What should I get?

much better.

 

26 x 7 x 1.5 = 273 - the CBX gets in, then.

--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SE-V/CBR1100XX-X/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..76331.../...19254.../..30836.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 PM#5 WG*
'^' RBR Clues: 29 Pts: 485 Miles: 1967

 

I dunno about "odd few" - I think there's several more than that. Ages
and ages ago, I went to the meeting where Bob Currie (OLABM) was trying
to set up FOHMA [1]. There was a representative of one club [2] who
went ranting on about how the VJMC shouldn't be allowed to join - just
clubs for British bikes - and if the VJMC was in, then his club wouldn't
join. Howsumdiver, I reckon most there were of the opinion that if the
rest of his club were anything like him, then we'd gladly wave him
goodbye and welcome the Japanese owners.

[1] Federation of Historic Motorcycle Associations - it was meant to be
a bit like what the FBHVC does today, 'cept bikes only. It all came to
naught.

[2] Scott Owners Club

 

Andy Wegg was seen penning the following ode to ... whatever:

Very much so - the main work my CB450 needed is cosmetic, plus undoing
the damage done to the wiring loom by some previous owner.

Mechanically it's still fine after 25k miles, doesn't leak oil and
starts first or second kick if/when the electrics are hooked up.

 

The Z200's gotta squeak in too.

25 x 4 (minimum - if a CB500T gets 3) x 1.5 (Hey, it's a Frankfurt bike)

 

Thus spake unto the assembled multitudes:

Must admit the only old Brit bike that I still drool over is the DBD34 Gold
Star. Handsome beast that was. Handsome bloody prices now, too. :-(

 

Well it is flawed: "After 50 years, almost any old shit gets in."[/QUOTE]

Well, it's like antiques. Almost any old shit over 100 years old gets
'antique' status; doen't magically transform a product that was a piece
of shit in 1899 into something truly wonderful - it's just an antique
POS with a value dictated by its 'collectability' more than anything
else.

 

Nope. In fact, the only Jap four engine I personally have had to take
apart was one of my GSs when it hit 150,000 and that was simply tired
rings. The bores and pistons, when mic'd up, were like new. There was a
gearbox fault, true, but that was the PO's habit of doing clutchless
changes in a hamfooted fashion that caused that.

I have a 200,000 mile GS engine here that's never been apart and runs
like a sweetie.

 

Grimly Curmudgeon says...

My old Honda CB250RS single 4-stroke is just coming up to 200,000 miles
on the clock. It had a rebore at 120,000 miles on the old engine, which
blew up at 180,000 miles through my not checking or ever changing the
oil in 25K miles. I love Jap bikes, show me any Brit bike that could
withstand that level of abuse and stay as reliable.

 

not sure the CB500T should get 3/10 for "how good when new"...


--
Austin Shackles. www.ddol-las.net my opinions are just that
"Chuck didn't reply, so George swung round in his saddle. He could just
see Chuck's face, a white oval turned toward the sky.
'Look,' whispered Chuck, and George lifted his eyes to heaven.
(There is always a last time for everything.)
Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out"
Arthur C. Clarke, "The 9 billion names of God"

 

I reckon the CB500T is a misunderstood and unfairly maligned bike. Decent
shocks, progressive fork springs, flattish bars and reasonably sympathetic
maintenance would get the best out of one. That and replacing the World's
Ugliest Exhaust Component with an unobtrusive bit of pipe...

 

I dunno, 0.3 sounds about right.

--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SE-V/CBR1100XX-X/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..76331.../...19254.../..30836.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 PM#5 WG*
'^' RBR Clues: 29 Pts: 485 Miles: 1967

 

You're just as bad as TOG. Fair enough, judged by the standards of the day,
the CB500T was pretty grim, but nowadays it's just an amiable old heap with
faux-classic looks, mellowed by age and slipping gracefully into a more
tolerant classification. The CB500T was also Honda's one millionth
motorcycle, and was ridden off the production line by Soichiro himself.

On the plus side, was it not a CB500T that had TOG practically squeaking
with rage and frustration? No bike that can achieve that can be all bad.

 

And Niall, iirc. Didn't it have a 19" tube in an 18" tyre?

--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SE-V/CBR1100XX-X/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..76331.../...19254.../..30836.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 PM#5 WG*
'^' RBR Clues: 29 Pts: 485 Miles: 1967

 

Yes IIRC, or something like. Still, what can he expect, buying a bike off
TOG?

 

yeah, but the formula calls for a judgment on "how good when new"...

True, true..

 

of course, we could raise the threshold value. I'm not convinced that 100
is necessarily high enough. Take an excellent but boring machine, such as
say the CBR600 - it rates at least 8 or 9 for "how good when new" judged
against its peers (by all accounts) but that lets it into classic status at
not much more than 10 years old. I wonder if a threshold value of say 140
wouldn't work better, that way good-but-boring stuff has to be older.
Something equally good but interesting can still get in earlier by the
special interest multiplier: Something such as a Benelli SEi for example,
would get a SIM of say 1.5 at least which would get it in by 10 years old,
probably.

 

That wasn't really my point.

What I can't undersatnd from your wibblings is why, when I was 17, there
were no viable British learner 250 machines, but there were when you were
17, despite you being younger than me. Perhaps you lived in an alternative
timezone, either that or your mates found NVT's stepthrough model sexy.

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr
M'boy's bike 2003 Honda NSR125R (Going)
Spare Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Patio Ornament)
BOTAFOT #140 (KotL 2005), X-FOT#000, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow)

 

Thus spake Lozzo unto the assembled multitudes:

I remember back in the 1970s misguided souls would bang on about Brit bikes
being able to "cruise all day at the ton". At first I believed them but
quickly realised that it simply wasn't true, and the Japanese fours they,
and admittedly I at the time, dismissed as wear-out-and-throw-away rubbish
were easily capable of this, if you could find any road long enough that
is.

 

Thus spake Dan L unto the assembled multitudes:

Aaarg, who can ever forget that ghastly Norton advert in the bike press,
with the 850 Commando and the NVT Easy Rider moped side-by-side, with the
words something like "850 Commando: the continuing legend. Easy Rider:
start of another." I knew there and then that this was the work of
desperate advertising execs and that both bikes, and NVT itself were doomed.