Are there any motorcycle riders in here?

I would like to ride a Harley comfortably cushioned guy.

@Patty_Melt Nice…haha! At least you didn’t say moustache’s, but you could have!

That’s only when I find a biker skilled enough to balance me on his handlebars.

I used to have a mustache. It rubbed off…with friction.

@Patty_Melt my my…I got what you need.

I have no doubt.

Dirt bikes, gave up riding street bikes over thirty years ago.
I have a Yamaha IT200 used to race enduros in my younger days not any more though.

I have an old 73 Norton Commando

@stanleybmanly I’ve never heard of Norton. Had to look it up.

Rick used to flat track semi professionally. I have the video of his last wreck race. He broke his collar bone in 2 places.
If I had a bike I’d have an Indian.

@stanleybmanly Rode on the back of a 1965 Norton Atlas, the driver was skilled to the point of absurd. We went for lunch from our office on his Norton, split a pizza and had soda. On the way back he didn’t get on the hiway, a main road with four lanes was fine. Came to a stop light a and new Corvette pulled in the lane next him, the Corvette blip the gar twice. Dana, my buddy says “lock you arms around my waist”. Light turns Green and Dana in on the throttle, two shifts and around a slight curve, we come to another light. The Corvette was in the dust but again pulled he yells at Dana, “You know you took the curve on only your rear wheel?” Dana “Yup”. he was steering the bike in a wheelie with his foot pegs.

I would borrow bikes in college, they included BSA 650, Triumph Bonneville, Suzuki X-6 Hustler, BSA 441 Victor and Yamaha 1967 650. Dated a lady in college that raced OSSA 250.

My oldest son currently races in vintage class road racing and has a Kawasaki 1100 for drag racing and land speed.

I haven’t ridden a bike since 1974 when I was almost run off a dirt road by two bikers that were using the path under the power lines that crossed the dirt road.

I have an old Kawasaki 500 Mach III – 2 stroke! The “Widow maker”.
It was state of the art in 1975. Scary fast.

I don’t take it out often.

My mother’s side of the family, rode mostly HD’s.

I prefer Hondas.

Shadows, are great.

@Dutchess My neighbors had Indians, HD’s too. Beautiful. He shot a cannon every 4th of July haha!

@stanleybmanly

I love the snortin’ Nortons! What’s the motor size of yours?

IIRC, the 750 was the largest one they made.

@LuckyGuy

“I have an old Kawasaki 500 Mach III – 2 stroke! The “Widow maker”.
It was state of the art in 1975. Scary fast.”

Didn’t Kawasaki eventually make a 1000cc machine? Was it also a 2 stroke?

@MrGrimm888

Have you ever ridden a Valkyrie?

@Brian 1946 Mine is a 750. I bought it in 1981 from an aeronautical engineer who restored it beautifully. It was and remains immaculate. Listen to this. He had 2 of them completely torn down and in parts. Norton went to 850 cc motors I believe in 76. But both of his were 750s. Anyway, he completely rebuilt the first including the motor. Everything from wheels to fenders was beautifully rechromed, and the tank and panels were painted a deep lacquer yellow. But here’s the truly sad thing. He had spent so much time working on the bike that after he restored it, and then took it on the road, his wife got REALLY pissed and threatened him with a divorce if he didn’t get rid of both it and the one in pieces. He put them both in the want ads
Asking $1500. Thank God there was no internet then, because if he had posted a photo, no way in hell would I have lucked onto those bikes. I actually took the BART to Lafayette, and he picked me up at the station. He told me the story about his wife and the bikes on the way to his house. When we arrived at his house, and walked up the driveway, his wife was sitting in a lawn chair in the backyard in a 2 piece bathing suit, and I instantly understood his plight. She was HOT! I mean too hot—the sort of hot that sets your mind spinning on the difficulties that MUST arise. He opened the garage door and when I saw the bike, my jaw dropped, and I told him point blank, “take the divorce”. I was dead serious, and the look on my face cracked him up. I was never so happy to part with $1500 in my life. I rode the bike back to San Francisco, hopped in the wife’s pickup and drove immediately back to Lafayette to pick up the second bike in six boxes of parts. I felt so guilty (but jubilant) that I pushed another $300 into his hands. The six boxes sat in my garage for 3 years as I dreamed of the day when I would either repeat the engineer’s feat or pay someone else to tackle it. And it was 3 years of the most relentless nagging on the part of my wife. I have NEVER experienced anything as persistently irritating in my life. Finally, the day before Thanksgiving 1986, I packed the 6 boxes and the frame into the van and drove the second bike down to the Triumph motorcycle shop, where Pat (the thief) took a look, then offered me $150.
I got back in the van & told him I would dump it in the bay or leave it in the van forever before he would rob me. Hell, I could get $150 for the tank alone. He gave me $400. I’m going to try to post a picture of the bike.

