Motorcycles, anyone?

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Greenbriel

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I know there's the bikes bikes bikes thread that gets the occasional motorbike post, but I'm wondering if there's enough interest to start a thread for us to have our own.

Started riding 40 years ago when I was 12, long hiatus and started again about 15 years ago (I called my first bike the "Midlife Express").

For the last four years I've loved riding this now 42-year old Honda XL 250S around NYC. Such a great bike for our sh!tty streets, and tons of character. It's the bike I wanted when I was 14 but couldn't have. 😁


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Before that I had a fantastic Kawa Versys 650 that was sadly completely wrecked when a giant chunk of rock came off my building during Hurricane Sandy.

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Post yours and your story!
 
Started riding about 10 yrs ago when I was 42. First bike was a Honda Hornet 600. Then a 2008 KTM superDuke. Traded that in for a Triumph speed triple. Sold that when I moved to France. Hoping to get a FB Mondials 300 hps over here in France.

The superDuke got an amazing amount of looks from people
 

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Started riding about 10 yrs ago when I was 42. First bike was a Honda Hornet 600. Then a 2008 KTM superDuke. Traded that in for a Triumph speed triple. Sold that when I moved to France. Hoping to get a FB Mondials 300 hps over here in France.

The superDuke got an amazing amount of looks from people
I'm not surprised, the SuperDuke is crazy! Straight out of an anime. Love it. You have good taste. Love the Hornet, and as an expat Brit I am always eyeing the market for a Triumph (Thruxton and Scrambler particularly).

I'd love a KTM enduro/dual sport one day. They seem mental.
 
I'm not surprised, the SuperDuke is crazy! Straight out of an anime. Love it. You have good taste. Love the Hornet, and as an expat Brit I am always eyeing the market for a Triumph (Thruxton and Scrambler particularly).

I'd love a KTM enduro/dual sport one day. They seem mental.
 

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Been riding since I was 14. Started on a Honda 50 Super Sport. Have ridden most everything ,,. mostly touring.

Most memorable experience … watching the beach races at Burt Monro days on Oreti Beach in New Zealand in November 2013.

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Ever watch the Beach Racing scene from the movie The Worlds Fastest Indian with Anthony Hopkins playing Burt Monro? Here is where it happened and it takes place again every year in New Zealand.

For five years I spent my winters touring NZ on a Harley, summers spent touring western North America on another Harley. Best time of my life.

Had three bikes in North America in 2012 …

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One in NZ …

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Got thousands of pics and hundreds of great stories.
 
Ever watch the Beach Racing scene from the movie The Worlds Fastest Indian with Anthony Hopkins playing Burt Monro? Here is where it happened and it takes place again every year in New Zealand.


Had three bikes in North America in 2012 …
I do remember that movie, how cool that you've been to the race!

What's the black/silver Beemer in the back there?
 
I told you I’ve got a hundred stories …

The black and silver beemer is a BMW 1600 GTL. Advertised by BMW as the Rolls Royce of touring bikes … a six cylinder wonder with more electronics than the space shuttle.

So …. I’m touring NZ in the spring of 2012 and stopped by a friends place in Napier. He’s an avid beemer guy and loves to tour with his wife. After a great BBQ and more than three bottles of amazing NZ red I said … “BMW is releasing their 1600GTL this year. If you come to North America and buy one so will I.” I’m a dyed in the wool Harley guy. Not only that I said “I’ll take you on a tour from British Columbia to the Mexican border that will crack your brain.” He did so I did and off we went on a 13 week tour.

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One of the interesting parts was that I did the whole tour in Harley gear … half helmet, jeans and vest! Somewhere in CA I was stopped at a light when a pickup pulled up beside me. The passenger rolled his window down, looked me over and said … “that’s just wrong”.

Any more questions?
 
Words alone can’t describe how amazing the Burt Munro Challenge is. It’s held every year in Invercargill, NZ.

Here’s the 2023 web site …

https://burtmunrochallenge.co.nz/
My sadness is that I only went once. Want to know where Burt’s speedster resides …

Check this out …

https://www.ehayes.co.nz/
The most amazing hardware store in the world. Here’s a pic of Burt’s original …

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Any more questions?
 
