Ducati DesertX Fantic Motor Caballero

[audiomick]

Is that better now?

 

[guzzler]

4 hours ago, audiomick said:

I'm almost a little jealous of what you guys could ride at that age. In Victoria, Australia there is no way for a teenager younger than 17 years 9 months to ride anything at all with a motor on the road. At that age, one can (or could when I was that age) get a learners permit. These days I believe it is a power to weight constraint, in my time it was a maximum 250cc motor. That's why the japanese 2-stroke 250cc pocket-rockets sold like hot cakes a few years later. When one turns 18, one can do the driver's license test (car and motorcycle). The constraint remains for at least a year, might be two years now. My first bike was a Suzuki GSX 250 E. I would have sold my granny to get Kawasaki KR 250.

I learned to ride in the paddocks on our farm when I was about 16 on one of these

Just about every farm in the area had one, and they all had a couple of feet of black plastic water pipe strapped, bolted, or wired on to the side away from the exhaust, pointed up at an angle to stick the handle of the shovel into. The shovel was for opening and closing the irrigation channels. The thing doesn't look quite right to me without a shovel sticking up out of the back.

If I remember rightly, ours was red, which may mean it was the "road" model and not a Trail.

G'day mate

We were lucky in NZ in that we could legally ride/drive at 15 and by 15 years and 6 months had a Full license!

We did also fall into the limited to 250cc whilst on a Provisional licence but if you could afford to you could ride anything at 15 and a half!

I couldn't afford a bike till nearly 17 though but was given the family 1952 Morrie Oxford to drive to school and ferry Mum and siblings about at 15 when Dad got a newer Holden!

Bloody hell it was another world back then eh!

Cheers 

Ps we didn't really see many if any of the postie bikes as the cockies  used the Ag bikes from memory...

[audiomick]

43 minutes ago, guzzler said:

Bloody hell it was another world back then eh!

Indeed it was.

43 minutes ago, guzzler said:

Ps we didn't really see many if any of the postie bikes as the cockies  used the Ag bikes from memory...

Yeah, when the Ag bikes came out, they fairly quickly replaced the postie bikes. The Honda had the advantage that it was dirt cheap, indestructable, and ran on the smell of an oily rag. But for following a herd of milking cows down a muddy lane, it wasn't really the optimal weapon of choice. Even the "Trail" version. The only real difference to what the posties rode was that it had nobby tyres on it.

When my dad bought the AG100, he actually got it registered and bought a helmet. I reckon he thought he could use it to whip in to town and stuff like that. Thing is, the bike was flat knacker at about 80 kays. I grew up in this house

https://www.google.de/maps/place/Cobram+Victoria+3644,+Australien/@-36.0113031,145.6649717,195m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x6b20ad39d2ab550d:0x40579a430a08b40!8m2!3d-35.919227!4d145.6395916!16zL20vMDY5bTFq

Zoom out a bit, and notice the abundence of curves.

That means, "whipping in to town" on the AG100 meant about 12 km. in pretty much a dead straight line on a little 2-stroke which was screaming its head off, and not all that comfortable for a bloke about 6' tall.

I don't think he renewed the rego after the first year. The second year at the most.

 

Nevertheless, an anecdote:

When the AG100 was still fairly new, dad rode it in to town to the Cobram Agricultural Show. I think he was involved in the organisational commitee. That year, there was a Police Formation Riding Squad at the show. Dad got to talking with one of the riders. The Scout Hall was (is?) on the edge of the Showgrounds, and there was a log in front of that lying on the ground. No idea why it was there, but I reckon it was about 2 1/2 feet high. If I remember rightly, the conversation got around to what the AG 100 was capable of, and the Police Squad rider demonstrated how it was possible to ride it over the log.

[docc]

On 5/4/2023 at 10:56 AM, Joe said:

Very entertaining FortNine....

 

 

 

13 minutes ago, audiomick said:

 . . .  I reckon it was about 2 1/2 feet high. If I remember rightly, the conversation got around to what the AG 100 was capable of, and the Police Squad rider demonstrated how it was possible to ride it over the log.

I declare this drift "back on topic" . . . 

[Joe]

2 minutes ago, docc said:

 

I declare this drift "back on topic" . . . 

FortNine’s sarcastic style is hilarious. 

[guzzler]

Ha ha 

She's a rival for the Great Ocean Road eh....!

I hear ya about the wee bugger screaming it's head off!

My Van Van ( RV 75 ) was all done and dusted by about 90 if I remember correctly?

Cheers 

Ps actually what I didn't realise then was that this was quite a rare bike.The 50/90 and 125 were common as muck but the 75 was very rare! There was another in CHCH bought by an old schoolmate though so that made 2 of us buzzing round the burbs in 76.....

 

[LowRyter]

My first bike was a Scrambler like this 

 

[audiomick]

I think that might be very closely related to the Honda 90 that I mentioned. Maybe a precursor.