ugly motorcycles

TimeMachine said:
Mailman, would a Pacific Coast melt in Arizona ? Wouldn't look right by a Cactus..
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Haha! It feels hot enough to melt. The biggest pain would be removing all that Tupperware to work on it!

By the way, I like your Beemer. BMW has always gone its own way. That's what I like about them.
 
ron bayless said:
um,.mr 2 wheel, this thread kinda backfired on me.lol.
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cf9617b97006fe1f9ecea05f2b905b62.jpg


To me, this is the ugly Magna, circa '84. A mix of styles that don't compliment each other and a complete lack of frame length and space. Okay, bad taste complimenting bad taste. Rectangle headlight, long forks, that huge step in the seat, angular fuel tank, and a duck tail to boot. Nice mags compared to other Honda mags.

Oh, and those two hideous horns under the headlight, accented with plastic chrome rings.

Scott
 
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Mailman said:
Ok, at the risk of opening myself up to public ridicule I'm going to say that I think the Honda Pacific Coast was an innovative and pretty cool bike that was ahead of it's time. I even considered buying one. It was incredibly aerodynamic and well made. The fact that there are still so many well preserved examples for sale speaks to their durability and from all accounts it makes an excellent mid displacement touring bike. And if you've never seen the giant built in trunk you really should check it out.
View attachment 102355
Now go ahead and stone me.
Bullets bounce off me! Haha!
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Hi Mailman,
like I posted, it's the carousel-style paint jobs that trivialize those bikes.
Done over in gloss black with tastefully minimal gold pinstriping it'd pass for a Vincent Black Prince or Black Knight with built-in luggage (from across the street, anyway)
 
To me a motorcycle should have a visual mechanical character to it. A custom chopper with it's hidden wiring, hidden cables, hidden electrics, minimal fenders, has the same appeal to me as a Pacific Coast. On the other hand, a hardtail bobber with visual controls, cables, wiring, electrics, large fenders (skirts), mechanical parts in your face, has a lot of appeal to me.

Scott
 
retiredgentleman said:
There's no such thing as an ugly motorcycle. Just the same as there's no such thing as an ugly child. Every motorcycle is loved by someone. Some bikes (XS650 Specials, for example) just get more love than others!
Did I mention..................I love my 78 Special.:)
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You made your argument with the assumption that we would agree that there is no such thing as an ugly child. I would only agree that a parent should not be told that they have an ugly child.

Scott
 
mrtwowheel said:
View attachment 102367

To me, this is the ugly Magna, circa '84. A mix of styles that don't compliment each other and a complete lack of frame length and space. Okay, bad taste complimenting bad taste. Rectangle headlight, long forks, that huge step in the seat, angular fuel tank, and a duck tail to boot. Nice mags compared to other Honda mags.

Oh, and those two hideous horns under the headlight, accented with plastic chrome rings.

Scott
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yes the old magnas were really ugly.My 95 is beautiful.It looks like a real motorcycle. It accelerates way better than cruisers twice the displacement.76 honest horsepower to the rear wheel.no driveshaft
 
retiredgentleman said:
There's no such thing as an ugly motorcycle. Just the same as there's no such thing as an ugly child. Every motorcycle is loved by someone. Some bikes (XS650 Specials, for example) just get more love than others!
Did I mention..................I love my 78 Special.:)
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Hi RG,
just as there's some kids that only a mother could love, one has to accept the XS650 Special "warts and all."
Or make a few changes to reverse the stylist's inappropriate modifications.
The dork bars gotta go. I can live with the stepped seat, the 16" rear wheel and sloped rear shocks don't bother me but to downsize the gas tank fer fuxsake?
Set out from Saskatoon to Regina with your Special's tank brim full and you better hope the gas station in Chamberlain is open or it'll be a long push.
Luckily for those who ride their XS650 Specials beyond City limits that accursed stylist had blown his entire budget on changing the rear shock angle so the tank mounts were left alone and a Standard gas tank will drop right on.
 
Beauty is subjective, and I really like the early Virago bikes. They sold a sh*tload of them for a reason. I think Ducatis were ugly, and most all of the newer naked bikes look like plumbing nightmares. I've had 2 Viragos, they were better bikes than our beloved XS650's in every way that matters. Better seat, wide, tractable power band, the best clutch in motorcycling. Not 1/4 of the vibration above 50 mph. And a shafty to boot. The only advantage a 650 had was a kick starter.
 
weaselbeak said:
Beauty is subjective, and I really like the early Virago bikes. They sold a sh*tload of them for a reason. I think Ducatis were ugly, and most all of the newer naked bikes look like plumbing nightmares. I've had 2 Viragos, they were better bikes than our beloved XS650's in every way that matters. Better seat, wide, tractable power band, the best clutch in motorcycling. Not 1/4 of the vibration above 50 mph. And a shafty to boot. The only advantage a 650 had was a kick starter.
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I disagree.Before 1985 the viragos had the worst starter system in all of motorcycling. They definitely needed a kickstarter backup if ever a bike needed one. I owned a 920,82 model.I was amazed a permanent magnet had been made into the case to catch all the metal fragments the starter mechanism chewed up.The good part about the early ones was the motors could be switched from 750 to 1100 by unbolting things.
 
fredintoon said:
Hi RG,
just as there's some kids that only a mother could love, one has to accept the XS650 Special "warts and all."
Or make a few changes to reverse the stylist's inappropriate modifications.
The dork bars gotta go. I can live with the stepped seat, the 16" rear wheel and sloped rear shocks don't bother me but to downsize the gas tank fer fuxsake?
Set out from Saskatoon to Regina with your Special's tank brim full and you better hope the gas station in Chamberlain is open or it'll be a long push.
Luckily for those who ride their XS650 Specials beyond City limits that accursed stylist had blown his entire budget on changing the rear shock angle so the tank mounts were left alone and a Standard gas tank will drop right on.
Click to expand...
Wow. I did not know some xs bikes had a bigger tank.I will have to get one.What years?
 
I agree the Virago was not very good looking straight out of the box, but neither was my 79' Special. It was the vision that attracted me to my XS.

There are a handful of subframes for the Virago that lifts the rear of the tank up just a pinch and changes the whole look of the rear end. Add some non-rototiller handlebars and a seat of your choice and it's a completely different motorcycle.

As far as other ugly motorcycles...... I'm going to catch flak for this but ... I get absolutely zero joy out of those $20,000 Harley Davidsons with leather la-z-boy seats, side bags the side of my first apartment, mufflers the size of cruise missiles, a bigger stereo than i had in my Acura when I was 16 and a windshield bigger than the one on the truck I used to drive. I understand sometimes people go for comfort, but those bikes just puzzle me.

OK - just looked one up. "Electra Glide Ultra Classic Low" ...... I mean even the name is terrible.
 

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