Any motorcycle riders in here?

[Swe_Richard 1,172]

11 minutes ago, rmeier said:

 

PS: My longest serving (22 years so far) knuckle scraper isn't a motorcycle...another open air car that I've been slowly restoring/modifying for most of that time.

Oh, a 914, right?

[rmeier 473]

15 minutes ago, Swe_Richard said:

Oh, a 914, right?

Correct!

Originally a 1972 1.7L. Currently with a 2.7L, dual plug flat six resembling the 914-6 GT.

[Swe_Richard 1,172]

10 minutes ago, rmeier said:

Correct!

I absolutely love old Porsches. My dream car since I, as a small kid, saw the legendary curves of the 80's 911 and said to myself (being at the time totally uninterested in cars) 'I would like to have one of those'.

Been dreaming of a 964 RS ever since. 

12 minutes ago, rmeier said:

Originally a 1972 1.7L. Currently with a 2.7L, dual plug flat six resembling the 914-6 GT.

Oh, man. Respect. 🥰

[rmeier 473]

15 minutes ago, Swe_Richard said:

Oh, man. Respect. 🥰

Thank you! 

Yup, bought this car in 2002 when they were still somewhat plentiful and inexpensive. Drove it for many years before I elected to upgrade to the six cylinder...accumulating many performance parts along the way. About 4-1/2 years ago, I started a restoration project on it to install the metal fender flares...that turned into a massive body panel replacement exercise when everything I touched seemed to turn to rust!

I love the classic 911's...just preferred the unique-ness of the 914...and the obvious mid-engine advantage!  🙂

Sorry to highjack your thread with the Porsche post...if you're interested, I do have a couple of Youtube videos covering the restoration of the car...just do a YT search of "Porsche 914-6 Conversion Rustoration" and look for my name. The first one, about 18 minutes, covers the body panel replacement and bodywork. The second one, about 8 minutes, covers the final paint and re-assembly.

Over the last 5 years, two original 914-6 GT's have sold at auction for over $1MM US...stupid money!!! (Of course, I think there were only something like 14 or 18 wide bodied GT's originally built by Porsche)...the rest (to make up for the "50 required production cars" to compete in GT class) were all Porsche dealer installed optioned cars.

Getting back to your original post...I really like the looks of the Royal Enfield...I'm sure it'll make a perfect first motorcycle. Be safe!

[newtie 533]

On 3/10/2024 at 12:43 PM, Penzoil3 said:

Back in the day, I rode a Kawasaki 500 triple. Never did find out how fast it would go... I chickened at 120 mph, it was starting to float a bit. I had 2000 rpm left, and another gear to go. I started thinking about what one little rock would do, with it floating a bit. My old man rode a 650 BSA, stuffed in a 500 flat tracker frame. He was clocked at over a 100, escaping a traffic stop once. He was crazier than I was... but they didn't catch him.

Over 40 years later it's funny, it wasn't at the time.

 

My brother rode a 750 triple, a true death machine. Luckily he sold it before killing himself. Keeping the front wheel on the ground was the key. I had a mild mannered Suzuki GT380 triple followed by a Honda 400 four with a Kerker header and a custom DeMasi paint job. Sounded just like the 750. Split my head open on a 4x4 stop sign post going around a corner hitting some gravel. It’s not if, it’s when as the saying goes. Forty stitches across my forehead later and that concluded my motorcycle career. I walked around on a cane for weeks. Went to the store and scared the **** out of the checker; turned white. I looked like Frankenstein. “What happened to you?”😂

[dbw1 445]

Richard, Check out the latest issue of Motorcycle Sport & Liesure.

There is a review of the Enfield 450 cc. Throttle by wire etc. Test has them as high as 13,000 above sea level.

Really an impressive bike.

[DD_Arthur 1,050]

7 hours ago, rmeier said:

...of course, riding during my "invincible" era, I just didn't know any better. 

The invicible era,? Oh yeah, ain't that the truth!    Mine started in 1979 when I was a very spotty sixteen year old.  After a year of scrimping and saving from Saturday jobs I finally had enough to splash out on one of these and at long last I WAS BARRY SHEENE!!!

