 17 around Christmastime in the1970s. Before the change you could get your bike provisional license at 16 and ride anything up to 250cc with a provisional license. (That's how I started -- a gutless 125cc 'Bantam'.) After the change you had a lot of demand for 'mopeds' that were really highly tuned 50cc bikes that turned out a respectable 6-8 bhp through a five of six speed box. Clouds of the things -- they became quite a menace. (FWIW when our daughter started riding in the US we found that once she'd passed an off road basic skills course and a theory exam she could get a provisional license at 15 and a half -- with no capacity limit. She actually started on my old V50 Guzzi before 'borrowing' my SV650. You don't have to try so hard on a bigger bike so they're a lot safer.)
I was caught out by this, my mate got his bike licence on his 16th birthday in October, by my 16th in December the same year I could only have a moped. He had a James 150 and a Greaves 250 trials bike and I could only have a Puch and a Honda PC50. It didn’t stop me riding his bikes on occasions though, off the public highway of course.
I live in Holland and used to have a 50cc Yamaha Enduro in the early 80s. Souped it up with a 70cc crome cilinder and a 19mm DelOrto carb, good for 100 kmh +, for on the bicycle paths in Holland! Police in those days were pretty forgiving. Had to replace all the bearings every 2-3 months. It was so noisy that people next to me waiting for the lights used to cover their ears. Used to go on roadtrips to Antwerp (from Eindhoven) with a couple of pals (Yamaha FS1, Honda MT, Zundapp KS50). All used to come to my (Dad's) house and tinker. Great times! Wish I still had it. There were a couple of automatics too, like the Vespa Ciao and the Puch Maxi, also 50cc but automatic and much smaller. Very easy to soup up (a friend had and still has a Puch Maxi that does 95kmph)but really dangerous at speed. Thanks for the vid to my carefree past!😄 Cheers Ian.
I could only afford a 4 speed SS50, but the bike that always impressed me was the Suzuki AP50. It must have made an impression because I went on to own several bigger suzuki's since.
I later choices of bikes are often inspired that way. I had a book as a young guy with a Guzzi lemans in it, I’ve spent most of my life on Guzzi’s as a result
I was given my father’s 5 gear SS50 for my 16th birthday. Yes, it was slower than all the unrestricted 2 stroke mopeds, but it ran like a sewing machine and never once let me down despite being relegated to my winter bike after passing my test and using my savings to by an RD200. Got dropped several times and the only part that actually failed was the clutch lever.
@@NotALot-xm6gz well the Honda was built with economical reliable running in mind. I think without a doubt the most important thing I’ve learned in the decades of riding is that it’s much better to stay onboard the thing. And falling of really hurts Oh and it’s expensive to repair them sometimes
I found my younger brother's 5 sp SS50 was perfect for winter riding, while my Triumph cafe racer was laid up in the warm & dry. Especially on those icy roads where you slid down the camber and rode in the gutter. The cool kids at senior school rode the Garelli 50 GT.
Can remember being at school in the 80's. The Fizzy' was the bike of choice (if you could afford one). After school there was the 3 oclock 'scream' as they all went out the parking area flat chat.... 🤣🤣
@@bikerdood1100 I had to wait too!. Ended up with a BSA Bantam D3 150cc non runner for 80 quid that Dad and I 'rebuilt'. Still have it, although in pieces awaiting a proper resto!. 🤣 Great bike to learn on.
Agree that the Yam and Honda were classics. Kreidlers were rare, Zundapps even rarer, and Suzuki were too late to the party. Other classic peds included Fantics, Garelli Rekords, Malagutis, Gileras, Puch M50s, and my own Casal K190.
When I was 14/15 around 1978 my friend and I went half’s in a AP 50 Puch for 15 quid It was rubbish but we where kids and we would ride that bike up and down the beach and sand dune at Marske-by -sea having a ball. It would break down push it home fix it and back again to the beach. Those days are long gone. Brings tears to my eyes remembering those days.
You missed my start to get on the road A few when still at school had the Suzuki and Yamaha I was very very lucky to get a Puch Grand Prix Special or John Player Special as we called it. and I loved it Great video thanks for the upload and memories Thanks
Because i new sod all about engines i bought the Honda ss50 in 1975. It cost 78 pence in fuel to ride from West Yorkshire to Porthmadog in North Wales and it took me 12 hours. The engine would overheat and just stop, which was a bit scary for a sixteen year old miles from home. When i turned 17 and one big learning curve later i baught a Suzuki GT 250 B. Later a had a Suzuki GT 750 B (kettle) i was hooked on strokers for quite a while. Great video thanks for making it.
