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I hate to admit it...,

#21
GIBrat51 said:
View attachment 3146911 View attachment 3146909View attachment 3146915 View attachment 3146912 View attachment 3146913 View attachment 3146968 View attachment 3146969 Americans are, and have always been, obsessed with engine size and horsepower. Which is OK, but... lots of either isn't really all that necessary. I learned to ride as a teenager in England - in 1967 - and one of the first things I learned was that power-to-weight ratio is the thing to keep in mind. And the second thing was, that it doesn't take a lot of power or displacement, to go the speed limit (or just a little over). My second bike was one like this first one - a BSA D7 Super Bantam. A whole 175cc's and 7.5 hp of 2-stroke goodness. With a top speed of almost 60 mph, it was plenty fast enough for English roads. Nasty, oily little thing, though...;) The next bike is a Yamaha SRX 250. A 4-valve, DOHC single cylinder café racer, it's the perfect example of power-to-weight. It was perfectly capable of 85+ mph, even with my fat ass on it. And, it got there pretty briskly, too... The engine only made maybe 30 hp, but the bike weighed almost nothing. Power-to weight...:thumbsup: Third bike? An early '70s Honda CB 450. I owned a couple of them... only 444 ccs, but wicked fast for their day. I used to give my Triumph/BSA/Norton riding friends fits with mine. I knew guys who rode these things coast to coast back in the day, without a second thought. Way more than fast and comfortable enough... Next one? My '82 BMW R100 with Beemer bags and a Vesco Rabid Transit fairing. I literally rode that thing all over the country - several times. Maybe 70 horsepower out of that pushrod Boxer twin, but... you're looking at only about 550 lbs of bike. I could run all day at 110 mph if I wanted to... and sometimes did...:rolleyes: Next bike is the 883 Sportster that I've been riding daily for the last 12 years. Plenty fast enough for any kind of riding that doesn't involve speeding tickets - but, you could get one if you really wanted to. Definitely not a bike whose power you need to be afraid of... but, I've owned some of those, too. Honda CBX's were not bikes for beginners. That 6 cylinder engine was a hair-trigger hand grenade, and if your attention wasn't 100% focused on that bike, it would kill you real quick. I sold the bike in the last picture a few months ago. BMW K1200S... Like the CBX, only much, much worse. Any bike that will run, happy as a clam, at 105 mph - in 4th gear - with another 4,00 rpm to go before the rev limiter - and another 2 gears as well, is not for a beginner (or the faint hearted)... :whistle: Anyway... something like that is definitely not a bike to re-learn to ride on - unless you want to hurt yourself - or worse...
My advice? Get whichever bike makes you comfortable and happy. Personally, if I didn't have the Sportster, I'd probably have the Bolt. Everyone I know who has one, thinks it's the cat's ass...:thumbsup:
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Thanks for sharing your experience and all of those cool pictures!
 
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#22
100mph isn't that much fun imo. I only did that once on my unfaired 1100 just to see what it was lIke. Big empty road in front and no cop behind, zoom. Way too much wind for comfort, empty road half used up, enough of that malarkey. 100mph penalty is instant loss of licence and you're walking. Then you get court and a year or two driving ban which can mean starting again with the licence process as a learner driver if you really annoyed the judge.
 
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#24
Downunderwonder said:
100mph isn't that much fun imo. I only did that once on my unfaired 1100 just to see what it was lIke. Big empty road in front and no cop behind, zoom. Way too much wind for comfort, empty road half used up, enough of that malarkey. 100mph penalty is instant loss of licence and you're walking. Then you get court and a year or two driving ban which can mean starting again with the licence process as a learner driver if you really annoyed the judge.
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I did the 100mph thing on my Kawasaki when I was a kid. I would not mind the drag strip for a quick thrill, but I simply want enough power to keep pace on the freeways, which is rarely more than 80 from time to time.
 
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#25
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One of my friends had a Yamaha YSR50 and he let me borrow it occasionally.

Fun as hell to drive but I was terrified of being run over on the busy suburban streets where I always rode it.










To give you an idea just how small this is, here's a picture of the bike with an adult human being.

