Show your other bike(s) - What else do you ride?

Rohan said:

Thats a pretty fancy garage someone has there !
Can't be yours, it has cars in it ?

Common problem with early guzzi chrome bores.
At least the Lemans kept away from that stuff...
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Nicasil cylinder kits are only $700 a pair and a common upgrade.
This is my old garage and one of my TL's.
550 sq/ft mill,lathe and all manner of tools to be almost totally self sufficient.
Most of it is in storage,I put away some cash a few years ago to set up a CNC knee mill, once the space is there (a shift) I can get back to how things used to be.

This is my T160 (also been posted before) but it has had a couple of changes since then, namely a change of colour to the UK tank, and I have taken the Rayguns off and put on the peashooters from my Commando. Now as it goes past 4 thousand rpm it has a lovely rasp/growl which it didn't have before. Mmmmmmmmmmm nice 8) It remains a 930cc engine as it has been stroked and had big bore barrels fitted.

I've been to "German Triple Rally " on this for the second year running with my wife as pillion, and it has proved to be an excellent tourer..........as the Norton was when I went to the I.R in the Morvan hills in France this year and Spain in 2010.

Although I had been to the European mainland on my British bikes two up and camping several times when I was a younger, I had had a few German and Japanese bikes since 1994 or thereabouts including a very functional if slightly sterile Pan European ST 1300. Due to this bike rarely being used for the last 6 years, taking up space and costing insurance money, I declared to my wife (who finds the Commando and T160 comfortable despite having access to this modern purpose built machine) that if the T160 was proved comfortable and problem free as the Norton had been on two earlier tours of mainland Europe, that the ST 1300 would go..........and so it was sold last year leaving me with the Commando, T160 and Guzzi LM1.



p.s. Timewarp....I really like your Elderado :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Time Warp said:

If you put a Manx in that line up I wouldn't even see it,I like a working mans motorcycle not some prima donna cup cake,everyone has their likes and dislikes.

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The production Manx was a workingman's motorcycle for many years before it became a collectors item, but that pretty much goes for all the old bikes.

Its worth bearing in mind that buying a manx, new, back then was worth more, or similar to buying a house.
And banks wouldn't give a mortgage on a race motorcycle. (??).
So not too many 'working men' got to buy one, new ??

You often see pics of riders on a newish manx, with their 'entrant' standing beside them.
He was the wealthy guy that put up the dosh.

For quite some years, Nortons wouldn't supply a manx (or Inter, prewar) to just anyone either.
To be supplied with one to a dealer, the intended rider had to have a race-winning history.
Quite a limited number were made each year.

After they were a few years old, and past their prime, may be a slightly different story...

Let's get this thread back on track......... somebody post more pics!

1992 Yamaha GTS1000A
A great Sports Tourer. Some odd handling characteristics, but once you got used to them the GTS is very stable and even nimble. Smooth, torquey engine; high quality suspension and great brakes. Some said they were too expensive, but they cost no more than a Ducati 916 or a BMW and you really did get your money's worth in terms of build quality and technology. Even the styling has stood up well over 20 years.

1990 Honda Transalp
My commuter. I can't think of anything else that suits the role better. With a Scottoiler it's almost maintenance free. 100,000+ miles. Also good on dirt or gravel roads. Just wish I could buy a newer one in the US.

ggryder said:

My commuter. I can't think of anything else that suits the role better. With a Scottoiler it's almost maintenance free. 100,000+ miles. Also good on dirt or gravel roads. Just wish I could buy a newer one in the US.

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The new ones were pretty much the old one (of sorts)
How about a Procycle DR780.
If I could have only one bike,the big DR would be it,dirt bike,commuter,long distance tourer.

I've never heard anyone say anything negative about a Transalp.
They're good bikes!

huh never heard of Transalp before so looked it up to see its similar to my SV650 and does what it and my Commandos do. I've off road enough to know you need to be kind of aggressive in water crossing and muddy sections. Might check out Suzuki V-Strom which is basically a bit lifted and faired SV650 that does it all pretty darn good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61G0K4dk ... Y2nGBje2UT

hobot said:

huh never heard of Transalp before ....

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Here is the real one,the XLV 750 Africa Twin.
http://youtu.be/D_wyrkHSy1w

The USA seemed to miss oot on a lot of good bikes that even Canada got.

