Best cars for shagging in

Discussion in 'U.K.' started by phil1965, Oct 1, 2020.

  1. Candy Gal

    Candy Gal Lifetime Supporter

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    I know I find the weirdest things. lol
     
  2. phil1965

    phil1965 Senior Member

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    I once bought a Yamaha RD125 twin for my birthday, it was a year old and had only done 1200 miles, apparently the guy who bought it new picked it up from the showroom and drove it around to the service department for some 'minor tweaking', it was a Kenny Roberts Cafe Racer replica in black and yellow, the tweaking consisted of full chrome crash bars front and rear, Boyson reed valves, a racing tune, porting, and various other bits, I used to outrun cop cars for fun, lol. I once got chased for about 10 miles and they only caught up with me when I stopped at some traffic lights, in a different county, lol. it was the fastest bike in our area and everyone wanted it, eventually I sold it and the lad who bought it only had it a week, he wrote it off in spectacular style, almost killing himself in the process!
    One came up again for sale recently, it was identical to mine, sadly I didn't have a spare £7k or I would have bought it.
     
  3. MeAgain

    MeAgain Dazed & Confused Lifetime Supporter Super Moderator

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  4. Irminsul

    Irminsul Valkyrie

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  5. roadhogg

    roadhogg Senior Member

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  6. roadhogg

    roadhogg Senior Member

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  7. roadhogg

    roadhogg Senior Member

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  8. roadhogg

    roadhogg Senior Member

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  9. roadhogg

    roadhogg Senior Member

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  10. roadhogg

    roadhogg Senior Member

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  11. roadhogg

    roadhogg Senior Member

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  12. roadhogg

    roadhogg Senior Member

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  13. phil1965

    phil1965 Senior Member

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    That was the liquid cooled version, it had restricted power to comply with the new regs, mine was the air cooled one, like this but with standard exhausts and full crash bars, she was a real beauty. Yamaha-RD-125-DX-1978-photo.jpg
     
  14. TrudginAcrossTheTundra

    TrudginAcrossTheTundra Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    I almost bought an H2. If only the guy didn't have some story about how he couldn't get ahold of the title, bla, bla... There was an air of scamminess to it I felt. That was back in the late 70s.

    Wikipedia image:
    [​IMG]

    The one I was looking at was blue also. Had been fit with racing expansion chambers, black. It was a dream machine at the time...
     
  15. MeAgain

    MeAgain Dazed & Confused Lifetime Supporter Super Moderator

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    Ahh...the Mach IV!

    An excellent excuse for me to bore everyone with my Mach III story.

    The Mac IV came out in 1971 but it was preceded by the Mach III. Basically the same bike except the III had a 500 cc engine that put out 60HP, a top speed of 124mph, and a 12.4 sec quarter mile. The IV had a 750 that produced 74 hp, about the same top end, and a 12 sec quarter mile.
    Although extremely fast for the time, I believe the fastest road bikes, both were known for poor handling and a tendency to do wheel stands.

    So in 1970 or 71 we get a Mach III on a trade in at the Yamaha shop. Some bozo comes in and starts bragging about how good a rider he is and he wants to test ride the thing. Everyone is kinda leary about that but one of the owners gives the okay.
    He starts the bike behind the shop, revs it a few times and we're all pretending to turn wrenches but listening to what's going on.
    He revs it once, twice, thrice......then we hear it screaming...turning about 6 million rpms....and BANG!!!!!!
    Everybody runs out and there's the bike embedded in the front fender of brand new Mercury that was sitting on the Mercury dealership's lot beside us! The dude is getting up from the ground on the other side of the car shaking his head and yelling about a stuck throttle!

    Everybody knew what had happened, the idiot cracked the throttle, popped the clutch, the bike stood up, his feet came off the pegs and all he could do was hold on to a wide open throttle until he hit the car. Pushed the car's front wheel two feet sideways and the bike's front wheel into the engine.
    They just turned it into the insurance company. Same as the time we wiped out a row of bikes racing those mini Yamaha 70s in the warehouse.

    [​IMG]
     
  16. TrudginAcrossTheTundra

    TrudginAcrossTheTundra Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    Yikes, what a buttwipe! The loss of that iconic bike saddens me. I don't know how the shops do it. It's like they should have a skills assessment first. I stopped into the Honda shop many years ago, just looking, thinking maybe another street bike since my 650 special. Looking things over, sitting on some, talking about them... The one which felt most like a motorcycle to me was the '85 V65 Sabre. The ones with the feet forward, and the ones where the rider leans forward with the feet back - they just didn't feel right. The salesman was touting the VTX1300. I said how about I come back geared up and ride both and see. He was like, definitely - but seemed like he didn't think I was serious. But a few days later I roll in, find him, and tell him I'm ready. He asks which I want to try first, I respond the Sabre. Yeah, okay... I could tell he was trying to contain his concern as he asked another employee to help him get the bike out and ready to test ride. He starts to warn me the bike is a handful so I respond I'll take it around the parking lot first and won't hit the road unless I'm comfortable. I ran that bike through its paces with a route I pre-planned of a mostly back roads, lots of hills and twisties, a gravel section, and a return via interstate. It was a blast! I had it over the century mark a few times. But these guys didn't know me from Adam. They had no idea if I'd get careless and perish on that beast of a bike. It wouldn't have been hard!
    The other bike was tame. I brought it back after about a mile.
     