Beautiful mopeds I must say. We had here in the 70ties in Amsterdam a Kreidler shop with the latest model on a turning plateau with spotlights on it. In that time it wil cost about 2500 guilders.
Great video. Like you I started off on a Suzuki AP50. My local dealer, LLoyd Brothers in Hamilton, had purchased a huge stock of mopeds prior to the rule changes and pre-registered them. This meant I was able to get a brand new, unrestricted AP50 when I turned 16 in 1978. For some reason nearly every guy in my Geography class at school had a sports moped. I remember one day we all brought them in and lined them up side by side on the road outside. There were about 17 AP's, Fsie's and SS's lined up - quite a site.
@@keithquestedelectrical9785 well some one is because they aren’t mine . Well alert from the Yamaha at the beginning and end of the video and that was a full on 100ccs
Left school in 1978, started work straight away in a local factory, my brand new AP50 got me there and back every day without a fault, plus all my happy little jolly rides out. when i hit 17 i took a hacksaw to the copper tube in the exhaust pipe that regulated me to 30mph. my fizzy friends weren't happy. loved that little bike.
I had a Fizzy when I was 16 back in ‘77. Absolutely loved that bike. One occasion I visited my gran in Blackpool about 50 miles away. Was almost frozen to the bike by the time I got home. Happy days.
Memories came flooding back watching this. My paper round, Saturday job & apprentice pay didn't allow me to get any of these 70's peds after I left school in 1972. Instead I had to make do with an old 1950-60's NSU Quickly which I pulled out of a scrap yard & got going. I had a two seat 3 speed model. It went OK but compared to the others shown here it was pretty slow. I only had it for a few months before I passed my test & 4 wheels took over my life. One moped that wasn't shown here that a mate of mine (or his parents) bought new in 1972 was a Puch VS50 Sport. He had a canary yellow one & really struggled with it cos he was 6'4"!! Just as he got the Puch we all got rid of our peds & got cars. He followed soon after.
I still have a few old mopeds. 1x Zündapp GTS 50 from 1978, a Zündapp GTS 50 from 1981 and a Puch Maxi S Spezial from 1982. every time I go back in time when I ride one of the mopeds again. and then the smell of mixing lubrication, delicious 👌🏻😊
Fizzy for me. Got one with a bit of tuning to it (skimmed head), got 52mph on straights, head down, and about 65 with a tailwind downhill. Had an expansion pipe, dropped bars and an extra large rear tyre - I was king of the road man.
FS1E- DX for me and i loved it and my first real taste of independence and freedom. Out with my mates, going fishing with rods strapped to it, lots of happy memories. Wish i still had it now
4:38 100 km/hr takes me back to the 70s after changed rear sprocket ratio. We used to get more torque from removing the head gasket, porting the exhaust, more head skimming and then switching to 4* fuel when head too much skimmed, or get hole burned in piston. Such fun
@@bikerdood1100 yes, going up hills and leaving all the other 50s behind, SS50s always were first left behind. After sooping up you had to change the sprockets to stop the engine screaming 15000 rpm in top
My first and only brand new bike was a 1982 Honda mb5 . I've never seen any of the bikes featured in this video and I was surprised to see the liquid cooled one . I don't know why but I like these little bikes as much as I do the 125s or 250s . There aren't any small bikes besides the grom here in the states and all that means is fewer beginner riders which is a tragedy . I'm amazed that in all of your videos you say mph instead of kph . At any rate per the norm you've knocked another one out of the park . I very much enjoy watching the content you produce and I don't know how you find such pristine examples of the bikes that you feature . Excellent work ❤
40 years ago my first bike was a Honda MT5, I don't think it was available in the US, in the UK both models were restricted to 30MPH, I managed to tune mine up a bit so that it did around 45MPH. Last year I decided to buy a basket case of an MT5, I've rebuilt it and applied all my 2 stroke tuning 'know-how' just to see what I could get out of the bike. Even with my 13 stone sat on it I'm getting 55MPH out of it on the flat which I'm pleased with! (it has taken a lot of work to get this sort of speed out of it)
31 years ago my first bike was a W reg Honda MB5, every penny I got was thrown at her, before I turned 16 I had the standard cylinder bored out to the limit with paper thin walls. Up jetted, bean can micron and K&N, she would sit under 50 on the very bouncy speedo. That lasted a month and the crank bearing collapsed. Chucked a 2nd hand engine in her ( £25 ) from the local bike breakers that came with a proper 65 kit. Different animal now with a proper power band, this lasted me for months until a car pulled out on me and I went superman. Next was the MT5, dropped a H100 engine in with all the 50s electrics. Honestly don’t know how many times I flipped her. These were some of the best days of my life, still got the knee scars to prove it.
