Hang on, just wiping a tear from my eye! So enjoyed your video. First bike I owned when I turned 16, was a brand new, purple FS1E. I had to stare at it sitting in our garage for a month, until my 16th birthday and my first ride. I was a diehard Yamaha guy, I owned an RD125, followed after passing my test, by an RD250 and finally an RD400, all air cooled 2 strokes. That was more than 45 years ago, seems like yesterday. Wish I’d kept them all, I’ve just the photographs now. Happy days.
I had an rd250f, 350b and a 400f all air-cooled, I had two lc 250s and an lc 350 and a dt175mx on the road and 175dt mx on the track..... happier days 😊
I still love the styling of 1970's & early 80's bikes. In fact prefer the look over what came later. Performance, Handling & reliability is something else though
This takes me back to 1976 when I bought a brand new Suzuki AP50 at 16 years old. I got it because everyone else had a fizzy. It was a great bike and as my parents would allow me to have one I saved up and bought it myself. It cost me £225 brand new. How i survived I don’t know but I’m still going on bigger bikes at 63 I wouldn’t change anything other than keeping every single bike I’ve had, they’d be worth a fortune now
Andrew we are kindred spirits same age and same bike. Bought mine P registration for $225 pounds in Hayes outside London. Regularly did 50mph and put over 10,000miles on it. Sold it to a buddy’s girlfriend friend a year later so I could buy a Honda 175cc
Exactly the same as me , bought my AP50 in March 1976 just turned 16 , got it from Trevor Goodalls a Suzuki main dealer in Didcot Oxfordshire , had 2 months left at school then that boiling hot summer .....halcyon days indeed , i owned many bikes after that went through a race bike phase then a Harley phase now got a Yamaha T Max 500 best bike i'v ever owned .
It was brutally hot that year Was in whales with my parents, you couldn’t walk bare foot on the sand Would have preferred to be buzzing around on your puch I think
As a 16 year old Brit in 1976, I can assure you that the AP-50 could achieve 63 mph. All you needed was a very steep hill, riding down it with a death wish, which was common behaviour for that age with first bike. 1997, place the Leaner plates on a 250cc and carry on. Sometimes I wonder how most of us survived, but it was a blast !!
Must be a very steep hill, never got near that on mine I have to say. My sons 50cc scooter could but was much modified it must be said. 60 would have felt bloody fast on one of those things mind
AP50's were generally quicker than fizzies due to the 5speed gearbox. I had both, and whilst the fizzie went around corners better, the AP was definitely quicker in a straight line. Unfortunately my AP ended it's life burrowed into the side of a brown Mk1 Ford escort. (Hence buying a fizzie).
Pushed a friends AP50 as hard as I could with a GT550. Could not get above 58 mph until he pulled his clutch in. Then managed over 80. The engine was just acting as a brake. I previously had an FS1E as my first bike, and I would say that the AP50 was a better bike than the FS1E, by a very small margin, in just about every department.
Great vid. For me it was the Puch VZ50, they we're sort of nerdy but went well. The AP was great, very underated except to those more into the bike scene rather than fashion. Fizzys and SS tended to be owned by kids who's parents had bought them. The one everyone really wanted was either the Puch M50 or the Garelli X. Cheers brought back a few memories.
Had an FS1E, but always wanted the Gilera 50 trials. Surprised it didn't feature on here as I saw more of those than the German peds. The Gilera was simply beautiful.
I had both an AP50 and a fizzie when I was 16. Both had pedals. I have never ever seen either the Zundapp or Kreidler bikes at all. However I did see quite a number of Fantic, Gilera and Puch machines. It's a shame they weren't included
My first " bike" as a 16 year old in 1976 was a brand new yellow Yamaha FS1 DX, almost 50mph downhill flat on the tank with my feet on the back pegs.lol...the start of nearly 40 years of biking for me on a variety of off and on road to sports bikes ,from yamaha,kawasaki,honda and suzuki...from 50cc to 1000cc..loved every minute of every bike...rain or shine...lovin your nostalgic videos mate 😊👍👍👍
Great memories , I had a Honda SS50 5 speed with the disc brake in yellow brand new in 1976 , just about killed it in a year , a friend helped strip it down to have a rebore done at Mores in Hemel Hempstead . Probably the most miles I’ve put on a 2 wheeler in all the years I’ve been riding in a year somewhere between 6 and 7000 miles . I paid around £250 on the road all my savings, paper rounds , washing cars and other jobs but still think that was one of my favourite years racing around with friends .
Enjoyed that thanks for taking the time to put it together. The FS1E was the one to have amongst 16 year old daredevils with more daring than skill at that time, saw a good number of them crashed beyond repair.A friend of mine had a Garelli Tiger Cross which was a lovely looking little cycle and an object of envy.
s@@bikerdood1100 That's why I watched your vid but never mind. I had a couple of Garelli Tiger Cross' in yellow/black ( to N and a few P plates available) also an Agrati Garelli (available to R plate 1977) in black & red. Faster than all the rest until the RD50 came out & some lads derestricted them.
I'm nearly 62. My first road going bike was a Fizzy. It was pre registered so that it was a moped ie had pedals. If I'd waited until my 16th Birthday to buy it would have come without pedals but would have been restricted to 30mph. I wanted the earlier version which would do 52mph down a hill and keep up with my mates AP50.
When I got my SS50 in 1974 it was £210 and the FS1E was a little cheaper but an extra tenner for indicators. Those early gold ones were beautiful, 2 of the lads at school got them. Ours was the 1st year to have to stay on for a 5th year at school. The slightly younger one threatened to beat the other one up if he brought the Fizzie to school when he turned 16
We called them Fizzers. I left school in ‘74, and got a vacation job for the summer at the company where I was due to start my aircraft engineering apprenticeship in December. I had a nice Carlton Corsa race bike, so I caught the bus to the training school over the winter, and waited until I was 17 in the following May when I got a 1968 C50 (a ‘granddad bike’ according to my mates), thus bypassing the moped era and the extra costs. Many of those mates were paying off their Fizzers and SS50s for years on the never never, whereas I bought my C50 from a local evening paper advert, with the cash I’d saved from my summer job. And in a flat out race (over a straight mile with a long sweeping corner at the end), partially due to the mild tuning I did to the engine, I beat a lad on his Fizzer, for a bet - which the little creep refused to pay up! The whole world was a different place back then, and we were different people too. Ride safe
@Trafficsnitch. All along was under the impression under 17 you could not ride anything other than a moped 50cc or under and it had to have pedals! this was mid 1970s.
This takes me back. Around 46 years, to be precise, when I was a spotty 16 year-old. Never been into motorbikes (and my parents wouldn't allow it, anyway), but everyone lusted over an FS1-E. Occasionally, friends would let me ride their Yamahas. Another friend, who was tall and looked stupid on a FS1-E (his father was also quite well off) had a Fantic Caballero. This was a bit higher and more suitable for taller people. Ah, memories ....
I remember the Fantic caballero's some kids had them & ( at the time) they looked absolutely huge, with a tiny engine & a 6 speed box with an incredibly close ratio gearbox.
@@merlin5476 sound expensive don’t they Think this is why I waited a year and started on road on a 125, once the 30mph limit came in I couldn’t see the point. Oh and I didn’t have any money and poor parents so something like a Fantic at 16 would be a fantasy for me
It always seems strange to me that the fizzys make so much money these days .Yes there were loads of them but they weren’t very quick and didn’t even look like a motorbike ,with the motor canted a long way forward and no down tubes on the frames.The ap50 was quicker but looked even worse.I was 16 in 1978 & virtually everyone I knew bought July 77 or earlier derestricted Italian peds-fantic gt’s,ti’s,or caballeros.garelli tiger crosses,or the gilera trail 50.All looked like proper bikes and were way faster than a fizzy,with the exception of the gilera that was about the same.
Brought back memories when I got my new Fizzie in 77, pre-restricted. I can remember riding it all day until midnight, then rode home and sat in the garage with it, I loved it. A mate got a Casal, a Portuguese make, it looked hideous, sounded dreadful and wasn't a cool bike. Another mate got a Fantic Supersix, that was very cool and would do about 60mph.
A trip to Holland in the 1970s made me crave a Kreidler or Zundapp. Unrestricted they were genuinely quick, and in racing trim could do over 100mph. There's at least one more episode where you could feature Italian, French and Eastern European super mopeds.
I had an ex race bike , a Ducati 50 SL2 that had been registered as a moped . Piston ported cylinder , Boranni alloy rims , Dunlop trigonic race tyres full expansion chamber and 6v battery lights . Capable of nearly 90 mph .
@@georgerobartes2008 sounds great, but how long did it last? Or rather, eat pistons and conrods... What I can recall, Italian bikes did not often have an air cleaner on, toe curling...
@@paulh.5691The engine featured in Cesare Bossaglias book '2 Stroke High Performance Tuning' of 1968 for its design features along with the Parilla kart engines he designed . The engine had a cylinder with hard chrome bore which lasted indefinitely , but had standard spares of course . Modifying standard cylinders to race spec meant a trip to the local friendly dentist ( friends Dad) to use his drill . The pistons were fitted with ' Dyke ' L section rings ,seals etc., and were readily available mail order from Mick Walker Motorcycles in Cambridgeshire after the dealer in Walthamstow dried up . The use of castor oil in the premix was a must back then as no synthetics were available . No crank issues whatsoever as it never ran a flywheel to load out the bearings , just a balance and ignition trigger with battery CD ignition . I had been building racing engines for some time before I could legally ride in the UK so had the kit to modify this and other engines etc. , plus I used school equipment during Metalwork later Technology classes to split cranks , O ring cylinder heads and machine up parts as needed . Your correct , the carburettor was a 20 mm Dellorto with horizontal throttle body , vertical float chamber and a simple ram pipe , tuned to length . The bike was slow compared to GP bikes by Honda , Suzuki and Kriedler in the early/ mid 70s , and peaky with poor acceleration but amazing handling and grip made up for this as bends could be taken much faster than anything else on the road and great fun .
