Had a 850 M3 with electric start back in the 70's, loved the Norton it just out handled most other bikes of the time. The wobbly back swing arm was not that noticeable at the time, as I also had use of a Z1 and a Honda CB350 and Japanese wobbly back ends was quite the norm back then. Progressed into Harleys until quite recently when the knees gave up and with it my motorcycling days.
The most outlandish, top heavy, with cardboard brakes and hard square tyres and at over 350k bike I ever reflected on why I bought it was my first Harley a 1990 Harley Ultra classic Electraglide. Horrible to ride in the wet worse 2 up fully loaded with 2 weeks worth of touring gear.... but loved every moment of it when barrelling thru the 53 tunnels on the side of Lake Garda with music blaring out of the quadrophonic speakers announcing our imminent arrival ........................in true Harley fashion it broke down in Switzerland with a clutch problem made worse by a newly adopted clutch setup that no Harley dealer had spares for.....those were the days.
I also got my first Morgan in 1990, could just squeeze the 2 into the garage, it was a 1985 4/4 with only 5000 miles it was the Times newspaper competition prize car and a fabulous spec car. Took it across to Ireland for a touring weekend it pissed it down so much that water was gushing up and down the floorboards every time I braked, to add to the fun as soon as I got off the ferry in Dublin the exhaust baffles failed and banging around in the box, no local garage/exhaust centres could help so a very throaty Morgan headed into the west. That was quite a year of motoring holiday incidences the Morgan at Easter and the Harley in July doing their bits to add to the fun.
Thirty years on and you tend to forget that Morgans at that time had a 10 +year waiting list and I paid more than new list price for it and Harleys were very few and far between, how times change.