A whole bunch of us in the fifth year at school had sports mopeds and we terrorised north London with ear-splitting noise and choking clouds of two-stroke whilst not going very fast at all.....

There then followed some fifteen years of invincibility going very fast indeed on a succesion of bigger and bigger four cylinder machines until I found myself a) married with two baby boys and b) broke.  I sold all my bikes and got a mortgage on a house and a sensible family car......and a 1973 750cc Triumph Bonneville that someone had previously dismantled and then lovingly stored in what must have been salt-water.

After two years of cleaning, polishing, painting and rebuilding it started to look like a mo'cycle again....

The small boys are now enjoying their own mortgaged bliss with our grandchildren.....

Old Brit bikes? Great fun but for every hour ridden be prepared to spend two hours replacing bulbs, tightening nuts and bolts, fixing stuff, cleaning and just staring at your thing of beauty 

My motorcycling days came to an end the second time about fifteen years ago with another 'everything must go sale' to finance a five week round the world family holiday until oh...eight years ago?...in a fit of middle aged madness I bought this:....

A truly awesome piece of engineering;  great handling, great balance, great brakes, great steering, great comfort, great everything....as long as your doing more than 90mph.

Anything less and it was quite literally a pain in the neck, back, wrists and a$$.  Any journey over an hour involved a visit to a chiropractor shortly afterwards and it quickly became apparent that I was no longer invincible. I rode it through the spring and early summer and then sold it and got myself a different toy...

 

 

 

[Howellerman 104]

Been riding for 58 years, starting on a Honda 50 and similar and moving up the power chain as I grew up. Have owned a dozen bikes over the years, Honda, Kawasaki, Ducati, Indian, and now a heavily modified Triumph Bonneville T120. Always just one at a time, if only because I never had the room for a "collection". Several years ago I thought I should "slow down" and purchased the Indian Scout, which is a feet-forward, high-bars, stripped-down cruiser. After modifying the suspension front and rear I realized I was trying to make it faster and more capable, so sold it and got a Ducati Monster SS 1100. Sold that to get the Triumph, which I have turned into a "Gentleman's Express". It is firm, controlled, and only slightly noisy, and has enough torque to make things fun on the twisty roads here in the Bay Area, The Isle of Nine (Highway 9) being my favorite, closed now due to mudslides. 

When the kids came along I asked the Wif-unit if she wanted me to stop riding. She thought about it for a sec and said "Nope, I don't think you would be happy without a motorcycle. They are part of you." She has been a part of me for 35 years!

[dbw1 445]

8 hours ago, Howellerman said:

Been riding for 58 years, starting on a Honda 50 and similar and moving up the power chain as I grew up. Have owned a dozen bikes over the years, Honda, Kawasaki, Ducati, Indian, and now a heavily modified Triumph Bonneville T120. Always just one at a time, if only because I never had the room for a "collection". Several years ago I thought I should "slow down" and purchased the Indian Scout, which is a feet-forward, high-bars, stripped-down cruiser. After modifying the suspension front and rear I realized I was trying to make it faster and more capable, so sold it and got a Ducati Monster SS 1100. Sold that to get the Triumph, which I have turned into a "Gentleman's Express". It is firm, controlled, and only slightly noisy, and has enough torque to make things fun on the twisty roads here in the Bay Area, The Isle of Nine (Highway 9) being my favorite, closed now due to mudslides. 

When the kids came along I asked the Wif-unit if she wanted me to stop riding. She thought about it for a sec and said "Nope, I don't think you would be happy without a motorcycle. They are part of you." She has been a part of me for 35 years!

I have an Indian Challenger and my wife has an Indian Scout. I turn 71 this spring and she 68. It's great to have a spouse who rides too.

I sold a Honda CB750 in 1976 to pay for completing my pilot licenses and didn't start riding again till 2003. Hung up the headset for the last time in 2016 and now continue to get get my jollies on the bike.