Wow, good times! I had a Fizz, a Gilera, a Garelli Tiger Cross and a Honda SS50 five speed, my birthday was the latest in our "gang" so I was the last to be 17 and I bought their mopeds when they all went for the brand new Superdreams. Now I own a 1980 SOHC CB650 Custom, an 82 SOHC CB650 Nighthawk, a 92 750 Zephyr and a 2001 Royal Enfield 500 Bullet which I can no longer bloody start as its kick start only and I'm knackered.
I had an AP50, back in 78/79, what I liked about the AP50 was it felt more like a proper bike, to me the FS1E and SS50 felt like sitting astride a garden gate. I fitted a recon crank after one of the main bearings spun - a common problem I believe, fixed on the replacement crank by a knurl where the bearings are pressed on.
Beautiful mopeds I must say. We had here in the 70ties in Amsterdam a Kreidler shop with the latest model on a turning plateau with spotlights on it. In that time it wil cost about 2500 guilders.
I had the SS50 Honda, gutless as you like but I later found out they were actually restricted by the use of a long throttle slide- when you thought it was fully open it was actually only 3/4s 😬 all you had to do was cut off the excess (there was a groove round the slide to guide) et voila you could keep up with the 2 strokes. If only I'd know at the time...
Great video. Like you I started off on a Suzuki AP50. My local dealer, LLoyd Brothers in Hamilton, had purchased a huge stock of mopeds prior to the rule changes and pre-registered them. This meant I was able to get a brand new, unrestricted AP50 when I turned 16 in 1978. For some reason nearly every guy in my Geography class at school had a sports moped. I remember one day we all brought them in and lined them up side by side on the road outside. There were about 17 AP's, Fsie's and SS's lined up - quite a site.
I bought a fs 50 in mint condition in 1985 for 30 south african rands, i took it home stripped all lights, chrome off and rode it on the farm till it became landfil😂😂 wish i had kept it in a box
Without any warning the UK abruptly raised the motorcycle licensing age from 16 to 17 around Christmastime in the1970s. Before the change you could get your bike provisional license at 16 and ride anything up to 250cc with a provisional license. (That's how I started -- a gutless 125cc 'Bantam'.) After the change you had a lot of demand for 'mopeds' that were really highly tuned 50cc bikes that turned out a respectable 6-8 bhp through a five of six speed box. Clouds of the things -- they became quite a menace. (FWIW when our daughter started riding in the US we found that once she'd passed an off road basic skills course and a theory exam she could get a provisional license at 15 and a half -- with no capacity limit. She actually started on my old V50 Guzzi before 'borrowing' my SV650. You don't have to try so hard on a bigger bike so they're a lot safer.)
I was caught out by this, my mate got his bike licence on his 16th birthday in October, by my 16th in December the same year I could only have a moped. He had a James 150 and a Greaves 250 trials bike and I could only have a Puch and a Honda PC50. It didn’t stop me riding his bikes on occasions though, off the public highway of course.
Left school in 1978, started work straight away in a local factory, my brand new AP50 got me there and back every day without a fault, plus all my happy little jolly rides out. when i hit 17 i took a hacksaw to the copper tube in the exhaust pipe that regulated me to 30mph. my fizzy friends weren't happy. loved that little bike.
I could only afford a 4 speed SS50, but the bike that always impressed me was the Suzuki AP50. It must have made an impression because I went on to own several bigger suzuki's since.
I later choices of bikes are often inspired that way. I had a book as a young guy with a Guzzi lemans in it, I’ve spent most of my life on Guzzi’s as a result
I was given my father’s 5 gear SS50 for my 16th birthday. Yes, it was slower than all the unrestricted 2 stroke mopeds, but it ran like a sewing machine and never once let me down despite being relegated to my winter bike after passing my test and using my savings to by an RD200. Got dropped several times and the only part that actually failed was the clutch lever.
@@NotALot-xm6gz well the Honda was built with economical reliable running in mind. I think without a doubt the most important thing I’ve learned in the decades of riding is that it’s much better to stay onboard the thing. And falling of really hurts Oh and it’s expensive to repair them sometimes
I found my younger brother's 5 sp SS50 was perfect for winter riding, while my Triumph cafe racer was laid up in the warm & dry. Especially on those icy roads where you slid down the camber and rode in the gutter. The cool kids at senior school rode the Garelli 50 GT.
Was given a blue AP50 for my 16th birthday in 1976. Living in a rural area it changed my life and I had some great times riding it. Had a friend with an FS1E and we used to race each other - it was close but the Suzuki always won on the open road as it had 5 gears and the option of changing down to 4th for extra revs always gave it the edge. Top speed 60mph (downhill on the A1 in the summer of '77!)
@@dereksmith6126 Was it restricted to 30? A lad I knew had a yellow one but only did 30 so even my slow SS50 was faster. UK gov killed new super mopeds but there were plenty of used (but thrashed) bikes around.
@@MrSlaphead1960 No it wasn't. A lot of dealers registered non restricted models before the deadline. It cost £300, which if you'd known, buy 50 of them!
@@dereksmith6126 Yes I should have known that. maybe i just forgot, Memory isn,t so good these days. 300 quid sounds good for a brand new unrestricted bike. also I assume would be worth more used
Agree that the Yam and Honda were classics. Kreidlers were rare, Zundapps even rarer, and Suzuki were too late to the party. Other classic peds included Fantics, Garelli Rekords, Malagutis, Gileras, Puch M50s, and my own Casal K190.
Can remember being at school in the 80's. The Fizzy' was the bike of choice (if you could afford one). After school there was the 3 oclock 'scream' as they all went out the parking area flat chat.... 🤣🤣
@@bikerdood1100 I had to wait too!. Ended up with a BSA Bantam D3 150cc non runner for 80 quid that Dad and I 'rebuilt'. Still have it, although in pieces awaiting a proper resto!. 🤣 Great bike to learn on.
I had a Fizzy when I was 16 back in ‘77. Absolutely loved that bike. One occasion I visited my gran in Blackpool about 50 miles away. Was almost frozen to the bike by the time I got home. Happy days.
I had the Honda SS50z back in the day, I didn’t want to be the same as everyone else with the FS1e. Only problem I ever had was the metal spar plug cap, in wet weather the rain got inside and the spark was lost. Soon changed that for rubber and off I went. Mum went mad when I bought a leather motorbike jacket for £60 (most lads road in their Harrington jackets) but liked it after I got knocked off the bike by a car, just a few scratches to the leather none on me lol
I live in Holland and used to have a 50cc Yamaha Enduro in the early 80s. Souped it up with a 70cc crome cilinder and a 19mm DelOrto carb, good for 100 kmh +, for on the bicycle paths in Holland! Police in those days were pretty forgiving. Had to replace all the bearings every 2-3 months. It was so noisy that people next to me waiting for the lights used to cover their ears. Used to go on roadtrips to Antwerp (from Eindhoven) with a couple of pals (Yamaha FS1, Honda MT, Zundapp KS50). All used to come to my (Dad's) house and tinker. Great times! Wish I still had it. There were a couple of automatics too, like the Vespa Ciao and the Puch Maxi, also 50cc but automatic and much smaller. Very easy to soup up (a friend had and still has a Puch Maxi that does 95kmph)but really dangerous at speed. Thanks for the vid to my carefree past!😄 Cheers Ian.
I left school in '79, and passed my art exam with a painting of my mates FS1E. Just seeing it, and the Suzuki, along with the Jam and the Stranglers reminds me of back then.
Because i new sod all about engines i bought the Honda ss50 in 1975. It cost 78 pence in fuel to ride from West Yorkshire to Porthmadog in North Wales and it took me 12 hours. The engine would overheat and just stop, which was a bit scary for a sixteen year old miles from home. When i turned 17 and one big learning curve later i baught a Suzuki GT 250 B. Later a had a Suzuki GT 750 B (kettle) i was hooked on strokers for quite a while. Great video thanks for making it.
16 years old in 1975, got my moped from Rumbelows in Hartlepool, it was a Casal. £200 and freedom, loads of us young lads had mopeds, Puch, Gilera, Suzuki etc. Great times.
Fizzy for me. Got one with a bit of tuning to it (skimmed head), got 52mph on straights, head down, and about 65 with a tailwind downhill. Had an expansion pipe, dropped bars and an extra large rear tyre - I was king of the road man.
I still have a few old mopeds. 1x Zündapp GTS 50 from 1978, a Zündapp GTS 50 from 1981 and a Puch Maxi S Spezial from 1982. every time I go back in time when I ride one of the mopeds again. and then the smell of mixing lubrication, delicious 👌🏻😊
Memories came flooding back watching this. My paper round, Saturday job & apprentice pay didn't allow me to get any of these 70's peds after I left school in 1972. Instead I had to make do with an old 1950-60's NSU Quickly which I pulled out of a scrap yard & got going. I had a two seat 3 speed model. It went OK but compared to the others shown here it was pretty slow. I only had it for a few months before I passed my test & 4 wheels took over my life. One moped that wasn't shown here that a mate of mine (or his parents) bought new in 1972 was a Puch VS50 Sport. He had a canary yellow one & really struggled with it cos he was 6'4"!! Just as he got the Puch we all got rid of our peds & got cars. He followed soon after.
