Motorbike photos

Ok Harry flashman,had to go for the big bike start eh!

The first pic on ice was a 77 Honda XR75 and the Green mx bike was an 84 Kawasaki KX125. Ah, the good old days. Probably get an on/off bike this spring to go exploring the backcountry here in the new neighbourhood...

And here's what I was riding at the time. Circa 1981

 

When I was about 11 I loved cx500s and wished when I grew up I would have one. I don't suppose I will get one now but there is something I really like about them. Nice photo.

Not my actual bike (no photos) but I had one of these as a teenager.

These are two of my bikes




2010 Harley Fat Bob



1997 Honda VFR750

My other bike which I still have is a 1986 Honda CB100N which I bought in 1992. This isn't in particularly great condition now since it was used in all weathers and has had a few spills. It has sentimental value though since it was my first vehicle and is now worth nothing so I still keep it. It still runs great and has only 9000 or so miles on the clock. This picture is from about 2001, the year I bought the VFR so is just about the last time it was ever ridden.

Winky, your green Honda reminded me, I used to own a Honda XL250, that I gave a lot of punishment in a local quarry 

And I thought I was the only one who had ever ridden an XL250, albeit only  for a few months.

I suppose that picture could be anywhere but it looks so much like my stomping ground that it's uncanny. Snake Pass / Woodhead Pass area ????

Yamaha XJ400, only bike I ever had, not very durable and not very good... A hate/love relationship.

Winky,

Nice 70's color.  Did you, also, park it in precarious places?

Harry,

Love the Beezer, and the hair! My friends cousin had an A10, a lovely bike. We used to go to the scrapyard and pick up old bikes and get them running to ride around the farm. We had a BSA Bantam and a Frannnie Barnett. My first 'road' bike was a Triumph Tiger Cub and then I had a Norton Dominator with clip ons like yours. When I went to London I succumbed to Jap bikes like the Suzuki 'kettle' but the memory of those British bikes are the fondest. 

ATB

steve

Here's mine.

Jason

The bantam was a little two stroke (125 I think) which was a WW2 spoil from Germany. I had a 250 Gold Star but the "proper" Gold Star was the 500 single. The A10 was a 650 twin. Mine started life (mostly) as the 650 Lightening. I think the other 650 from that era was the Gold Flash.

Didn't bikes used to have good names?

Hair's mostly gone now. God knows where the bike is!

I went on to a Read Titan Honda. A different kettle of fish altogether, as was the Sporster 1000 that I tried to run subsequently, but spent about half the time pushing and walking. Of all my bikes I remember the A10 most fondly because I put so much into it. Ahh yoof! Thought I knew everything - hahaha. Had some fun though. As did you by the sound of it.

Unlike car names

- Morris Ital (err ??? wadiz dat)

- Nissan Sunny (what happens when it rains ??)

Mind you the Mitsubishi Pajero is about as good as it gets ---- does anyone know what Pajero actually means - go google folks 

In the back ground are the Malvern Hills from the Worcester side.

This is a 1941 Royal Enfield "CO" 350 cc single. Originally it was a dispatch riders bike made for the "WD" and this one certainly saw service in the North African desert as well as in Italy. It is amazing that it was returned to the UK, sold back to Enfield, and re-manufactured as a civilian bike in 1946. All Enfield did was paint them black! And in some cases fit a new engine. This was so that all "new" production could be exported and thus improve the then perilous state of the balance of payments! Mine had a 1946 engine [from the then Model G, which was the same engine but in a frame that also had a hard tail, but telescopic forks] and its original four speed gear box. The bottom gear was a crawler gear so you could get off the bike in bottom gear and push it out of mud while driving it! This very low bottom gear meant that you easily turn the bike in a circle that was only about twice the length of the bike without putting the feet down! It had a very low centre of gravity.

At this stage of the rebuild I had no front brake! 

I rebuilt it over eighteen months starting in 2000. I never rode it on the road, because I never plucked up the courage to take a motor bike test. but I did do a CBT. They were very pleased with me! That was on a little Yamaha 125, which was relatively less easy to ride than the Enfield. 

The instructor asked me what I had been practicing on! When I told him, he said it was a shame not to use the Enfield for the test when the time came ...

ATB from George

Steve, thanks for the history update on beezers.

BTW, what s a Suzuki kettle ? Is it the waterooled ? 850?

Some old friends used o have XJ's and hey we're ok at the time, yours looks well in the photo

That's a great photo Harry, real sense of old days from it. anyone recognise what the car is in the background?

Jason, nice colour scheme on your bike. Are you happy wiand your Beemer, and do you have similar views to mine on the weight / handling ?

George,

    Looks like you are auditioning for the great escape !

Redmires,

     I have spent many a time in the wood head / snake area. 

My youth was spent in the Sheffield / stocksbridge area and done much biking around there.

Beautiful part of the world. Also around froggits ? Etc

Ah, but was it off road /quarry style ? Or we're you just a roadie ?

Mike,

   What about the Stag? And the interceptor !

What about the Stag ???   leaked more oil than a ...........  a Triumph

Funny how oil leaks were synonymous with that brand name

That engine was a classic how not to design an engine,  British engineering at its worst .

The engine was an iron block & ally heads & unless the right type & mix of antifreeze was used,  electrolytic corrosion made the engine disappear.  

It over heated at the drop of a hat because the water pump was above the block & airlocks were next to oil leaks in popularity stakes,  dry pump – failed pump.  

Over heated engine caused the different engine materials to expand at different rates, & guess what ?? – yup head gaskets

The timing chains lasted as long a snow ball – hark do I hear the clatter of valves on pistons

You guessed it,  I owned one, bought it cheap was its only saving grace

(I must have had a youthful penile fantasy with "Stag")

Sold ASAP after I spend more money on repairs than I bought it for.