A's of all types, I once had a nice 1950 G/Flash plunger A10 as a first bike when I was 17, cost $10 it was originally stored in bits in a shed on a farm, but by the time we heared about it and bought it the shed had fallen down. My dad and his friend fixed it, and theoretically I helped but I think I did a lot of watching. That was my transport away from home in the big smoke at art school, it was a great machine for learning stuff, if you didn't work out how to fix it it didn't take you places. One of the worst things it did was crossing some train tracks where the jolt somehow had the fibre gear on the magneto strip some teeth, that was winter at night in Nimetabel waiting for dad with the trailer. My dad fixed that by cutting two stripped gears in half and using the good halves to make one good one. Got my first ticket on it in Canberra after riding for about 6 months with just header pipes a copper on a bike came up next to me at the lights and waved me over, I think it cost $19 and I had to go before a magistrate. I've learned that if something is a bit loud at least have it look like it has mufflers. Then dear oh dear being a youth I showed the poor thing little mercy and it threw a rod through the cyl block having a bit of a drag with my best friend in his torana, it was a GTR and I was winning. I couldn't find a block and C/rod, and after winning money in an art comp gave up and bought a cheap but complete second hand power egg, the A10's pudgey little offspring, and gave it to a man who welds and soon had it bolted into the plunger frame. An A65 in the engine room was a different animal to the 6.5 - 1 comp iron A10, not only that but I knew nothing about gearing and just put the chain on, an A65 usually runs a 47T rear spkt this had 42T and a 19" wheel, it was impressive and the switch to turn it off wasn't trying to electricute me like the metal earth button on the A10 used to do most of the time.
