dfinitlydisturbd

Saw a thread about a jerk parts vendor charging a 25% restock fee, reminded me of a time I tried to get a part from a dealer here...suddenly fond memories of old rockets i used to love flooded the back of my mind. It's funny how, like old friends you never really forget the machines of yesterday.
My first bike, 1972 Yamaha LS2, two trips to the hospital one screwed up knee, one concussion from hitting a tree. One long night with the state police for riding without a license, tags or documentation.

My second, 1972 CT175 Yamaha, no injuries, no fines, lots of stupidity.

My third, old as dirt 1973 Kawasaki 125 nearly died of exhaustion trying to get this one to start every time.

Number four, 1976 Suzuki GT380 and one of my favorites, just a cool little two stroke.

My fifth, 1984 Kawasaki 550 LTD another fun one and second that was scary fast.

6th For the life of me I can't find a pic anywhere It was an old two stroke Indian enduro unknown age and displacement. was cool just because.

7th, 8th 9th and 10th 1972-1977 Yamaha enduros 125, 250, 250, 360 all wicked fun.





While the pics are carefully selected as the best representation of each bike as far as model, color and condition the pics are not mine (did not have a camera back then).
And that's every motorcycle I've ever owned up until my Vol. I loved every one of them, miss a couple

dfinitlydisturbd

So, Hows bout the rest of y'all?

C50TinAB

My first bike was a '76 CB360T that I bought new, had it for a couple of years then sold it and never owned a bike again until a month and a half ago.

This is not my bike either (have photos but can't find them at the moment) but it's exactly what I had. It was a nice handling bike for around town and had good sound from the mufflers for a 360cc. Now that I'm riding again I sometimes wish I still had it. (I'd like to have this nice example as well.)

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'09 C50T Black/Grey

Paraquat

My mom's TS 250, then the '99 Savage, then the '08 C50.
But I'm young yet.

dfinitlydisturbd

Nice bike shame, they don't make em like that any more. I don't know why every bike out there either has to be a crotch rocket or a harley knockoff. I can't think of one bad thing to say about any of the inline and powered standards I've ridden or owned. They looked sharp, ran smooth as butter, never asked for much more than regular attention to their oil and points, were light and efficient....I could go on and on but I won't...to sum it up I had way more fun bombing round on them. My Vol is fun but not nearly as much fun, too heavy, not a nimble, and nowhere near as smooth(Never once had parts rattle off or loose with them).

gossman

I have had lots of dirt bikes and a few street bikes. The dirt bikes are too many to list but I enjoyed all my my street bikes, thankful that I was able to ride then and thankful that I can ride now.

Street bikes in chronological order are:

1963 Honda C-110
Mucked out a barn for a week in High School for this bike. Small but heck, it was a motorcycle and I owned it!

1966 Honda 150 Dream
Cheap and fun at the time, mucho faster than the C-110 plus it was black and chrome!

1976 CB 360T
Great bike, fun to ride, I really beat the bejeebers out of this bike in college

1981 CB 650-4
Bought brand new, rode for a couple of years then child came and needed to rid myself of a payment. I thought this was the ultimate machine then.

1975 CB 550-4
Picked this up after I sold the 650. Great bike, good handling, and was under $500. Used it as the down payment on our first home.

1975 Suzuki GT 550
Three cylinder 2-stroke street bike. Fast Fast Fast. Last road bike I owned until the C50T

2012 Suzuki C50T Classic
I thought I was done with motorcycles due to surgeries and leg problems. Been wishing and looking for a bike for a few years but never made any noise to the missus about it. Wife one day told me to go buy a bike, she had known I wasn't getting any better physically and wasn't about to having me never to resume my street bike riding ( I had been riding quads for the past 2 decades off road). After I narrowed it down to the C50T, Honda RS 750, and the NC700x, she picked the C50T for me without even knowing it was the least expensive of the three. Good choice, very happy with it. Fits me nicely, plenty nimble around town, and I get plenty of comments on how nice it looks.

BullyVarder

Ah! those golden olden days of the early 70's 2 stroke Jap bikes! Your post brings back to me similar memories. I enjoyed a Suzuki GT380 also. Nice smooth bike to ride. Mine was the first model with drum front brake, not the most inspiring of stoppers. Suzuki TS 185, TS 100, and T250 also. Myself and workpals at the time (Honda Elsinore 250, Suzuki 400, Yamaha 90, YZ 125 Yammy, et al,) worked in a factory with an area of bushland behind it, and having more energy than sense at the time, we often would have half-hour mini-enduro sessions during our lunch break, with the rest of the staff as spectators. Sure wasn't a rest break! I recently acquired a '73 Suzy GT 185 Ram-air from a junk-yard lot. Not running (seized) but complete. A bargain at $0! I'm hoping to find time eventually to strip the engine, thinking maybe 200cc kit, it's cheap enough to do. I'd like to refurbish it into a light cafe' racer style bike, not real fast but light and fun. I love the simplicity of the "old school" bikes.

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'08 Boulevard C50
'84 Kwaka GPZ900R
Ulysses Club
Chrome don't get you home

dfinitlydisturbd

Wow, lots of cool bikes.
Gotta say I envy the folks that had the bigger GT's.
Want to resto a Yami RD350 amazing bike for it's day. That right along with a GT750. Wicked cool rides dreamed up and put into production long before I was a sperm count and discontinued when i was 2.

Dam lucky, Bully! Things as dry there as in the movies? Might get lucky and find only varnish from old premix gummin it up.

Hi-Vis

dfinitlydisturbd, my first bike was also a Yamaha 100 twin. It would run about 73 mph and smoke like a frieght train.

2nd 71 Honda CB350.

3rd 76 FLH (amf) sounded good, but that's about it.
Not my bike.

__________________
Special Edition 2009 C50 Green/White . 13100 miles. Loaded up and then some!
2006 Honda Big-Ruckus 250 scooter. ~Rare~

If an old man is Laughing at you for no reason, you might want to take a mental inventory because you might have lost something.

ATGATT Sweat, not blood.

BullyVarder

I'll keep that in mind about the varnish from old premix, thanks for the hint. Mind you those ram-air Suzies had oil injection, but in a neglected old bike the oil pump might have failed and the rider might have resorted to premix. Not unheard of for people to ignore the oil injection and use premix by choice. I bought my GT 380 brand new in '72, would love to have got a GT 750 waterbottle, quite impressive bike at the time, very torquey, the liquid cooling was not so common then either, but I couldn't raise the extra $ for it. Still a very popular bike with collectors/restorers. Some of you will remember it was first introduced with a pretty big four-leading-shoe front drum brake, which a lot of owners soon converted to front disc. Have you seen how much those old 4LS front brake assemblies can sell for these days for the nostalgia buffs? Sheesh!

Notice how our perception of a "big" bike has changed over time? We all had a ball on 650/750/900cc bikes back then. Nowadays a bike under 1500cc is probably considered "smaller" even with Grandma riding it.

__________________
'08 Boulevard C50
'84 Kwaka GPZ900R
Ulysses Club
Chrome don't get you home