dedhed

My problem was always the other way. Having a 73 Triumph and 69 Sportster I'd hop on someone else's bike, try to downshift and stab the rear brake

clubman 

What size are those wheels?




[/QUOTE]

oneclick 

17 inch.

And I made the seat cover, leather. Had to cut out the foam for more room because, well, I wasn't a sixteen-year-old.

clubman 

Nice size bike for a 50cc.

thinktubes 

oneclick that looks incredibly fun! Got any before pics?

RoadCycler

I'm a relatively new member and am unable to post pics just yet, but I've ridden and had motorcycles since before I had a driver's license. I've owned a 79 Honda CX500, 1979 CB750K, 2001 Kawasaki ZRX1200R, 2000 Suzuki Hayabusa, 1987 Honda Goldwing 1200, and currently just a little V30 500cc Magna project bike... but several bicycles, ha ha ha. I worked at a Kawasaki dealership for several years during college. Something about passing the world by on two wheels is exhilarating and relaxing at the same time.

trailangel

I liked the right hand gearbox, especially the pre-unit construction of Nortons and the like. Right side 1 up and 3 down. Made more sense... push down or forward to go forward. Pull back or up to slow down. Plus it was a more positive shift to push down on the shifter going forward.. less chance to miss a shift dragging your buddy for beers.

oneclick 

No, but it looked a lot like this one:




Mine didn't come with the fairing, and I suspect neither did the bike in the picture. There are more cool Testi pics on that site, and you could also check out the moped army site, it's fun.

It was fun. The Minarelli P6 was a hot motor, six-speed box. Stock it ran out of revs at about 7500 and the muffler was noise control only, no boost. It wasn't very good at noise control. I bought Gordon Jennings' book and designed an extractor exhaust, had cones rolled and had them welded. Have not heard it with that on yet as I need to source a tailpipe muffler.

The cylinder head is huge, way larger than usual for 50cc, and it looks cool. It has "Ram System" fins to force air in when at speed (Suzuki did the same a few years later). I couldn't realistically expect more than 50mph uphill on it, but in stock form I did take it on secondary highways on a few multi-hour rides, pretty much throttle against the stop all the time and it ran fine. For a 50 it was a heavy drinker, 60mpg or less.

Starting is run-and-bump. It has pedals shafts but nothing attached to them, no kickstart. All the electrics run off the engine, lights and ignition, no battery anywhere. The lights were terrible, dim 6V in flimsy housings, no turn signals, no brake light. Hand signals worked, people were looking at me anyway.

clubman 

My first ride on an Airhead was on this late 60's Dnepr rig. 30 kms into it's maiden ride it threw a rod. Fortunately the seller took it back.

RobbieTunes

I liked the Seca, but I was afraid of their mojo.
I watched a Seca Turbo race a Kawa something from a stoplight in Millington, TN.
Once the turbo kicked in, he opened 100 yards RFN and then flew off the road to the R.
I left before the ambulance came.

Trying to keep my license after 117 in a 35 and running a stop light, I took an AMA safety class.
First night, instructor says "anyone here on a borrowed bike needs to leave."
There was a guy on a borrowed Seca, who should have left but didn't.
Shore'nuff, he goosed it and it wheelied away from him for about 60 yards, leaving him road-rashed on his butt and the bike a mess.

Kept my license, BTW, as the SHP officer gave me a break because I was honest.
"How fast were you going?"
"As fast as I could. The speedo stops at 85. I tried 5th, then 6th. 5th seemed faster."
"I clocked you at 117."
"Then that's top end, I guess." (1981 Low Rider)
"Nice bike, Marine."
"Thanks." (Sigh)
Ticketed me for 99/55 because his radar was 2 digits.

The other 3 with me were on Kawasaki's, and they courteously stopped about 1/4 mile down the road.
He saw them, of course, went down there, and they gave him a pretty hard time, which I observed from a distance. (When an NC patrolman throws his Smokey on the ground, you know he's mad.)
They got ticketed for 99/35, Careless & Reckless, running the stop light, failure to stop for police...