My first and only brand new bike was a 1982 Honda mb5 . I've never seen any of the bikes featured in this video and I was surprised to see the liquid cooled one . I don't know why but I like these little bikes as much as I do the 125s or 250s . There aren't any small bikes besides the grom here in the states and all that means is fewer beginner riders which is a tragedy . I'm amazed that in all of your videos you say mph instead of kph . At any rate per the norm you've knocked another one out of the park . I very much enjoy watching the content you produce and I don't know how you find such pristine examples of the bikes that you feature . Excellent work ❤
40 years ago my first bike was a Honda MT5, I don't think it was available in the US, in the UK both models were restricted to 30MPH, I managed to tune mine up a bit so that it did around 45MPH. Last year I decided to buy a basket case of an MT5, I've rebuilt it and applied all my 2 stroke tuning 'know-how' just to see what I could get out of the bike. Even with my 13 stone sat on it I'm getting 55MPH out of it on the flat which I'm pleased with! (it has taken a lot of work to get this sort of speed out of it)
31 years ago my first bike was a W reg Honda MB5, every penny I got was thrown at her, before I turned 16 I had the standard cylinder bored out to the limit with paper thin walls. Up jetted, bean can micron and K&N, she would sit under 50 on the very bouncy speedo. That lasted a month and the crank bearing collapsed. Chucked a 2nd hand engine in her ( £25 ) from the local bike breakers that came with a proper 65 kit. Different animal now with a proper power band, this lasted me for months until a car pulled out on me and I went superman. Next was the MT5, dropped a H100 engine in with all the 50s electrics. Honestly don’t know how many times I flipped her. These were some of the best days of my life, still got the knee scars to prove it.
No the MT 5 was never available in the states to my knowledge . And it's so sad your bikes were restricted to 30mph . My MB would do 55 mph from the factory 60 if I laid down and the wind was to my back . Back then our interstate system had a 55mph limit rather than today's 70mph . I took that bike as far as 200 miles away from home in all directions. And I too still have scars on my knees from practicing stopping fast . One time I pulled the front brake a little to hard and she washed out . I put a smaller back sprocket on it after I wore the original one out and top speed was 60 to 65 mph with a slower take off . Such fond memories. Thanks for sharing yours with me . Todays temp is supposed to reach 70° farenhight. I definitely need to put a few miles on my 750 aero to keep the battery charged . No plans on laying it down 😆
@@charliepatterson9321 I have always felt that 45 to 50 mph is an absolute minimum. 30 is just plain dangerous and was definitely the concept of a non biker
@@keithquestedelectrical9785 well some one is because they aren’t mine . Well alert from the Yamaha at the beginning and end of the video and that was a full on 100ccs
FS1E- DX for me and i loved it and my first real taste of independence and freedom. Out with my mates, going fishing with rods strapped to it, lots of happy memories. Wish i still had it now
You missed my start to get on the road A few when still at school had the Suzuki and Yamaha I was very very lucky to get a Puch Grand Prix Special or John Player Special as we called it. and I loved it Great video thanks for the upload and memories Thanks
4:38 100 km/hr takes me back to the 70s after changed rear sprocket ratio. We used to get more torque from removing the head gasket, porting the exhaust, more head skimming and then switching to 4* fuel when head too much skimmed, or get hole burned in piston. Such fun
@@bikerdood1100 yes, going up hills and leaving all the other 50s behind, SS50s always were first left behind. After sooping up you had to change the sprockets to stop the engine screaming 15000 rpm in top
When I was 14/15 around 1978 my friend and I went half’s in a AP 50 Puch for 15 quid It was rubbish but we where kids and we would ride that bike up and down the beach and sand dune at Marske-by -sea having a ball. It would break down push it home fix it and back again to the beach. Those days are long gone. Brings tears to my eyes remembering those days.
Most surprised not to see any Italian 'peds in the list . They were the most common around where I lived . Fantics being the number one make ( a moped chopper anyone ? ) then Garelli . Got beat by a Fantic GT on the Ewell bypass whilst riding my KH250 , it desperately needed a decoke . Happy days .
I had an AP50 in 1982. It cost me the princely sum of £200 and I loved it! Most of my mates had fizzies (which I never liked), although there was another AP50 and a Puch Grand Prix in our crowd. Happy days!
Zündapps came rarely ever with liquid cooling, mostly the ones that were rated motorcycles, not mopeds. And as for Kreidlers, those were my favorite and also plentiful, 40+ years ago in The Netherlands. Thank you for posting!
Five of us went to Corfu in about 1977 and rented Yamaha 50s. None of us had ridden a motorcycle of any kind before. By the second day, we were racing everywhere. Long straight roads weren’t much fun but these were few and far between on Corfu. It was an unforgettable experience. The speedos would show 85+ kph but it felt like a lot more and was probably a lot less! We all survived, which was probably a miracle.
Great memories, I got a 4 speed Honda SS50 on my 16th birthday. It was cheaper than a Fizzy, £225 new! I ran it all week for £1. The good old days. I was always overtaken by the two stroke peds, though. I never remember seeing the German ones, but remember the Fantics, they were quick. I love to see classic bikes, but I wouldn't spend the money on a moped, I'm not as skinny as I was at 16 now. I'm nearly 63. My smallest bike is my DT3 250, I can take it on the motorway, unlike the peds.
@@bikerdood1100 The Italian 50,s were quite popular during 70's Fantics used Motori Minarelli engine as did quite a few Italian 50's and were faster than the Fs1e and AP 50 . The other popular moped was garelli tiger cross/ reckord they used their own engine , lot faster than Fs1e , I had garelli reckord at 16 (quick but fragile ) That ridicules law for sixteen'r mopeds being able to be propelled by pedals , government expected they would all be pedal n pop mopeds , didn't foresee these fast 50cc motor bikes with token pedals (try peddling them lol )
@@bikerdood1100 Perhaps include the much coveted (By me anyway) Puch Grand Prix Special in the JPS black & gold livery. I never got to see one in the flesh as they were like hen's teeth in the UK. Have to say that I did love my 4 speed SS50 though...
I started off in 1976 with a rather used Honda SS50 but once i was earning slightly better money as an apprentice car body repairer plus with a loan from Dad! in August 1976 i bought a new Puch Grand Prix Supreme, quite an expensive bike for the time but it looked like a "Real Motorbike" with its alloy wheels, rev counter and small tail faring plus the black & gold "JPS colours" it was a fast moped, when it was running right!.. would love to see one again...
My first ride on a motorcycle was my grandads Raleigh Runabout in 1968. Then I bought a Honda 50 later that year. It was one year old and cost 60 quid. They were 100 quid brand new.
Hi, I started out life on a FS1E. The unrestricted version with the folding pedals. You could actually with a bit of effort pedal the bike short distances. As for a follow up video I would like to see one about the 50cc moped/bikes that followed these. Like the Honda MB50 and Kawasaki AE/AR 50 bikes.
I got my biue AP 50 for fifty quid, it was my first bike and I loved it. It didn't have a gear lever and was stuck in third gear and pulled away with no problems. When I got a gear lever I had a knocking from the gearbox and and had it repaired. After that it ran well and was a very reliable little bike. Wish I kept it now but traded it in for my first real bike, my Yamaha RD200 bright orange it was and very fast! AHH the good old days.😥
My first bike was a brand new Suzuki X1 in 1982, it cost £360 from Rafferty Newmans in Fareham, number plate was KOT18Y. I managed 55mph downhill once after changing the gearbox sprocket from 11 teeth to 14, bolting aMicron expansion chamber and a bit of fettling with the ports. My mates had AP50’s and they were capable of up to 60mph without any modifications! Happy days of youth!
I bought an early FS1 (Gold Colour) that had been used as a field bike, as a 15 year old I cleaned and tarted it up then totally thrashed it every day for the next 12 months. It was used to commute about 20 miles each way to my apprenticeship in all weathers and cant ever remember it letting me down. It cost me £25. In my group of friends, we had the Suzuki, Honda and Fantic, all great bikes for a 16 year old.
I couldn’t afford a fizzie or sports moped in 1974 all my mates could, so I bought a brand new Bonny orange Honda PC50 £99.00 on the road or £2.50 a week on the book. Ok it didn’t do 40mph but it sat at 30mph all day so I kept up. Standard It had no ignition, no indicators, no brake light, it hated hills, I loved it and today I have a absolutely mint baby blue one in my collection which I’ve owned for 20 years, it cost me £600 and I still pop out on it and I love it, it draws a crowd wherever it goes.
Had a Honda SS50 in 1977, and it was slow compared to all my fellow apprentices who all had the 2 strokes. However, I only needed 50p worth of fuel each week though!! Happy days indeed. Great video bikerdood, thanks.
@@stevieb9699 but the 2 strokes had to stop for petrol more often aswell, the furthest I rode mine was about 250 miles. My mate had family in Sussex so we rode there from East anglia. Because we could use the motorways it took ages, especially when we encountered a hill!
A second video needed.... let's get the Puch Gand Prix black with gold decals .. hell it even had a rev counter your mates really knew you'd arrived when you rocked up on that .... the Fantic chopper and the Garelli need a mention too ..
Great video - my teenage years. It would be great if you do another with the mopeds we (in Bristol) were mainly screaming around on mid 70s.: Garelli Rekords and Tiger Crosses, Puchs, Gileras and Fantics. Cheers.
Fizzy! Yeah!! Got mine for a tenner from this kid couldn't get it going. Took it to Maitland racing. They could not get it running either. Anyway,got myself a workshop manual and managed to work out the reed valve was the culprit. Great fun I had with it.Mates Chris Pedro and his AP50. Tom Pollard with a Puch Maxi.Vince McGann with his crappy Tomos!...Them the days lol!
I bought a Suzuki A50 on an N plate (1974 I think). It had no pedals and felt more like a proper motorbike. Gave it to my younger brother in the early 80s and it disappeared somewhere… It got me to sixth form and early jobs - good fun.
