Motorbikes
 

Not wanting to hijack the Rover remap questions.

Let's start a bike conversation lol.

Being a biker all my life, you kinda just keep moving on with the technological advances. Until one day I just though enough is enough. I decided that it was becoming more and more difficult to ride these bikes and keep the speed down to limits.

I decided that 100bhp was far more than I would ever need on the road. I looked for something totally different, something that I had never considered before. I purchased an absolutely mint BMW R1100S. It was 8 years old at the time, but looked brand new. It turned out to be the best road bike I have ever owned. It proved my point that 100 bhp was enough, it had bags of torque and a very relaxed feel. A big twin just never sounds to be very busy.

I followed up on this with an early Hinckley Triumph Trident. This too was lovely to ride. Still have a Blackbird hiding in the garage, but it rarely gets ridden.

Always fancied an old R80 or R100 tourer, the iconic police motorbike from the 80s and 90s.

This colour is my perfect motorbike:

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...act=mrc&uact=8

I've always I guess had most fun on middleweights but as I move around the country find that If I want an alternative to the car for visiting friends and family find the smaller bikes just bit lacking on the m/way especially as I get older. So now on a '96 750 virago. Bike I liked the best? a toss-up between my GSX550EFE - absolute fun on the twisties - even the bumpy ones (despite the 16" front wheel). Or the fully faired GS500 - which would happily two up with luggage take you on a camping trip and still easily top 3 figures loaded like that.


Most vile bike? A Honda CB650 - all the weight of the CB750 without the grunt and a saddle just high enough to make you worry whether the road would be slippy when you put your foot down at a junction. And no screen! although I had some awesome neck muscles back in those days so I could cope with it at 90.



The 750 when given a fistful is faster off the line though even with the same power and a shaft drive. But I prefer to enjoy the scenery a lot more these days. (+ average traffic speeds are slower than they were 20 year ago). No longer a daily m/cycle rider - I quit riding in through snow and rain some years ago.

my beemer, it was a lovely bike.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j2...0/BMW80044.jpg


My wife and I did Lands End to John o Groats on it, to raise funds for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j2...00/WEDIDIT.jpg

Bang for your buck... you just can't beat a bike for sheer excitement, I've owned a fair few bikes over the years and tbh I can't really see myself not having one, I am still toying with the idea of buying the new GSXR1000 even at the grand old age of 58. Not quite done with the sports bike thing just yet but ... lately I have found myself strangely drawn to the Harley sportster!! I'm not a Harley fan at all really but the sportster kind of does it for me, just love the 'out of balance' V twin that gives it that distinctive note.
I think it's more to do with the whole Harley 'life style' thing than just being another cruiser, kind of like the idea of belonging to a group of something a bit special, a bit like the 75/ZT owners club eh!
Time will tell whether I go for the Suzuki or do a complete 180 and go down the Harley route but one thing is for sure ... the 75 is a permanent fixture, i have no desire to change my 75 for anything else, having far too much fun with it.:xmas-smiley-008:

Had a few over the years, most fun was the TL, closely folllowed by (the mk1) ZX10, ridden hayabusas, R1s and plenty of normal stuff. The most civil bike I have owned was a Honda firestorm, very well mannered.

Sticking to the trike at present as Deb won’t get on the back of a bike in this country (she’s fine when abroad?!?)

I have a Fzr600 in the shed........... currently having it's fairing resprayed

I had an FZR1000 exup. A really nice bike.

I restored this Kawasaki 750 H2, that underwent a LOT of modifications along the way. Reed valves from a snowmobile fitted. This bike produced 120 rear wheel BHP, in a frame that looked like it was made for a push bike.

Very exciting to say the least! lol.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j2...2Finished1.jpg

I got rid of my final bike a few years ago, an Honda VFR 750. It was better than mint when I bought it, but it was a bit too tall/wide in the saddle for me and I dropped it coming to a stop at least once, scraping the fairing. That, even after buying a used saddle to reshape myself.



On the move, it was absolutely lovely, water cooled, very smooth and quiet mechanically. The only thing would have liked better, was the same bike, but with shaft or belt drive. I hated chain maintenance and was always wary of chains snapping, having once had it happen in my early biking days.



I made a decision to get the fairing sprayed up, where I had scraped it and sell it on.

And at the other end of the bhp graph my trusty old Norton. :icon_lol:

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/lHHDex4.jpg?1[/IMG]

Had a few bikes over the years - set up a dispatch business with a mate from school back in the day running out of Wimbledon.