We all paid an attorney, retired judge, and he said he'd handle it. He passed about a year later.
His estate sent us letters saying he'd continued the case 2x, but no disposition of charges. And no refund.
Needed a new attorney, and fast. In the meantime, I'd obtained another license and took the AMA course.
It was in the next county over, so I picked a name out of the phone book that matched the name on the courthouse.
We got to court, over a year later, and the patrolman was in there, standing tall (more like Walking Tall).
He told the judge I cooperated fully, and the other 3 were smart-alecks and hazards to traffic.
Judge suspended all of us for 1 year, but as I left the courtroom, he called me back.
"Son, where are you deploying next?"
"Lebanon, sir."
"Let your dumb buddies go on. Eat lunch and come back. Pay the clerk $100 more and get your license back."
My buddies thought I rode illegally for the next year.
My insurance was insane, of course.

Gotta love motorcycles and what they do to young men.

RobbieTunes

Riding my Kawa 550 with 3-4 others around Shelby Lake in TN.
Lotta curves, lotta fun.
Lotta speed, lotta blue lights.
We're in a school parking lot getting ticketed and chewed out.
Car goes flying by, '79 Trans Am, Indy Pace car replica.
Driver hits the horn and flips off the patrolman.
Patrolman looks at us and says "your lucky day," and takes off.
Saw him in a Denny's about a week later, asked about it.
He said he'd seen the car in a driveway before, so he met the dude there and wrote him up.
"Not as much fun as a chase, but the cruiser (Fury III) can't handle like that T/A; he'd have lost me."
"What about us?"
"You should have run; I'd have let you go."
I picked up his tab on the way out. Seemed decent.

engineerbob

Okay, somebody else started "story time." Don't blame me.

December 9, 1979, two of my buddies and I were riding our motorcycles (2 BMWs and a Norton) on a highway through a Midwestern city. It was a Sunday afternoon of unseasonably warm weather and we were riding in a brisk manner. I was in third place when I heard the siren. Looking in the mirror, I saw a Ford Fairmont (all 85 horsepower straining to keep up) and went for the shoulder. The officer anticipated my move and advised me, through his loudspeaker, to continue to the up-coming exit ramp, where several more officers were waiting. Everyone behaved and we were treated fairly.

Handcuffs, a paddy wagon, and a trip downtown followed. But then the narrative took an unexpected turn. Rather than being taken to the jail, we were separated and taken to offices. A few minutes later a pissed-off Lieutenant came in and asked me if I was going to tell my father about this. He then volunteered that he knew my father. Uncharacteristically, I didn't say much. Turns out, when our licenses were being run, another officer heard my name and called in to say that my father was a Lieutenant in that PD. He wasn't.

We were put into a patrol car and driven back to where our bikes were parked. I don't know when the Police discovered their mistake, and I wasn't going to wait around to find out. I probably didn't go back into that city for a year afterward.

RoadCycler

Good story, wonder if the officer who called in was disciplined later.

fietsbob

Owned 2* in the 70's, so both would be classics now , when I own none ..

but like finding pictures of those other people pay to buy operate & insure ..

*Honda CB 350, & BMW R60..

trailangel

I rode a Kawasaki Mach IV once. It was one of those times that I knew this was the day I was going to die.

Nemosengineer 

My favorite race bike from the 70's was the Kawasaki H1R, the spawn of the evil H1 Mach III 500 triple, probably the worst handling most over powered and under braked production motorcycle of the late 1960's. What I liked about the H1R was anyone with a AMA Class C competition license could wander into the local Kawasaki dealer and buy one. The bike was good enough for Ginger Molloy (New Zealand), to take second place in the 1970 Grand Prix World Championship. Ginger was also clocked on the banking at Daytona in 1970 at an unheard of 159.83 MPH, with basically a production biased engine. My best guess is Gingers engine was putting out about 100 rear wheel horsepower to make that kind of speed.



Note the early dual Honda production CB 750 disc brakes grafted on to Ginger's H1R, second place in the 1970 Grand Prix World Championship, best disc brakes in the world at the time and this bike was a privateer effort, not a true works bike.


