newbie from PA. HOPE YOU FOLKS LIKE STOCK BIKES

[Kyd727]

HELLO ALL,

NEW MEMBER FROM THE KEYSTONE STATE!

LOVE THE WEBSITE !!!

I CURRENTLY OWN 5 XS650S
2 XS2S
2 XS1BS
1 XS1

I ALSO OWN ABOUT 8 OTHER VINTAGE JAP BIKES (hondas)

MY NAME IS TOM AND I CRAZY ABOUT THE EARLY MODEL BIKES.
LOVE RESTORING THEM AND BRINGING THEM BACK FROM THE DEAD.

MY CURRENT PROJECT IS MY NEWLY PURCHASED XS1
I LL POST SOME PICS SOON, BUT ITS LATE AND I HAVE TO WORK TOMORO,
BUT I WANTED TO INTRODUCE MYSELF AND SAY HELLO TO EVERYONE.

 

[plane_ben]

Fine looking stable there. Welcome

 

[Travis]

Tom, stock bikes are great, especially yours! Your bike are beautiful!!!! Welcome to the site!

 

[Frank The Tank]

Those are some nice lookin bikes Tom. Keep up the good work.

 

[Kyd727]

thanks for the warm welcome fellas!
glad to be here.

 

[inxs]

- its really great to see people restoring these - theyve become a relatively easily obtainable modification project lately - the chopper/bobber/tracker/cafe racer scenes have "discovered" them and cut loose with their creative energies resulting in some very interesting rides - still, we all need to remain a little grounded to our roots, without them there is no direction

 

[crash]

nice to see some stockers to remind us of where all the chops started ,welcome

 

[mikey650]

very nice collection...I've got a 72 and a 77. No pics, all stock except the 77 has a sissy bar that I like as it's a good place to put a backpack semi-permanently.
Looking to buy another 72 or earlier...

 

[13dennisa8185]

Great looking bikes I am located in Frederick md and hopefully I can get my 71 working and looking as clean as your bikes

 

[MaxPete]

Thats a very nice set of bikes!

 

[fredintoon]

Hi Kyd727,
Nice, but they are all stock! You know what that means? They are all rideable, that's what! And if folks can ride them they'll get worn out.
You gotta hardtail them, fit tiny little gas tanks, rake out the front ends, remove the front brakes and do all those other little things that make them unrideable.
They most be destroyed so they can be saved.
The Romans taught us that.

 

[MaxPete]

....now Fred....you be nice.

Remember - we are Canadians and we are supposed to be nice....except of course on a hockey rink.

 

[fredintoon]

....now Fred....you be nice
Remember - we are Canadians and we are supposed to be nice....except of course on a hockey rink.

Hi Pete,
Ah, hockey, like soccer "a game for gentlemen, played by hooligans."
But that WAS nice.
My true opinion of those who remove a bike's safety and comfort options cannot be posted where children might see it.
What I reckon is if you want a bike with little or no suspension and bad brakes you should go buy a pre-war bike that came with those features
rather than removing the good brakes and comfortable suspension from a more modern machine.

 

[MaxPete]

Yup - can't disagree, but I also try hard to not slag other people's choices (even if those choices result in hideous crappy machinery that is uncomfortable, rides badly, is unsafe and looks like a pile of rusting dogsh!t as it burps and f@rts its badly tuned, unstable handling, way down the road).

I probably shouldn't tell you how I really feel though.....

I guess I will repeat something I said in another post - it just seems a shame to take a nice old motorcycle that has served its time well but could be made whole again - and hack it up into something that the designers never intended it to be. I certainly greatly favour the standard bikes and like to see survivors coming back onto the road as they originally did back in the days when they were a shiny new source of pride for some young guy or gal (or maybe for some not so young guy or gal). I know that if I was the age I am now - in 1976 when my bike was new - I would be nearly 100 years old when that bike is the age it is now - and that it would break my heart to see it messed with.

To each his own I guess.

 

[lakeview]

Calling Kyd727......
Seven years later you may have more in your collection.
Are you still with us?

 

[gentlemanjim]

Stocks Rock - Always admire original, but I have quirk about making modern upgrades without stealing the authenticity.

 

[Vincenthdfan]

Love originals myself!

 

[michaelpthompson]

Totally love the stock bikes! Mine isn't pure stock, the PO made a few mods, but it's still traditional. I can see that some people love the choppers or the hardtails and such, but to me, the classic look of a stock bike can't be beat.

 

[MaxPete]

It was a very chilly morning here on Canada's southern coast at Windsor, ON - 4C or about 39 deg. F. At about 7:30 AM, I put on a shirt, jeans, leather jacket and medium-weight gauntlets and full-face helmet and foolishly set out on a 20 mile ride to the next town to have breakfast in a little diner that I like. At first, the sunny morning was crisp and pleasant but very soon, I was damned cold and realised that I really should have put on my thermal suit and used the heavier gloves for a ride today on my unfaired 1976 standard XS650C.

I know that I would have been much more comfortable on my big liquid cooled fully faired Honda ST1300 - but it just seemed like a "vintage" sort of a day to me... Oh well - I used to be young and foolish and now I'm old and foolish I guess.

Anyhow, I truly was the human popsicle when I got to the diner and that coffee sure felt good going down - but not nearly as good as the (I'm not kidding) 4 people who stopped by my table to say how much they liked my "nice old bike" - which one lady said "sounded like a real motorcycle - not loud and obnoxious, but not like a blender".

So....this morning was indeed very cool - both literally and figuratively.

Keep those standards rollin'!

Pete