Image052.jpg
 
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#26
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Just brought dad's bike home in a 800 mile ride, the last 200 in pouring rain in the mountains of Virginia. It handled everything well and is quite easy to ride. Suzuki C50 800cc cruiser. My third bike. The idea is to get one you feel good with and ride the hell out of it!
 
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#27
hbarcat said:
View attachment 3147131



One of my friends had a Yamaha YSR50 and he let me borrow it occasionally.

Fun as hell to drive but I was terrified of being run over on the busy suburban streets where I always rode it.










To give you an idea just how small this is, here's a picture of the bike with an adult human being.

View attachment 3147132
Click to expand...


Now that is tiny!:woot:
 
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#33
MJ5150 said:
For the sake and safety of those on the road around you, please ride a bike you are comfortable on.

-Mike
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I come from a family of four men. All except me have owned motorbikes. They all gave creedence to the saying that there are two kinds of riders - those that have fallen off and those that will. All of them have been injured from unexpected events such as other road users or roaming animals. I have ridden and loved it but I chose not to own a bike.
I live in a National Park that has a very popular ride through it. That road has taken too many lives and does so with terrible regularity. Please ride carefully and enjoy your riding, your music and your wife’s good sense.
 
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#34
hbarcat said:
View attachment 3147131



One of my friends had a Yamaha YSR50 and he let me borrow it occasionally.

Fun as hell to drive but I was terrified of being run over on the busy suburban streets where I always rode it.










To give you an idea just how small this is, here's a picture of the bike with an adult human being.

View attachment 3147132
Click to expand...
If you are going to go full on 2-smoke, one of these would be pretty good fun.
1984-Yamaha-RZ350-L-Side-Front-730x548.jpg


My dad had one of these when I was a kid. It spooked him and he never rode it, and then sold it when my brother and I started showing interest in it. If one turned up for sale at a decent price, it would be pretty tough for me not to develop serious GAS pains.
yamaha-rd250-1974-matching-frame-engine-numbers-mot-d-february-2019.jpg
 
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#35
geeza said:
I'm pretty sure this model doesn't care what the weather is (2 wheel drive!)
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Some of us only need one wheel drive in all but the worst weather. Well, including the worst weather. I have been caught in blizzards riding a sportbike, and once took a sportbike down a single track. Idiot takes on the world. Idiot wins. Go figure.
 
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#36
Gaolee said:
If you are going to go full on 2-smoke, one of these would be pretty good fun.
View attachment 3147702

My dad had one of these when I was a kid. It spooked him and he never rode it, and then sold it when my brother and I started showing interest in it. If one turned up for sale at a decent price, it would be pretty tough for me not to develop serious GAS pains.
View attachment 3147703
Click to expand...

The old two strokes were great performing machines. I honestly think that preference for the deeper sound four strokes doomed two strokes as much as pollution issues. I suspect good engineers could have made clean, high performing, two strokes if there had been a market for them.
 
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#39
There's a local get-together for bikes a couple neighborhoods over. It happens one Wednesday per month during the summer, and it's an excuse for all kinds of bikes to show up and be paraded around. A friend takes is 750 Commando over, and you see everything from 1960s choppers to Urals to turbocharged Speed Triples. If it's a little nuts, it's probably going to be there at least once. One of the bikes that shows up every so often is a street tracker built with a TZ750 motor. It has a license plate somehow. I have never seen anybody ride it, but I have seen it get fired up on occasion. I suspect it is unrideable, since the original was called unrideable by Kenny Roberts Sr., who could ride anything. It sure sounds righteous, though. If Zeus ripped a phone book in half, it would sound like that bike.
 
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#40


This is definitely a bike that can be ridden hard. I admit that it hurts my pride to get a “beginner” bike, but if I am honest with with myself, the only larger bike I would be comfortable with would be a low revving cruiser sort of bike like a Yamaha Bolt or a Triumph Street Twin. The Suzuki 650 V-Strom was also a bike that I found very easy to handle, but for some crazy reason, my insurance company charges insane rates for the 650 and 1000cc V-Strom.
 
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