Motorcycle discussion

[Browneye]

Honda was the featured marque at our local concours event over the weekend in Huntington Beach. A whole bunch of CB Hondas from days gone by, even some of the old mini's like I had when I was a kid.





@TheLetterJ - check out my ride from years past...a '97 GasGas EC250 - was the best dirtbike I ever owned. All the dirtbikes are gone now. 20 miles of singletrack up in Kennedy Meadows is beyond this old man these days. Sure had fun while it lasted though.

[4wd4ws]

Originally Posted by TheLetterJ

... but the fire's still burnin'!

That's all that matters.

[4wd4ws]

Originally Posted by Browneye

Honda was the featured marque at our local concours event over the weekend in Huntington Beach.

Noice!

[TheLetterJ]

Oh man, what I would give to have my GG plated! Yours still had the counterbalanced engine, right? I never understood why they stopped using a counterbalancer. I won't say that my EC300 is the best bike I've owned (I'm very partial to the '02-'07 CR250 chassis) but I will say it's my all-time favorite engine for offroad.

[Browneye]

Originally Posted by TheLetterJ

Oh man, what I would give to have my GG plated! Yours still had the counterbalanced engine, right? I never understood why they stopped using a counterbalancer. I won't say that my EC300 is the best bike I've owned (I'm very partial to the '02-'07 CR250 chassis) but I will say it's my all-time favorite engine for offroad.

Yep, the first year they had the balancer in there, and it was butter-smooth to ten grand.
No vibey footpegs and numb feet.



I bought it plated, it came from Ojai. I should never have sold that bike. Oh well.



The guy that bought it had a teenage son that liked to ride it. He woke up early one day out in the dez, decided to take the GG, found a can of gas and filled 'er up. Yep, you guessed it...straight gas. Got 3 miles out of camp and seized it. Motor rebuilt by Steve at MotoWest. I should have bought it back then.



My old riding still has a couple of them, and a Pampera the girls ride. Both of his are plated as well, a 250 and a 200, one is super-moto'd.



I had a KTM 250XCFW later, could never get that one plated, so sold it for a Husqvarna TE630. Lots of bikes and lots of fun.



Had a WR250F with a plate for awhile too. Another hoot of a bike.



Near Sherman Pass, right after the fire in 2002...





Had a CR for a bit as well....got the GasGas for trailriding. I don't recall the year here...I'm guessing '92 to '94 for the colors.

[mikemcE]

Just saw this ........ BMW bobber !!!

https://youtu.be/2oCf4KQ18LU


Hang up and Drive

[Browneye]

I think I just threw up a little in my mouf...

[durok]

RE: the BMW Bobber concept...

I could do without the hipster millennial voice-over designer guy, but the bike itself I find quite lovely.

I learned to ride on a 1971 BMW R75/5 just like the one below, belonged to my younger brother - I had to kickstart it as the electrics weren't sorted out, and the drum front brake sure made life interesting - but on the highway you could take your hands off the bars and just guide it through sweepers with knee pressure and a little shifting of your weight:

[Browneye]

I would take THAT over the harley-wannabe any day!

I ride a R1200GS. I would love to own an vintage beemer.

[mikemcE]

Originally Posted by Browneye

I would take THAT over the harley-wannabe any day!



I ride a R1200GS. I would love to own an vintage beemer.

I’m a Harley guy(53 Pan)
That said many miles spent on vintage r60’s and this to me is quite sweet. Simple Clean and classic bobber and not HD, Victory , Or Indian. So unique


Hang up and Drive

[4wd4ws]

Originally Posted by mikemcE

Just saw this ........ BMW bobber !!!

Yeah, very cool.

[4wd4ws]

More info:

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by TheLetterJ

Yesterday was a big day for my boys. My 5 year old has been ready for something a little bigger than his Suzuki JR50, but we haven't been in a position to buy something yet. We let him try out my 8 year olds DRZ110 (which is pretty heavily modded, hi compression big bore, cam, manual clutch, Fox shock, etc., etc.) but it was just too tall for him to get even one foot down...

