This series of articles was originally published at http://www.realclassic.co.uk/ The cartoons are from my FS1E's owners manual. Let’s face it, bikers tend to congregate, and in every town there is a natural meeting place where tyres will be kicked, friends made, deals done and adventures planned.   Ours was known as ’The Paddock’, and was a place of myth and legend long before I finally got my Fizzie onto the road.   It’s long gone now, sacrificed on the altar of increased town centre parking.   As Joni Mitchell said, “They paved paradise……..”, except in this case the Council took one parking lot that had character and significance for at least a few residents, and filled in the space between the piers with rubble to make a huge innocuous tarmac slab.   Oh well.   On day one of my road legality, the rain poured as a saturated wretch, too broke from buying the bike to have afforded waterproofs, rode falteringly into this lion’s den before coura...