When I was growing up everybody rode a bike. The 70s and 80s was a carefree and easy period etched in my mind as one of the best.

Holden and Ford were pumping out thousands of new, more powerful cars every year, no one cared about fuel consumption, the Japanese had just invented the four-cylinder sportsbike and motorcycling was a mainstream sport. In those times 99 per cent of people wanted the latest and greatest Japanese missile and it was only a hard-core few that rode Harleys or ‘bobbed’ Triumphs on the streets.

In fact, as I recall, it was a pretty rare occurrence to see a chopper without the rider wearing some type of colours. I grew up in Adelaide and still remember regularly seeing the Hells Angels cruising the streets, unbothered and riding from wherever they’d been to wherever they were going.

Read the full story in the current issue of AMCN on sale now