My First bike was a 50cc moped Puch Maxi . I used to ride it everywhere,but especially to college. They used to laugh at me,but I had the last laugh, because I didn't have to wait for the bus and I got home first.Alot of boys ended up buying them . Took us 3 hours to ride from Port Talbot to Tenby in south Wales.on all the minor roads .allways carried a bottle of 2 stroke oil . My Puch moped ended up catching on fire as I rode home through Briton Ferry .A real hot rod 🤣 my plastic leggings were on fire ,I thought I could smell something burning. I put out the fire , repaired the bike and sold it. I then went on to buy my first proper motorcycle a Honda CB 125 which I passed my test on . Motorcycles have been a massive part of my life ,I'm on my 10 th bike now .I have travelled the world on them . from 16 years old to today almost 67 years. Great times , great memories and friends and wonderful experiences
I had an AP 50 which I purchased for £30 with a seized piston head. After a new piston and a rebore it was a wonderful introduction to motorbikes and so much more than my first moped, a Honda Camino! I agree it was a more civilised bike and no need to get messy with mixing oil in the petrol as per the Yamaha. I just wish I’d kept it!!!! Sold it to some spotty 16 year old who I’m convinced smashed it up that year….. I recall paying Norwich Union some tiny amount for third party insurance on it. Happy days….,
I could cry my eyes out . I had an ss50. Ap50. And fizza dx . Also an old bogger c 50 with a 70cc engine in it . Back in 1986-87 . Wish I had kept them now 😢😢
I had a new yellow Honda SS50ZB in 77’ (around the £350 mark) it was 100% reliable and as you said fuel economy was out of this world, I had a 25mile round trip to work each day, never let me down once, I even took it green laning, trips to wales up to see friends, slipstreaming coaches on the A5 to Telford 🙈 then my brother-in-law took it off my hands and used it to commute to the Land Rover works for quite a few years, poor thing was crashed and bashed on a regular basis , it then lay in a shed for years before my sister gave it to the scrap man 🤦🏻♂️ I think the Reg was RUK767R or similar , happy days 😁
The Fizzy, Suzuki and Honda SS50(all without those stupid pedals !)were our playthings and constant delight with impromptu drag races and of course the instruments of our pain when the inevitable crashes happened !! Oh, what memories.....and two stroke smells !!!
Ahh the memories, I think between 16 - 17 year old teen I sold/swapped 3 FS1E's knows as Fizzies, fantastic mopeds, spend every weekend, making adjustments, just to get another 3-4 mph out out of it.. Great days!
Lot of miles on a small bike. But I know where your coming from. I used my first bike at every opportunity, haven’t really changed more than 3 decades later
lol at 62 years age i am still in love with the Fs1 of my youth. compared to the competition it was in a league of its own in many ways it is still something i meassure mechanical things up against. ahh and the girls ocupying the rearseating ... oh youth had i only known how fast you would be gone ;-)
My first moped was a 1973 Yamaha SS50, my second was also the same, as a replacement when the first got seized. Then I bought a Suzuki AC50, which was the most sold moped in Norway during the Seventies.. The Fizzy was better looking, but it had only a 4 speed gearbox, while the AC had 5. Also, the AC50 was quite easy to tune, by just cutting the rotary valve to allow more air&fuel mix into the combustion chamber. My Yamaha had some kind of metal restrictions in the exhaust port, and at the time I had no idea what to do about it, so it could reach only 50 km/hour as was the law. Later on I had Gilera Trail and also touring models, very powerful and cool Italian bikes. I also had several Zundapp GTS50 just as shown in the video. I kept my interest for mopeds until this day, and have become quite a specialist on them.
@@bikerdood1100 The Suzuki dealer did the job for a very small fee, so basically all those AC50 were truly fast. Mine did 110 km/hour with original set up, just had the rotary disc cut to the correct opening. In other markets, like in South America, those bikes were marketed with 5,5 horsepower, while in Norway at the time, the limit was 2,5. But to find on restricted, was nearly impossible, ha ha.
Hang on, just wiping a tear from my eye! So enjoyed your video. First bike I owned when I turned 16, was a brand new, purple FS1E. I had to stare at it sitting in our garage for a month, until my 16th birthday and my first ride. I was a diehard Yamaha guy, I owned an RD125, followed after passing my test, by an RD250 and finally an RD400, all air cooled 2 strokes. That was more than 45 years ago, seems like yesterday. Wish I’d kept them all, I’ve just the photographs now. Happy days.
Very glad you enjoyed it
Had a Suzuki 125 T 20.
Lot of fun.
1973
Netherlands
@@petergerritgroen3157 My best friend had a Suzuki 125 T20 My RD125 and his Suzuki 125 T20 were great bikes.
I had an rd250f, 350b and a 400f all air-cooled, I had two lc 250s and an lc 350 and a dt175mx on the road and 175dt mx on the track..... happier days 😊
I still love the styling of 1970's & early 80's bikes. In fact prefer the look over what came later. Performance, Handling & reliability is something else though
This takes me back to 1976 when I bought a brand new Suzuki AP50 at 16 years old. I got it because everyone else had a fizzy. It was a great bike and as my parents would allow me to have one I saved up and bought it myself. It cost me £225 brand new. How i survived I don’t know but I’m still going on bigger bikes at 63 I wouldn’t change anything other than keeping every single bike I’ve had, they’d be worth a fortune now
The AP was the bike to go for if you didn’t want to follow the Hurd it seems
Andrew we are kindred spirits same age and same bike. Bought mine P registration for $225 pounds in Hayes outside London. Regularly did 50mph and put over 10,000miles on it. Sold it to a buddy’s girlfriend friend a year later so I could buy a Honda 175cc
Exactly the same as me , bought my AP50 in March 1976 just turned 16 , got it from Trevor Goodalls a Suzuki main dealer in Didcot Oxfordshire , had 2 months left at school then that boiling hot summer .....halcyon days indeed , i owned many bikes after that went through a race bike phase then a Harley phase now got a Yamaha T Max 500 best bike i'v ever owned .
I had an FSID like the Yellow one, and always wondered what the Suzi was like and now I am 63 !
I had a purple fs1e in 1976. Loved it. Kept it for 2 years. Wish I still had it, just loved buzzing around on it in good weather.
Thank you for that wonderful trip down memory lane. Oh to be young again.
Glad you enjoyed it
Oh this video stirred up some nostalgia….. great job
Glad you enjoyed it
I had a brand new Puch M50 GP back in 1976. What a wonderful way to enjoy the long, hot summer!
It was brutally hot that year
Was in whales with my parents, you couldn’t walk bare foot on the sand
Would have preferred to be buzzing around on your puch I think
Me and you both mate.
Snap re the year and the Puch…except I spent the summer paying for it working in a poultry processing factory ..ugggh!
@@kentonnur nice
What fun
As a 16 year old Brit in 1976, I can assure you that the AP-50 could achieve 63 mph. All you needed was a very steep hill, riding down it with a death wish, which was common behaviour for that age with first bike. 1997, place the Leaner plates on a 250cc and carry on. Sometimes I wonder how most of us survived, but it was a blast !!
1997 ?
Must be a very steep hill, never got near that on mine I have to say. My sons 50cc scooter could but was much modified it must be said. 60 would have felt bloody fast on one of those things mind
@@elizabethcanavan3755 Correction 1977; Punk, Fleetwood Mac, Meatloaf, beautiful young girls ............
AP50's were generally quicker than fizzies due to the 5speed gearbox. I had both, and whilst the fizzie went around corners better, the AP was definitely quicker in a straight line. Unfortunately my AP ended it's life burrowed into the side of a brown Mk1 Ford escort. (Hence buying a fizzie).
Pushed a friends AP50 as hard as I could with a GT550. Could not get above 58 mph until he pulled his clutch in. Then managed over 80. The engine was just acting as a brake. I previously had an FS1E as my first bike, and I would say that the AP50 was a better bike than the FS1E, by a very small margin, in just about every department.
I had the Garelli Tiger Cross
Would out perform the FS1E all day.
Loved it in 1973-4
Tiger cross is getting a lot of mentions, I need to check them out
I had a mate in the 70s who could bump start his tiger cross backwards, was funny seeing him shoot away backwards. Never went far tho 😉
Great vid. For me it was the Puch VZ50, they we're sort of nerdy but went well. The AP was great, very underated except to those more into the bike scene rather than fashion. Fizzys and SS tended to be owned by kids who's parents had bought them. The one everyone really wanted was either the Puch M50 or the Garelli X. Cheers brought back a few memories.
Glad you enjoyed it
Had an FS1E, but always wanted the Gilera 50 trials. Surprised it didn't feature on here as I saw more of those than the German peds. The Gilera was simply beautiful.
All in good time
@@overlandworld2253 forgot about the Gilera trials, it was a lovely bike 👍
I had both an AP50 and a fizzie when I was 16. Both had pedals. I have never ever seen either the Zundapp or Kreidler bikes at all. However I did see quite a number of Fantic, Gilera and Puch machines. It's a shame they weren't included
Well leaves me room for next time 😉
Yes, Puch made some interesting mopeds.
Yes agreed. Never saw either but did see those you mentioned. Garelli & Casal were two others I recall
I had a motebecane in 1973
My first bike was a Gillera 50 give to me by my uncle. In part 2 don't forget MZ Simpson.