No the MT 5 was never available in the states to my knowledge . And it's so sad your bikes were restricted to 30mph . My MB would do 55 mph from the factory 60 if I laid down and the wind was to my back . Back then our interstate system had a 55mph limit rather than today's 70mph . I took that bike as far as 200 miles away from home in all directions. And I too still have scars on my knees from practicing stopping fast . One time I pulled the front brake a little to hard and she washed out . I put a smaller back sprocket on it after I wore the original one out and top speed was 60 to 65 mph with a slower take off . Such fond memories. Thanks for sharing yours with me . Todays temp is supposed to reach 70° farenhight. I definitely need to put a few miles on my 750 aero to keep the battery charged . No plans on laying it down 😆
@@charliepatterson9321 I have always felt that 45 to 50 mph is an absolute minimum. 30 is just plain dangerous and was definitely the concept of a non biker
I could cry my eyes out . I had an ss50. Ap50. And fizza dx . Also an old bogger c 50 with a 70cc engine in it . Back in 1986-87 . Wish I had kept them now 😢😢
My First bike was a 50cc moped Puch Maxi . I used to ride it everywhere,but especially to college. They used to laugh at me,but I had the last laugh, because I didn't have to wait for the bus and I got home first.Alot of boys ended up buying them . Took us 3 hours to ride from Port Talbot to Tenby in south Wales.on all the minor roads .allways carried a bottle of 2 stroke oil . My Puch moped ended up catching on fire as I rode home through Briton Ferry .A real hot rod 🤣 my plastic leggings were on fire ,I thought I could smell something burning. I put out the fire , repaired the bike and sold it. I then went on to buy my first proper motorcycle a Honda CB 125 which I passed my test on . Motorcycles have been a massive part of my life ,I'm on my 10 th bike now .I have travelled the world on them . from 16 years old to today almost 67 years. Great times , great memories and friends and wonderful experiences
Fizzy! Yeah!! Got mine for a tenner from this kid couldn't get it going. Took it to Maitland racing. They could not get it running either. Anyway,got myself a workshop manual and managed to work out the reed valve was the culprit. Great fun I had with it.Mates Chris Pedro and his AP50. Tom Pollard with a Puch Maxi.Vince McGann with his crappy Tomos!...Them the days lol!
I had an AP50 in 1982. It cost me the princely sum of £200 and I loved it! Most of my mates had fizzies (which I never liked), although there was another AP50 and a Puch Grand Prix in our crowd. Happy days!
Had a Honda SS50 in 1977, and it was slow compared to all my fellow apprentices who all had the 2 strokes. However, I only needed 50p worth of fuel each week though!! Happy days indeed. Great video bikerdood, thanks.
@@stevieb9699 but the 2 strokes had to stop for petrol more often aswell, the furthest I rode mine was about 250 miles. My mate had family in Sussex so we rode there from East anglia. Because we could use the motorways it took ages, especially when we encountered a hill!
I left school in '79, and passed my art exam with a painting of my mates FS1E. Just seeing it, and the Suzuki, along with the Jam and the Stranglers reminds me of back then.
lol at 62 years age i am still in love with the Fs1 of my youth. compared to the competition it was in a league of its own in many ways it is still something i meassure mechanical things up against. ahh and the girls ocupying the rearseating ... oh youth had i only known how fast you would be gone ;-)
Ah. FS1E...I can smell it just by looking at it. Many a fantastic days riding. And mine was in purple. I had purple go fast stripes painted on my crash helmet. 😊 Good days. 😊
I had the Honda SS50z back in the day, I didn’t want to be the same as everyone else with the FS1e. Only problem I ever had was the metal spar plug cap, in wet weather the rain got inside and the spark was lost. Soon changed that for rubber and off I went. Mum went mad when I bought a leather motorbike jacket for £60 (most lads road in their Harrington jackets) but liked it after I got knocked off the bike by a car, just a few scratches to the leather none on me lol
I had an AP 50 which I purchased for £30 with a seized piston head. After a new piston and a rebore it was a wonderful introduction to motorbikes and so much more than my first moped, a Honda Camino! I agree it was a more civilised bike and no need to get messy with mixing oil in the petrol as per the Yamaha. I just wish I’d kept it!!!! Sold it to some spotty 16 year old who I’m convinced smashed it up that year….. I recall paying Norwich Union some tiny amount for third party insurance on it. Happy days….,
16 years old in 1975, got my moped from Rumbelows in Hartlepool, it was a Casal. £200 and freedom, loads of us young lads had mopeds, Puch, Gilera, Suzuki etc. Great times.
