My Dad loves motorbikes and spends most of the weekend working on them. Not only does he maintain bikes. He totally takes one apart and builds new ones from the pieces. He is always looking out for custom motorcycle parts which he can buy to make his bikes a little different.

I think that my first proper memory I have is of me and my Dad working together in the garage. He would be working on one of his bikes and I would be there trying to copy him. I would take one of his custom motorcycle parts and try and fit it to my pedal bike. I can’t remember how old I was but I must have been around 4 years old.

I have to admit that I got into bikes because of my dad and I did it at an early age. That is not the only way that people do get into fixing bikes. One of my friends decided he wanted a project for the summer. He had just watched a film called ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ and I think that must have inspired him to do it.

After he had made the decision about buying a motorbike he then made another peculiar decision. Rather than buying one from a dealer, the decided to buy one from Ebay instead. When it was delivered he was surprised (I wasn’t) that it didn’t actually start. He decided that he would work on it anyway.

So for the next month he spend the majority on the time in magazines and on the interent looking for custom motorcycle parts to make his bike work. He spent hundreds and not knowing much about bikes, it took him a very long time to fit things. The best thing about it was he had a lot of fun. It was a very challenging project as well.

He spent a long time working on it and ended up getting a bit frustrated. None of the custom motorcycle parts worked. He thought he had tried enough so he took it to the local garage. The mechanic took a look at it and told him he had done his best but he should give up on it.