Motorbikes
Motorbikes
(OP)
After a hard days work at the office I always like to clear my head driving home on my motorbike (if weather permits)
I have owned and driven Honda motorbikes for 15 years (VT600C, VT1100 A.C.E and VTX1300S) and never had anything to complain about these bikes (Only the sound perhaps :) )
Recently I have bought my Dreambike. A Harley Davidson Roadking Classic 2014 which makes me enjoy the beautiful Swiss mountain roads even more...

Wondering how many of you own motorbikes and what kind? (Brand, model etc)
I have owned and driven Honda motorbikes for 15 years (VT600C, VT1100 A.C.E and VTX1300S) and never had anything to complain about these bikes (Only the sound perhaps :) )
Recently I have bought my Dreambike. A Harley Davidson Roadking Classic 2014 which makes me enjoy the beautiful Swiss mountain roads even more...

Wondering how many of you own motorbikes and what kind? (Brand, model etc)
Ronald van den Broek
Senior Application Engineer
Winterthur Gas & Diesel Ltd
NX9 / TC10.1.2
Building new PLM environment from Scratch using NX11 / TC11





RE: Motorbikes
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RE: Motorbikes
RE: Motorbikes
The first was a 1964 Honda 150 'Dream' that I bought in 1965, when I was a senior in high school. I was going off to college and I couldn't afford a car but needed something for transportation. My boss at the meat market where I worked had had a sort of 'mid-life crisis' and he bought the bike on a whim, but his wife was never happy about it. When I was explaining to him how I was looking for something cheap to drive up to school, he offered to sell me his bike. Below is a shot taken in September 1965, the day before I left for college.
It was a 350 mile drive to school and it rained most of the way. I have never gotten wetter with my cloths on than I was on that trip. Fortunately it wasn't very cold despite the fact that I was driving to the Northwestern part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. My parents left a couple of hours behind me bringing my luggage and stuff and we didn't meet-up until they got to campus, which by then I had checked into my dorm and was still trying to dry out.
Later that Spring, 1966, one of my friends in the dorm sold me his 1965 Honda 305 'Superhawk'. He was joining the Peace Corp and needed the cash. I sold my old Honda to my younger brother, who was going off to college in the Fall. Below is a picture taken in June 1967, right after my wife and I got married, and NO, we did NOT go on our honeymoon on the bike. It was a close call, but I bought car two weeks before the wedding.
Note that the bike was originally Honda red (I never got any photos), but it had faded and so over the previous winter, 1966-67, while still at school, I rebuilt the engine, having it bored-out to 337cc's, installed a racing cam and high-performance clutch. I ported & polished the heads and re-jetted the carbs. I also repainted the frame Kandyapple Blue and had all the sheet-metal chromed, but I left it looking pure stock, except for the paint and chrome. It was a great drive and was really fast (hit 115 mph once), and since it looked stock, I was always able to surprise a lot of guys on bigger bikes.
Anyway, a litter over a year later, Fall of 1968, I decided to go back to school and finish my degree so I sold my bike to my brother-in-law.
A couple of years after I graduated in 1971, a guy at work told me about how his son, who was drafted and had just gotten back from Vietnam, that before he left he had put his 1967 Honda 305 'Superhawk' in his dad's basement, but now that he was back he had lost interest and was looking to sell it. Anyway, it had sat untouched for over four years and he was asking very little for it, so I bought it, basically sight unseen.
This is what it looked like when I got it home in August, 1973.
I got it running but since it had set so long I didn't really drive it on a regular basis and when winter came (we were living in Saginaw, MI) I took it down into the basement where I overhauled the engine but left it pretty much stock except for new pistons rings and gaskets and some minor porting & polishing. However I did a job on the rest of the bike. It had come with megaphone exhausts and since it had low-set handle bars I decided to give it a cafe-racer look. I bobbed the fenders, removed the air-cleaners and replaced them with velocity stacks, removed the electric starter and installed a smaller battery. I reworked the suspension to give it that racing look and then painted it Kandyapple Gold. While it was a stock engine, it at least looked fast (I always wished I could have had that bored-out engine from my first 305 installed in this frame). This is what it looked like in April 1974 after I finished the rebuild.