No more questions but if you want to keep going I'm all ears!

That tour sounds amazing! And I can't believe that bike is in a hardware store! Am I remembering right that it was a Vincent? My father had a Black Shadow that he took apart for some reason and never put back together. Criminal.
 
What an incredible store. The website makes me want to buy a ticket! I can't believe it was only 250cc! And at the other end of the spectrum I can't believe the Beemer is 1600cc! How much did that monster weigh?!?
 
800 lbs fueled and road ready. 6 cylinders, 160hp and 140ft/lbs of torque. Silky smooth. About 200 lbs lighter that my Harley bagger.

If you like riding motorcycles there is nothing like riding in New Zealand. The MC culture is deep and friendly. The scenery and riding unbelievable.
 
For the last four years I've loved riding this now 42-year old Honda XL 250S around NYC. Such a great bike for our sh!tty streets, and tons of character. It's the bike I wanted when I was 14 but couldn't have. 😁


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One of my all time favs. I borrowed a friends XL250S to ride down to London to check out the University I enrolled in, in 1982. Still have fond memories of that single cylinder thumper.

The last bike I owned before moving back to Europe. A 2005 Aprilia Tuono Factory I bought new in San Francisco.

 
My first powered two wheels was a old Cushman scooter at 10 years old would use my whole weight on kickstart bar to get it started. Blasting dirt roads. First motorcycle in Hawaii 1969 was BSA 441 Victor.
Couple very different Harleys & a modern Triumph.
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One of my all time favs. I borrowed a friends XL250S to ride down to London to check out the University I enrolled in, in 1982. Still have fond memories of that single cylinder thumper.

The last bike I owned before moving back to Europe. A 2005 Aprilia Tuono Factory I bought new in San Francisco.


Those Aprilia are nice bikes next door neighbor has one V4 engine. My BSA 441 was a thumper nice exhaust note.
 
800 lbs fueled and road ready. 6 cylinders, 160hp and 140ft/lbs of torque. Silky smooth. About 200 lbs lighter that my Harley bagger.

If you like riding motorcycles there is nothing like riding in New Zealand. The MC culture is deep and friendly. The scenery and riding unbelievable.
That's pretty amazing. My 650 Versys was about 430lbs wet. The XL is 290lbs 😂.

One of my all time favs. I borrowed a friends XL250S to ride down to London to check out the University I enrolled in, in 1982. Still have fond memories of that single cylinder thumper.

The last bike I owned before moving back to Europe. A 2005 Aprilia Tuono Factory I bought new in San Francisco.


Thanks! Yeah it lacks a LOT of amenities—no electric start, 6V electrics so laughable lights and horn, not much oomph at all at the top end—all things the Versys had, but it gets way more attention and compliments on the street, and tons more character.

I did love the Versys though. I was hugely sold on J-bikes when after it sat in the front yard for three years I finally accepted that I wasn't going to fix it and sold it for way too little. The buyer asked if I had a battery to check the engine. I did, and started right up on the first push like nothing ever happened. Amazing.

I do like Aprillias. Have a soft spot for Moto Guzzis too.
Certainly does. My first motorised mode of transport was a Puch 50cc moped.
A classic!
My first powered two wheels was a old Cushman scooter at 10 years old would use my whole weight on kickstart bar to get it started. Blasting dirt roads. First motorcycle in Hawaii 1969 was BSA 441 Victor.
Couple very different Harleys & a modern Triumph. View attachment 190554View attachment 190555View attachment 190556
Nice. The Thruxton is my favorite of the new Triumphs with the Scrambler second. Pity about Buell, they seemed to put out nice machines.
Those Aprilia are nice bikes next door neighbor has one V4 engine. My BSA 441 was a thumper nice exhaust note.
Love BSAs (I grew up in England), I just can't afford the oil and the stains on the driveway. :D My father had a Bantam at some point. Also a Velocette and a BMW R90-S-the silver ghost version. He paid the £300 deposit and disappeared to Germany. We had debt collectors at the door for 10 years. Reprobate. 😂 He also had a Honda XL500 that I stole when I was 14. Took me 10 minutes to start it (I was a weedy kid) and as I drove back up the street 20 minutes later he was walking down from the other direction. He said "you're nicked son" but I think he was actually quite pleased.
 
