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Brother just sent me a picture of me on my first bike

I actually didn’t have it that long. I sold it and bought an old, to me, Suzuki TM125.
That was one of the scariest bikes I’ve ridden.
A bit like your apple tree, ‘someone’ grabbed hold of my bars when I was flat out on a straight. It started tank slapping and spat me off. Two stitches in my elbow and a massive telling off from my mum….
 
I love old pics! I have five. 1975 me in my basement shop working on a beat up SL350. My friend sitting on my finished SL350. My brother riding my Tote Gote (1967) Me pulling a wheelie on my 68 Harley Rapido. Finally, me with my Rapido and 64-1/2 mustang, just turned 17, 1969. What a summer it was!IMG_0852.JPG1975 friend showing off finished honda sl359.JPG7-3-2008_006.JPGChip 1969.jpgChip 1969 Bike & Car.jpg
 
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Great old pics there. If I was your brother, I'd have been smiling my butt off then on that Tote Goat. I got bounced through 4 different states in those years (3 junior high schools, 3 high schools) but managed to get a first ride on a RuppRoadster then my Minitrail 70 (avatar pic).
 
The Gote was a powerful scoot. Four aspects one had to be aware of. 1.) Worm gear drive. The Gote did not coast. Cut the throttle and you slow down NOW! I wiped out several times. 2.) Crossing rivers. Get the variable clutch wet, like crossing a stream, gives a new meaning to "dead in the water". 3.) Run out of gas? Can't push it home. 4.) The Gote would carry a rider with ease, but the muffler ran under the rear carrier so hot butt rider without a cushion. I let the bike go after 30 years, but I have all the documentation like the title, accessory price list and the original order to ship from Provo, Utah. I contend if one could secure the Gote to a tree, it would climb it.

Somewhere in my picture collection is my very first custom bike, a Honda 50. I entered it into a cycle show at 14 years old. Pretty crude it was, but I had a lot of fun with it. The pictures I don't have is my first ride at 8 years old driving my brothers Cushman, my mini-bikes and a thrill of a lifetime was at 13 years old, an older kid who lived nearby let me ride down my dead-end street on his Electra-Glide. Bikes have always been in my life, one way or another. I too got bounced around a bit. The biggest shock was moving to Brazil in 62 at 10 years old and coming home in 64 at 12 years old. We traveled a lot. At 12 years old, I was an adult. As so it seemed.
 
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