The life and times of Phil Frog a Welsh Biker
By
Phil Frog
What follows are the first drafts of the stories and are at present unfinished and will be updated and edited on a regular basis.
Forward
How does it all start.
How does a lifelong obsession with anything begin, does it suddenly creep up on you, and then one day you are surprised to find that your life has been taken over by a certain something in your life, and that you have always felt it has always been there, or does it hit you like a Tondu brick the first time you see or do something, no-one really knows or even thinks about the beginning of something that puts you on a path that you follow for the rest of your life, and from that point on when the path is open to you, you follow it, and the obsession takes over your life.
Maybe it is different for everyone, but all that I know is that the first time I was aware of motorcycles, I knew they would never be out of my life, and that feeling is still there to this day, I still turn my head, if I hear a bike coming up behind me, just to see what it is.
It will never go away.
I have had my ups and downs with motorcycles, good and bad times, I have made some good friends and lost some friends far too young, but we had some great times, never to be forgotten, this obsession has nearly killed me far too many times.
I can blame the bike and the lifestyle, but I know it was really me, unless of course, it is some blind moron pulling out of a junction in a car or some other road user, who can't see past his or her nose, but generally just me.
When you are young, immortality is one of your attributes and sudden painful death always happens to someone else.
This is the story of my journey through the world of motorcycling up to the closing decades of the millennium.
So just enjoy someone else pain and laughter, you may see yourself somewhere in these memories.
And just one last thing, don’t try any of this at home, it hurts.
Would I do it all again, the answer is simple, yes in a heartbeat.
Contents
CHAPTERS
Title Words pages
1. Tank. 4,000 16
2. Frog and the Flagpole. 5,978 22
3. Blues and Twos. 3,457 14
4. Rhondda Boy’s. 3,207 14
5. The Golf Course. 5,449 22
6. Bridgeman and the Evergreen. 2,537 8
7. The Harbour, the Swimming Pool and the Police. 4,062 16
8. The Tramp and the Lorry. 6,776 27
9. Miscommunication. 3,054 13
10. Dylan the Biker Bear. 3,728 17
11. The Hitchhiker. 3,339 12
12. The Angel and the Pint. 3,496 14
13. The Fizzy. 4,071 17
14.headlights 1 & 2. 4,313 16
15. Confusion. 2,196 11
16. Hare Krishna. 2,380 16
17. Laverda Jota. 3,858 15
18. Plastic Santa. 6,360 24
19. Kids. 3,051 10
20. Beryl and Harry. 5,503 21
21. Drunken Bear Rally. 10,705 41
22. Thieving Bikers. 4,303 17
23. Pissed English Biker. 2,221 10
24. sausages. 3,008 12
25 Two Wheel Services. 2,621 11
26. Starfire. 6,614 34
27.Coppers #1 3,093 13
28.Coppers #3 4,585 18
29.Strange Habits and Party Tricks. 5,210 22
30.Close Calls. 5,150 20
31.Rally’s. 5,470 22
32.Tomatoes. 4,450 19
33.Townies. 4,215 17
34.Vincent Black Shadow. 2,212 10
35.The Old Bridge. 4,000 16
36. B.U.S. 2,174 10
37. Shrooms. 7,582 32
38.Coppers #2. 7,935 30
39. Frozen part 1. 8,241 31
40.Slug`s. 4,426 18
41.Frozen Part 2. 5,420 20
42.Bite. 6,908 25
43.The Mendip Rally. 7,800 29
44.Sleep over. 2,934 14
45.Patio. 1,188 7
46. Pendine Boxing Day run. 5,176 24
47.Lazy Riders. 3,608 19
48.Spooky Mouse. 1,287 6
49.Wet.Wet. Wet. 4,450 14
50.Day Off. 7,520 29
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63. Nickname's part 2.
Just a quick word.
The story's which I have been posting are really just drafts of events that have happened in the past, and are not the full or complete versions, I have every intention to elaborate on the event`s in the future, and to add more details and expand the stories to cover everything that I can remember that happened in each and every event.
I don`t want to forget the stuff we got up to, because it was fun, and fun times should always be remembered.
So, I'm using this blog thingy as a platform to archive my memories, and hopefully trigger other people's memories' who were there and get some feedback, so they too can remember the good times we had and enjoy the memories of the times we shared together.
In posting the story's this way, I don`t miss anything and possibly have more accurate details of what happened and hopefully put some smiles on the faces of my friends that may have forgotten what we got up too.
As you get older memories start to blur into each other and then when this happens it becomes difficult to remember the details of particular events.
Take a bike rally's for example, for those of you who were there, someone may say to you " do you member so and so at the VINE RALLY ".
you may get an answer back similar to " no, he didn`t go there, he went to the FOOLS RALLY ".
It is so easy to get things like time and places mixed up.
The rally's and the party's and all the other stuff we all got up to tend to merge into one big event, and sometimes it is very difficult to separate events from one another.
let's face it, we all wore the same type of clothes, which didn't help, leather jackets, normally black in colour, denim cut-offs and blue jeans.
All the rallies were of a similar set up, maybe just the location and the weather would change and the only clue to what rally it was, and what year would be what bike you were riding at the time.
It has been a very long time since all this kind of stuff happened.
( Photo 1 ) . Some of the guys back in the day early 80`s at a beach party at Nash Point.
The 70`s` and 80`s were a lifetime ago.
I may at a later date add more recent events that have happened in the 90`s and the new millennium, this is quite a lot of years to cover, it may take me another lifetime to write it all down.
Using myself as an example.
I was riding bikes before I was even older enough to hold a driving licence, mainly riding old Brit bikes up on the mountain sides.
I passed my bike test in 1972 on the first attempt, and did not stop riding a bike until 2011 that`s 39 years, which is a very long time to do anything,
I only stopped riding because I had a non-bike related accident that has stopped me from riding.
It has been 7 years now of not been able to ride and it`s doing my head, this not been able to ride when I want too is very frustrating.
But shit happens and you have to deal with it.
Life throws all kind of crap at you, and you have to just get up and brush all the crap off and carry on the best you can.
But I do intend riding another bike before I snuff it, even if it is the last thing I do, I still own 6 bikes and I'm in the middle of rebuilding 3 of them.
Once biking is in your blood, it never goes away.
A very short list some of our friends who are not with us anymore.
FAT MIKE.
LURCH.
CHERRY.
BUCKET.
MIKE KEEN.
TONY DOG.
NIFFTY.
BILLY MEARS.
DEWI ROBINSON.
There are many others that we have lost over the many decades that have past, and the friends that I have just mentioned above are just the ones that have gone in the last few years, and this Blog/Draft is also attempt not to forget people or who they were.
They have, all in their own way had some influence over us in our lives, even if it was just one insignificant word or a random act.
In their own way their presences in our lives as shaped ours.
After all, no one really dies until the last one person that remembers them also passes into the darkness.
We all feel a great sense of loss for the people that have been in our lives, and are no longer with us, it would be good to see them again even if it was for the briefest moment.
If they left any form of impression on you, you would always carry something of them around with you, and while the memory of them still exists, they are not truly gone from our lives.
It has been said that you die twice, once when you finally stop breathing for the very last time, and the other time when someone utters your name for the very last time.
So let us not forgot the ones we have known and have lost.
Thank you for listening.
Diolch
( Photo 2 ) . Back in the day at the Plough and Harrow in Monk Nash.