In the article included in the previous blog it mentions the purchase of an RD200DX which I purchased from an absolute legend and very good friend, sadly no longer with us, who I will simply refer to as John.
Although I got into bikes before I knew John, he was a fellow bike lover. I met John aged 16 at sixth form college.
John went to the same school where my mum worked as secretary for a while. I asked her if she knew him. Her eye roll and delayed grin summed him up. The maddest person I have ever met, yet most people could not help but love him.
Over the first year of college I got to know John, amongst others (who remain to this day my best friends) really well. College parties and drunken antics. They were plentiful.
The following year at start of college we were no longer the newbies and that had an injection of confidence.
The first week saw John and I holding ice-skating style score cards up as the new females walked passed. I seriously cringe about this now, it was truly shocking, however it was never meant to offend anyone (if it did I sincerely apologise, you were all worthy of a 10 😉).
Then came red nose day. A few pints before lunch and John tore a large red nose off a car grill and hung it over his … Man bits whilst dropping his trousers in the middle of the common room. Just because it was funny.
As part of the red nose day there was a jelly eating competition that we entered at the last minute, organised unexpecting college teachers. The whistle went and John just started throwing as much jelly as he could until it was just chaos. His infectious hysterics were magical. Teaching staff far from impressed.
John was a big fan of the band The Doors and introduced me to them. Around this time Oliver Stone did a film about said band. The college was gifted a very large film poster of the doors in the common room. John wanted it.
During the day he put wet toilet paper in the window locks of the common room. That night, I drove him up a dirt track at the rear of the college. He opened the windows, unscrewed the perspex holding the poster and made his way back to my car, with the caretaker in hot pursuit. He dived in and I sped off at stupid speeds in a cloud of dust. That poster adorned his bedroom wall thereafter.
The chronological order of these events eludes me, however we went on a trip to Liverpool university to get an idea about university life.
Let’s just say John was not sober. During our wanderings around the city John, who had longish hair went into a barbers, grabbed a fistful of hair on top of his head, and asked the barber to clipper around it.
Not content with a number 1 John asked us, a group of teenagers, to shave around his new Hari Krishna style long hair bit with BIC razors … Of course we did.
The following day at college he was reprimanded and forced to wear a wig until it grew back and some normality was resumed.
The day we left he decided he was going to car surf on my car roof. Covering the number plates with paper, John climbed on the boot/roof and off I went … Across the rugby pitch. Applying the handbrake whilst turning ensured John got off the roof before we got to the main road 🤣
That summer, John, another close friend and I headed off traveling. Insane times were had. I will leave that to another day as I am struggling to stop laughing and hold the tears back in equal measure.
Lone Rider 