My first " bike" as a 16 year old in 1976 was a brand new yellow Yamaha FS1 DX, almost 50mph downhill flat on the tank with my feet on the back pegs.lol...the start of nearly 40 years of biking for me on a variety of off and on road to sports bikes ,from yamaha,kawasaki,honda and suzuki...from 50cc to 1000cc..loved every minute of every bike...rain or shine...lovin your nostalgic videos mate 😊👍👍👍
👍
Great video the 70ts/80ts were the best times for mopeds if only we could go back 😢stay safe looking forward to more videos 🇬🇧 👍
Thanks 👍🏻
About 6 of us used to have them to get to school. We used to unlock the pedals and have pedalled races round the car park. Happy days 😊
Bet that was bloody hard work
Great memories , I had a Honda SS50 5 speed with the disc brake in yellow brand new in 1976 , just about killed it in a year , a friend helped strip it down to have a rebore done at Mores in Hemel Hempstead . Probably the most miles I’ve put on a 2 wheeler in all the years I’ve been riding in a year somewhere between 6 and 7000 miles . I paid around £250 on the road all my savings, paper rounds , washing cars and other jobs but still think that was one of my favourite years racing around with friends .
Who helped you strip it down Dob, don't think it was me ?
Moores with two Os and still going strong.
@@andrewdking Robert from Chipperfield with the Tiger Cross
@@robinbowler2955 Gawd ! 😬
The hamlet of Commonwood to be more exact. Good pub there though 🍺
Disc brake on an Ss50 talk about all the mod cons
@@bikerdood1100 it was only cable operated , the old drum was probably better , but looked good 🙂 will have to check out your other videos 👍
Enjoyed that thanks for taking the time to put it together.
The FS1E was the one to have amongst 16 year old daredevils with more daring than skill at that time, saw a good number of them crashed beyond repair.A friend of mine had a Garelli Tiger Cross which was a lovely looking little cycle and an object of envy.
Hearing a lot about the Garelli
s@@bikerdood1100 That's why I watched your vid but never mind. I had a couple of Garelli Tiger Cross' in yellow/black ( to N and a few P plates available) also an Agrati Garelli (available to R plate 1977) in black & red. Faster than all the rest until the RD50 came out & some lads derestricted them.
I'm nearly 62. My first road going bike was a Fizzy. It was pre registered so that it was a moped ie had pedals. If I'd waited until my 16th Birthday to buy it would have come without pedals but would have been restricted to 30mph. I wanted the earlier version which would do 52mph down a hill and keep up with my mates AP50.
Definitely worth Getting early bike
I'm the same age, and have no regrets about buying a Fizzy, they were, and still are iconic
When I got my SS50 in 1974 it was £210 and the FS1E was a little cheaper but an extra tenner for indicators.
Those early gold ones were beautiful, 2 of the lads at school got them.
Ours was the 1st year to have to stay on for a 5th year at school.
The slightly younger one threatened to beat the other one up if he brought the Fizzie to school when he turned 16
We called them Fizzers. I left school in ‘74, and got a vacation job for the summer at the company where I was due to start my aircraft engineering apprenticeship in December. I had a nice Carlton Corsa race bike, so I caught the bus to the training school over the winter, and waited until I was 17 in the following May when I got a 1968 C50 (a ‘granddad bike’ according to my mates), thus bypassing the moped era and the extra costs.
Many of those mates were paying off their Fizzers and SS50s for years on the never never, whereas I bought my C50 from a local evening paper advert, with the cash I’d saved from my summer job.
And in a flat out race (over a straight mile with a long sweeping corner at the end), partially due to the mild tuning I did to the engine, I beat a lad on his Fizzer, for a bet - which the little creep refused to pay up!
The whole world was a different place back then, and we were different people too.
Ride safe
@Trafficsnitch. All along was under the impression under 17 you could not ride anything other than a moped 50cc or under and it had to have pedals! this was mid 1970s.
Man, that bring back memories. I had 2 Yamaha's FS1, a '73 and a '77 with a disc brake. Love those Fuzzy's 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it
This takes me back. Around 46 years, to be precise, when I was a spotty 16 year-old. Never been into motorbikes (and my parents wouldn't allow it, anyway), but everyone lusted over an FS1-E. Occasionally, friends would let me ride their Yamahas. Another friend, who was tall and looked stupid on a FS1-E (his father was also quite well off) had a Fantic Caballero. This was a bit higher and more suitable for taller people. Ah, memories ....
Need a second video I think
I remember the Fantic caballero's some kids had them & ( at the time) they looked absolutely huge, with a tiny engine & a 6 speed box with an incredibly close ratio gearbox.
@@merlin5476 sound expensive don’t they
Think this is why I waited a year and started on road on a 125, once the 30mph limit came in I couldn’t see the point.
Oh and I didn’t have any money and poor parents so something like a Fantic at 16 would be a fantasy for me
It always seems strange to me that the fizzys make so much money these days .Yes there were loads of them but they weren’t very quick and didn’t even look like a motorbike ,with the motor canted a long way forward and no down tubes on the frames.The ap50 was quicker but looked even worse.I was 16 in 1978 & virtually everyone I knew bought July 77 or earlier derestricted Italian peds-fantic gt’s,ti’s,or caballeros.garelli tiger crosses,or the gilera trail 50.All looked like proper bikes and were way faster than a fizzy,with the exception of the gilera that was about the same.
@@johnb5352 don’t ask me to explain it. Totally mysterious when you can pick up a Triumph Bonnie or a Suzuki GS 550 for less money 🤷🏼
My friend had a AR 80. What a fun little bike. He later put a KX100 motor in it. Scary little fun bike!
Remember the AR 80 well
Absolutely tiny motorcycle. Quite quick for its size
I remember the AE80. The trial version. Great little bikes
Brought back memories when I got my new Fizzie in 77, pre-restricted. I can remember riding it all day until midnight, then rode home and sat in the garage with it, I loved it. A mate got a Casal, a Portuguese make, it looked hideous, sounded dreadful and wasn't a cool bike. Another mate got a Fantic Supersix, that was very cool and would do about 60mph.
Lot of suggestions for various bikes coming up
So many memories of my schooldays, the students parking was always full of all these models and more. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it
A trip to Holland in the 1970s made me crave a Kreidler or Zundapp. Unrestricted they were genuinely quick, and in racing trim could do over 100mph. There's at least one more episode where you could feature Italian, French and Eastern European super mopeds.
Oh at least , this could run and run
I had an ex race bike , a Ducati 50 SL2 that had been registered as a moped . Piston ported cylinder , Boranni alloy rims , Dunlop trigonic race tyres full expansion chamber and 6v battery lights . Capable of nearly 90 mph .
@@georgerobartes2008 sounds great, but how long did it last?
Or rather, eat pistons and conrods...
What I can recall, Italian bikes did not often have an air cleaner on, toe curling...
@@paulh.5691The engine featured in Cesare Bossaglias book '2 Stroke High Performance Tuning' of 1968 for its design features along with the Parilla kart engines he designed . The engine had a cylinder with hard chrome bore which lasted indefinitely , but had standard spares of course . Modifying standard cylinders to race spec meant a trip to the local friendly dentist ( friends Dad) to use his drill . The pistons were fitted with ' Dyke ' L section rings ,seals etc., and were readily available mail order from Mick Walker Motorcycles in Cambridgeshire after the dealer in Walthamstow dried up . The use of castor oil in the premix was a must back then as no synthetics were available . No crank issues whatsoever as it never ran a flywheel to load out the bearings , just a balance and ignition trigger with battery CD ignition . I had been building racing engines for some time before I could legally ride in the UK so had the kit to modify this and other engines etc. , plus I used school equipment during Metalwork later Technology classes to split cranks , O ring cylinder heads and machine up parts as needed .
Your correct , the carburettor was a 20 mm Dellorto with horizontal throttle body , vertical float chamber and a simple ram pipe , tuned to length .
The bike was slow compared to GP bikes by Honda , Suzuki and Kriedler in the early/ mid 70s , and peaky with poor acceleration but amazing handling and grip made up for this as bends could be taken much faster than anything else on the road and great fun .
Memories, I loved my AP 50, it cost me £200 in 1978. As I lived in the country it gave me and my mates the freedom to get into town and see girls.
That’s a win win
Wow, good times! I had a Fizz, a Gilera, a Garelli Tiger Cross and a Honda SS50 five speed, my birthday was the latest in our "gang" so I was the last to be 17 and I bought their mopeds when they all went for the brand new Superdreams. Now I own a 1980 SOHC CB650 Custom, an 82 SOHC CB650 Nighthawk, a 92 750 Zephyr and a 2001 Royal Enfield 500 Bullet which I can no longer bloody start as its kick start only and I'm knackered.
Definitely like your classic fours
How much do you want for the Bullet? :)
@@bradmoss966 lol, are you serious?
I had a 76 Fizzy when i was 16, it was a great little bike and nearly did 60mph, Good ol' times 🙂
Ahh the memories
I had an AP50, back in 78/79, what I liked about the AP50 was it felt more like a proper bike, to me the FS1E and SS50 felt like sitting astride a garden gate.
I fitted a recon crank after one of the main bearings spun - a common problem I believe, fixed on the replacement crank by a knurl where the bearings are pressed on.
The wide tank gives more of a big bike feel
Fs has a very narrow tank to my kind
Beautiful mopeds I must say.
We had here in the 70ties in Amsterdam a Kreidler shop with the latest model on a turning plateau with spotlights on it.
In that time it wil cost about 2500 guilders.
A lot less than a car
Freedom on two wheels
I had the SS50 Honda, gutless as you like but I later found out they were actually restricted by the use of a long throttle slide- when you thought it was fully open it was actually only 3/4s 😬 all you had to do was cut off the excess (there was a groove round the slide to guide) et voila you could keep up with the 2 strokes. If only I'd know at the time...
I had an SS50 too. Brilliant little bike. Wish I’d known about the throttle slide back then !
That’s a very rudimentary restriction device
@@chrisdean3072 I knew about it but didn't bother cutting the bottom of the slide off.
It only added a couple of mph at most.
