My first was a CB350 nearly identical to this one:
My current favorite is an 82 Aspencade that I fell in love with my senior year. I couldn't afford it then, but found one a few years ago with 33k on it.
Broncos are officially the worst team in the nation this year.
First motorcycle was a turquoise and cream 1968 BSA Starfire 250cc. I bought it for $450 virtually brand new. Hid it from my parents and rode it to high school. Brought it home one day to show my dad, thinking he would let me keep it because it was so pretty. He drove into the driveway after work. Asked me who the bike belonged to, then asked me how much I paid for it. He then told me to put it in the front yard and put a for sale sign on it, and walked into the house without another word. It sold in one day for $450.
A long time ago my sister's boyfriend and I bought a frame and a big cardboard box of engine parts for 50 bucks, and over the next few weeks turned it into one of those. Not sure if it was a 1968 model but it was a BSA 250 Thumper just like that. Painted it metal flake purple - hey, metal flake was big back then. Got it running just fine but never could get a "lost or stolen" title for it so couldn't get it licensed and had to get rid of it.
I still have some purple metal flake paint from that project on a pair of vise grips out in the garage.
Gunnery, gunnery, gunnery. Hit the target, all else is twaddle!
Silver Kawasaki ZRX1200R, I should have never let go but I'll have another!
I should have bought the new on floor '79 RD400 Daytona, what was I thinking...
Last edited by colodog; 07/23/14. Reason: add comment
"Camping places fix themselves in your mind as if you had spent long periods of your life in them. You will remember a curve of your wagon track in the grass of the plain like the features of a friend." Isak Dinesen
I love flying and bikes are about the closest you can get to flying�
Had a Honda Z50 as a kid.
Had a Suzuki GS550E in my late teens. Fun bike and pretty much top of the heap in its day until Honda brought out the Interceptor. Mine was looked just like this one.
Next was a Yamaha XT350. Got one of these when I was in flight school. Pretty good short range commuter and loads of weekend fun.
Next was Yamaha XT650. Had one of these while I was stationed at Ft. Carson. Great commuter and awesome weekend fun. Used to ride it up Gold Camp Road outside Colorado Springs and just had a blast.
Went for many years without a bike after that... Until I retired from the Army and my son and I started doing a little recreational motocross. Got a 2004 Yamaha YZ250F. Absolutely insane bike. Got rid of it when injuries started interfering with my work. I wasn't very good but I sure had fun!
My son was riding a YZ85. The level of performance those bikes are capable of is nothing short of amazing. He could keep up with me without even sweating.
All I currently have is a 2007 Yamaha FZ6. Good compromise between comfort and performance. I put a set of forks from an R6S on it. Handles and rides much better than with the stock forks. I ride this to and from work nearly every day the weather will allow. 45 mpg and 0 - 60 in <4 seconds is pretty nice�
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
Mine was a "toilet seat" (trail) 90 I got used. Favorite 'cause it's been my only motorcycle. It was kinda fubar, it'd been overheated enough the head would warp and the engine seize if it'd get hot. So ... sit there for a half hour or so 'til it'd cool off.
I broke a few things. I flew it far too high once and it came down hard enough to crunch the rear shock. I rode that out without wrecking but I'm not sure how. Despite the automatic clutch, I missed a shift one time, it wound out to red-line, then caught. Busted some parts inside and I spent two years trying to fix it. Finally gave it away.
One time I managed to do a 30-something mph 360 degree spin without laying it down. I was toolin' along, saw a barb wire fence laying down in the grass, locked the brake, and it just spun around without going down. WTF? Didn't think that was possible. Good thing that straw-like dry grass is slick, if I'd had traction I might have gotten hurt.
Tom
I put water once in the crankcase because the oil was low. I was also an abusive teen on my first bike. A 69 honda 90 in Canary yellow.
Liked 'em all, but two that stand out was my '87 Kawasaki Voyager with the 1300cc in-line six. Quiet, powerful, rather comfy and truly set up for coast-to-coast touring. 117 horse, red-line up around 9K; even with two-up I could pass anything in mere seconds. Kept that bike 18 years..
Second, and newest, is the '14 HD Ultra Classic. What a machine this is - HO 103 engine, excellent entertainment system with full navigation.....:
Ex- USN (SS) '66-'69 Pro-Constitution. LET'S GO BRANDON!!!
I had a few wore out bikes in the 70's. then graduated to a Seca 550 when I was in the Air Force. Had it a year then got a V45 Sabre. Rode the wheels off that bike. A lot of fond memories of trips I took on it.
My first love was a 1972 Suzuki 185. After a mini bike, a Honda 50 and a Honda 100 this was a real motorcycle to me. At 14, this bike, my friends and my girlfriend were my life. After removing the lights, mirrors, and installing knobby tires and an expansion chamber, this bike would climb any hill known in South Jersey and outrun most of my buddies bikes. This was a first kick every time bike.
My 2nd love was a 1975 BMW R90/6 and it was all that I had for transportation but in South Florida that's all that a 20 year old guy needed. Every night I would carefully ride it thru my front door and park it in my living room. No way was she staying outside where rust and thieves could get to it. Ive had many bikes since those days but those 2 I would take back if I could.
