© irene waters 2015
When I think of bikes I think back to the days of my youth. In my first year of nursing training I asked Donny, a wardsman at the hospital who was known to procure good cars cheaply for the young trainee nurses to buy me a vehicle. The good car he purchased for me turned out to be a lemon and didn’t leave the hospital grounds instead becoming a hotel for nurses who missed the nurses home curfew and found themselves locked out. In my second year of training I got to know a group whose lives revolved around bikes. I was uncomfortable on the back of a bike not having a great deal of faith in the competency of the rider and decided the safest way was for me to have my own bike. I started off on a Suzuki T250 racing bike but before long because I wanted comfort for touring I bought myself a new GT550 Suzuki – a two-stroke three cylinder motorcycle.
© irene waters 2015
Dressed in my Belstaffs I took every opportunity to leave Sydney and ride into the countryside although my nursing experiences made me nervous in the Sydney traffic. Living at Balmain meant I either had to travel over the Gladesville bridge or the Sydney Harbour Bridge to get to work. The Gladesville Bridge could be terrifying with high wind gusts moving the bike. The same occurred on the bridge going to Phillip Island. Mind you I have been in a VWcar where the same happened but you do feel a little more vulnerable on a bike.
© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2014
Two friends setting off on their round Australia trip.
© irene waters 2015
On Bruny Island off Tasmania the weather closed in as I discovered the girl with the gun and my boyfriend of the time were….. Sometimes I should have been the pillion rather than keeping my independence.
© irene waters 2015
In the Huon Valley we picked apples.
© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2015
© irene waters 2015
Travelled to the snow.
© irene waters 2015
And with a girl friend camped at Seal Rocks after a visit to the Sarah Lee factory where we bought a strawberry cheesecake and had to eat the lot as we had no refrigeration. I only had one accident on it although I fell off it a few times on dirt roads. It was the day of our final nursing exams. It was also the first time I had a pillion passenger travel with me. We travelled up Sydney Road (a steep road) Manly when a car came out from the left and hit the bike towards the front pushing me over. I managed to pull it back up but was then falling towards the other side. This went on for four or five times of leaning one way then pulling it up the other way as we slid up the road coming eventually to a stop, upright in a street which went off to the right. Luckily nothing had come down the hill and even luckier was that the pillion I had on the back became statuesque and just went with the flow as though she wasn’t there. Had she done otherwise we would have eaten dirt. It was at once the most terrifying experience and yet the most exhilarating experience of my life. And the pride I felt afterwards made me feel as though I would burst with joy as to me it proved I had made it as a bike rider.
I bought this bike in 1975 and still rode it ten years later although not as my sole form of transport. I look back and wonder where I got the nerve.
Also you can see why I needed to do something with my old photos. They are rusting and the colour fading. 123Cheese is a better way to store for posterity.
Thanks Cee for sending me down this memory lane trip done in response to Cee’s Fun Foto
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
A great story with great photos. We lived in Balmain for twenty years. I went on a trip with a friend on motor scooters back in the late fifties or so. It was Sydney to Melbourne and back and included the snowy mountains.
You were very brave to ride a motorbike and a big one as well. Lucky you are here to tell the tale.
Scooters were very popular in the fifties and sixties and there were scooter clubs as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Gerard. Motor scootering it down to Melbourne (in the fifties) I imagine would have been an arduous journey but as you were young it was probably great fun.
I don’t know whether it was so much brave as young and that feeling you were invincible. My husband looked at getting a scooter up here but after a test ride decided something bigger with greater acceleration would be safer and he knew I would never go with him, so he got a convertible instead.
LikeLike
Ah, after trains we have another lover of motorbikes. I never had anything decent but I loved my little machine; mind you, you have to be pretty daft to bike in cold wet England. And some of the stupid accidents I had. I shudder and wonder how I survived. Great photos – love the cheesecake stuffing. No question of throwing away any!
