New (old) bike

I've acquired a 1990 Honda NTV 650 Revere as a bit of a project, and
hopefully as a cheap runaround. The motor seems to run nicely,
although cosmetically it's rough around the edges. Dings in the tank,
stuffed fork seals (but fork legs not pitted), broken indicator, not
pretty but it appears functional.

Anyone know what tyres should be on it? It currenty has radials,
120/70 ZR17 front and 170/60 ZR17 rear, the specs I can find suggest
it should be running crossplys.

cheers, Bill

 

top bike them

regoed?

 

In aus.motorcycles on Fri, 22 May 2009 18:40:44 +1000

http://growell.proboards.com/index.cgi

"Welcome to the Original English speaking Honda NTV and Revere Forum.
We have been going now for over four years and have more than 300
members from all over. Feel free to come in and look around."

Zebee

 

It would've been on the cusp of radials but crossplys are gonna' be cheaper.
I HEARTILY recommend Bridgestone BT45s.
According to the Bridgestone site (
http://mc.bridgestone.co.jp/en/products/machine/honda.pdf ) the 88/89 ran
110/80-17 and 150/70-17 crossplys (on 2.5' and 4.5" rims), while from '90
onwards they ran 120/70-17 and 150/60-18 radials (on 3.5" and 4.5" rims).
Bridgestone don't make a 150/60-18 BT45 but I doubt a 150/70 would upset it
much.

 

Thanks Zebee, I also found http://www.ntvhonda.proboards.com which
I've subscribed to. I figured perhaps one of the cognoscenti here
might have some knowledge on the subject.

I went and had another look at the bike and on the shaft housing it
has recommended tyre types, including Dunlop 505, Bridgestone G548,
and Metzler ME 55A, which as far as I'm aware, are all crossply.

Looks like a change of tyres is in order.

Bill

 

The rear is definitely a 17 inch jobbie, so it seems should be
crossply. I'll have a look at BT45s.

thanks, Bill

 

Wow, what an awesome bike, I never realised until now how long the
Deauville engine had been around! It doesn't look like its changed one bit.

On a sort-of completely unrelated side note, why aren't there any
shaft-drive 250cc bikes out there?

 

Apparently the first incarnation was as the VT 500, and it has evolved
since that time.

Probably too expensive for the market, but there has been at least one
shaft drive 250.

Bill

 

BMW used to make the R25 which was shaft drive.


G-S

 

Correct-amundo. And in further good news, today I bought an un-bent
frame for my VT500E for $50. The swingarm and centrestand are still
attached! ;-)

On a VERY vaguely related note, my local Vespa shop has a shaft-drive
bicycle for sale. It has a 7-speed rear hub and I reckon it'd be a
nice commuter but I don't feel like spending $1200.


BTH

 

A localish guy (170km away) has a belt drive bicycle. A rather nice
bike, although it does present difficulties if the belt ever needs to
be replaced. Never mind, the builder estimates it should be able to
do another 100,000km.

 

I think it jumped from 650 to 680cc a year or two ago.
Hope that helps.

 

wrote:

A Vespa might be OK for the latte set, but Harley Davidson built a shaft
drive pushie, presumably for the proper tough bikies. ;-)

regards,
CrazyCam

 

It's heavy and the rider makes a *lot* of noise huffing and puffing
and struggling to get the thing uphill?