The bike you wish you still had

1982 YZ250. First bike I ever had, first time I experienced pure fear, followed by an ice pack. I can still hear my uncle starting it up for me because I was unable to reach the ground. Had to have some small items fixed on it. Unfortunately, this was years before I had any mechanical aptitude and we brought it to a guy to get fixed. He had a heart attack, cleaned out his shop and never saw it again. Will find one again, and it will come home with me
 
It’s great hearing all the stories you guys have, I think for many of us, our fond memories of a certain bike are more rooted in what was going on in our lives at the time and the motorcycles were just part of that moment.
Back in 1978 I bought my XS750 new, not realizing it would be the last motorcycle I would own for the next 26 years. Like so many others my life shifted from being single and carefree to married with a baby and no money.
I started working two jobs, but the motorcycle went away.
I was 48 years old before I would have another one. My BMW restoration project, I think that might account for some of my fondness for it.
It’s funny, I have owned a couple of modern motorcycles, but it is still the old bikes that continue to draw my interest. The ones from my youth.
We are such a diverse bunch, and yet we all are attracted to old mechanical things. For me they are a link to a simpler past, I love the involvement they demand. Working on these old bikes is becoming a lost art, it is immensely satisfying when you take one from being a non runner to running like a champ.
It’s like knowing a secret handshake.
 
"GTO Judge Orange"
OK
OK not a bike story. Arnie the Farmer was a drag racer that raced Pontiac's. His GTO was the car they used for the Judge. He was from Morrison IL. 10 miles from where I grew up. One of the first funny car drivers. The dirt bike club I belonged to was in Morrison.
 
My first was a '69 DT-1. Absolutely would have it back. Found a '68 to rebuild (calling it a "project" doesn't even come close....), but even when/if I get it done I probably won't dare to ride it much. At least I have this:

the old man 1971.JPG
 
My first was a '69 DT-1. Absolutely would have it back. Found a '68 to rebuild (calling it a "project" doesn't even come close....), but even when/if I get it done I probably won't dare to ride it much. At least I have this:

View attachment 142244

Those DT250’s were such great bikes. I learned to ride motorcycles on one, cow trailing in the Az desert.
I look for them all the time on Craigslist, them and their big brother the 360 and 400. They come up for sale very rarely. In fact I like all the Japanese enduros of the day they were just great fun bikes.
 
Hmmmm….Of all the bikes I've had over the years, the 2 I want back most are the '82 or "83 R-100RS I had in Germany and the '84 H-D Low Rider. The Beemer was a great balance of sport bike and tour bike. The H-D because I didn't get to ride it much. 3-4K miles before it go stolen. Tulsa to Las Vegas and back. Sure, it vibrated but I loved that bike. Oh sure I loved all my rides. Each for their qualities.
 
My xs is only my second bike, and I never rode one til 2008, so everything is fresh and new and no regerts. My 1st was an sr250 and there was something ultra captivating about it, just too small. I can understand the attraction to sr500 if it's anything like it. Single cylinders are great but kind of risky -- several times have gotten where I needed to go on one cylinder on my xs for various reasons. Would like to have a same-era xt250, same motor with kick instead of electric.
 
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When I was working as a mailman, one of my customers was this guy and his wife from Iowa. They came to Arizona every winter. He was a really interesting guy, he owned a motorcycle dealership back in Iowa, that he had owned for decades. He actually raced in the Daytona 200 back in the seventies. This guy lived and breathed motorcycles his whole life, he was in his 70’s when I met him and he still drug a trailer full of motorcycles out here to Arizona every winter. He had a Gold Wing, multiple Triumphs, big cruisers, you name it. This was a guy that has accumulated motorcycles his whole life. He surprised me one day when he told me that he had never sold a bike that he had owned. He had all the old British marquees and a lot of early Japanese bikes. He stored them all in this great big old barn on the farm he lived on back in Iowa.
One day while he was out here in Arizona for the winter, he received word from home that his old barn had collapsed during a major snow storm, his collection crushed under tons of timber.

I was reading this article the other day about a bike this guy wished he’d never sold, we’ve all said it,
“Man I should’ve kept that one.”

In spirit, I’m like my friend from Iowa, I wish I still had every bike I’ve ever owned, I loved them all for different reasons. But it’s just not feasible for me. I am limited for practical reasons to two bikes at any one time.

I have ran through my mental Rolodex a hundred times, I’ve only owned eleven motorcycles ever and compared to some of you guys, I’m a small time player. When I think of the one that got away, it really comes down to two bikes, either my 1976 Triumph Bonneville 750 T-140V or my 1977 BMW R100/7.

That Bonneville was just a cool iconic bike, it was in beautiful shape and ran strong.

The BMW was rough when I got it, but the engine which had over 40,000 miles on it ran great and was very strong. I restored it to a very nice looking and running bike. Parts are expensive for BMW’s and there’s not a lot of aftermarket support for it, BMW still make the parts for those old airheads and you pay up for parts.