LikeLike
Roger tells me some hair raising stories of scrapes that he had on friends bikes in the cold wet roads. It is not surprising though as they rode bikes without brakes and other mechanical problems. You do wonder how you survived your childhood without the legislation we have now to ensure we do. And you are right – absolutely no question about adding anything to the trash.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I knew you were cool, i had no idea you were THAT cool! 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Probably the first time I’ve ever been called COOL Dawn. Thanks. 🙂
LikeLike
What an exciting time, to be young and exploring and biking. My middle daughter is just now getting into motorbikes and she’s about the age you were! Fun photos, rusty and all!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope she tours a bit rather than stick in the towns. That is where bike riding comes into its own as you feel as though you are part of the environment.
LikeLike
Great post Irene – lovely reminders of yesteryear – for me as well as your good self! The GT550, wow, that takes me back. I remember when I used to go off riding with a workmate called Dave, and his elder brother. I had the Suzuki B120 (single pot, two stroke), Dave had a Suzuki GT250 (twin pot, two stroke), and his brother had the infamous ‘Kettle’, the water-cooled Suzuki GT750 (triple pot, two stroke). What a lot of noise and smoke we all used to make outside his mom’s house 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great memories Spike.I remember all those. You have bought back a memory for me when I had a hole in my baffle. The policeman chased me with siren blaring for miles until I got annoyed and pulled over to let him pass – I was travelling as fast as I was comfortable. He told me he had planned on throwing the book at the man who had disturbed his Sunday afternoons television. Instead he got me, with an open face helmet and the biggest Dame Edna type sun glasses you can imagine, all he could do was laugh and warn me where not to go in Hobart as the police on the beat wouldn’t be quite as easy to win over.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I bet he never forgot that day either!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wonder.
LikeLike
Awesome pics
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Jenni. Glad to see you again.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Back in the days of fun and energy. Wonderful stories and photos.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Cee. You might get older but you find different things to do that are just as much fun and probably don’t require quite as much energy.
LikeLike
A great trip down memory lane. Love this post. It brings back memories of when I trained as a nurse in the late 70’s, though not riding a motorbike.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I trained in the early 70’s but I bet it wasn’t much different when you trained. Home sisters ruled the world.
LikeLike
Pingback: Cee’s Fun Fotos: Bikes | decocraftsdigicrafts
Irene, you never fail to surprise me with things you have done, and this ranks right up there! The only time I ever rode on a motorcycle – it was a rather big Harley, I believe – was pillion behind a young man I was madly in love with in graduate school. No one wore helmets in those days and the freedom of being on that bike was exhilarating!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Harley’s are a bit like armchairs on wheels. Yes it is an exhilarating experience and you do feel close to the road (hopefully not part of it.) No helmet I’ve never done. That would have been James Deanish. I liked an open face helmet to give me the wind on my face but always had that horrible flattened hair look as a result. You would have been well and truly windswept.
LikeLike
Oh what wonderful adventures you had Irene, I loved reading about your biking escapades…but not about that girl and your boyfriend 👿 And how amazing that you came through that near-accident! Wow, you are braver than me that’s for sure. Looking back, all my boyfriends and husbands (that sounds bad doesn’t it, ha!!!) had bikes but I only ever went on the back a few times. The most freeing moment was on the back of my first husband’s when we were both about 20, he taking me through LA to the beach at Santa Monica. I was wearing shorts and flip-flops, no helmet, not the law then, and we were weaving in and out of all that heavy traffic on the Freeway for miles in the blistering sun. I was just as you describe here…terrified but exhilerated at the same time!! Oh the memories you bring for me…and thank you for sharing yours, I love reading them and sharing in that time in your life. Fab photos too 🙂 ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can just see you in your shorts and flip flops. I never felt comfortable unless I was dressed for sliding along the road – nursing does dreadful things to your head and just wants to make you protect your own. 🙂 ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes…I can well imagine. On reflection, it was bloody stupid to ride a bike dressed like that and I cringe now at the very thought… 😮
LikeLiked by 1 person
Youth. We were lucky to survive it if you look at all the legislation that is out today to make sure our young do BUT what fun we had. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh yes… 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person