Who had one of these when they were 16 in the mid 70's.
This isn't the one I had but mine was the same colour and model.
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I also had an SS50, mine was a 4 speed with a gold tank from 1972 but after a few modifications it ended up as a 5 speed with a blue tank the exact same colour as the one pictured. Happy days
I also had an orange Yamaha RD200 RD200 Electric start unlike the RD250!
No moped for me - my introduction to life on two wheels was via the giddy heights of a 100cc Suzuki.
In 1977 (aged 16) I got my 1974 FS1E - a life-changing event! I think I paid £100 for it and sold it a year or so later for £120.
My mate had a Suzuki AP50 - which was probably a better bike.
Me and my mates mostly hit 16 between 84-86 and everyone either seemed to have, or was desperate to get a Fizzy, I was one of the few who never actually got to own one but would regularly ride the others.
I ended up with one of these, it wasn’t terribly reliable but I properly loved it.
Not my photo
Not mine but this
And of course wanted something else... but too dear!
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Those were the days...
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Not really a moped...but I'm kinda liking this.
There was all sorts near where I lived, one lad even had a Fantic chopper.
There was a Garelli Rekord that'd do 60 with the wind behind and about 35 into the wind.
Garelli Tiger Crosses were popular and Casals but they had crap electrics and no kick start.
The FS1E was faster than my SS50 but the Honda did twice the mpg and didn't need a squirt of oil in the tank.
They were happy days and those mopeds are worth a royal mint nowadays
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I think when I got mine it was £200 give or take a few £££
The FS1E was £199 but if you wanted indicators it was another £10.
My dad signed the HP forms and said no 2 strokes so the SS50 it was.
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It looks like a mashup between a Bantam D175 and a D14/4 sport, Bushman's didn't have tank badges, had an orange and white tank, orange side panels and white mudguards.
The Bushman borrowed the exhaust from the Bantam D14/4 sports and the forks from a Barracuda!
The dad of one of my mates at school had a contract with the GPO to buy their redundant equipment, he used to get ex telegram Bantams for the princely sum of £5 each. I bought a three of them from him over a period of a couple of years, we used to strip them down, fit a pair of knobbly tyres and thrash them around the local quarry at the weekend!
I had one of these...
Good times...
Started with a FS1E when I was 16 I think? Then took my car test shortly after turning 17 and got an MG1100. Shortly after I got a Suzuki GT250 Ram Air. Ah the old days of 2 strokes...
Stuart
I can remember riding home from work when we were 16 old apprentices and my mate coppered up to put petrol in his purple FS1E.
17 1/2p for a 1/4 gallon of 2 star and a squirt of 2 stroke oil
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Yeah I had a gold Honda SS50. A mate got a brand new Gilera 50cc trials moped...£299 on the road lol.
I think that it was the last year of Secondary Modern school and one of the boys who had just turned 16 arrived on a brand new one of these
A Fantic Chopper - complete with functioning pedals (which we never saw him use of course)
Its amusing to look back on this now and recall how cool everyone thought this chap and how amazing his super moped was!
I on the other hand had to make do with a Puch VZ50 complete with rear coaster brake linked to the pedals
It struggled to get past 30mph and at the time I hated it as it seemed deeply unfashionable. I was too immature to appreciate its amazingly solid build quality and durability so as soon as I could I graduated to an FS1E. Drum brakes all round - discs weren't an option at the time, not that it really needed one anyway. I did a lot of what the great Royce Creasey referred to as 'dynamic dismounting' on one of these.
Suzuki Stinger 125cc. Bought it brand new for somewhere around £220. Cracking little bike that would do 80 flat on the tank. My bm had a 200 Tiger club that haemorrhaged oil and seemed to break down every trip. He would carry a rope for me to tow him home.
I’ve got a hankering for a Honda Zoomer. There’s a dealer on eBay importing them from Japan
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Check out the new CT12 Hunter Cub for some modern-day nostalgia:
https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocia...125-hunter-cub
Dont for one second look at the current value of popsicle purple drum braked fizzies!
I had the green MZ50 Puch, unlike yours which was sporty, mine had metal panniers and legshields , I did 7000 miles in one year of ownership, probably 80% of those within a 25 mile radius of my parents house!
Last edited by higham5; 11th June 2020 at 21:06.