Before I became a Transalp owner, way-back around the time it was introduced. The British magazine Motorcycle Sport ran a multi-part article by Paul Bleazard(?) who rode one in what was called the "Monte Carlo Rally". It was a great story, the Transalp seemed ideal for the mix of public roads, off road and race track trials, but other competitors were on crazy stuff like CBX1000's and RG500's. Does anyone remember the articles? (25 years ago!) or better still, have them? I'd love to be able to read them again.

Don't remember that but do remember the 70000+ kms I put on a 1978 CBX I picked up in 1983.
Fantastic bike as an all rounder,easy to work on also.

Time Warp said:

Fantastic bike as an all rounder,easy to work on also.

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You never had the engine apart, did

grandpaul said:

Time Warp said:

Fantastic bike as an all rounder,easy to work on also.

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You never had the engine apart, did

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As said,easy to work on that included a complete strip down for new shells,rings and primary chain etc.
Setting up the bevel towers on Ducati's is a little more time consuming but no harder.
Those days are near gone now with the modern generation and a good part of the old, of course the cross over to PC's and fuel injection was not that hard either.
I would suggest anyone who thought the CBX (1047cc) was a complex engine would be better off staying in the kitchen.

Wasn't the CBX somewhat famous for its race debut ?
What isn't mentioned here is that those 'mini seizures' caused an outer piston to fail, and being an overhung crank, the whirling rod demolished the outer end of the crankcases.
Bits of metal from this ended up in the race commentators hair - and he was on the 3rd floor of the race control tower !!!
Broadcasting live on air...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50929289@N ... otostream/

But we diverge...

Rohan said:

Wasn't the CBX somewhat famous for its race debut ?
What isn't mentioned here is that those 'mini seizures' caused an outer piston to fail, and being an overhung crank, the whirling rod demolished the outer end of the crankcases.
Bits of metal from this ended up in the race commentators hair - and he was on the 3rd floor of the race control tower !!!
Broadcasting live on air...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50929289@N ... otostream/

But we diverge...

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Is it diversion when it is about bikes folk have owned (some 7+ years in the case of the CBX-1983+)
The oil gallery is along the back of the crankshaft case so 1 and 6 are at the end of it,most of the blow up myths were started after people used the wrong oil filters. (CB900 iirc)
I used to rev mine to 11000 rpm (110 km/h in 1s gear)
Any time it was wet I would come down Khyber pass hoping to get a green light,I could then get it sideways going onto the on ramp and still have it snaking when I got onto the motorway.
Rounder bouts even in the dry were easy to get full lock power slides due to the tiny 120 rear tyre/tire.
I ended up fitting CB1100RC rims so the 160 rear was a little harder to do the same thing with.
Apparently they are a classic these days,I still have a copy of the a 1979 Two Wheels where Crosby raced a CBX in the six hour.
The cam shafts are split and keyed to the central sprocket,as long as #1 lobe was pointing up when the #6 lobe was pointing down,all was good.
You could set it with both lobes pointing the same way which gave y6u a big triple.

The subject had drifted/shifted to complexity in the motor....

And its not much of a blowup 'myth' when the CBX1000 was new, out of its crate, and was racing in front of a large audience.
And bits of it ended up in the commentators hair !
Now thats what makes a classic a classic. ?

There is no complexity in the CBX engine,anyone who has worked on Japanese engines would know that.
The reality is we live in a world where people have trouble tying their own shoe laces,that most people even in their 50's get their motorcycle or car serviced in a shop.
So one new CBX supposedly blew up,it probably got run in then had the wrong filter fitted.
Remember the 'superblend myth of a barrel shaped roller has been around for the best part of 40 years and people believed it hook line and sinker.
A barrel shaped roller that bares on a flat race surface. :roll: :lol:

A factory built motor blowing up in a few laps in a race in front of the commentary box, and camera, isn't exactly a monument to reliability !?
That 6 hour race has also weeded out a few other unreliabilities - didn't the TX750s boil their oil, and Ducs show their big-end weakness.
Believing or parroting marketing-speak talk of bearing shapes is minor stuff in comparison...

That said, most oriental motors of that era can be rebuilt using just a 10mm wrench, and maybe a pair of circlip pliers.
No-one ever mentions this aspect of the designs, almost zero special tools needed or required.
As long as the crank isn't pressed together, when it does get tricky...