Great video - my teenage years. It would be great if you do another with the mopeds we (in Bristol) were mainly screaming around on mid 70s.: Garelli Rekords and Tiger Crosses, Puchs, Gileras and Fantics. Cheers.
1976 I was 16. Had a job straight out of school bought a second hand Honda SS50. For some unknown reason it was almost as nippy a my mates FS1E. There was at least 10 or more of us. Everyone I knew had a 50cc. Mostly Fizzies and a couple of APs. One of my mates had a fantic trials bike. It was probably the nicest looking 50cc of its day and it could shift. I was dead jealous. Had my bike for almost a year before a taxi driver decided to pull out on me write my bike off and put me in hospital for a week. Got a decent insurance payout and to my mum's horror went out and bought a brand new Suzuki ts185. Those were the days. Every spare minute we had we were out with our mates seeing places mixing and socialising, making memories. Kids these days haven't got a clue. You can stick your play station.
Most surprised not to see any Italian 'peds in the list . They were the most common around where I lived . Fantics being the number one make ( a moped chopper anyone ? ) then Garelli . Got beat by a Fantic GT on the Ewell bypass whilst riding my KH250 , it desperately needed a decoke . Happy days .
I couldn’t afford a fizzie or sports moped in 1974 all my mates could, so I bought a brand new Bonny orange Honda PC50 £99.00 on the road or £2.50 a week on the book. Ok it didn’t do 40mph but it sat at 30mph all day so I kept up. Standard It had no ignition, no indicators, no brake light, it hated hills, I loved it and today I have a absolutely mint baby blue one in my collection which I’ve owned for 20 years, it cost me £600 and I still pop out on it and I love it, it draws a crowd wherever it goes.
I had what must now be a very rare bike. It was a red Malagutti Olympique. It was always a bit faster than my mates fizzie and susuki. I remember them seizing their engines trying to keep up.
The good thing about the FS1-E was the perfect location of the ignition key for other car drivers . If a kiddie racer on one pulled up next to you at the lights revving the engine and wanting to race , you could always reach out and switch the ignition off .
I got my biue AP 50 for fifty quid, it was my first bike and I loved it. It didn't have a gear lever and was stuck in third gear and pulled away with no problems. When I got a gear lever I had a knocking from the gearbox and and had it repaired. After that it ran well and was a very reliable little bike. Wish I kept it now but traded it in for my first real bike, my Yamaha RD200 bright orange it was and very fast! AHH the good old days.😥
My mates had them all back in the 70's. I rode a Gilera 50 roadster. My 6ft 3" mate had an SS50 and looked ridiculous. But it was fun times screaming around flat out 😂😂😂
Zündapps came rarely ever with liquid cooling, mostly the ones that were rated motorcycles, not mopeds. And as for Kreidlers, those were my favorite and also plentiful, 40+ years ago in The Netherlands. Thank you for posting!
I went from Newport in Shropshire to Buckley in Kent on my ss 50 when sixteen .. took me 8 hours on the A5 stopping at most cafes as it was cold autumn .. went through London ( nightmare ) burnt out an exhaust valve on return journey .. happy days
My one and only moped was a 1972 Puch, pressed steel frame, pedals, 2 gallon tank, 55mph, scooter type on the bars gear change,. wheelie at traffic lights if you sat too far back on the seat, 90 mpg pump mix, lot of smoke, did not go long before exhaust blocking. Had it for 6 months then Honda CB125 for test, then Suzuki T500 with drum brakes. (My fastest lap of IOM, 1977, T500, standard road bike, open road, 37 mins. Impossible now due to extended speed limits)
My first ride on a motorcycle was my grandads Raleigh Runabout in 1968. Then I bought a Honda 50 later that year. It was one year old and cost 60 quid. They were 100 quid brand new.