In the end , if I had to choose only one bike to have back? For me it would be the Beemer. They are just such a mechanically interesting bike, I love the looks of them, and they are just built like German tanks. They built them to last.
View attachment 142126
I used to go to this annual antique and vintage bike show here in Arizona and it’s funny,
The show was filled with perfect British bikes that guys didn’t ride, the parking lot however had a bunch of well used and worn old BMW’s that guys were using for their daily riders.

So here’s the question, if you could reach back into the past, is there ONE that you wished you still had today?


G'day B-O-B,

Wish I still had my Silver Shotgun 450 Ducati, man that thing would make a jelly fish go hard.

GeeDub
 
Dang this one got out of hand, maybe it's the drugs they had me on for that MRI I had this afternoon!


Well I've had a few but none probably as classic as so of the rest of you. See If I can remember them all:
First one was a Bridgestone 60 Sport, next moved up to a Honda CL 175 Scrambler, then I bought my first new bike a Kawasaki S1 two stroke triple( probably the one I wish I had kept, used as trade in on a Toyota pick-up. Wife had bought an RD200 Yamaha so I more or less took that one over. Guy she worked with had a RD400, believe it was a 1978 or what ever year they came in that ugly green and yellow paint scheme!

Then in fall of 1987 after we had stopped at the Harley museum in York PA and found that for $3,995 you could get a brand new 883 Sportster, wife told me I had two choices. Number one was buy one myself. Second choice be happy with what ever one she bought for me! So November 2, 1987 I road a basic black 883 Sportster home. Can't say that is one I wish I still had as it is sitting out in the garage right now with right around 120,000 miles on it, most pulling a sidecar!

Somewhere along the way I saw a Honda 750 Super Sport at a local car dealer and decided I had to have it. It was a little rough around the edges but seemed to run good. However it only held the attraction for a short time and I got the urge to hang a spare sidecar I had on another bike to use to ride to work and the design of the 750 frame did not look to be an easy one to adapt to the sidecar. I happened to be talking with local independent cycle shop owner and mentioned the idea of mounting a sidecar on a midsize bike and asked his if he had any thoughts.

Thomas said he felt an XS650 would be a good candidate and he just happened to have one for sale, a 1981 and said he would trade even up for the 750 Honda. Said come back the next day and he will get it out of his barn at home and I could look it over. Well first impression was it was about as rough as the Honda and it had I believe a Windjammer fairing like MaxPete's above that I was not fond of and he said he could remove it and set it up as stock. For no charge. A couple days latter I was the proud owner of a 1981 XS650. As it turned out a few years latter after checking S/N on engine the the engine was actually out of something like a 1976 XS 650. But it seemed to run good so I was not upset. From 2000 til I retired in 2015 I used that bike for my ride to work outfit and only swapped out the engine after it got to be jumping out of first gear all the time.

By that time I had acquired a couple more barn find XS650s so just swapped one of those engines in and kept the oufit on the road till April of 2015 and wouldn't you know that replacement engine started jumping out of first gear the last year I rode it! But knowing it only had to last a few more months I just shifted into second when it jumped out of first!

That 1976 or what ever it was engine that came with the 1981 became a test of my ability to rebuild a 650 engine. bought some gears and on gear set off FlyBay and managed to find enough good parts to have what I thought was a workable transmission, a set of rings and a quick touch up of the valves and a gasket/seal kit and after I retired I built up that old engine and stuck it in the frame for the 1982 XS650 Heritage Special I had acquired several years before and was just gathering dust in barn as I knew it had some transmission trouble of it's self!

Still need to address the oil leak on left side of engine, sprocket shaft or maybe clutch rod seals? Both were new but it does drip a little after being driven, oh yea thought the starter spring I installed new was a good one but need to get a fish scale to check drag on that one.

Also have the 1978 Special that is 95% ready to be back on the road and a 1992 Sportster with a sidecar.

Wife has her 2013 GTV 300 Vespa, and don't think a 300 scooter can get up and move. Stop light to stop light in the city the 1200 Sportster hauling the sidecar has to work to keep up if you are not paying attention!


Great story thanks for posting that ...........I enjoyed reading it over my morning coffee.
Modern 2 strokes are awesome aren't they......... I posted about a 50 year old Lambretta recently that does 140mph !
 
It has to be my first bike which was a 1958 Triumph T6 Thunderbird bought for £25.00 in 1969.

I can’t remember much about it regretably . My one regret is that I never took a picture of it.
It had had a hard life and had been used at some point with a sidecar. It had enormously heavy chrome crash bars when i bought it which were very ‘old man’ uncool so they were taken off immediately.

I remember the noise, the vibration, the weight and above all the oil ...which exited the crankcase via the dynamo oil seal as fast as I could bung it in the oil tank.

