Ol-timer and modern bikes: pure pleasure?

As others have said, pretty much all of them. I just love riding
bikes.

But, if I have to pick some, then first place goes to my 750 turbo.
Even 25 years later it's a hoot.

2nd place to the ZX10R

 

FFS!. You were supposed to out the door by now - couldn't you resist
one last look at ukrm before you went?

 

Just a little fall in France. Shattered. Op in France. Another here. Plates,
pins, scars, pain, months of recovery.

Just my usual really. I had to something as the leg had healed up nicely.

 

Curiously I miss them a lot too. It was a bit of an all rounder. I expect
all of them have worn engines now, the small ends were shit.

 

The Older Gentleman wrote:
snip

I haven't had that many bikes but I still look out for the first bike I
owned, a BMW R80RT. It's only the thought that I've been there done
that which prevents me picking one up.

I suppose after riding the latest high tech modern stuff it'd feel
horribly heavy, slow, handle funny and the brakes would seem barely
adequate. Still, it gave me lots of big grins, could even embarrass the
occasional Sunday sports bike rider round corners. I still miss having
nice warm feet when the weather gets cold too.

 

With fettling those twin brembo brakes are as good as any modern kit.

A late R100 mono is a far better bike than the 80, especially if you uprate
the carbs. The RS fairing always seemed to me light years better than the RT
in looks and effect.

I think everyone deserves an R100RS in their collection.

 

For my money, they're still *fabulous* lookers, especially the later
ones with the gold rims. Never owned one, though I did have an SR500.

I like the XT600E because it's got all the single-cylinder character
with relative smoothness, and decent brakes (which the 500 certainly
never had).

 

TBF the XT brakes were perfect off road.

 

**** a Duck people want £3000 for a good XT

 

Pfah. Tarts handbag. Mine was a 1977, S plate. Different exhaust from
the 75-76 model, but otherwise identical.

They always looked disappointingly boring. I've mentioned before that
mine (after righting off the forks in the side of an Escort) was
chopped around with a Kwak front end, X900 forks and KH250 wheel and
brakes, all just slotted straight in. Looked much better than the SR.

Well sure, but it's a completely different bike, and quite simply
doesn't have the character of the 500s. It was undoubtably 'better',
but then so was almost any/every later trail bike, but it just wasn't
the real thing.

TBH the front single leading shoe brake wasn't _that_ bad if well
maintained. For the era, I mean, not compared with modern stuff, obv.

 

I wouldn't disagree. The 500 is still fabulous. But I'd take a decent
600E as a budget-priced substitute. In fact, I have, twice.

And the 1970s tyres wouldn't have coped with anything better anyway ;-)

 

'nout time you had the real thing then, eh?

Ahh, yes, when knobblies were knobblies. Still used to grind the pegs
on dry tarmac, mind.

 

<de-skulk>

Hmm, only owned 6 bikes (2 of those learner bikes and 2 race bikes).
So ...

CR500 supermoto, totally bursar, scary fun.
RG500. The bike I really learned on (the noise, the baseball bat
around the head of a tuned 500cc 2 stroke).
KR1s. The art of not slowing down. And then crashing.
R6 is a bit bland really.

<re-skulk>
flook

 

That must have been a steep curve.

 

1965 Bantam D10 with D7 engine. It kept jumping out of third (top) but
as long as I kept it there with my toe it was OK.

It was the stop from (derestricted) moped to motorcycle and as such it
was proper freedom. Nothing else on 2 wheels has given me so much
pleasure

 

For exceptional grin-inducement in approximate chronological order:

First, my shite old DT-1. Well, it *was* my first ever bike.

Next was my race 250LC. Great fun.

My FZR600 was an absolute hoot and the first bike on which I got my
knee down. For some reason I was pretty quick on it on trackdays and
have never been quite so fast on track since, though maybe the fact
that the last trackday I did on it ended in a highside had something
to do with it.

YZ250 (both of them) two-stroke lunacy off-road. I don't ride fast
compared to others but they're scary fun.

Aprilia Tuono: narrow, light, flickable, pre-disastered so less
worries about trashing it (and, let's face it, not the prettiest
bike), torquey, sounds brilliant, handles like a 600 once I'd put a
180-section rear tyre on it. Best road bike yet in the fun stakes, but
engine's a bit rough at low revs and not a motorway mile muncher: the
riding position's too exposed.

The R1 was... not exactly a disappointment: looked beautiful,
grin-inducingly fast, wheelied (momentarily) over slight dips in the
road at speed and fluttered its bars excitingly on bumps, but too
bulky and not the 600 wivva litre engine I was expecting. Also, too
many camera scares. Does nothing better below 70mph than the Tuono
does except possibly brake, though there is that "I'm riding an R1!"
feeling.

 

Vertical at times.

flook

 

Up or down, though?

 

My first bike a BSA 25 ?C10or C11? - soild rear end speedo in the
tank. I spent much more time trying to make it go than riding it so it
used to make me smile a lot cos it was working. Had two tests with it
first test arrived late cos it wouldn't start, second test got there
on time and then it wouldn't start.

BSA A7 given to me by a favourite uncle who dropped it a number of
years before I had it, smiled because it was reliable and I always
thought of uncle Den when riding.

Sunbeam ?S7 or S8? big balloon tyres, waffle box, shaftie in line 500
twin, back pot used to overheat anything after 50 miles. Smiled cos it
was simply different.

Hey ho the golden age of memory.

Brian