Motorcycles BS Thread 2.0

If I can trailer a dirt bike with a slammed Miata you can do it in a Civic.

 

Well shit now it’s looking like I have to do it haha

 

This bike was sort of a barn find. Friend of my ex owned it when I first saw it. She'd had it for about 7-8 years and it was sitting near the back of her garage, covered in dust, on flat tires and looking pretty sad. Had an engine guard on it and an old school tall sissy bar/luggage rack so it looked more like an undersized touring bike. Took me 3 years of bugging her to sell it to me before she gave in. She was concerned I just wanted to get it running and flip it for profit. Told her getting it running was going to happen but I had no intention of reselling it.Bought it in Spring of 2010, took over a year to get her running decently and another year or more working out all the bugs, having it painted with repro decals, and generally getting it to the condition you now see. Have a few trophies with it from vintage and antique shows. Lot of fun to ride and gets a lot of attention everywhere I take it.

 

Has she tried to buy it back from you since you restored it?

 

That was actually part of the agreement was that if I did wish to sell it within the first couple of years after getting it back on the road that i would offer it to her first. She no longer has any interest in riding her own bike. Her husband is a Harley guy and she's content riding on the back. I have offered to let him take it for a ride though.
Shortly after the repaint and most bugs were worked out I took it over to show them and her husband asked if I would be willing to ride over and show it to the original owner so we did that. Original owner had been a math teacher at my high school but I never knew that before. He teared up when he saw it and asked if he could take some pictures of it since he'd never done that when it was new. I offered to let him ride it but he declined.

 

Dude, you're a stand up guy to offer the rides on something you worked hard to get back together. I'm shocked the original owner didn't take you up on it. That's some awesome history in that bike.

 

Adding to the history....Bike was sold new by a dealership less than one mile from where I now live. The math teacher mentioned and a graphic arts teacher from my high school both bought brand new CB400F Super Sports in 1977. Math teacher bought the Candy Antares Red shown in pics. Graphic Arts teacher bought the Parakeet Yellow version. I've gotten some help from the mechanic at this shop and he told me he's very likely the one who set this bike up when it was brand new.

I know a lot of guys who would not even consider the thought of allowing someone else to ride their bike and at one point I probably fell into that group. Once I got into long distance rallying I saw people just give their bike to another rider for an entire event allowing them to put on hundreds or even thousands of miles and thinking nothing of it and I began to reevaluate my way of thinking. My first FJR1300 I gave up willingly to a rider during the 2019 IBR so they could finish the event. That favor has been repaid to me since in so many ways and good karma I can't ever look at things the way I did in the past. At the end of the day these really are just machines and are replaceable. It's the memories they help form that hold the real value.

 

also off topic but man how old is that pic! its crunchy!

 

No music for me. I like the music of the engine. My bonneville has stock exhaust and I like the way it sounds. Nice rumble but not overly loud and obnoxious. It's neighbor friendly.

 

Absolutely beautiful bike, I think it went to the right person and It’s wonderful that you’ve gotten to know so much of its history. I think most of us that truly appreciate the beauty and history in these old bikes can only hope that they end up with people that truly appreciate them as much as we do. Flippers serve there purpose but it will mean so much more to me when I need to downsize things that I know my bikes are going to someone that will feel the same way I do about them

 

Representing both coasts that day. How does a trailer plated in New York end up in CA?

 

Thank you.

I've managed to get the original sales brochure for the bike and a period correct Honda keyfob as well. When the time should come that I ever put it up for sale I will be pretty particular who I would sell it to. Any potential buyer that would say the words "cafe" or "brat" or "bobber" can keep looking because the price would instantly double or more if I so much as suspected they would destroy a bike that original. Nothing wrong with those sort of builds and initially I even considered making this a cafe racer once I saw how nearly original it was I couldn't do that.

 

whats that? lmao

 

I used to be like that as well, but have started relaxing that way of thinking, depending on how well I know the person. I'm not likely to let any younger rider ride any of my stuff because 1. they'll probably be irresponsible with it, 2. they'll probably be more inexperienced and 3. they probably can't replace something if they break it. Otherwise, I'm pretty open to letting people try stuff. My good friend came over the day after I bought my Super Tenere and I threw him the keys to take it out for a ride, and we usually swap bikes when we go riding.

That was Dec 31 2016. Now I have a truck for motorcycle shenanigans.

That was when I was young(er) and dumb(er) and didn't realize I had to register a trailer so I just rolled around with it. I bought it from a friend in SoCal, no idea how it ended up there.

 

dang it was in 16? my iphone wasnt even that crunchy back then! (only reason i know that is thats when i bought my first tacoma) ye a truck is the best to do stuff. i do think one day for shits and giggles ill do it with the coupe but mainly ill use the truck its just ya know built for it

 

It was also uploaded to facebook and probably had some filters on it for IG so I dunno.

 

You make a good point and that's pretty on the mark with my feelings. I knew the situation in the 2019 IBR and while I'd never met the person before I knew they'd already made it 10 days and were on their way to the finish when their BMW suffered catastrophic engine failure. I also understood that rally is somewhat of a bucket list ride for many people and hated the thought that this rider would be out of the event on day 10 of 11 so if it was in my power to help then it was the thing I wanted to do. Now in this situation I never met the man before but under those circumstances he must be a proficient enough rider to have gotten an entry so that had to be good enough for me. I had his broken bike in my possession the entire time so there was that also. He returned my bike 4 days later with about 1200 more miles on it and among the first things he asked was "what do I owe you?" Of course I refused any money because this should be what riders do is to help one another.

Even though I've never ridden with most of you on this thread I would likely allow any of you to ride one of my bikes based upon the rapport we have on here and having seen pics of most of your bikes. @FreshOldTaco and I are currently in the planning stages of doing an Iron Butt ride this Spring. I have ridden with him already and would have no hesitation allowing him use of one of my bikes should the need ever arise.

 

idk lol it just caught my interest because crunchy! lol

 

It’s hard for me to let some ride my motorcycles, but I’m trying to get better about it, I owned this bike for 8 years and let two people ride it. When I sold it the guy that bought it didn’t even want to test drive it but he did drive it off when we finished everything

 

ive let my buddies ride my bike all the time because why not? ive ridden my buddies goldwing and his brothers drz to compare against my klx. ive ridden a buddies 636 last year and thaaat is how i realized i dont need a 600cc lmao to fast for me! my buddies brother with the white drz wants me to ride his t7 or his ktm 890 and maaan i just dont want to he has so much money in them!