Holiday Fun-D

CMM reader Tim Partington had a plan for his 50th: a top holiday away with missus Nicole. Then this bike happened…

- Bertie Simmonds

Like many of us, when we get to certain special times in our lives, we like to treat ourselves,yes? Hitting 40 is a classic, 50, 60 and 70 too… Often we have what’s fashionably called a ‘bucket list’. It could be throwing yourself out of a perfectly good aeroplane, or travelling to a faraway country.

For many of us men (yes, I know we have a proud female readership, but bear with me on this) we confuse a ‘bucket list’ with ‘mid-life crisis’. Some may seek out the delights of the younger, fairer sex, while the shrewder among us will try and keep the better half happy, so we can have more time in the shed/garage…

Tim Partington was shrewd. Note the use of the past tense, there. Then things changed but – well, you can see the result here. Let’s start at the beginning. “I’ve always been two-stroke daft, me,” explains Tim. “I’m 50 now, so I guess I’ve grown-up with two-strokes. A friend taught me to ride a TY50 and then I guess I just progressed from there. I’ve had KE100s, DT100s, 125s, 125LCs and of course 350LCs: in fact, remember when you could pick up an LC for £200 and we all had five ‘spare’ engines?”

From road-riding on his beloved two-strokes, it was a natural progression to “go racing… and I did, on a TZ350, but my timing was rubbish and unfortunately I got three-quarters through the season before everything was going to 250s and I just couldn’t finance it. I still look back with fondness now on the whole two-stroke racing thing. They were brilliant and exciting days… Just remember the old 125cc two-strokes and the amazing 250cc twostrokes. Quick, quick bikes that were awesome to watch – and I so loved the changeover year when MotoGP went four-stroke, but they had some 500cc two-strokes on the grid too…”