Great video. Like you I started off on a Suzuki AP50. My local dealer, LLoyd Brothers in Hamilton, had purchased a huge stock of mopeds prior to the rule changes and pre-registered them. This meant I was able to get a brand new, unrestricted AP50 when I turned 16 in 1978. For some reason nearly every guy in my Geography class at school had a sports moped. I remember one day we all brought them in and lined them up side by side on the road outside. There were about 17 AP's, Fsie's and SS's lined up - quite a site.
A sad comment on the times is that in my sons college year only one other kid had a bike
@@bikerdood1100 Yes, it's changed days. Now if you get a bunch of bikers together it's like being in a retirement home.😂
@@tsport6368 ain’t that the truth 😂😂😂
The Zündapp KS 50 or the Kreidler Florett 50 were the dream of my youth. Especially the Kreidler was known for easy "performance upgrades". 😊
If imagine they are pretty rare now
I bought a fs 50 in mint condition in 1985 for 30 south african rands, i took it home stripped all lights, chrome off and rode it on the farm till it became landfil😂😂 wish i had kept it in a box
Similar story with an AP50
Without any warning the UK abruptly raised the motorcycle licensing age from 16 to 17 around Christmastime in the1970s. Before the change you could get your bike provisional license at 16 and ride anything up to 250cc with a provisional license. (That's how I started -- a gutless 125cc 'Bantam'.) After the change you had a lot of demand for 'mopeds' that were really highly tuned 50cc bikes that turned out a respectable 6-8 bhp through a five of six speed box. Clouds of the things -- they became quite a menace.
(FWIW when our daughter started riding in the US we found that once she'd passed an off road basic skills course and a theory exam she could get a provisional license at 15 and a half -- with no capacity limit. She actually started on my old V50 Guzzi before 'borrowing' my SV650. You don't have to try so hard on a bigger bike so they're a lot safer.)
You should check out UK laws now
Talk about anti biker 🤬
I was caught out by this, my mate got his bike licence on his 16th birthday in October, by my 16th in December the same year I could only have a moped. He had a James 150 and a Greaves 250 trials bike and I could only have a Puch and a Honda PC50. It didn’t stop me riding his bikes on occasions though, off the public highway of course.
@@garyhill9723 well of course 🤫
Left school in 1978, started work straight away in a local factory, my brand new AP50 got me there and back every day without a fault, plus all my happy little jolly rides out.
when i hit 17 i took a hacksaw to the copper tube in the exhaust pipe that regulated me to 30mph.
my fizzy friends weren't happy.
loved that little bike.
You always remember your first bike
I could only afford a 4 speed SS50, but the bike that always impressed me was the Suzuki AP50. It must have made an impression because I went on to own several bigger suzuki's since.
I later choices of bikes are often inspired that way.
I had a book as a young guy with a Guzzi lemans in it, I’ve spent most of my life on Guzzi’s as a result
I was given my father’s 5 gear SS50 for my 16th birthday. Yes, it was slower than all the unrestricted 2 stroke mopeds, but it ran like a sewing machine and never once let me down despite being relegated to my winter bike after passing my test and using my savings to by an RD200. Got dropped several times and the only part that actually failed was the clutch lever.
@@NotALot-xm6gz well the Honda was built with economical reliable running in mind.
I think without a doubt the most important thing I’ve learned in the decades of riding is that it’s much better to stay onboard the thing. And falling of really hurts
Oh and it’s expensive to repair them sometimes
I found my younger brother's 5 sp SS50 was perfect for winter riding, while my Triumph cafe racer was laid up in the warm & dry.
Especially on those icy roads where you slid down the camber and rode in the gutter.
The cool kids at senior school rode the Garelli 50 GT.
@@robertgregory8964 Those Garellis were mental if you could afford to keep them in new pistons. :)
Great video, brought back lots of memories from the very early 1980s! Mate of mine had the SS50, whilst I had a BSA Beaver. Great fun was had!
I can imagine 😂
Was given a blue AP50 for my 16th birthday in 1976. Living in a rural area it changed my life and I had some great times riding it. Had a friend with an FS1E and we used to race each other - it was close but the Suzuki always won on the open road as it had 5 gears and the option of changing down to 4th for extra revs always gave it the edge. Top speed 60mph (downhill on the A1 in the summer of '77!)
Happy memories ah
Happy memories indeed. I had a brand new FS1E DX on an R plate.
@@dereksmith6126 Was it restricted to 30? A lad I knew had a yellow one but only did 30 so even my slow SS50 was faster. UK gov killed new super mopeds but there were plenty of used (but thrashed) bikes around.
@@MrSlaphead1960 No it wasn't. A lot of dealers registered non restricted models before the deadline. It cost £300, which if you'd known, buy 50 of them!
@@dereksmith6126 Yes I should have known that. maybe i just forgot, Memory isn,t so good these days. 300 quid sounds good for a brand new unrestricted bike. also I assume would be worth more used
Agree that the Yam and Honda were classics. Kreidlers were rare, Zundapps even rarer, and Suzuki were too late to the party. Other classic peds included Fantics, Garelli Rekords, Malagutis, Gileras, Puch M50s, and my own Casal K190.
Well I’m trying to save some for a later video
Can remember being at school in the 80's. The Fizzy' was the bike of choice (if you could afford one). After school there was the 3 oclock 'scream' as they all went out the parking area flat chat.... 🤣🤣
I couldn’t afford one on road, poor parents so I had to wait until I had my own money to get my first bike a GS125
@@bikerdood1100 I had to wait too!. Ended up with a BSA Bantam D3 150cc non runner for 80 quid that Dad and I 'rebuilt'. Still have it, although in pieces awaiting a proper resto!. 🤣 Great bike to learn on.
@@robleary3353 early Bantams we’re quite reliable, we had a D14 which was rather overstressed and quite troublesome by comparison
I had a Fizzy when I was 16 back in ‘77. Absolutely loved that bike. One occasion I visited my gran in Blackpool about 50 miles away. Was almost frozen to the bike by the time I got home. Happy days.
I fit heated grips to everything these days
Too old for cold fingers
I had the Honda SS50z back in the day, I didn’t want to be the same as everyone else with the FS1e. Only problem I ever had was the metal spar plug cap, in wet weather the rain got inside and the spark was lost. Soon changed that for rubber and off I went. Mum went mad when I bought a leather motorbike jacket for £60 (most lads road in their Harrington jackets) but liked it after I got knocked off the bike by a car, just a few scratches to the leather none on me lol
What was the point of those bloody metal covered spark plugs
I remember getting shocked myself in the rain
I live in Holland and used to have a 50cc Yamaha Enduro in the early 80s.
Souped it up with a 70cc crome cilinder and a 19mm DelOrto carb, good for 100 kmh +, for on the bicycle paths in Holland! Police in those days were pretty forgiving.
Had to replace all the bearings every 2-3 months.
It was so noisy that people next to me waiting for the lights used to cover their ears.
Used to go on roadtrips to Antwerp (from Eindhoven) with a couple of pals (Yamaha FS1, Honda MT, Zundapp KS50). All used to come to my (Dad's) house and tinker.
Great times! Wish I still had it.
There were a couple of automatics too, like the Vespa Ciao and the Puch Maxi, also 50cc but automatic and much smaller.
Very easy to soup up (a friend had and still has a Puch Maxi that does 95kmph)but really dangerous at speed.
Thanks for the vid to my carefree past!😄
Cheers
Ian.
Glad it brought back some memories
I left school in '79, and passed my art exam with a painting of my mates FS1E. Just seeing it, and the Suzuki, along with the Jam and the Stranglers reminds me of back then.
Just makes me think 1979 was a bloody long time ago
Honda SS50 5 speed in lime green was the ultimate in 16 year old sophistication, independence and adventure ;o)
Happy days
Wow, I remember my older brother having and his mates have 50cc mopeds, I had a Honda XL 100s in 1982. Thanks for sharing
Glad you enjoyed it
Because i new sod all about engines i bought the Honda ss50 in 1975. It cost 78 pence in fuel to ride from West Yorkshire to Porthmadog in North Wales and it took me 12 hours. The engine would overheat and just stop, which was a bit scary for a sixteen year old miles from home. When i turned 17 and one big learning curve later i baught a Suzuki GT 250 B. Later a had a Suzuki GT 750 B (kettle) i was hooked on strokers for quite a while. Great video thanks for making it.
Glad you enjoyed it
Brought back some great memories for me. My first road bike was a Yamaha DT50MX.
My pleasure
16 years old in 1975, got my moped from Rumbelows in Hartlepool, it was a Casal. £200 and freedom, loads of us young lads had mopeds, Puch, Gilera, Suzuki etc. Great times.
Rumbelows what a bizarre place to get a moped. I got my first fridge from there.
Like the Tomos and Bondbugs at Woolies
FS1E'S, AP50's, SS50's. I had an SS50 back in the late 70's, my first motorcycle and I will never forget it. So much fun.
Nothing like the first bike
Fizzy for me. Got one with a bit of tuning to it (skimmed head), got 52mph on straights, head down, and about 65 with a tailwind downhill. Had an expansion pipe, dropped bars and an extra large rear tyre - I was king of the road man.
A very steep hill 😂
You tube is brilliant , thank you to you and the many others who put such great content on there on every subject possible.
Well we try
Thanks for the feedback
Absolute trip down memory lane, thank you.
My pleasure, glad you enjoyed it
I still have a few old mopeds.