@stanleybmanly

That’s some story! You’re the Crow of Norton lore.

I look forward to seeing the pic, so good luck posting. :-)

I’ll ask my wife to help.

@LuckyGuy those are awesome and highly collectable.

I currently have a KLR 650 and a 70’s three cylinder Yamaha. I used to ride sportbikes but gave that up.

@Brian1946 They came ot with a 750 2 stroke but it was only slightly faster and weighed more. I only weighed 125 pounds in my early 20s when I got it so the rider/bike combination was really quick. Being a 2 stroke, the engine has a really peaky torque curve. Wide open throttle at 2500 to 4000 rpm it is a dog, but let it rev to 6000 and the speed will jump to 10000 so quickly the front end will lift off the ground. It feels like the horizon is falling away and it is easy to be disoriented. That is one of the reasons there are so few still around. They got wrapped around trees and other vehicles. Also there was a front end resonance instability at certain speeds and lean angles. Go into a curve at speed and lean wrong and the bike will drift into the other lane. I drove with the steering damper turned all the way up.

@ARE_you_kidding_me Nice! You know what I’m talking about. The newer bikes are so much more refined. – and faster, and better fuel economy and lower emissions and smoother…
There is nothing “refined” about my H1E. To make it even wilder, I changed the rear sprocket from 15 tooth to 14. (IIRC) That gave me even more torque and made it even scarier. I put speakers in the cheek pads of my Bell Star LTD II helmet and ran the wire down through the neck seal to my Aiwa cassette player. Music blasting.
It is a wonder I’m still around.

What is the fastest thing in your washing machine?

Hondapants!

That is all…

@Brian1946 . No sir. But, I have been around them, plenty.

My first memory, was when my father would put me on the gas tank of an ‘82 Honda 750. I was VERY young. He would hold me, on his lap, and we would fly down these long, hilly roads. I was probably 2–3 years old…
We would go WAY too fast…
He would probably be arrested for that, nowadays. I’m sure that we were going well in excess of 120 mph…....
We both screamed, in excitement…..
It gave me my “need for speed.”

I later would own a couple of Honda 750’s, and my favorite was a Honda Shadow/Sabre 1100…
I had them all tweaked. The 1100, could exceed the 130 mph speedometer. I used to fly around, on it…

I was at Black Biker’s Week(although I am white,) in Myrtle Beach once. I was in a gathering of bikes, on the King’s Highway. Everyone was packed about 6 wide, on one lane. There were tens, of thousands of bikes. We were going fairly slow. But. There was a guy on a Valkyrie, next to me. He did burn outs, every time we stopped. I thought he would kill someone.
The National Guard, was there.
They kept trying to stop him.
But, they couldn’t catch him…

I’ve been to a lot of Biker Weeks, in MB. The bikers, run the town…
They don’t stop for traffic lights. They don’t obey, any laws…

I’ve even worked security, for a place called Suck Bang Blow, on Biker’s Week…
Lol….Little hint, don’t take the kids…....

I’ve never owned a motorcycle, but I do have lots of memories riding on the back of my Brothers, he had few of them, one was a Harley, he also had a Yamaha and a Suzuki. Once I finished my home work he let me pick whatever one we go riding on. Fun times!! :)

@LuckyGuy: My aunt used to have the Kawasaki 500. She lived in San Francisco at the time and was beautiful, a dancer, kind of a rebel without a cause (and she landed on her feet in the end).

Here’s Jaclyn Smith on a Kawasaki 400 in Charlie’s Angels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHWcIa8PT2c