: Mike

clubman 

Biggest drum brakes I've seen.

Velo Mule

Hello my name is VeloMule and I have a problem. In my former life, my younger years, I loved racing, cars and motorcycles.

You guys are twisting me all up. First the nice bicycles got me roped in. Then vintage HiFi equipment. Now motorcycles! I love looking and reminiscing, but this is getting to be too much. I cannot help but look. I can't look away. Then I start wanting these things.

Please don't start a thread on vintage Alfa Romeos, sports cars, mid engine cars, or rotary engined Mazda's or Suzuki's or Datsun 510's. Please no 70's Formula 1 talk or endurance racing, CanAm racing (pre-Porsche), 80's Formula Atlantic or Formula Ford or SCCA racing. No wood sailboats or one design sailboat racing.

I am in remission. I am married now and gave up all this fun, obsessive and self absorbed stuff. Seeing these things can set me back.

By the way, I came really close to buying a RD350, but an incident where someone make a left turn right in front of my car the day that I was going to buy the bike, I took as a sign.

Some time after that I worked at a Motorcycle dealership in the early '80's. This is after being a bicycle mechanic, I thought I was moving up. I didn't care too much for most of the bikes we sold or got in, except the new, at the time, RZ350. It didn't cause me to buy one since I was still trying to find my way through the world and being poor, living with parents and having a neat bike was not the plan. I also gained a huge appreciation for Honda CB series bikes after working with them.

dddd

Beautiful bike, just about my favorite color!

I'm would be willing to bet that this H1R got that speed with under 80hp at the rear wheel, being that it's air-cooled and with such a faired profile(?).

I've seen bored and ported H2 dragbikes on the dyno with just 80hp at the rear wheel yet could run high 9's at 133. Would go waaay faster than that with gearing and fairing.
Kawi claimed about 60hp for the H1, but RWHP was likely under 45 (the H2 made 54RWHP, 75HP claimed).

The H1R's RR motor would need lower compression/BMEP to survive and of course is only 500cc, still too fast for me! That rider was tucked!

Kriscarr

Sooooo would you like pics of my 93 LE miata first? Or the RH drive, twin turbo wide body RX7 I did for my buddy?

iab

I believe that was the Bandit. But what was a Texas county mounty doing in TN?

Velo Mule

I'm sure will have a thread for that soon. I've never driven a Miata but as a devout follower of sports car racing, sports cars and Mazda, it is another temptation. Turbos and rotary engines, are a great match. All that energy exiting out of a peripheral port, unshouded by valves, turns into more air pumped into the engine and in turn more power. Let's get back to the thread.

Anybody have any remembrance of the Suzuki rotary touring bike? It wasn't my favorite other than having a really interesting engine. It apparently was smooth running. It wasn't the first rotary engined motorcycle. NSU was. But the Suzuki seemed to hold up better. At the time of Mazda's success with rotary engines, all makers of internal combustion engines were asking themselves should we be making a rotary engine? There was even a rotary engine lawn mower. It's a good thing I never got my hands on that.

Aside from the CB series of bikes by Honda, I also liked the early GL500 Silver Wing with it's V-Twin engine in an arrangement much like MotoGuzzi. These were also smooth running . Nice and torquey, but not meant for performance. They were meant for touring on a lighter, less expensive bike than a Gold Wing. They are seeing a bit of a resurgence nowadays. There was also a variant that was turbo charged that came out after I left the dealership or we never got one. That was the CX500, I believe.

Kriscarr

I am a member of a vintage motorcycle club which is sometimes referred to as a bunch of old guys on old bikes, I am the youngest member. There is a gentleman in my club owns an RE5 but never rides it and 3 members own Silver wings that they ride fairly regularly. Id love to see the Hercules W2000 in person but I dont know that any ever made it to Canada.
The turbo CX500TC is an extremely sought after bike as is its successor Cx650TD. Both were only made for one production year and demand a huge price among collectors.

Iwas20Then

popped my 10 post cherry so heres my 2 wheel stable 79 RGP - 66 FLHP customized 96 FXWGD and 78 Super Glide

BlueDevil63