1x Zündapp GTS 50 from 1978, a Zündapp GTS 50 from 1981 and a Puch Maxi S Spezial from 1982.
every time I go back in time when I ride one of the mopeds again.
and then the smell of mixing lubrication, delicious 👌🏻😊
Hope you get many more years out of them
Memories came flooding back watching this. My paper round, Saturday job & apprentice pay didn't allow me to get any of these 70's peds after I left school in 1972. Instead I had to make do with an old 1950-60's NSU Quickly which I pulled out of a scrap yard & got going. I had a two seat 3 speed model. It went OK but compared to the others shown here it was pretty slow. I only had it for a few months before I passed my test & 4 wheels took over my life. One moped that wasn't shown here that a mate of mine (or his parents) bought new in 1972 was a Puch VS50 Sport. He had a canary yellow one & really struggled with it cos he was 6'4"!! Just as he got the Puch we all got rid of our peds & got cars. He followed soon after.
My son is a touch over 6ft
Looked quite funny on his Peugeot scooter at 16
My first and only brand new bike was a 1982 Honda mb5 .
I've never seen any of the bikes featured in this video and I was surprised to see the liquid cooled one .
I don't know why but I like these little bikes as much as I do the 125s or 250s .
There aren't any small bikes besides the grom here in the states and all that means is fewer beginner riders which is a tragedy .
I'm amazed that in all of your videos you say mph instead of kph .
At any rate per the norm you've knocked another one out of the park .
I very much enjoy watching the content you produce and I don't know how you find such pristine examples of the bikes that you feature .
Excellent work ❤
Thanks for the feedback
In the UK we never use Kph, I must try and include it for Europe and Canada 🇨🇦
40 years ago my first bike was a Honda MT5, I don't think it was available in the US, in the UK both models were restricted to 30MPH, I managed to tune mine up a bit so that it did around 45MPH. Last year I decided to buy a basket case of an MT5, I've rebuilt it and applied all my 2 stroke tuning 'know-how' just to see what I could get out of the bike. Even with my 13 stone sat on it I'm getting 55MPH out of it on the flat which I'm pleased with! (it has taken a lot of work to get this sort of speed out of it)
31 years ago my first bike was a W reg Honda MB5, every penny I got was thrown at her, before I turned 16 I had the standard cylinder bored out to the limit with paper thin walls. Up jetted, bean can micron and K&N, she would sit under 50 on the very bouncy speedo. That lasted a month and the crank bearing collapsed. Chucked a 2nd hand engine in her ( £25 ) from the local bike breakers that came with a proper 65 kit. Different animal now with a proper power band, this lasted me for months until a car pulled out on me and I went superman.
Next was the MT5, dropped a H100 engine in with all the 50s electrics. Honestly don’t know how many times I flipped her.
These were some of the best days of my life, still got the knee scars to prove it.
No the MT 5 was never available in the states to my knowledge . And it's so sad your bikes were restricted to 30mph .
My MB would do 55 mph from the factory 60 if I laid down and the wind was to my back . Back then our interstate system had a 55mph limit rather than today's 70mph . I took that bike as far as 200 miles away from home in all directions.
And I too still have scars on my knees from practicing stopping fast .
One time I pulled the front brake a little to hard and she washed out .
I put a smaller back sprocket on it after I wore the original one out and top speed was 60 to 65 mph with a slower take off .
Such fond memories. Thanks for sharing yours with me .
Todays temp is supposed to reach 70° farenhight. I definitely need to put a few miles on my 750 aero to keep the battery charged . No plans on laying it down 😆
@@charliepatterson9321 I have always felt that 45 to 50 mph is an absolute minimum. 30 is just plain dangerous and was definitely the concept of a non biker
Hi
Enjoyed your video
Had a ss50 in 74 and in the gang we had several fs1e and a puch maxi
16 and free fantastic
Memories
@@bikerdood1100
Definitely luckily all good ones
@@keithquestedelectrical9785 well some one is because they aren’t mine . Well alert from the Yamaha at the beginning and end of the video and that was a full on 100ccs
FS1E- DX for me and i loved it and my first real taste of independence and freedom. Out with my mates, going fishing with rods strapped to it, lots of happy memories. Wish i still had it now
That’s a bike, freedom on two wheels
You missed my start to get on the road A few when still at school had the Suzuki and Yamaha I was very very lucky to get a Puch Grand Prix Special or John Player Special as we called it. and I loved it Great video thanks for the upload and memories Thanks
Puch is featured on another video
Part 3 I think 🤔
4:38 100 km/hr takes me back to the 70s after changed rear sprocket ratio. We used to get more torque from removing the head gasket, porting the exhaust, more head skimming and then switching to 4* fuel when head too much skimmed, or get hole burned in piston. Such fun
A lot can be achieved on the right hill
@@bikerdood1100 yes, going up hills and leaving all the other 50s behind, SS50s always were first left behind. After sooping up you had to change the sprockets to stop the engine screaming 15000 rpm in top
When I was 14/15 around 1978 my friend and I went half’s in a AP 50 Puch for 15 quid It was rubbish but we where kids and we would ride that bike up and down the beach and sand dune at Marske-by -sea having a ball. It would break down push it home fix it and back again to the beach. Those days are long gone. Brings tears to my eyes remembering those days.
Happy memories
In the early 70's, my brother and I got a Motobecane moped that was patterned after an MX bike. It had knobbies and high fenders. Great bike.
A shame Motobecane didn’t survive as an independent manufacturer
Most surprised not to see any Italian 'peds in the list . They were the most common around where I lived . Fantics being the number one make ( a moped chopper anyone ? ) then Garelli . Got beat by a Fantic GT on the Ewell bypass whilst riding my KH250 , it desperately needed a decoke . Happy days .
Need to save some for part 2
I had a 1976 KTM Comet Cross in gold. Don't see any about today sadly. It produced a whopping 3 bhp. I had to hang on for my dear life !!
In Yorkshire too, bet hills were a tonne of fun
Well down bank at least
Was lucky to have both in 1979, reason being parked my Fizzy Dx in the front of a maxi so bought an AP, as a 16 year old they were the best of times.
Well apart from the maxi episode
I had an AP50 in 1982. It cost me the princely sum of £200 and I loved it! Most of my mates had fizzies (which I never liked), although there was another AP50 and a Puch Grand Prix in our crowd. Happy days!
What can you get for 200 quid these days 🤔
@@bikerdood1100 I think you'd struggle to get a night out to be honest. Thanks for doing the videos, great memories/dreams!
Zündapps came rarely ever with liquid cooling, mostly the ones that were rated motorcycles, not mopeds.
And as for Kreidlers, those were my favorite and also plentiful, 40+ years ago in The Netherlands.
Thank you for posting!
No problem
My favourite is the Honda because the 4 stroke engine just sounds so much more civilized than the buzzing 2 strokes. Cheers from Canada :-)
I have to say that while a four stroke man in general I do like the sound of a little two stroke
@@bikerdood1100 Agreed. I like both :-)
Five of us went to Corfu in about 1977 and rented Yamaha 50s. None of us had ridden a motorcycle of any kind before. By the second day, we were racing everywhere. Long straight roads weren’t much fun but these were few and far between on Corfu. It was an unforgettable experience. The speedos would show 85+ kph but it felt like a lot more and was probably a lot less! We all survived, which was probably a miracle.
It’s always a bit of a moment when a small bike hits the limit
Great memories, I got a 4 speed Honda SS50 on my 16th birthday.
It was cheaper than a Fizzy, £225 new! I ran it all week for £1. The good old days.
I was always overtaken by the two stroke peds, though.
I never remember seeing the German ones, but remember the Fantics, they were quick.
I love to see classic bikes, but I wouldn't spend the money on a moped, I'm not as skinny as I was at 16 now. I'm nearly 63. My smallest bike is my DT3 250, I can take it on the motorway, unlike the peds.
Hearing a lot about the Fantics, part 2 definitely needed
@@bikerdood1100 The Italian 50,s were quite popular during 70's Fantics used Motori Minarelli engine as did quite a few Italian 50's and were faster than the Fs1e and AP 50 . The other popular moped was garelli tiger cross/ reckord they used their own engine , lot faster than Fs1e , I had garelli reckord at 16 (quick but fragile )
That ridicules law for sixteen'r mopeds being able to be propelled by pedals , government expected they would all be pedal n pop mopeds , didn't foresee these fast 50cc motor bikes with token pedals (try peddling them lol )
@@bikerdood1100 Perhaps include the much coveted (By me anyway) Puch Grand Prix Special in the JPS black & gold livery. I never got to see one in the flesh as they were like hen's teeth in the UK. Have to say that I did love my 4 speed SS50 though...
@@ResidentWeevil I am planning too of course
I had a Honda SS50 as 16 year old in 1981 and it was so cool riding it to school. Quickly followed by a Yamaha TY 50.
Nice
My Honda SS50 with pedals (for when I ran out of petrol or it just died 😂) from my youth still leaves a hole in my heart
Always imagine the pedals being bloody hard work
@@bikerdood1100 ooooooh yes, imagine a push bike dragging a heavy lead weight, that’d be about it, thighs of iron! 🤣🤣
@@christal-clear4505 well that sounds fun
I started off in 1976 with a rather used Honda SS50 but once i was earning slightly better money as an apprentice car body repairer plus with a loan from Dad! in August 1976 i bought a new Puch Grand Prix Supreme, quite an expensive bike for the time but it looked like a "Real Motorbike" with its alloy wheels, rev counter and small tail faring plus the black & gold "JPS colours" it was a fast moped, when it was running right!.. would love to see one again...
Lot of Puch owners commenting
The gold letters were SDP for Steyr-Daimler-Puch.
@@cedriclynch every day is a school day as they say
My first ride on a motorcycle was my grandads Raleigh Runabout in 1968. Then I bought a Honda 50 later that year. It was one year old and cost 60 quid. They were 100 quid brand new.
If only they were the same price now
Hi, I started out life on a FS1E. The unrestricted version with the folding pedals. You could actually with a bit of effort pedal the bike short distances. As for a follow up video I would like to see one about the 50cc moped/bikes that followed these. Like the Honda MB50 and Kawasaki AE/AR 50 bikes.
