Page 42 - Motorcycle Trader (February 2020)

DOUG FRASER

The bike you see here wasn’t
actually my first love. That honour
goes to a lairy Malaguti 50 I saw
at 16 in a long-gone Elizabeth
Street bike shop in Melbourne but
couldn’t afford. After that came
an ill-considered fling with a
Maicoletta, an early maxi-scooter
that I wish I had now. I couldn’t get
it to run at the time and that was
my bike money gone for the next
few years.
And Angela (no surviving
pictures, sorry) wasn’t actually my
first girlfriend. In fact, by strict
definition, she wasn’t my girlfriend
at all. We had a lovely, cuddling
relationship but it didn’t get past
that stage. She does belong in this
story, though, because she was the
one who got me back into bikes.
We met in Florence in 1972,
both supposedly studying. She
had a single-speed moped called
a Piaggio. One night she asked
me to ride it home for her across
a kilometre or two of the old city.
With zero riding experience (not
even on a pushbike), I found the
twitchy front end and rather sudden
centrifugal clutch a bit much to
manage on greasy cobbles. I ended
up pushing it most of the way but
told her if I was going to start on
two wheels, it would have to be
on a proper motorbike with gears,
footrests and a proper clutch.
What I ended up with for the $60
or so I had spare probably wouldn’t day – a round trip of 300km.
meet most people’s definition of a She eventually left to head north
proper bike today. It was a distant Y OUR FIRS T S to find her dad who was guest-
ancestor of today’s rorty dirtbikes working somewhere in Germany.
but was a detuned 50cc so devoid of Back then, long before there was
oomph that I had to get off and walk Facebook, email or mobile phones,
alongside it to get it up some of the We had a it was all too easy to lose track
steeper hills at the back of town. of one-another and that’s what
It looked the part, though, right lovely, cuddling happened.
down to the stoneguard over the relationship but I was hooked on bikes, though,
feeble headlamp that made sure it and the longest I’ve been without
provided no illumination whatever. it didn’t get past one since has been about a year
Angela taught me the basics that stage. She does when I was particularly broke. For
of riding it and we had a few 30 years I’ve alternated between
romantic rides together as the two belong in this story, BMWs and Guzzis but I’ve never
machines had a near-identical though ... she was lost my love of tiny bikes.
absence of performance. It built up And, yes, I do still wish I knew
my confidence though and I ended the one who got what has become of Angela.
up riding it all the way down to me back into bikes Doug Fraser,
Perugia via Siena and back the next drdrfraser@gmail.com

42 MOTORCYCLE TRADER