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For some stupid reason, I never got decent photos of my bikes. Chalk it up to the annoyance of film and developing back in the day, I guess.

But thanks to the wonders of the internet, here's a pic of somebody else's that's nearly the same as my last bike.

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I started in ‘68 with a mini bike with a 3hp Briggs & Stratton. I worked in a greenhouse after school for .60/hr and saved up $100 to buy that sweetie.
Then in ‘87 I bought a 450 Suzuki that was my first real moto. From there I have owned at least one bike continuously until a month ago when I sold all three. Now looking for whatever is next…
‘86 HD Low Rider, 91 Sportster 1200, 99 HD Road King, 98 BMW K1200RS, 2000 Honda ST1100, 2004 BMW K1200RS, 2003 Honda VFR800, 2004 Suzuki V-Strom 650.
I estimate about 300,000 moto miles. I’ve ridden to all the lower 48 states, Canada (a few times), and Mexico. Camped in national parks in most of the states. A handful of long distance rallys, several iron-butt rides including national parks tour and a bun burner gold from Virginia to New Mexico.
Waiting for a decent sport touring or adventure bike to pop up for sale nearby. Have pics but not on my phone, maybe later.
 
For some stupid reason, I never got decent photos of my bikes. Chalk it up to the annoyance of film and developing back in the day, I guess.
But thanks to the wonders of the internet, here's a pic of somebody

Laverdas are just so classy and cool. I see there are lots of red models but for some reason I always thought they were all orange.
 
Was looking at sport touring bikes to cruise mainland. I'm small guy 5'8" lost weight 145#. I can see why bigger guys might like comfort of Harley Baggers, Honda Gold Wings, Full size BMW.

I like lighter more sport handling tourers like BMW R 1250 RS. Know not others taste but really like KTM 1290 Super Duke GT. 1301cc, V twin 173 HP. 497# Very sporty ride.

The new Honda NT 1100 sport tourer based on Africa Twin engine is supposed to be good. I like twins my last bike here was a Kawasaki Ninja 650-R. More upright bars fun reliable water cooled twin. Light well handling motorcycle. My friend used to work with bought a Moto Guzzi 4 years ago. South Seas Harley sells them and other marks like Kawasaki that's where got my 650 Ninja twin.
 
... Laverdas are just so classy and cool. I see there are lots of red models but for some reason I always thought they were all orange.
The factory race bikes were orange. Race bred models like the SFC and Jota or the ones shown in magazines were generally orange.

In the wild I've seen Laverdas in red, green, yellow, black, silver and of course, orange. Almost picked up a 1200 Mirage in silver once but I was short of cash at the time. Almost picked up an orange 1000 3C a while later but I was short of brains at the time.
 
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Last autumn I sold my zx10r.

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At age 37 I'm looking for a little more comfort, without sacrificing too much engine power/torque. It also had to remain its steering capabilities.

So this is my new toy for the next few years.

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Looks like your BMW has more relaxed bar height. Not full racing on your full size Kawasaki Ninja racing machine. What model BMW is that. Nice Bike.
 
Thank you. It is a S1000R from 2015.
It is called a 'naked bike' and is in the same league as a Kawasaki Z1000, Triumph Speed Triple, Yamaha MT010 etc.

It certainly has a more relaxing bar height. The steer is higher placed and straight, instead of clip-ons. So you don't lean so much forward, putting al the weight on the wrists. The biggest step in comfort from a ZX10r is the placement of the feet, they are way lower. The knees aren't up in the armpit anymore. At age 37 you can do longer time on the bike before you have to rest to relax the legs for a moment.

These type of bikes mostly use the engine of their full blood supersport, sometimes nerfed in top-end power a little bit (lower max rpm) and they strip the full fairing. Some people are afraid of air resistance on the highway, but I feel like I can cruise up to 160-170 km/h for longer runs without problems. The wind on a supersport gets blown right into your shoulders/head (depending on your height) anyway, unless you really lay flat on the tank.
 
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