I was just about to tell you that you can’t have put a 3-1 on that bike until I realized it was a Euro model, something that was a 750 in the USA.
Our triple was an earlier 750.
I had a ’82 750 Seca that was a four and this brings back some memories…electric smooth, quiet a bit of suspension jacking from the drive shaft and a bikini fairing that looked sweet but didn’t cut any wind at all, just made the helmet buffeting worse at almost any speed.
But I sold it after a year for some reason and that started me on a hilarious and expensive run of Kawi Ninja bikes… god save me.
Talking of 3-1 exhausts I had one on a 1976 GT550 Suzuki, two stroke triple, not a lot over 90 but it increased mid range power noticeably and one jet in the middle carb was all it took, the outside two got by on a one groove lift of the needles. It didn’t hole pistons like my mates with 3-3 individual expansion chambers and didn’t attract much police attention like the crackle of 3-3, it sort of warbled.
I had a string of Suzukis from 1970 onwards, always buying new, then an 850 Mk2A Norton Commando, POS that was - from new it spent more time off the road than on, put in part exchange for the GT550 Suzy. Then the Yamaha 850 and onto Harleys.
lol! Actually back in 1977 I worked for a company that made circuit boards for Grumman Aerospace. BTW, I was a pot smoking hippie musician in those days playing in the local band scene..
A digital photo of an old Polaroid, my ’83 Honda V45 Sabre 750, shaft drive, water cooled, mono-shock rear end with a racing clutch, she’d do 150mph and get 43mpg.
I got this bike used in ’87 with about 7000 miles on it, put almost 50,000 on it riding it daily to work. From 12º to 112º, rain or shine.
I haven’t rode in nearly 14 years!
Sold it to my cousin when I had surgery on both arms in late 2000, he totalled it about a month later. Not his fault, a guy in an argument squalled tires in reverse with a pick-up, having an argument, plowed straight into my cousin while he was doing about 10mph coming into a gas station for gas. Threw him nearly 30 feet (he’s about 240) and trashed his right foot, had pins put in his ankle. Not exactly sure what ever happened to my baby…
Not backwards I think, but side to side. If I’m not mistaken the normal rotation is back to front, this one spun over left to right. It’s a V4, twin cylinders in front and twin cylinders offset behind it. Double overhead cams with 16 Valves per cylinder. In stock form, some 82 HP and 46 ft lbs of torque. Sitting at a stop, revving the engine, it pulled the bike sideways to the right with the engine revs.
Shaft drive also does something interesting under torque…it makes the bike get tall! When taking off, the torque makes the back wheel move closer to the front wheel, making the bike climb on it’s suspension. I ran with a guy that had a V65, the 1100 version of my 750. When he’d gas it the entire bike would rise up and take off! That one had 110 HP and would scream! Seeing his bike in action made me examine mine more closely and I discovered my mono-shock was locked up. Honda wanted $600 for a new one, I found one on a wrecked bike online for $200…this was one of my first online purchases before I even had a computer! Boy what a difference a working mono-shock made!
My first road bike
2005 aprilia rs50
Picture taken just after we bought it.
Im only 15 so im not able to ride it on the road yet. ( Must be 16 to ride moped in uk )
When I got the bike home after buying it, it kept seizing on me. Rebuilt the top end but the oil pump doesnt seem to be pumping oil when i try to bleed it so i reckon thats why it kept seizing. Will order a new one and see what happens.
Actually, we didn't play Blue Oyster Cult stuff at the time. I was playing with you :) We did Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, and Allman Brothers stuff at the time. Later I was in all original progressive rock bands that played the local bars. Never progressed past that. I still play today, mostly Blues and Funk. This is what happens when you get old like me....:)
Oh yeah, I sold my Ric 4001 for over $1000 several years ago. In 1973 I paid a little over $400 for it brand new. Today the 4003's go for $2000. The 4003 replaced the 4001. Basically the same bass with a fatter neck.
Close to mine, GPZ600R also my 2nd road bike, except it was red, pearl white and blue. Technically I was still restricted to 250cc, but yeah, stuff that…lost my license on that bike, 135 in a 60 (km/h), 19 and stupid crossing the Wright St Bridge in Sunshine, yellow VL HWP car (the old candy cars) lurking in the drop off at the other end of the bridgte. Thats how long ago that was.
My first road bike was a Suzuki 2 stroke RG 250, in HB racing livery. Yellow and White, Red HB stickers. No bikes since though. I have a kid (hes a man now), and I didnt want him doing what I was doing. It was not as quick as the 600, but way more agile, a lot of fun on band coming out of bends and throwing it into them with Pirelli Demons front and rear. A tad dangerous in the wet coming out of bends on the power though, had it broadside a few times. Ah yeah the Black Spur (black ice), the Boulevarde, GOR, and my favourite, the Whitlesea - Yea Rd on the 250.
I remember I was so going to get the RG500 instead of the 600 above. Glad I didnt though, Id likely be dead. I was always pushing the limits.
Not the actual RG250, the few pictures I do have would be in an album in Melbourne at the olds. It went perfectly with my 80’s mullet and skin tight jeans lol.