Blue AP50 for me, still remember the reg after 40 years AWL 925R. I loved that bike - first taste of freedom. Fast for a moped -got stopped on a derestricted road at “over 55” according to the copper. Lived off of that for months :-)
onto RD250s after that some with lots of power mods.....
Wish I hadn’t now that the injuries are coming back to haunt me.
Last edited by usedtobelurch; 11th June 2020 at 22:08.
I think it was the Yamaha DT50s in White that we’re the sports moped of desire.Not as fast as Fizzies but nicer looking with high rise exhaust and mudguards
I had a Yamaha DT 50
It was 'bored out' apparently, but I did get up to 70mph on a run one day. Probably more like 60 but felt fast.
Next was the TZ 125 on a Provisional licence
I never took the bike test so never got further than that, but it was an absolute blast while I had it.
The pictures are stolen from the interweb. I'm surprised at the prices these fetch today.
Hardly a sports moped but a moped nonetheless
I then progressed to this before I got into 4 wheels
“Sports” mopeds ! Behold the mighty Suzuki X1 - tried everything to make it go faster... but only really succeeded in making it louder, which was almost the same.
I had a Puch M50. It was fairly quick in its day - marginally faster than a Fs1e and much quicker than the Honda , but that came at a price. I seized the engine .... twice!
Borrowed pic:-
I remember the Stinger although they were pretty rare by the mid 70's.
One of the lads traded one in for a RD250A in Brigade blue.That model of RD in 1974 blew the other 250's into the weeds.
As a 16 year old with a 1.6bhp moped that struggled to do 40 a 250 was just a dream.
One week I wanted a GT250 then a 250S1 then the RD but finally my dad said he'd sign the HP forms for a smaller bike so I got an RD200 as they'd stopped making the CB175 .
And more debt.
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16th birthday in 1978, a purple FSIE, my mother shouting "You'll hurt yourself" as I disappeared in a blue haze, what the hell did she know anyway! Several bikes & lots of hospital visits later it seems she was right!
Never had a sports moped as was still at school and couldn’t afford one. Had a Raleigh Tonabout and various others same as most of my mates. A couple had SS50’s or FS1E’s. Managed to afford a Triumph Trials Cub at 17 still in the sixth form and went on from there!
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Wow, now were talking memory lane :)
Had the gold FS1E and many a fond memories back in '76. There was about 12 of us that would ride night and day (more night time after school) all with different mounts. Mine was flat as a pancake compared to others, tried all sorts, polishing ports leaving baffles out etc. Always laid down on the tank to try and squeeze another cheeky mph
One of the fastest in our pack was the AP50 although one lad had a purple fizzy which could always out sprint and top end me, he never did reveal what his secret was, maybe because he was as thin as a rake, the SS was pretty nippy too
2 of the best good looking ones amongst our group for me were a Fantic Cabellero and Garelli Tiger Cross, noisy but stunners
One of the lads arrived on an older Honda SS50 one day, this was one of the earlier year non restricted ones so blew us all healthily out of the water. His dad had bolted a pair of pedals to the bike so it looked like a moped to intent purposes, his dad was chief mechanic for the County Council and should have known better giving his boy the edge over us all :) Anyway time caught up with him eventually as the police pulled him one day and game over, non of us know to this day if any of us had grassed him up or just bad luck
Anyway thanks for the thread, it brightened my evening up no end last night reading
Most of my mates had FS1E's an AP's so I decided to be different and had one of these in 1980/81, a Casal SS4. I don't think I ever saw another one on the road. Mine was not in as good nick as the one in this pic though.
few mates had fizzies and a couple more had ER50's when i was 16 i was lucky enough to be given a brand new TS 50.
You're welcome
It was seeing the thread re ancient mountain bikes and seeing a chopper that made me think of those mopeds.
One of the other paper boys got a red SS50 and did his round on it the posing tw*t
There was a load of us too on bombers (mopeds) 125, 175, 250 and a couple of bigger bikes.
A couple of lads had the tiger cross, another had a rekord which was the fastest about.
There was a Malagutti with clip ons, a Casal, Fantic Chopper and my mates Puch which looked like a 125.
The AP50 wasn't out then so the European mopeds were quickest when the electrics weren't fried or they weren't seized up.
A lad I worked with had a red Gilera trials moped, it was lovely looking but never ran and compared to the jap bikes with a kick start, pedalling the European bombers made them look like Raliegh Runabouts.
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Last edited by RD200; 12th June 2020 at 09:09.