  17. MeAgain

    MeAgain Dazed & Confused Lifetime Supporter Super Moderator

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    You had a Yamaha XS 650??
    I had a few of those! Used to belong to the national 650 club.
    I used to build brand new "customs" at the shop. 6" over forks, Z bars or pull backs, megaphones, king queen seat, sissy bar, cruising pegs, custom head lights...then we'd re-title them and push them out the door. Sold a lot of bikes that way.

    Back in the day you didn't even need a cycle license in PA. They brought that law into effect while I was working at the shop. We went to the state police barracks one day for the test and they told us to come back another day as they didn't know what to do. So the next week during my lunch break I smoked a joint, hopped on a DT 250 demo and headed to the barracks. When I got there the cop told me to ride up the center line of the course, stop at the sign, do a figure eight and come back. "Ride on the line?", I asked. I thought maybe he was playing with my head, but he said yeah so I rode up the line, stopped and halfway through the figure eight looked for the cop. He was gone, snunk around the side of the building to smoke a cigarette.
    When I got back I had to find him and he just said I passed and stamped my license. Back then they figured if you made it to the barracks, you were good to go.

    Things were different. The bike shop was always in turmoil. More drugs than you could shake a stick at, state police stopping in to chat, English, Spanish, Czech, Japanese...all kinda bikes. I loved Hodaka Combat Wombats and Super Rats.
    When we sold one I'd often be delegated to teach someone how to ride. I spent about half an hour. Once they didn't stall or fall over to many times that was it..
     
  18. TrudginAcrossTheTundra

    TrudginAcrossTheTundra Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    Hehe fun stuff my friend. Time sure does fly.

    Yes, and the 650 special is still sitting in my garage. Bone stock and in great shape, clean out the carbs and throw a battery in and ready to ride. Pretty much. I don't know how the 20 year old tires are faring and maybe some hoses or something but the main stuff is sound. I toyed with the idea of taking the time to spruce it up and sell but they aren't bringing much. Maybe it'll be worth more the longer I keep it. Or not.

    I had a Hodaka 100 briefly. Unfortunately circumstances forced me to sell it shortly after acquiring it.

    I took my endorsement test on a friend's CB400 in '73. First time I'd been on a street bike. Except the neighbor's Harley with the foot clutch and hand shifter I rode on his farm road years before. I got scolded for chirping the back tire on a downshift but they gave it to me. I could have done the figure eight while spinning the rear wheel and wheelied down the straight.

    I want to check out the new tenere 700 next.
     
  19. MeAgain

    MeAgain Dazed & Confused Lifetime Supporter Super Moderator

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    Sold my 650s. Got over a grand for each. The Silver one was cherry.

    Had a hard tail frame but got rid of that.
    My chopped 650 was basically a hard tail with shocks as the shocks were so stiff they never moved. They were off an electro Glide or some such Harley.
    I gave a hard tail to my nephew and his dad welded it onto a 650. I really like hard tails.

    The XS 650 vibrated a lot, as I'm sure you know. that's because both cylinders reach TDC at the same time. Both plugs also fire at the same time, you get combustion in one cylinder at a time because the exhaust and intake valves open at different times in each cylinder. So what some guys would do, according to the club, I never saw it myself, is regrind the cams of have new cams made up so both cylinders fire at once. this would give you a 1300cc thumper that would probably knock the fillings out of your teeth!

    Also the swing arms tend to flex, people would brace them.

    they alos made some reallly nice rally kits a few years back.
    [​IMG]
    As I remember the only part hard to get is the alternator. Somebody was making new ones, but don't know if they still do.

    Here's the XS Society.
     
  20. TrudginAcrossTheTundra

    TrudginAcrossTheTundra Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    That bike looks gorgeous!

    Hard tail would never work for me. I'm that guy who blows past you and is gone around the next corner before ever knowing was there.

    Suspension is critical to keep you planted. My KTM has some 13" of suspension travel. The trend is for more and better suspension, not the elimination of it.

    650cc is the combined displacement of both cylinders. It is not possible to increase the displacement by altering the firing sequence.
    I expect it would vibrate considerably more if both cylinders were synchronized to fire simultaneously.
     

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