Motorcycles, Post if you got em

I almost forgot! I just got one of these in October for deer hunting. It'll get you through just about anything.

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I don't think I posted this before. I drove this from 1972 until I sold it about 2006. Titled as a '63, I mixed and matched parts from other years.

What are the advantages of the big wheel over the conventional wheeled bikes.

With the fat tires, you can go anywhere & thru anything an ATV can go thru & still be small enough to fit around things that ATV's can't. Plus you have to be really unskilled (or drunk ) to wipe out -- they balance very easily at a standstill. I can sit on my BW80's, feet on pegs, sidestand up & just balance forever.

What I like the most about them is NOBODY has one.

They didn't sell very well back in the day, so they weren't made very long. BW80 was made in model years '86,'87,'88,& '90. The BW200 was the very first fat tired 2-wheeled machine (besides the Rokon) to be sold. Came out in 1985 model yr. -- winter of '84.

HA! Funny as I was typing, GRinRI posts the Rokon! Those are mint -- holds fuel in the rims , plus it's 2-wheel drive! TRuly unstoppable!

Matthaus wrote:Nice Buell Chris (9 or a 12?)!!! You will love it, and don't have to wait till spring, just make sure the roads are relatively salt free and dry... I don't think I would be able to wait!

Hey, Matt. It's the Lighting XB12Ss "long" model - 1.7" of extra wheelbase and seat room. The regular Lightings, and even worse, the Firebolts, are just too "crotch-rockety" for these 40 year old bones. It's only got 4300 miles on it, and it looks almost showroom new. We tried to start it last night when I went to pick it up, but even with a fully charged battery which he had inside on a trickle charger, it just wouldn't keep running. The fuel injection was very confused at 12 degrees......it was popping and farting, and I think just plain flooded.

My last bike that I really spent any time on was a 1980 Yamaha XS850G:. That was almost 20 years ago (college days). It was my father's, and I rode it for a couple of years before selling it around '89. Kils me to this day - it had over 30K miles on it, but looked showroom new and ran perfectly. Great bike and great sound. V-twins and triples - definitely the best sounds.

....it was popping and farting, and I think just plain flooded.

Yep, thank the EPA for that one. The new bikes are set up to run so friggin' lean to meet clean-air standards that most of them won't run below 20*!

You could also have a furry pet in your airbox.......

stockingfull wrote:Great looking ride! Good luck with it.

At the risk of restating the obvious, make sure you chock that front wheel before you tie it down inside your box van so it doesn't slide to either side.

After that, as Matthaus points out, patience will be your biggest challenge!

YES!!! Very good point! I had the forethought to make up a wheel chock out of some scrap 2x4 and 3/4" board because I didn't know if there would be anything to pull the front of the bike up against like the van is in the 5x8 covered UHaul trailers. Indeed, there was not, and further, due to the side entry door on this van, there wasn't a tie down way at the front on the right side. So, there wasn't a real good way to get triangulation of the tie downs to the front and back. So, the chock really helped secure the wheel and allowed good tension on the straps.

Also, I bought one of the tie down bar grips, which are mostly used for hauling sport bikes with the low bars, but it was the best $30 I ever spent - it self-tensions to the bars and absolutely will not slip or come off or damage anything.

It was a stretch van (2500 or 3500), so it rode pretty well, but we are having a near record cold and snowy winter here, and the roads are frost heaved REALLY bad in spots. I was expecting the bike to start doing a pinball imitation back there, but we made it home in once piece!

I'm hoping we get some sort of thaw soon, this winter has been brutal. Shoot, I need to go buy a helmet, jacket, gloves, etc. - I didn't really plan on buying a bike right now, but this one just "found me",

I have hand fed stoves, but an automatic scooter. I stay warm in the
winter, but freeze camping in the summer. Go figure.
TSB

Oh, I must not forget - I can blame my wife for this whole motorcycle thing. I tried to get her to learn to ride half a dozen years ago - I bought a mid 80's Kawasaki 305CSR for like $400 in nice shape. Small, light, and low. Only problem is she hates cruisers and just had no interest, even though she's always wanted to learn. So, I rode it for a summer or two, but not much. Not enough power and too small, it was always giving me a wedgie. I really don't like cruisers, either, for that matter.

So, this summer she comes out one day and says she wants to learn to ride, and seriously. OK, let's do it. She got a nice bonus and raise this year at work, so that's what she wanted to do. We looked around and she kept coming back to one bike - Ninja 250. I wanted her to get a Blast, but she liked the Ninja. The '08 models were sold out, so we had to wait for an '09. She wanted the redesigned model from '08 and up, and even older 250's weren't any deal when we were looking during the $4/gal gas days.

Just before Christmas, I called the dealer and they had a Ninja in stock. The deal was done:


The cool thing about Illinois (of which there are very few, IMO), is the state offers motorcycle classes at local community colleges over weekends, they provide a motorcycle, and if you pass the class, it waives the road test requirement at the DMV, which in this state, is a joke - it's administered in the parking lot of the DMV with cones in a space the size of the average bedroom - and very difficult to pass unless you're riding a moped. At least when I picked back up my MC endorsement while living in Wisconsin, it was a "real" road test where the examiner followed in a car. Piece of cake.

Anyway, the classes offered by the state are FREE! So, they fill up fast, and she is watching for the signup and calendar to be posted on the website every day to get first dibs.

The other cool thing about this state is I only have to pay a flat $25 tax on a used bike purchase, not based on model year or value.