[LHookins 3,103]

When I was 21 years old I had a Honda CB450 as my sole transportation.  I rode it on the highway, off road, did some hill climbing.  My girlfriend, who became my wife, weighed 84 pounds and was 4'11" tall and was the perfect rider.  Couldn't tell she was even there.  She accompanied me off road and climbing hills. 😄  The first argument we ever had was when I sold the bike.

A few decades later I got a BMW, forget the model.  This was not a particularly nice motorcycle.  A half hour of riding and my hands were numb from the vibration.  I eventually rode it into the back of a car stopped at a green light when I glanced at my instruments.  I flew over the car and the worst part of it was being on the Texas summer asphalt... don't wanna cook to death.

My best friend and I were at the bike shop a few days later when he exclaimed "OMG, come check this out!"  He had a Honda Goldwing up on the center stand with his hand on the seat.  I'm tellin' ya, there was absolutely NO vibration in the seat.  I bought the Goldwing the next day, about $1000 or a bit more and never regretted it.  It might have been the perfect bike.

This was my sole transportation for several months (it's more practical than you'd think, I did grocery shopping and even went on a job interview in my $1500 interview suit in the driving rain with a Marine rain suit) and loved it.  My daily commute was 80 miles each way, no problem.  Almost entirely highway with only two stop signs and two red lights.

One day I was within a mile of work with extremely heavy dew on the roads, going around a corner at about 2 mph when my front wheel slid out from under me and I landed on my wallet.  I claimed that if it weren't for my "sound financial buffer" I'd have "lost my a$$".  Had to retire the pants.  No damage to the bike.

I decided I was getting to an age where I could break something that might not heal, and sold the bike to my best friend (mentioned above) who took it from Texas to California, up Highway 1 to Vancouver, and back through Yellowstone.  I envy him that trip.  Me?  I found a good used Mercedes 300D (with air conditioning!) for about $7500 and drove the wheels off it.

There was an old Honda ad that claimed, "Sometimes just knowing it's there is enough" which certainly applied to my 450.  Also, "You'll never see a motorcycle in front of a psychiatrist's office."  (The doctor usually parks in back 😄 )

These days my son has several bikes and he might even ride them once in a while.  My riding days ended with the Goldwing.  

Hook

[Lonesome Cowboy Burt 156]

Too many to remember, used to compete in Enduros and Hare + Hound events

Currently riding a Husky 701E

 

Edited March 14 by Lonesome Cowboy Burt

[Swe_Richard 1,172]

On 3/11/2024 at 8:07 PM, rmeier said:

Sorry to highjack your thread with the Porsche post...if you're interested, I do have a couple of Youtube videos covering the restoration of the car...just do a YT search of "Porsche 914-6 Conversion Rustoration" and look for my name. The first one, about 18 minutes, covers the body panel replacement and bodywork. The second one, about 8 minutes, covers the final paint and re-assembly.

No problems at all! I love old Porsches, even though I've given up the dream of getting a 964 RS... 🤪 will absolutely check your video out!

On 3/12/2024 at 5:56 PM, Howellerman said:

Been riding for 58 years, starting on a Honda 50 and similar and moving up the power chain as I grew up. Have owned a dozen bikes over the years, Honda, Kawasaki, Ducati, Indian, and now a heavily modified Triumph Bonneville T120. 

Ooh! Been seriously eyeing a Bonneville! Looks gorgeous and sat on one at the dealer and felt really nice and my 7 y/o told me it suited me just fine, so... got to do what the kid says I suppose... 😅

[charliearon 3,025]

Back in the day, this was my dream bike!  Luckily, I decided living was better than the alternative!

 

[Swe_Richard 1,172]

1 hour ago, charliearon said:

Back in the day, this was my dream bike!  Luckily, I decided living was better than the alternative!

 

Yeah, I am eyeing the Kawasaki z900rs. That would probably put me in the morgue sooner rather than later... 😉

 

[188AHC 2,138]

I still have my 92 Harley 883 Sportster low rider with stage 1 upgrade .