Yamaha

It's never just about the loan payment, or Hire Purchase as they used to call it, the never never, the drip, or just plain old debt.

It didn't take me long into my working life to get into debt, although it could be argued I was in debt at school, my mum ran a Kays mail order catalog and I was always spending my pocket money on something naff and overpriced.

The Yamaha came with lots of extras, the carrier box, the gloves, the helmet, the visor, and that was before it hit the road. As a new rider, the insurance was high and of course, over a few months, the bike did hit the road, several times.

In fact, I put the bike down, slowly though, on the way back from the shop the night I picked it up when my loan cleared. I could ride in a straight line, but I found the corners tricky. The other times were far less controlled and I found myself sliding around when it rained, and it rained a lot that time of the year.

One lunchtime at Barking College, a friend asked if I could whizz him "just around the car park" and he jumped on the back, I tried to show off, did a bit of a wheely and took off like a rocket, both of us without helmets. A Mercedes was driving into the car park and I saw it at the last minute, put the bike down into a slide and ended up under the back wheel.

The tire on the Merc was punctured and my front shock was bent, my elbow was thumped and my pelvis chipped from a steel popstud on my jacket. It ended up being an expensive car park trip and, with a bike off the road for two months and continuing payments, the Evil Knievel chapter of my life came to an end.