Older motorcycles - Anyone like em?

[adamantinepiggy]

Here's my two. 1967 Honda CL360 and a 1981 Kawasaki KZ550. Both are done up CAFE style. Neither can keep up with modern rockets, but the the quirks and personalities of these older bikes makes them so fun. Yes, I'd love to restore an old Triumph or Norton, etc, but the prices of these Brit bikes and their parts are out of my limited funds so I stick with Jap bikes. I get people pulling up next to so many times by people saying "I grew up riding one of those. Wish I still had it"..

I'm hoping to find a reasonably priced and condition Yamaha RD series to restore next, but so far no luck.. I've found many, but they were either way more expensive than I can afford or were beat to hell and still too expensive..

Was originally going to go for the full rear sets changeout too, but I'm short and find the standard peg placement fine so it saves me a lot of hassle.


Here's the Honda, I really like the stock upswept and chrome covered pipes.

Kawasaki KZ550. Yeah, that's a bicycle water bottle strapped to the frame under the seat. Gotta have somewhere for my drink! I put an aftermarket 4 into 1 on this bike because the stock exhaust setup was all rusty and dented up.

 

[satyajitmenon]

Nice collection. :thumbsup:

I've seen a couple of nice RDs pop up ebay every once in a while. Unfortunately, they're usually priced a bit high.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Wow those are both awesome machines with a ton of character. I had a streetfightered out 97 TL1000, but I dunno if that's considered older yet since it was FI


I always kept an eye out for a nice R90 or better to use a base for a cafe bike, but those things are either beat to hell or completely mint.. These 70's bike are becoming pretty scarce nowadays.

 

[desy]

Mines just like this
http://www.650motorcycles.com/RyanSeca.html
82 650 Seca

 

[arrfep]

Nice bikes! Never been a fan of scrambler pipes, but still like the Honda.

Digging the Kawi as well. Did you remove the battery completely, or just hide it? I've got a 1979 KZ650 that I've considered doing some slight cafe-ish or bobber mods to.

I enjoy the bike, but am considering selling it this spring. I'd really like something modern and can't afford two bikes at once. Still, I do love it. Lots of character, and we've had some great adventures together.

 

[adamantinepiggy]

Nice bikes! Never been a fan of scrambler pipes, but still like the Honda.

Digging the Kawi as well. Did you remove the battery completely, or just hide it? I've got a 1979 KZ650 that I've considered doing some slight cafe-ish or bobber mods to.

I enjoy the bike, but am considering selling it this spring. I'd really like something modern and can't afford two bikes at once. Still, I do love it. Lots of character, and we've had some great adventures together.

The battery box for the Kawasaki is the black box under the seat. It's one of the glass mat any-orientation batteries. The Honda has a wheelchair battery.

Both are setup basically stock bikes with a bit of jet tuning. I don't see a point in trying to make super speed machines out of them when I can just go buy a rocket that's much faster if that's what I wanted.

All my friend's mid-life crisis's turned big new expensive Harleys (yeah I'm getting old too). They have more money in their leather riding accessories than my entire motorcycle. My mid-life crisis made two old-junk motorcycles into gems. I paid $400 for the Honda and $500 for the Kawasaki; both with excellent motors, but everything else beat to shit. Probably another $500 in ebay parts/tools for each. Lots of elbow grease.

 

[Zap]

All my friend's mid-life crisis's turned big new expensive Harleys (yeah I'm getting old too). They have more money in their leather riding accessories than my entire motorcycle. My mid-life crisis made two old-junk motorcycles into gems. I paid $400 for the Honda and $500 for the Kawasaki; both with excellent motors, but everything else beat to shit. Probably another $500 in ebay parts/tools for each. Lots of elbow grease.

I'd take your two cheap fixer-uppers over new Harleys.

Only older motorcycles I had (back when I rode off-road) was a 1980 Honda CR-80R and an indeterminate year 1970's era Yamaha dual sport. That Yamaha actually belonged (kinda, was so old nobody had papers for it) to a friend of mine and was a 100cc 2-stroke with oil injection (didn't have to pre-mix, put 2-stroke oil into it separate from gas). It looked kinda like this:

source

Except all the red bits in the photo were silver.

 

[rstrohkirch]

Rd350 cafe would be the only vintage bike I'd care to own. Would already need to be converted so someone besides me can take the deprecation on the mods and labor.

 

[hanoverphist]

love those! i have a 79 cb750 monster bike that is sitting around waiting for my kids to be self sufficient. when that happens, i have a bobber plan for it. way back in 87-88 i picked up a 69 cb350 for 200 bucks, restored it and loved that sucker. gave it to my brother to learn how to ride and never saw it again. i was very bummed. i get to ride an old 65 tiumph bonneville once in a while also, complete stock bike with a bit over 2200 miles on it now. belongs to my stepdad, but hes more into riding his HD ultra classic than the stock triumph. id love to take it and turn it into a cafe racer.

 

[manimal]

Great bikes op. The 550 must be a ton of fun.


I sold my last bike last year. Dr350 that I converted the title to on road. May do that again since its so easy in indiana.

Bike I miss most from the 80s was my rz350. I used to pretend I was Kenny Roberts and zoom all the fun roads in southern California.

mine looked like this one-

 

[Perknose]

Wow, OP, your Honda takes me back to my very first days with bikes, when Honda 305's and 350's were the shiznit, and those upswept "scrambler" pipes were basically cosmetic frills since the bikes were otherwise mechanically identical to the "downswept?"-piped, CB (as opposed to CL, if memory serves), "street" versions.

 

[hanoverphist]

Bike I miss most from the 80s was my rz350. I used to pretend I was Kenny Roberts and zoom all the fun roads in southern California.

mine looked like this one-

those were sick bikes. my mechanic that helped me rebuild my cb750 had one of those. so light and quick, loved it.

 

[manimal]

those were sick bikes. my mechanic that helped me rebuild my cb750 had one of those. so light and quick, loved it.

If I remember correctly those were the last of the two stroke road bikes here in the US. Imagine what kind power to weight we could have if two strokes came back!


Too dirty for todays eco nuts sadly...



I think todays riders really missed out on yesteryear's bikes. Sure they were slower, less reliable, had horrid brakes, and were dirty but boy they were fun and easy to maintain. I think every rider should read "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance".


Almost bought a ysr 50 a few months back. May pick one up and leave it at shop.

 

[Subyman]

Triumph Bonneville:

 

[angry hampster]

I've got an '83 H-D XLS:

 

[Bartman39]

Had one exactly like this one... Was the reason my daughter was born too... Had a bad wreck on it in 1994 and did not work for 8 months and was going to use sexual issues as part of the suit against but that same week the wife turned up pregnant so that went out the door...:biggrin:

BTW I tried to ride again but looking into my baby girls eye's would not allow me to... Did have a couple of other bikes after but just lost that spark and always had the nervous feeling...

 

[JulesMaximus]

:thumbsup: Love your bikes!

I keep thinking of buying an old 70s bike and doing the cafe thing but really don't have the time...

So I bought this instead.

I love naked bikes.

 

[Zap]

I love naked bikes.

SEX!

I like naked sportbikes too. Heck at one point I was considering a "for fun" purchase of a Buell Blast.