Simon Butler’s

Bike-ography

Simon Butler's brilliant VF750 SC features in our Hall of Fame.

Here he shares some of the bikes he and his friends have enjoyed and some of their adventures....

Starting off with a bit of Italian class -

The Laverda Jota.

Just over 7000 of this 1000cc triple were produced between 1976-1981

Laverda Jota

Here's a snippet from The Motorcycle Broker review back in the day.

" The Laverda Jota has charm and charisma once you understand it and ride it hard. If you want to ride it like a Harley, save your money and buy something else, or you’ll hate it. It’s a classic motorcycle that requires enormous input from the rider, along with commitment and a need to go as fast as possible. It is essentially a racing motorcycle from the 1970s with lights for road use ".

Simon has toured extensively - both in Europe...

Here is his 1980 CB750 FA loaded up

... for camping overnight in Switzerland

Switzerland again...

... this time on a CBX550F2

....and much further afield... in Nepal and Thailand

Checking out a Rickshaw (Nepal Feb 1990)

On a hired bike on Koh Samui an island in Thailand

And then there were the Sand Racing events at Weston-Super-Mare

with Simon in the side car ... just about!

Meanwhile, there were several Suzukis...

Out and about on the GS 1150 ES

Not to mention the Suzuki 600 Bandit, 650 Turbo and XN 85 Turbo!

And then there were the Yamahas ......

XS 400, FJ 1200 and featured below the XJ900

Simon always keeps a clean machine... except maybe ...see below

As a keen Motocross fan, here you can see him trying his hand at Dave Taylor's trail park.

This is Mark Banks hanging on tight at the British 250GP at Farleigh Castle Wiltshire July 1986

Taking a breather during more trail park hi jinks

Coincidentally Howl visited Dave Taylor's Trail Park in Swindon back in the '80s -

Here is Jude trying her hand

Dave Taylor MBE - The Wheelie King

The late ‘70s ‘wheelie king’ and display riding star rose to even great prominence as a leading campaigner for motorcycle safety making many radio and television on the likes of ‘Record Breakers’ and ‘Blue Peter’.

Most famously of all, however, he wheelied an entire lap of the TT Mountain circuit aboard a Yamaha XT500.

His name lives on via MCN’s Dave Taylor Lifetime Achievement Award, which honours those whose life’s work has had the biggest positive effect on motorcycling.

And we finish as we started...with the Hondas 😀

These included an RS250, CX500 and his 'second favourite' bike the VT500

probably used when he was Despatch Riding