motorbikes old/new...open thread??

My wife (and her colleagues) are possibly the only people who could sit comfortably on the pillion perch of that Aprilia - she's a Yoga teacher!
 
Real kicker?

Would have been out on one of mine today but had a couple of errands to run that needed a car. Got stuck in traffic and ended up heading right out of town to avoid all the queues that the original problem had caused and by the time we got home, there wasn't enough time to get kitted up, go out for a decent cobweb blower and get back in time to go out again to finish the errands. Never mind, I'm sure there'll be another dry day at some point before commercialmas!
 
Nod said:
Real kicker?

Would have been out on one of mine today but had a couple of errands to run that needed a car. Got stuck in traffic and ended up heading right out of town to avoid all the queues that the original problem had caused and by the time we got home, there wasn't enough time to get kitted up, go out for a decent cobweb blower and get back in time to go out again to finish the errands. Never mind, I'm sure there'll be another dry day at some point before commercialmas!
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Yes real kicker and yes I do use it. Harley didn't provide one after about 1983 so I fit an aftermarket one, it's also got a chain final drive I junked the rubber band in the first year.
 
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Fitted my soft panniers and satnav to the nc750 and went out for a couple of hours, I am really beginning to enjoy this bike. Did a couple of u turns which I wouldn't have even contemplated on the previous bike and spotted a memorial to the AAF at Steeple Morden which I didn't know about. Lobbed a dead pheasant into the field from the road so the red kites wouldn't be at risk getting a snack. Really nice couple of hours.
 
Topsy said:
Yes real kicker and yes I do use it. Harley didn't provide one after about 1983 so I fit an aftermarket one, it's also got a chain final drive I junked the rubber band in the first year.
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I like the indicators you've got on it too. Nice and unobtrusive.

Really wish I had some photos of the Shovel I looked after in the early '90s. It was featured in BSH back then but they have no back issues and their archive got burned.

Weather looking half decent in the morning so might get out for a short blast while Mrs Nod is at class and opening up for a workshop.
 
Nod said:
I like the indicators you've got on it too. Nice and unobtrusive.

Really wish I had some photos of the Shovel I looked after in the early '90s. It was featured in BSH back then but they have no back issues and their archive got burned.

Weather looking half decent in the morning so might get out for a short blast while Mrs Nod is at class and opening up for a workshop.
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Ha-ha, I only fit the indicators because MoT requires them, I don't use them I do old fashioned hand signals. Shame you don't have any photos of your old Shovel I do like Shovels.
 
Topsy said:
Ha-ha, I only fit the indicators because MoT requires them, I don't use them I do old fashioned hand signals. Shame you don't have any photos of your old Shovel I do like Shovels.
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Oddly, I'm not sure the MoT needs them BUT if there's a switch, it must operate the indicators so if you remove the flashers, you must remove the switch too. Check with your friendly local tester to make sure though!
The old Shovel I looked after was built around a '25 headstock (from which it took its date of first registration and therefore the bits it needed!) to which a '79 frame had been attached with a '78 motor taken out from 80 to 88 ci with a lightened crank and other internals. No stroking, just the o/s bore. Compression was upped a bit - I was around 20 stone in riding kit and could stand on the kicker (no electric foot...) at TDC. The lack of electric start wasn't a problem once we'd got it properly sorted but getting the b'stard running before it was sorted was less fun! As I've said before, if I'd had the cash to buy it when my mate was selling it, I'd have bought it but that's ancient history now and I'll stick with my Triumphs.
 
Nod said:
Oddly, I'm not sure the MoT needs them BUT if there's a switch, it must operate the indicators so if you remove the flashers, you must remove the switch too. Check with your friendly local tester to make sure though!
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Indicators, pre 86 if fitted must be working, post 86 must be fitted and working.
 
I had a few triumph choppers which I can remember getting two people standing on the kick start and it wouldn't budge, There was definitely a knack to starting them but there was something beautiful when you trust down on the kick start and it burst into life. I can remember one of the oil lines coming off at around the ton and being covered head to foot in oil.
The old bikes have that mix of petrol and hot oil smell which give them a real mechanical smell, and you can feel every firing stroke at low rpm. The Only Jap bike I had that came anywhere close was an XS650 chop it also had the advantage that less things fell of or worked loose !
 
BADGER.BRAD said:
I had a few triumph choppers which I can remember getting two people standing on the kick start and it wouldn't budge, There was definitely a knack to starting them but there was something beautiful when you trust down on the kick start and it burst into life. I can remember one of the oil lines coming off at around the ton and being covered head to foot in oil.
The old bikes have that mix of petrol and hot oil smell which give them a real mechanical smell, and you can feel every firing stroke at low rpm. The Only Jap bike I had that came anywhere close was an XS650 chop it also had the advantage that less things fell of or worked loose !
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XS 650 now there was a lump to kick start, don't be shy or it'll bite you bad.
 
Only time I've been bitten was by a Daytona 500. Threw me up what felt like 6'! Can't have been that high though - I still had my hands on the bars! A friend very nearly came to grief on a GT500 - it kicked back as he was looking for the right spot to kick it from and the kick back started it. It was only when he went to pull away that he discovered that it had fired up backwards. The joys of poorly set up 2 strokes!!!
 
One of the two XS650 I had was bored to 750 had ape hanger to the sky and was about 4 inchs off the floor I can remember it blowing back through the bell mouths if you weren't man enough when kicking it , this resulted in flames coming through both carbs. I once borrowed an RD250dx and it felt either the kick start was not connected to anything or the heads had been removed !
 
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BADGER.BRAD said:
One of the two XS650 I had was bored to 750 had ape hanger to the sky and was about 4 inchs off the floor I can remember it blowing back through the bell mouths if you weren't man enough when kicking it , this resulted in flames coming through both carbs. I once borrowed an RD250dx and it felt either the kick start was not connected to anything or the heads had been removed !
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Hilarious, thanks. Made I larf.........
 
Neatly bobbed. Do like a tidy Shovel, even an older gennie one!
 
Hi, a Jurak, made in Poland, in the Stettin Stoewer factory, the car manufacturing machinery of which had been confiscated by the Russians after WW2 ... :



DSC04196-a7r2-3-tp.jpg
 
Three's a crowd?

Three Motorcylcists from back Near Exeter Services G9 P1013170.JPG
 
i-MCVPdJT-X2.jpg
 
It's many years since I've seen one of these in the flesh. They were built by the Scott Motorcycle Co of Saltaire, just 2 miles from where I live.
 
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