Very nice! Man, I’ve always loved those bikes, it was always on my wish list. And those Arrow exhausts sound amazing and they are very expensive to buy. Looks like you got a score!
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Interesting motorcycles, not XS650
- Thread starter Kevin Werner
- Start date
Very nice! Man, I’ve always loved those bikes, it was always on my wish list. And those Arrow exhausts sound amazing and they are very expensive to buy. Looks like you got a score!
That supposes the V-Max was logical...
I have one, it scares the sh!t out of meDon't try to confuse me with logic!
View attachment 368792
The Vmax was the Venture Cruiser hotrodded
The MT01 is a road star hotrodded.
I love the frame brace, wonder if it helps with the death wobble. Still, no scoops, it seems a shame. That's what made a 12y/o kid fall in love with them in the first place it only took a few decades for him to get finally get one.Don't try to confuse me with logic!
View attachment 368792
The Vmax was the Venture Cruiser hotrodded
The MT01 is a road star hotrodded.
I took my Maryland rider's test on one (5'7" and 130lbs).
State trooper looked me up and down, then said, "you're here to take your test... On That!?!"
I said, "well I ain't here to look pretty on it," then thought oh crap, I hope he doesn't think I was being a wiseass!
Fortunately, he didn't. He just said, "well let's get on with it, then!"
I passed.
Mr. Max belonged to my father, but I did go for rides on it at times. My first bike was an '81 CB750K.
I've told this story before, I believe in this thread, but when I was 12/13 I saw one in a magazine and thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen like a rat fink comic. Last year right after my tax return one popped up fore sale about 15 minutes from me and i was like "this is fate". This one was used as a drag racer so it had been modded to go faster and had the 12:00 notch in the neck bearing race ( actually more like 11:59) making it difficult to steer even in a straight line. I plan on getting it sorted this summer but already have too many things in parts and no room for another. Still pretty fr!cken cool though
Some interesting stuff from Freddie Dobbs
The way I got to take my test on a V-Max...
My first memory as a kid are of being carted around the backyard of my childhood in suburban Maryland home seated between the tank and my father on his 1969 (we thing that was the year of the bike) Triumph Bonneville. Add to that the fact my father was a car guy, and that I grew up with lots of pretty cool cars (mostly Oldsmobiles until the late 70s/early 80s when dad restored his first car), and you can understand my love of all things mechanical.
Fast forward to when I was 19 or so (and still living in my parents basement), and I decided I really wanted a motorcycle. Now, I knew that one might be a bit of a hard sell. Yes, my dad used to ride (my mom rode pillion, too), but being their kid...
So I hatched a plan. Like any young man, I bought a lot of car and motorcycle magazines, and knowing how mad dad used to ride, I decided to leave some of these in the main floor (our house was 2-stories thanks to an addition my dad built) reading room (john). The idea was to get my dad interested, and then maybe we might both get bikes.
Now, that plan did work, but the way it worked is kinda funny.
One day while dad is in the reading room doing what you which causes you to read whatever material is close at hand, he ran across an article on the Yamaha V-Max. He read the horsepower, the 0-60, and quarter mile times, and thought to himself, what kind of freaking idiot would ride on if these things?!?
Those days, my uncle used to come over and hang out a lot, and apparently my reading room trick got to working on him. He'd never ridden, but he decided he'd like to learn, and so asked my dad if he might help him find the "right" bike and then teach him.
Bob (yes, Bob really is my uncle) looked at a few bikes, but didn't really find one that "did it" for him. Until one day he comes over after having been to the local Yamaha dealer (Batley Cycles in Wheaton, MD), asking my dad to go back to the shop to look at this "really cool" motorcycle he'd found.
My dad and Bob go, and the bike is (of course) a candy-apple red V-max. Bob absolutely loved the thing. My dad, as it turns out, fell in love with it, too. So they bought a pair of them!
Bob learned to ride on a V-Max (I'm not making that up), and, save for falling over a few times at a stop, never wrecked it. Technically, I learned to ride on one, too (dad would ride Bob's, and I would ride dad's). I didn't have near the trouble Bob did as I knew how to drive a stick-shift, but after some explanation by me as to how a clutch works, Bob got the hang of that, too. And when dad took Bob to take his riding test, I tagged along and took mine, too.
And while Bob is actually a little shorter than I am, he is (or was) a bit stockier (I've always been a fairly thin man), hence the troopers reaction to me, but not to Bob.
Dad loved his V-Max. and rode it for years. However, it wasn't until he'd owned it a few months that it dawned on him that he was the idiot who would buy one!
And, as Mr. Harvey would say, now you know the rest of the story!
This may be the best 'modern' triumph conversion I have seen....
Sold on Cars & Classics for over £9k
More here:
https://www.carandclassic.com/aucti...2-07-24&utm_medium=email&utm_source=blueshift
Sold on Cars & Classics for over £9k
More here:
https://www.carandclassic.com/aucti...2-07-24&utm_medium=email&utm_source=blueshift
Is this the Dale Earnhardt tribute version?
No Idea Grouchie77, it may be in the link?
Wow, that is extraordinary! And £9K doesn't seem at all bad for what it is!
Someone made a Cafe racer of 3 cyl Kawasaki
That is serious effort it don't smoke and it don't rattle can it be close to 10 k $ build
That is serious effort it don't smoke and it don't rattle can it be close to 10 k $ build
Brother has an early Handa Hurricane with the same 11:59 notch. I rode it once after it got new bearings, tires, brakes chain nd sproket.
Zmccleary7
"Not all those who wander are lost" J.R.R Tolkien
Unsure if this is the place, but does anyone know the size of carburetor for a 1973 honda XL175? Some websites say 24mm then some say use a 28mm mikuni upgrade. Any thoughts? We’re missing one on my buddies new bike.
You could always buy one of each chinesium type and see which fits. They are around 20$ and oem is around 500$ from my short search
This source says 26 mm Keihin. Makes some sense to me, as all Hondas I had of similar vintage had Keihin carburetors.
https://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/Honda/honda_xl175_73.html
Along with the main jets falling out!
I believe the V-Max came out before the Venture.
From what I can find, oem carb was indeed a 26 mm Keihin, more than likely a roundslide. I doubt there is much benefit from going to a VM28, also a roundslide. If money is no issue, a slightly larger flatslide carb will most likely work well, like a Keihin FCR28 or a Mikuni TM28-1. When looking at carb bore area vs cylinder displacement, a 28 mm on a 175 is very close to the FCR39 i have on my Ducati 600 with a 680 big bore kit, at around 3.5 square mm of carb bore per cc. That Ducati is in a pretty moderate state of tune, max hp in the 8-8500 rpm range, and has excellent low rpm running with those FCRs.
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