Even from a young age, I loved bikes. When I was 14, my mum got me an old banger of a Honda C50 scooter (yes, I know!!). I used to play about on some waste ground close to our house.

However, by the time I finally turned 17, my mum had gone off the idea of my having a bike, so I did my cage test. Circumstances meant that it wasn't until I was about 28 or so that I finally got around to getting my bike licence, thanks to my then boyfriend.

We did our bike tests at the same time in Tunbridge Wells. Unfortunately I failed first time  (due to an unexpected rider/road interface), but had no problems on the second attempt.

 First bike was the trusty old GPZ500. I passed my test in the morning and stepped on this in the afternoon. Compared to the SR125, this was a  powerful, heavy beast and I had to pull over twice on the way home to let cars overtake.

The GPZ did us proud, but as winter approached, we felt that a trail bike would suit us better. So, given how much we liked the GPZ, the logical decision was to get the KLE500. That coped admirably with the winter.

However, come springtime we were looking in the local BMW garage. There we saw a ZZR600. Although we had no real thoughts of buying, we decided to test ride anyway. The bike was so wonderful we immediately slapped a deposit down.

Some time later, we had got seriously sick of fighting over whose turn it was to ride the bike, so his nibs invested in a VFR750.

We were both very impressed with the new acquisition (although I still maintain it's an old man's bike!) and since 1997, it has done almost 40k miles with hardly a murmur.

With the new freedom, we started going further afield and doing some touring.

April '99 came round and we (for a change) had some spare cash available - it was now time to update the ZZR. I looked around and came to a decision. I wanted an R6!

So, having managed to get a good deal, I purchased my pride and joy. On that first day, its radical riding position was evident, as I took a run down to the coast on it. Even though I was having to keep below 5000rpm, it was clear that it was seriously fast and it handled divinely.

So far I've done about 12k miles on it.

Of course, there's no point in having a bike like the R6 without taking it on the track at least once, just to take it closer to its (or more accurately, my) limits.

So yet another pressie from the boyfriend (to the tune of £10) ensured I partook of a 2 hour ladies track session at the Knockhill Race Circuit, near Dunfermline.