Return of the Honda 50: How our ‘Nifty Fifty’ won the uphill battle

Sir, – “You’ll never get up the hill on one of those yokes,” my late mother was told, throwing cold water on her plans to acquire a moped to take on the steep incline of Sallynoggin Hill. So it was that she took delivery of Honda 50 registration 8893ZL from the Gem in Ranelagh for the princely sum of £165.

With her youngest son holding on for dear life, she transported him to school in Presentation College Glasthule and, in the process, bonded with the motorbike fraternity among my schoolfriends who gave her advice on motorcycle skills.

The aptly named “Nifty Fifty” became my mode of transport to/from UCD from 1975 to 1978 with a fuel cost of 50 pence a week.

I took my motorbike test in the Dundrum Test Centre on a sunny day: the tester sat on the wall chatting to a friend while I went around the block, twice in one direction and twice in the other.