I drove it back and forth to work (we only had one car back then) for a couple of years but one day the transmission seized-up and by then we had gotten a second car so I decided that my biking days were over and sold it for scrape (I never trusted that power-train after sitting for so many years).
Over the years I've thought about buying another bike, perhaps a Harley or a big Honda road bike, but never did. I used to tell my wife that when we retired I was going to buy TWO Harley's and hit the road. She never thought much of that, but I always told her that she'ed look good in leathers
John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:
The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
RE: Motorbikes
I love the cafe racers look. You see them more and more. Love the style.
We used to own 2 Honda 50cc 4stroke mopeds (CM70 and a C320). Those were awesome as well. lovely sound to them. We bought the CM70 which was sitting in a garage for 20 years. Just had to change the gas, oil, plugs and filters. took just 3 kicks to get it running again.
Ronald van den Broek
Senior Application Engineer
Winterthur Gas & Diesel Ltd
NX9 / TC10.1.2
Building new PLM environment from Scratch using NX11 / TC11
RE: Motorbikes
At one point (before? after? don't recall) somehow I got a Triumph 500. I rode it a few times, then traded it for a '54(?) Ford and a couple of 500s in baskets.
I had other cars all the time, so none of the bikes were primary transportation.
I decided that for traveling or sightseeing, I wanted a convertible or a motorcycle.
The bike won out, and I bought a well-used Honda CB 750. It had a fairing and saddlebags and, with 47,000 miles, had already been to Canada and Mexico.
It served me well for many years, though I never made it north of the Idaho panhandle or south into Mexico.
At around 100,000 miles, I gave it a timing chain, rings, and touched up the valves.
As I finally finished Cal Poly, one of my brothers wanted to sell his Yamaha XS 1100. I bought that and sold the Honda with 105,000 showing. The clutch was tired and the forks were stiff, but it still ran ok.
That Yamaha was a rocket. I gave it a touring fairing and a luggage rack with removable travel trunk.
That beast served me pretty well, thought it wasn't that great a tourer. A bit noisy for my taste.
But that generation of Yamahas had transmission issues, and commuting on SoCal freeways was not fun. I sold it.
A friend gave me a couple of Yamaha XS 750s - essentially 3/4 of a 1100. I had one running almost well, but it had the same trans problem as the 1100 did - pops out of second gear (I think) under power. It is still waiting for me to find it a new home.
Oh, yes - back in the 90s(?) some friends at work were ATV-ing at Pismo and Glamis. I bought a used Yamaha Tri-Z 250. That was fun. I had it for a few years, then it was time to sell it and move on.
Jay Maechtlen
http://www.laserpubs.com/techcomm
RE: Motorbikes
RE: Motorbikes
If I say any more about that bike I should move to "Engineering Failures and Disasters".
After that a Honda 55 cc, a Honda CT 70, a Honda 70 scooter, my last ride was a 550 Honda Shadow.
For awhile I owned an old 1934 80 cu. in. Harley. Only got it started once and rode it for about 20 feet. I think the frame was bent, it the back end wanted to go in a different direction than the front end. Sold it and almost forgot it.
Now I stick to the quad.
Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
RE: Motorbikes
Jay Maechtlen
http://www.laserpubs.com/techcomm
RE: Motorbikes
Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter
RE: Motorbikes
I also bought an old Moto Guzzi - 750, about 1969 model. Still in a basket.
I got the barrels bored and sleeved to fit the stock pistons, got rings that should fit.
It had spun a rod bearing, so I got the crank sprayed up and reground and the rods resized.
It still needs an oil pump and the heads redone - plus everything else that has suffered for the last 40 years it has been sitting around.
Don't know that I'll bother - need to get more stuff done on my "Corvair".
Jay Maechtlen
http://www.laserpubs.com/techcomm