The only downside to all of this??? We now have two blue motorcycles, and I have a blue 2002 Jetta TDI wagon and she has a blue 2005 Liberty CRD. Seriously, they are all almost the SAME blue.... We joked after we bought her bike that the next vehicle couldn't be blue, and she almost wouldn't let me buy my Buell because of the color....I told her at least it had orange wheels!

europachris wrote:Hey, Matt. It's the Lighting XB12Ss "long" model - 1.7" of extra wheelbase and seat room. The regular Lightings, and even worse, the Firebolts, are just too "crotch-rockety" for these 40 year old bones. It's only got 4300 miles on it, and it looks almost showroom new. We tried to start it last night when I went to pick it up, but even with a fully charged battery which he had inside on a trickle charger, it just wouldn't keep running. The fuel injection was very confused at 12 degrees......it was popping and farting, and I think just plain flooded.

The last Buell I bought (XB9R Firebolt) had the Jardine on it plus the race ECM and a Techlusion fuel mgt module. It was popping and farting and generally running like crap. Took it to the dyno and measured the exhaust gas concentrations, was way lean on the mid range so I took the pipe off and installed a Force Street fighter (way loud but fun). Still had a slight lean spot in the midrange... but I don't much use that part of the power band on a bike like that so no issue. The fella I sold it to ended up putting the stock ECM and exhaust back on it to get rid of the flat spot, although he is getting a drummer exhaust this spring and we are going to try again on the dyno with ECM spy (SW to make your own fuel map).

Bottom line is that without the right ECM/Pipe combo the fuel injection on the Buells can be a challenge. I'm hoping yours will run OK in the good weather. One other tip is to install the Iridium plugs, makes a huge difference.

Have fun, the Buells are still my favorite Street bike of all times!

81 HD Sportser low miles, dont ride much anymore. It is a Milwalkee edition # 265 out of a thousand, not an AMF.




RY

I've owned as large as a 1000cc tourer but decided just too large for my daily use. Great on trips such as the one we took last summer to Richard's camp but too big to commute. So I traded it in on a smaller bike of the same model.
Picked up the light 650cc. Much more popular, 55mpg and very easy to commute.

Also have one of these.

And check out this bike! Single cylinder 650cc marketed to go up against the BMW F650GS

Cap wrote:I've owned as large as a 1000cc tourer but decided just too large for my daily use. Great on trips such as the one we took last summer to Richard's camp but too big to commute. So I traded it in on a smaller bike of the same model.
Picked up the light 650cc. Much more popular, 55mpg and very easy to commute.

I was looking seriously at the Suzuki SV650, but they had to go and discontinue it and come out with the Gladius, which just doesn't do it for me, and the SV650SF with the fairing (and much lower bars) is just a bit too "sporty" for me.

The 'half and half' bikes just never appealed to me. The Kawasaki Versys was about the most interesting to me. But, I've also never lived anywhere that would make a bike like that worthwhile. In the right setting, I bet they would be a boatload of fun.

I really miss the Yamaha SRX6 (and previous SR500/SR600). Light, good handling, and decent power. Take that design and update it with fuel injection, modern engine design and balancing, and chassis upgrades, it would be a fantastic bike. Too bad, so sad it wouldn't please the crotch rocket crowd because it wouldn't put out 120hp from 600cc, but it would put out usable power and torque where it counts, not at 1,000,000 rpm.

Hello all,
In late March 08 I found the bike I looked for for 2 years.
1998 Harley Davidson XL1200S this is the sport model, Has the fully adj front and rear susp,dual plug cyl heads,10:1 comp, hotter cams, better exhaust,full floating triple discs,almost a crotch rocket but an upright standard,not the HD cruiser type. I still get smoked on a long straight and through the twisties but it will pull a truck right off the line.Gets 50mpg and with the deluxe touring seat is comfortable as heck. Plus its got the "potato potato' that I love.

Bill

shapps1313 wrote:Hello all,
In late March 08 I found the bike I looked for for 2 years.
1998 Harley Davidson XL1200S this is the sport model, Has the fully adj front and rear susp,dual plug cyl heads,10:1 comp, hotter cams, better exhaust,full floating triple discs,almost a crotch rocket but an upright standard,not the HD cruiser type. I still get smoked on a long straight and through the twisties but it will pull a truck right off the line.Gets 50mpg and with the deluxe touring seat is comfortable as heck. Plus its got the "potato potato' that I love.

Bill

It's kinda funny how H-D goes around and around with "sportbike" models - I recall lusting after that very same model back then. I also recall the XR1000 from the 80's. I *almost* bought an '08 XL1200R Roadster, but passed on it. Now I see they have released the XR1200 sportster to the USA. It's a wierd place for H-D to be - the "Hog" people don't want them - too much like a "rice burner", and the sportbike people don't want them due to the "greasy" image of Harleys. But, there are a few of us that appreciate a "sporty" Sporty - which was the ORIGINAL superbike.

So, I split the difference and bought a Buell.....

Ya, I nearly bought a Vrod. I came to my senses when I started finding 2-3 yr old bikes with 1500 miles on them for less than 50% of the original MSRP. The dealers still wanted full retail on a new 08! My first bike after not having one for 20 years was a Honda VTX which I liked the look of, but it wasn't a bike to ride long distances...at least not for me and Lord knows I tried to make it fit. 3 seats, 2 of the custom, pegs, risers, bars, backrests. Nothing made it good for more than an hour. Now that I have my big dirt bike I can ride 400 miles in comfort!