Good suggestions, will fit them in at some point but they maybe early 80s bikes
Yamaha DT50M too
I got my biue AP 50 for fifty quid, it was my first bike and I loved it. It didn't have a gear lever and was stuck in third gear and pulled away with no problems. When I got a gear lever I had a knocking from the gearbox and and had it repaired. After that it ran well and was a very reliable little bike. Wish I kept it now but traded it in for my first real bike, my Yamaha RD200 bright orange it was and very fast! AHH the good old days.😥
You may need a bit more than 50 quidditch know
My first bike was a brand new Suzuki X1 in 1982, it cost £360 from Rafferty Newmans in Fareham, number plate was KOT18Y.
I managed 55mph downhill once after changing the gearbox sprocket from 11 teeth to 14, bolting aMicron expansion chamber and a bit of fettling with the ports.
My mates had AP50’s and they were capable of up to 60mph without any modifications!
Happy days of youth!
Well that’s what they told you I expect
I bought an early FS1 (Gold Colour) that had been used as a field bike, as a 15 year old I cleaned and tarted it up then totally thrashed it every day for the next 12 months. It was used to commute about 20 miles each way to my apprenticeship in all weathers and cant ever remember it letting me down. It cost me £25.
In my group of friends, we had the Suzuki, Honda and Fantic, all great bikes for a 16 year old.
Don’t know why they ever restricted the things
Definitely a law cooked up by someone who’d never ridden in his life
I couldn’t afford a fizzie or sports moped in 1974 all my mates could, so I bought a brand new Bonny orange Honda PC50 £99.00 on the road or £2.50 a week on the book. Ok it didn’t do 40mph but it sat at 30mph all day so I kept up. Standard It had no ignition, no indicators, no brake light, it hated hills, I loved it and today I have a absolutely mint baby blue one in my collection which I’ve owned for 20 years, it cost me £600 and I still pop out on it and I love it, it draws a crowd wherever it goes.
That’s brand loyalty
Glad people get joy from their machines no matter how big or small
Brilliant video bought back lots of memories 9:08
Glad it brought back some good memories
Had a Honda SS50 in 1977, and it was slow compared to all my fellow apprentices who all had the 2 strokes. However, I only needed 50p worth of fuel each week though!! Happy days indeed. Great video bikerdood, thanks.
Well would cost a fair bit more now. Still bloody economical though
And the ss didn't heat seize on Sunday trips to the coast!
@@sambrooks7862 😆yes you're right but it took us twice as long to get there, but as we did not seize the engine we also got home again!
@@stevieb9699 but the 2 strokes had to stop for petrol more often aswell, the furthest I rode mine was about 250 miles. My mate had family in Sussex so we rode there from East anglia. Because we could use the motorways it took ages, especially when we encountered a hill!
A second video needed.... let's get the Puch Gand Prix black with gold decals .. hell it even had a rev counter your mates really knew you'd arrived when you rocked up on that .... the Fantic chopper and the Garelli need a mention too ..
True I’m already planning it
beautiful I love 💘 it when I see it I feel happy God bless you ,,,,,you made things wonderful
Glad you enjoyed it
Glad you enjoyed it
Great video - my teenage years. It would be great if you do another with the mopeds we (in Bristol) were mainly screaming around on mid 70s.: Garelli Rekords and Tiger Crosses, Puchs, Gileras and Fantics. Cheers.
Have done a series on mopeds as a matter of fact
@@bikerdood1100 Thank you! I missed that one. Just watched it. Great stuff!
Fizzy! Yeah!! Got mine for a tenner from this kid couldn't get it going. Took it to Maitland racing. They could not get it running either. Anyway,got myself a workshop manual and managed to work out the reed valve was the culprit. Great fun I had with it.Mates Chris Pedro and his AP50. Tom Pollard with a Puch Maxi.Vince McGann with his crappy Tomos!...Them the days lol!
Goo look get one for a tenner today 😂
Very fun video to watch, unbelievable the price they sell for today.
Isn’t it though
I bought a Suzuki A50 on an N plate (1974 I think). It had no pedals and felt more like a proper motorbike. Gave it to my younger brother in the early 80s and it disappeared somewhere… It got me to sixth form and early jobs - good fun.
Bikes bring freedom
My Dear Mum bought me a Yamaha FS1E! I rode it until the wheels fell off! Thanks Mum wherever you are now we miss you.
👍
Love to yours and every mum out there
My First bike was a 50cc moped Puch Maxi . I used to ride it everywhere,but especially to college. They used to laugh at me,but I had the last laugh, because I didn't have to wait for the bus and I got home first.Alot of boys ended up buying them . Took us 3 hours to ride from Port Talbot to Tenby in south Wales.on all the minor roads .allways carried a bottle of 2 stroke oil .
My Puch moped ended up catching on fire as I rode home through Briton Ferry .A real hot rod 🤣 my plastic leggings were on fire ,I thought I could smell something burning. I put out the fire , repaired the bike and sold it. I then went on to buy my first proper motorcycle a Honda CB 125 which I passed my test on .
Motorcycles have been a massive part of my life ,I'm on my 10 th bike now .I have travelled the world on them . from 16 years old to today almost 67 years. Great times , great memories and friends and wonderful experiences
As my Grandfather always told me a bad ride is a lot better than a good walk
Or bus I would add
Had a yellow FS1E DX. Loved it. 1977 - great times on that bike.
As I like to say bikes make memories
I had an AP 50 which I purchased for £30 with a seized piston head. After a new piston and a rebore it was a wonderful introduction to motorbikes and so much more than my first moped, a Honda Camino! I agree it was a more civilised bike and no need to get messy with mixing oil in the petrol as per the Yamaha. I just wish I’d kept it!!!! Sold it to some spotty 16 year old who I’m convinced smashed it up that year….. I recall paying Norwich Union some tiny amount for third party insurance on it. Happy days….,
Cut my teeth on an AP
prices today are bonkers
I could cry my eyes out . I had an ss50. Ap50. And fizza dx . Also an old bogger c 50 with a 70cc engine in it . Back in 1986-87 . Wish I had kept them now 😢😢
Oh we all have those bikes, the ones with the regrets attached
I had a new yellow Honda SS50ZB in 77’ (around the £350 mark) it was 100% reliable and as you said fuel economy was out of this world, I had a 25mile round trip to work each day, never let me down once, I even took it green laning, trips to wales up to see friends, slipstreaming coaches on the A5 to Telford 🙈 then my brother-in-law took it off my hands and used it to commute to the Land Rover works for quite a few years, poor thing was crashed and bashed on a regular basis , it then lay in a shed for years before my sister gave it to the scrap man 🤦🏻♂️ I think the Reg was RUK767R or similar , happy days 😁
Ahh the A5, may travel it myself today.
Good to hear about bikes being used as intended
The Fizzy, Suzuki and Honda SS50(all without those stupid pedals !)were our playthings and constant delight with impromptu drag races and of course the instruments of our pain when the inevitable crashes happened !! Oh, what memories.....and two stroke smells !!!
I do miss the smell of the things, see them so rarely now and we sold our last stroker last year
I had the HONDA SS50 , but put a 72 cc piston and barrel on , it really made a big difference.
I expect it would, mostly in mid range oomph I expect
Yes me too SS50 to 72cc bolt on 50mph and out accelerate my mates AP50 ,now you can go to 89cc on the SS from ebay kits
Ahh the memories, I think between 16 - 17 year old teen I sold/swapped 3 FS1E's knows as Fizzies, fantastic mopeds, spend every weekend, making adjustments, just to get another 3-4 mph out out of it.. Great days!
Bikes make memories
That’s a fact
Why I’m never without one , or three well 4 actually
I had a brand new FS1 (called F5B in Holland) when I turned 16. Disc brake up front. First week I drove it over 600 miles. All my friends had one.
Lot of miles on a small bike. But I know where your coming from. I used my first bike at every opportunity, haven’t really changed more than 3 decades later
lol at 62 years age i am still in love with the Fs1 of my youth. compared to the competition it was in a league of its own in many ways it is still something i meassure mechanical things up against. ahh and the girls ocupying the rearseating ... oh youth had i only known how fast you would be gone ;-)
Bikes make memories
Thanks for this. Took me back to when I was 16 and got a blue AP50 like the one in the clip
Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
My first moped was a 1973 Yamaha SS50, my second was also the same, as a replacement when the first got seized. Then I bought a Suzuki AC50, which was the most sold moped in Norway during the Seventies.. The Fizzy was better looking, but it had only a 4 speed gearbox, while the AC had 5.
Also, the AC50 was quite easy to tune, by just cutting the rotary valve to allow more air&fuel mix into the combustion chamber. My Yamaha had some kind of metal restrictions in the exhaust port, and at the time I had no idea what to do about it, so it could reach only 50 km/hour as was the law. Later on I had Gilera Trail and also touring models, very powerful and cool Italian bikes. I also had several Zundapp GTS50 just as shown in the video. I kept my interest for mopeds until this day, and have become quite a specialist on them.
Bit of a dark art cutting a disc, go too far and it won’t run at all
@@bikerdood1100 The Suzuki dealer did the job for a very small fee, so basically all those AC50 were truly fast. Mine did 110 km/hour with original set up, just had the rotary disc cut to the correct opening. In other markets, like in South America, those bikes were marketed with 5,5 horsepower, while in Norway at the time, the limit was 2,5. But to find on restricted, was nearly impossible, ha ha.
That Honda SS50 is just........another level......
What a style.......What a beauty.....What a sound!
Don’t forget the fuel economy
yeah i always wanted an FS1 never got to own one but its great to see the mopeds thanks for posting this video
Glad you enjoyed it