Because the charging system only worked for a few minutes after cleaning the oil out of the dynamo, I eventually carried a spare battery at all times and any long journeys meant a swift battery change mid journey and thrifty use of lights and horn to conserve cruicial volts. Its surprising how long the ignition system will work with no charging system on one of these old bikes!

Shortly after buying the bike I moved from East London down south to Somerset. I rode the bike down with my girlfriend on the back. We rode out of London onto the A3 with night fast approaching. The headlight started to dim and I knew the battery was going flat as the engine started to cough and splutter . I switched the lights off and in pitch darkness I followed the rear lights of a car in front of me out into the desolate countryside with mile after mile of empty fields and not a single dwelling.

Several cars came and went as we journeyed down to Somerset on the A303 Sometimes the car in front would suddenly turn off of the road leaving us in pitch black at 30-40mph ! quite scary. We sat in the pitch blackness by the side of the road until another car came along and i had to accelerate very quickly to catch the car before we ran into something in the darkness !..Eventually we arrived at a small roadside Garage still open so we bought a couple of torches . We tied one on the front and my G/F painted the lens of the other torch red with lipstick and we shoved that on the back.

Eventually there were no more cars to follow so we stopped by the side of the road and crawled inside an abandoned chicken hut and slept till daylight . On checking the bike I discovered that the previous owner had hidden a small spare battery under one of the covers so we stuck that in and charged off at great speed covering the remaining 75 miles in just over an hour .

A year later ! I gave the bike away to a friend of my Sisters ,as my lifelong passion had now turned to sports cars. One of the exhaust valves had started to burn badly and eventually it became noisy and difficult to start and the exhaust turned fire red .

I heard later that the bike had been buried at the end of a garden somewhere and many times over the past 50 years I have thought of tracking down the last owner and seeing if anything remained of the bike .
T6 Thunderbird.jpg
 
It has to be my first bike which was a 1958 Triumph T6 Thunderbird bought for £25.00 in 1969.

I can’t remember much about it regretably . My one regret is that I never took a picture of it.
It had had a hard life and had been used at some point with a sidecar. It had enormously heavy chrome crash bars when i bought it which were very ‘old man’ uncool so they were taken off immediately.

I remember the noise, the vibration, the weight and above all the oil ...which exited the crankcase via the dynamo oil seal as fast as I could bung it in the oil tank.

Because the charging system only worked for a few minutes after cleaning the oil out of the dynamo, I eventually carried a spare battery at all times and any long journeys meant a swift battery change mid journey and thrifty use of lights and horn to conserve cruicial volts. Its surprising how long the ignition system will work with no charging system on one of these old bikes!

Shortly after buying the bike I moved from East London down south to Somerset. I rode the bike down with my girlfriend on the back. We rode out of London onto the A3 with night fast approaching. The headlight started to dim and I knew the battery was going flat as the engine started to cough and splutter . I switched the lights off and in pitch darkness I followed the rear lights of a car in front of me out into the desolate countryside with mile after mile of empty fields and not a single dwelling.

Several cars came and went as we journeyed down to Somerset on the A303 Sometimes the car in front would suddenly turn off of the road leaving us in pitch black at 30-40mph ! quite scary. We sat in the pitch blackness by the side of the road until another car came along and i had to accelerate very quickly to catch the car before we ran into something in the darkness !..Eventually we arrived at a small roadside Garage still open so we bought a couple of torches . We tied one on the front and my G/F painted the lens of the other torch red with lipstick and we shoved that on the back.

Eventually there were no more cars to follow so we stopped by the side of the road and crawled inside an abandoned chicken hut and slept till daylight . On checking the bike I discovered that the previous owner had hidden a small spare battery under one of the covers so we stuck that in and charged off at great speed covering the remaining 75 miles in just over an hour .

A year later ! I gave the bike away to a friend of my Sisters ,as my lifelong passion had now turned to sports cars. One of the exhaust valves had started to burn badly and eventually it became noisy and difficult to start and the exhaust turned fire red .

I heard later that the bike had been buried at the end of a garden somewhere and many times over the past 50 years I have thought of tracking down the last owner and seeing if anything remained of the bike .View attachment 142286

That’s a great story Peanut!
 
View attachment 262911View attachment 262912I was rearranging some photos today. Reminded me about 2 bikes I wish I still had. ‘13 Suzuki Vstrom DL650 & ‘79 Yamaha XS650SF. Nothing super special but liked them nonetheless.

We need a thread where people post up a picture of what they Imagine in their head members look like based on their user name and posts.

I think it would be quite entertaining.

I don’t know, but when I read Bosco I get an image of a 1940s soda jerk haha. Doesn’t really jive with reality haha.
 
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I see @cra-z1 as a short muscular guy with a crew cut and a white T with a pack of cigs rolled in a sleeve.
Wish I had kept that pretty blue 01 1200 bandit. Plenty of go, enough woah! in a package that wasn't painful to ride for an hour or two. I keep an eye out for em but most have been rode hard and put away wet.
 
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