I had the 72 TS125 when I was 15. I found another for a little more than what my parents paid in 1972. The head light and tail light and hi/lo switch are worth more alone than I paid for the whole bike.
Last edited by smarquez; 07/24/14.
Fight fire, save lives, laugh in the face of danger.
First motorcycle was a turquoise and cream 1968 BSA Starfire 250cc. I bought it for $450 virtually brand new. Hid it from my parents and rode it to high school. Brought it home one day to show my dad, thinking he would let me keep it because it was so pretty. He drove into the driveway after work. Asked me who the bike belonged to, then asked me how much I paid for it. He then told me to put it in the front yard and put a for sale sign on it, and walked into the house without another word. It sold in one day for $450.
My third motorcycle was a brand new 1973 Triumph 750 Bonneville. I bought this motorcycle in Rota, Spain with my $1,500 Combat Arms Enlistment bonus from the Marines. Toured Andaluc�a Spain from Rota to Torremolinos, to Granada, and Sevilla with my buddy who had a 1974 Norton 850 Commando. This photo was taken in Torremolinos when I was 20.
30 years later I discovered Moto GP racing and Italian motorcycles. Since the kids were gone I bought this 2001 Aprilia SL Mille to be a "Ricky Racer." Off'd it and bought a 2003 Moto Guzzi V11 Rosso Corsa, perhaps the best motorcycle I have ever owned. Sold it and turned around and bought its stable mate a 2004 Moto Guzzi Coppa Italia.
I'm seeing a definite European trend...and Italian bikes. Italians can make anything sexy. I don't know how they do it, but if they were to design a spoon, it would be sexy. Nice Guzzi's.
Beautiful machine there. They put that HO 103 c/i motor in a basic, lightweight, no bags or fairings etc SuperGlide or stripped down Dyna also! If (when) I get tired of riding a stiff suspsnsion, very lightweight racebike all over and want something to cruise around on longer distances I would love to try a 103 c/i Super Glide!
Do you know how much HP those 103 Twinkies (nickname for the new twin cam EVO's) are making these days?
LOVE God, LOVE your family, LOVE your country, LIKE guns and sports.
About 2016 team "R" candidates "We definitely need a crew with a sack of balls the size of hot water bottles, bloviated estrogen leaking feel-gooders need not apply." Gunner 500
Back in the day, we had to build our own crotch-rocket. Mine began life as a Yamaha RD 250. Guy I bought it from had trashed the top end, so it was replaced with the 350 top end (with DG high-compression heads). Everything about the bottom of the motor was the same for both, except for the cylinder size stamped into the case cover. Over the course of a winter, the neighbor and I stripped every unnecessary part off the frame, added tuned pipes, K&N intake, Boysen 2-stage reeds, clip-on bars, rear-set pegs with linked speed shift, aluminum rims and swingarm, electronic ignition, and probably a few things I forget right now.
That bike was too much fun. Light and quick. It was meant to be a canyon racer (which it excelled at), but did a lot of street-drag as well. Guys in muscle cars and bigger bikes just couldn't get their minds around why they lost to a little 250cc ring-ding. Yes - that bike was parked in my living room for a time. What the heck - it was small and light enough to run it right up the front steps.
Second favorite bike was my '82 XT550. I put the Michelin DP tires that were developed for the R65 GS on that bike and chewed up a lot of canyon roads on it. Spent most of '82 in NorCal with only that bike for transportation, and learned what riding fast on paved corners is really about there.
I eventually replaced that bike with the XT350 when it came out. That was (and still is, IMO) the single most versatile and practical bike made. It actually handled better in the dirt (although heavy) than any of the motocrossers I raced on in the late '70s, but still did very well on the street. That is the bike I miss the most.
Kevin - I had a Seca 550 too - just like that red one you posted. It was a fun bike, but I never really warmed up to the transverse four. My love has always been for singles and twins. Always had the wants for a BMW Boxer after riding a friends, but never laid out the cash.
I'm pretty much done with motorbikes now, having turned to boats for my leisure time. Can't enjoy riding for transportation....to much like work, dodging the idiots in cars trying to kill me. But I do have a soft spot for the old Honda CX500 (I can't explain why), and a co-worker has hinted that he might sell his that is in excellent shape......
Harley 883 Sportster punched out to 1000 @ 12/1 compression. Sifton cam, titanium pushrods and the heads modified and flow tested by Jerry Branch. Road race ratio (tall) gears that had been lapped in a vat of jewelers rouge. Once off the line, never used the clutch, just hit the kill button to shift. She could get on down the road real quick like and was sorta hard to hold on to under full throttle. 11.85 sec. in the 1/4 mile. Sold it and have regretted it ever since. She was jet black w/orange letters on the tank.
The degree of my privacy is no business of yours.
What we've learned from history is that we haven't learned from it.
I'm seeing a definite European trend...and Italian bikes. Italians can make anything sexy. I don't know how they do it, but if they were to design a spoon, it would be sexy. Nice Guzzi's.
Italian bikes are like wheeled porn (Well - except for those horrible Harley dirt bikes manufactured by Aermacchi). When I lust after a bike....it's Italian.