I was able to find this great article about the joys ( or not ) of owning an exotic motorcycle. I had read this a long time ago and it stuck with me. In the case of this article it was a Husqvarna.
https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/seven-lessons-learned-from-owning-an-exotic-motorcycle
Excellent article. Don't quite know why riding motorbikes has been such a big part of my life? Maybe because I grew up on the back of me Mum's motorbikes? It's what I do. But riding bikes involves owning bikes, which involves buying bikes. And sometimes selling them too. And that's where I have all too often been a
lot less than sensible.
Tend to end up with, uhm, less obvious bikes. Probably the most exotic bike I ever bought and yes, I went out and bought it brand spanking new - what ever possessed me - was a Vertemati Supermoto. 500cc, 60 BHP, revved to 10,000 and boy it loved to rev, weighed
hardly anything, went like stink. Top-drawer White Power suspension, including 50mm forks. Kick-only, and the kick-start rotated forward, not back like every other bike I've ever seen. Which actually made sense when you used it.
It was the roadified version of a very successful motocross race bike. Limits to the handling? Are you
insane?
Unusual? Just after I bought it, reading one of the monthlies, probably Bike or Performance Bikes, the journo wrote that he had a Vertemati Supermoto on test and it was
the only one in the country. Phoned the magazine and put him right about that - needless to say, he wasn't interested.
There was just the one UK dealer, who was by-and-large fairly helpful. Ran a Vertemati motocross team, with his son as #1 rider. But very largely, buy something as rare and exotic as that and you're pretty much
on your own. Serves you right for not following the herd?
Very light and powerful engine, extensive use of exotic materials, such as super-hard Copper-Beryllium tappets. But no oil pump. Which I found out when the motor seized. Apparently, lubrication on an exotic motocross racer relied on fluctuations in crankcase pressure as the rider wildly went full-throttle - snapped shut - full-throttle again. They must have thought a supermoto would be used in the same way? Maybe in a supermoto race it would? But they sold this as a road bike! So perhaps
I was their development rider . . . ?
Vertemati replaced that first engine. The second engine had a minor oil leak due to a porous casting - fixed that with araldite. But I could kind of see that the little 500 and me weren't gonna have a long-term relationship.
Sold it to a bloke who must have been curious about this exotic bike? Or maybe just as daft as me? Heck, I even
told him about the lack of oil pump and need to open & close the throttle . . .
Perhaps fortunately, he came and collected the bike on a pick up. Good job there's sometimes an even bigger idiot out there.
