Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

That is my kind of bike. Really nice. Congrats.

Thanks mate. Picking up later this afternoon and am very excited!

Is it weird that modern bikes kinda bore me and something like a Honda 954 floats my boat?
That twin looks a handful.

You are not alone! But a modern bike which looks like a classic bike would be easier to run - so says my knowledgeable mate. Doesn’t stop me dreaming and looking at CBXs and Z900s though 😁

Hang on, hang on, which Z900?
I'm gonna go on a limb here and say you're talking about the RS?
If so, it's one of the few bikes I've had to gawp at recently.

With you on the 954 - I rode a 929 for a bit and it was absolutely lovely.

I enjoy a wide variety of old shite bikes but would have a couple of new ones too if I had more disposable income. I'm also a prisoner of 'cool bikes of my youth' syndrome, so a total sucker for late 80s through 05-ish.

I've only ridden it around the block but rocketship, it is not. I reckon about 80hp on a good day. It's light though, and the brakes are ASTONISHING. Seriously. New, fancy Brembo radial MC, with 320mm Brembo cast iron discs. The calipers apparently came off a 851 AMA bike. More bite than a meth-ed up alligator.

Lol. No. THE Z900!

https://youtu.be/cl-Ft87PrZg

How does your insurance work for multiple bikes?

And this CBX is the 6 cylinder one. I saw one of these at the IoM and the owner took the exhaust off on arrival - a sound to behold does not come close to the noise!!!

https://youtu.be/MBbskqcgs_o

And the other lottery win bikes include a Laverda Jota, original unfaired Gold Wing, GSX1000, GSXR1100M, Suzuki RGV, TZR reverse cylinder, Yamaha RD 250, any mad two stroke (I always liked the TDR 250) but a 500 would be nice too. Not forgetting RC30, SP1, OWO1, and a Suzuki GSXR endurance (can’t remember but it may be a GSXRR). And a Ducati 916.
As per Jung above - 70s/80s bikes which are all getting mad prices now - a good Z900 is £20,000!
Roll on Euromillions😁

Insurance is easy - you can have as many bikes as you like. Only 3/9 of mine are street legal anyway, which keeps the $ down a bit.

Lucky you, we wouldn’t get away with that here unfortunately. Thanks

Thats great sound - got some sort of Californian 4 into 1 on an old Z I've restored sounds similar, proper Mad Max.

Pics? Sound? The bikes in Mad Max were so good.
If anyone had a CBX vid with no exhaust, I’d love to hear / see it.

Home!

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Nice

Managed to strip the forks and change the fork seals and oil yesterday!

Never done a fork seal change before, so the whole process was new to me.. Nothing I couldn't do though. However seating seals at home was a pain in the ass, but nevertheless I got it done and its going in for its mot re test this morning!!

Buzzing

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Good work! Handsome old beast that.
Pro tip, never tell any of your motorcycling friends how easy it is to do fork seals or you’ll be doing them forever after… ;)

Very late to the party but congrats man, this looks great fun. And remarkably clean.

Thanks mate! Had a bit of a spin around today and it’s really charming. Deceptively quick, monster brakes and absurdly good soundtrack. Sets off car alarms right, left and centre. Will have a longer jaunt out to Malibu tomorrow. Feels less nervous now I let some air out the front tyre.

A little morning canyon action. It’s so choice. Quite physical to ride, the carb springs require a good pull and it’s firmly suspended to say the least. Brakes are awesome though and there’s just enough power to go fast but still really be able to wind it out. Soundtrack is immense. Not for the shy and retiring!

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Takes me back to when I had a 750ss with a bikini fairing. Not quick but lots of fun and the easiest bike I’ve had to bump start. Would regularly lock up the back wheel stopping sharply. The only problem I had was carb-icing in the winter.

Tried to write this question a couple of times but failed, so bear with me...
Full disclosure: I did a CBT 10 years ago, had a 125 for a couple of years after, nothing since. That, and that I'm not particularly mechanically minded.
That said, planning to do CBT/DAS this year if I can.

Basically I'm curious about opinions on any perceived 'golden age' or 'sweet spot' of sorts with respect to motorbike technology - any thoughts?

I find myself drawn to mid-90s(ish) bikes, stuff like the Honda NTV600/650 and most recently the Triumph Trident 750/900, particularly liking the relative simplicity and robustness - enough electronics to keep things running smooth, but not so much that it becomes tricky when something goes wrong.

Aware that these are often carbed/non-fuel injection, non-ABS bikes, and perhaps a decade or so later with stuff like the 2002-08 VFR800 have enough-but-not-too-much.

Maybe some kind of retro-romanticism is clouding my view and the more modern the better - aware I'm making this somewhat arbitrary judgement that there's such thing as 'too much' tech. Might also just be that certain bikes from certain periods can be considered indestructible warhorses, whereas others from the same time are made of cheese, and there's no proper answer to this question.

tl;dr - what's your favourite time period for bikes if you have one?

The Honda NTV is a great reliable bike. ABS would have been an improvement considering it's geometry. Once you get to fuel injection with air sensors you have much more power but some bikes suffered from poor fuelling at low speeds due to not reading each cylinder just the main exhaust. Late 70's BMWs are very robust with geometry to suit the poor brakes but heavy and slow by any modern standard. The 90's VFR was quite well balanced.

All depends what you want to do with it though. Ride round America - Gold Wing or Harley Ultra. Crossing Europe regularly - Hayabusa / Pan European / GS1250. Quick run to the chip shop - GSXR K5 :)

Most of the 'best' models have been running for years and the newer ones have more tech to offer but you really need specific knowledge of the model to know which one had the right wheels/engine/frame etc. Then you need to find a good example and have the money.

Personally I don't think there's a golden age, there's a sweet spot for the ride you want to do but not one winner for all rides and times.

tldr - all motorbikes are great, ride as many as you can while you can :)

Day late for wheelie wednesday

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