Old bikes... which are your faves?

[Guzzipat]

I might add, as nice as the GS and the FJ were...it wasn't until I bought a 78 Ducati Darmah that I found out what a real motorcycle was.

I don't mean that out of disrespect for the GS & FJ. Both were excellent bikes. Faster and more reliable than the Ducati, but both fell short when it came time to delivering signals to your neurons  

Those of you that haven't tried a v-twin yet, owe yourselves that favor before kicking the bucket

or before an RC45 guy tries to convince you otherwise  

remember...I'm only here to help  

90 degree V-Twins are sweet, Italian V-Twins are where it is at.

[YamadogR1]

1984 Kawasaki Ninja 900(the original Ninja)

[EricD10563]

Purchase new and still a blast to ride, 1985 V65 Sabre. Photo was taken a few weeks ago before a ride.

[mustang28027]

Awesome bike Eric!   Where is the oil mod?

[JonS]

A lot of cool bikes!
 This one pulls at my heart, though. I've been assimilated.

[Canuck]

Any Vincent 1000 V-Twin
1968-70 Triumph Bonneville
Similar era Triumph Daytona (500cc)
1968-70 Royal Enfield Interceptor (Series 2)
1973 BWM 900 Boxer

[CLAY]

My other love- the Yamaha XS650.  This is my Tracker:


  I'm currently restoring an 82- she might become a cafe racer at some point...

[Orson]

90 degree V-Twins are sweet, Italian V-Twins are where it is at.

not just V-twins, but parallel twins are pretty sweet to.

again, they don't have the horsepower or reliability of bigger machines, but what they do have, seems to make up for any deficit.

on a twisty road, any horsepower advantage is diminished and other things come to the forefront...such as a lusty soundtrack   along with a respectable amount of torque.  

[EricD10563]

Awesome bike Eric!   Where is the oil mod?

Thanks, I have been thinking about doing the mod.

[sagerat]

Once again, omigawd is that a beautiful bike.  

[CLAY]

Purchase new and still a blast to ride, 1985 V65 Sabre. Photo was taken a few weeks ago before a ride.

  My bro-in-law has the V-65 Magna.  I bet that Sabre scoots too, huh?  Great looking machine!

[mustang28027]

I rode a mini rally a while  back and the guy I rode with( he was riding a brand new st1300)  had a sabre. He said had something like 200k miles on it and had highway pegs mounted.  Said he got the st1300 for really long rides, but the sabre was more comfy than the st.  I have always admired the V-65 but never pulled the trigger to get one. Wish Honda would go back to producing them. The other question  that begs to be answered is this: How does a NY cop get to live in Hawaii???

[vulcanbill]

Does this count as old?

[mustang28027]

Heck yes, Vulcan!  I have a  Super  as well!  Looks good!

[chiltech500]

I hate people with money  

[Lawn Dart]

If I could have only one...

[Playinthestreet]

Wish I had this one back, 1968 Firebird Scrambler, unrestored original

[DDFZ1]

The older bikes were heavy.  Chains needed more attention.  Spoked wheels mean tubes and flats happened right now!
One thing I miss is the flat seat.  You could move around, even sit in the back with a cruise lock.  
And of course, we are all much younger!  My 74 Z900 had the hardest seat.  I think of a telephone pole when I remember that seat.

[Karmak]

I owned a 74 Z1 and later a 77 KZ1000.

The Z1 was indeed frightening especially after you dumped a Yoshimura kit, RJS pipe, K&N's, Mikuni 29 smooth bores, electronic ignition etc. What you had then was a bike of about 100 hp where the motor totally overwhelmed the frame. Accelerating through S curves was indeed frightening as you got that weird wallow and flex as you shifted side to side. Exciting, but frightening to be sure. But when you are young ... ya call that fun.  

Dr. Zorko, on this board, and I had some wild times on those Z1's and even rode them to LA, Idaho and all over. His bike had a Kerker pipe on the right, mine an RJS on the left and if we rode side by side you would hear this really distinctive resonance. Sounded awesome and mothers would cover their children's ears ... hooligans !  

Sigh ... that was a long time ago. But we is still ridin together after all these years... just a bit more quietly.  

I owned a KZ bored out to 1166-cut/raked with a 750 (longer) swingarm that I had re-worked to become a triple swing arm to reduce flex ,a cam so humongus I had to grind out the buckets, 29mm smooth bores, ported/polished, electric shift-I had a turbo on it first, but they were primitive then and unreliable, so I changed to nitrous.  That thing flat-out hauled!  I have no idea of what HP it was running but when you hit the nitrous nothing could touch it and not many bikes even without the nitrous.  I used to run stroked Harleys, but the Z1s were able to beat most of them right out of the box.  Ah-those were the days!!!

I also nabbed one of the first FJ1200s back then ('86) and currently still have an '87.  The FJ still looks contemporary and can still embarrass a lot of current machines-the FJ is a machine that seems ageless.

[Boxerdawg]

One of my faves is my first:  Tohatsu twin 50 Runpet
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q92/boxerdawg/tohatsu_runpet_.jpg