Post by dixie on May 9, 2008 8:41:28 GMT -5
Hi,
I have just joined this site. I am planning to get back into motorcycling this year after a 20+ year absence. All factors point against doing so, but I miss riding like I used to all those years ago. I had a number of bikes growing up and was just starting to get into Brit bikes in my early 20s when I was over in the UK in the early 1980s. Scouring the Motorcycle News Classifieds of the time turned up huge numbers of complete dirt cheap bikes, both runner and non-runners, with many parts still readily available. My friend had a BSA C15 and a Matchless, and I was looking at a couple of disassembled 250 B25 Starfire / C25 Barracuda to replace my complete POS Harley-Davidson SST250 I had finally lost patience with trying to keep together (250 was the biggest I could go due to insane insurance costs and no $). I had an '81 XS250 for a short while, which was a great bike, if a little bland. I remember this bike because it was the first bike I got to ride without straining my ears for hints of impending catastrophic engine failure.
I went back to Australia to Uni and rode an assortment of bikes, including a sweet '77 Kawasaki Z650 / '78 Yamaha SR500 / '80 Suzuki Katana 1100 (shriek) / '80 Honda CX500 (bleh) and '81Yamaha XJ 550 (meh). The Z650 and SR500 were my favourite bikes. One of the nicest I had was a sweet '77 Kawasaki (K)Z650, I picked up after I finished working in North-West Australia for a year. The (K)Z650 was a great little bike - it was fast, but still agile enough to be thrown around the twisty parts on the road (whatever twisty parts there are in Western Australia, anyway). It had a great sound thanks to the 4-into-1 exhaust and the rear guard was removed / rear light relocated, fuelled by too many Mad Max reruns. I sold it in 1983 and bought a car, which I wrote off 4 weeks later in rather spectacular fashion.
It was back to bikes again, and as I was cash poor than before (due to liability insurance only), I managed to swing a cheap '78 Yamaha SR500 from the Sunday Classifieds. This SR was the alloy wheel / disc brake F & R model, sounded great, was economical and could be ridden through the same twisty parts with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. I lived about 11 miles from college down the freeway, so blasting to college each morning was a hoot and I could run the bike all week on $5.00 worth of juice. It would have been more enjoyable if the swing-arm bushings had not been so shot and the rear end didn't buck like a bronco every time it hit a slight corrugation in a bend. There was also the time I lost the chain at the lights in rush hour. The only thing I regretted was that the SR did not have more power / top end (this was before the SRXs), but I did not have the $ or time to set about trying to extract any more HP. Finding the money to buy a pattern Bosco silencer to replaced the Swiss cheese original item to avoid getting ticketed was a big financial miracle as it was. All in all I became a big fan of the SR500.
I live in Japan at the moment (long term), which is a great biking country with an excellent road system and many, many miles of smooth, winding coastal roads. The strict Japanese licensing laws allow you to ride a bike from 100 cc to 400 cc. on the same (Chugata) licence, which is why the SR400 is so popular over here and there is a huge aftermarket for go-faster bits / dress-up bits / accessories letting you make everything from cafEracers to flattrackers to US Custom bobbers to BSA Gold Star replicas. My neighbour has a new Triumph Bonneville and a 40s-style SR400 Bobber w/ old school white walls. The SR400s have been built in such quantities that good low-mileage models are readily available at very reasonable prices. That is not to say that the SR400/500 was not a great package in stock factory form (I particularly like the late 70s / early 80s mag wheel / disk brake models), but these are bikes which are such great canvasses, only limited by your imagination and wallet.
I hope to pick up an SR400 over the summer and strip it down and add new guards / rims / oil cooler, sourced . I will ) but these will be sourced locally in the aftermarket and will post pics as available. I plan to get the 400 back to 500 spec at least.
Thanks,
Ian B.
(Dixie)
I have just joined this site. I am planning to get back into motorcycling this year after a 20+ year absence. All factors point against doing so, but I miss riding like I used to all those years ago. I had a number of bikes growing up and was just starting to get into Brit bikes in my early 20s when I was over in the UK in the early 1980s. Scouring the Motorcycle News Classifieds of the time turned up huge numbers of complete dirt cheap bikes, both runner and non-runners, with many parts still readily available. My friend had a BSA C15 and a Matchless, and I was looking at a couple of disassembled 250 B25 Starfire / C25 Barracuda to replace my complete POS Harley-Davidson SST250 I had finally lost patience with trying to keep together (250 was the biggest I could go due to insane insurance costs and no $). I had an '81 XS250 for a short while, which was a great bike, if a little bland. I remember this bike because it was the first bike I got to ride without straining my ears for hints of impending catastrophic engine failure.
I went back to Australia to Uni and rode an assortment of bikes, including a sweet '77 Kawasaki Z650 / '78 Yamaha SR500 / '80 Suzuki Katana 1100 (shriek) / '80 Honda CX500 (bleh) and '81Yamaha XJ 550 (meh). The Z650 and SR500 were my favourite bikes. One of the nicest I had was a sweet '77 Kawasaki (K)Z650, I picked up after I finished working in North-West Australia for a year. The (K)Z650 was a great little bike - it was fast, but still agile enough to be thrown around the twisty parts on the road (whatever twisty parts there are in Western Australia, anyway). It had a great sound thanks to the 4-into-1 exhaust and the rear guard was removed / rear light relocated, fuelled by too many Mad Max reruns. I sold it in 1983 and bought a car, which I wrote off 4 weeks later in rather spectacular fashion.
It was back to bikes again, and as I was cash poor than before (due to liability insurance only), I managed to swing a cheap '78 Yamaha SR500 from the Sunday Classifieds. This SR was the alloy wheel / disc brake F & R model, sounded great, was economical and could be ridden through the same twisty parts with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. I lived about 11 miles from college down the freeway, so blasting to college each morning was a hoot and I could run the bike all week on $5.00 worth of juice. It would have been more enjoyable if the swing-arm bushings had not been so shot and the rear end didn't buck like a bronco every time it hit a slight corrugation in a bend. There was also the time I lost the chain at the lights in rush hour. The only thing I regretted was that the SR did not have more power / top end (this was before the SRXs), but I did not have the $ or time to set about trying to extract any more HP. Finding the money to buy a pattern Bosco silencer to replaced the Swiss cheese original item to avoid getting ticketed was a big financial miracle as it was. All in all I became a big fan of the SR500.
I live in Japan at the moment (long term), which is a great biking country with an excellent road system and many, many miles of smooth, winding coastal roads. The strict Japanese licensing laws allow you to ride a bike from 100 cc to 400 cc. on the same (Chugata) licence, which is why the SR400 is so popular over here and there is a huge aftermarket for go-faster bits / dress-up bits / accessories letting you make everything from cafEracers to flattrackers to US Custom bobbers to BSA Gold Star replicas. My neighbour has a new Triumph Bonneville and a 40s-style SR400 Bobber w/ old school white walls. The SR400s have been built in such quantities that good low-mileage models are readily available at very reasonable prices. That is not to say that the SR400/500 was not a great package in stock factory form (I particularly like the late 70s / early 80s mag wheel / disk brake models), but these are bikes which are such great canvasses, only limited by your imagination and wallet.
I hope to pick up an SR400 over the summer and strip it down and add new guards / rims / oil cooler, sourced . I will ) but these will be sourced locally in the aftermarket and will post pics as available. I plan to get the 400 back to 500 spec at least.
Thanks,
Ian B.
(Dixie)