I got a smoking deal on a KX65 not too long ago, but had been waiting for my older boy to really master the clutch before throwing him on that little rocketship. I put the stock low seat from the kx onto the drz (which IS just a yellow klx110, same seat/tank/plastics as a kx65) and the tall seat from the drz onto the kx, reset the sag for my 5yo's weight, adjusted all the controls for his reach, and turned him loose. He did great! His clutch work is a bit abrupt once he starts moving, but he's only 5 with one day of manual clutch under his belt, that's a lot younger than I was when I learned to operate that left hand lever! He did well enough that we're skipping the "in-between" bike and just moving him straight to the 110!

My older son took to the 65 very quickly too after he realized that he has to shift it A LOT more than the 110 to keep the motor singing. He's not ringing its neck, but the suspension on the mini mx'er is so much better, than even his hopped up 110 trail bike, that he's carrying a lot more speed over river rock, bumps, ruts, etc. He's fully ready to start trail riding now (we've only allowed him to ride within line of sight up to this point) but since I'm still not physically able, I need to talk my wife into getting back into the swing of trail riding so she can go with him.

On that note, my wife wants to take the MSF course over the summer and finally get her M1. She's had her permit in the past, but let it expire before taking the on-bike test. Since I've got 2 extremely well set up plated KTM's just collecting dust, she's been eyeballin' the 525 (fresh 12.5:1 540cc, 8/06 cam, +1mm valves, minor port work, carb absolutely dialed in.) I'm sure she'd ride the klx140l (kx100 suspension swap, 170 big bore) when trail riding with the kids, but I'd love to see her get comfortable on a full size bike again.

I only recently buttoned up the last 0.01% of work that my GasGas EC300 needed to be back to 100% so it too is just sitting on a stand, waiting for the day I can ride again. I had kinda lost motivation after getting hurt, but Man I miss riding! It's been hard to go from riding 200+ hrs a year on average to zero. Not to mention every night/weekend that I wasn't riding, I spent working on motorcycles, be it my own, or side jobs. This getting old business is rough, I may only be 35, but my body is acting more than twice its age! It wasn't the 4 hip surgeries, but the 3 herniated discs that took me off my scooters (none of which were motorcycle related) but having recently had a stroke (minor as it may have been... at least people can understand my speech again, if they have the patience to wait for me to spit it out!) who knows if/when I'll be able to ride again. Keeping the bikes in the garage when it would have made more sense to sell them has been the bit of hope that has kept me going, rc's helped fill the void to keep my sanity. With my kids rapidly progressing, and my wife's recent re-interest in riding, I'm trying to support/encourage them while embracing my life as a spectator instead of just waiting 'til I can ride again.

I'll be selling the kids' JR50 very soon so I'll have a bit of money to play with, so instead of just buying another rc, I may start tinkering with my extensively modified drz125 again next. I have a 147cc top end sitting in a box for it, but I think I'd rather hold out until I can swing the Engines Only 12.5:1 190cc top end (22hp!!!) but it's gonna be quite a bit more spendy than what I'll get from selling the jr50. Plan B is to finally get adult sized springs for the rm85 fork and shock that are already on there, as well as an RSW top triple clamp to open up the cockpit for adult riders. Proper springs and ergonomics will likely be appreciated more than tripling its horsepower since my wife is the only one that will ride it for the foreseeable future. While the drz125 and klx140 are setup very similar, she may like the klx140 for its electric start, but still says the drz125 is the most fun bike we own. I'd have to agree.

Long post, I know, but the fire's still burnin'!

2 smokes are so fun to ride!!! I love them.

Cool story about your sons.

Please post photos of your modified DRZ125! I love pit bikes and mini bikes! That's one of the reasons I got a Grom. It's like a pit bike for the street!

Originally Posted by Browneye

Honda was the featured marque at our local concours event over the weekend in Huntington Beach. A whole bunch of CB Hondas from days gone by, even some of the old mini's like I had when I was a kid.

@TheLetterJ - check out my ride from years past...a '97 GasGas EC250 - was the best dirtbike I ever owned. All the dirtbikes are gone now. 20 miles of singletrack up in Kennedy Meadows is beyond this old man these days. Sure had fun while it lasted though.

Those Honda Zs are so awesome! Honda minis are the most damn fun.

Originally Posted by TheLetterJ

Oh man, what I would give to have my GG plated! Yours still had the counterbalanced engine, right? I never understood why they stopped using a counterbalancer. I won't say that my EC300 is the best bike I've owned (I'm very partial to the '02-'07 CR250 chassis) but I will say it's my all-time favorite engine for offroad.

I grew up on quads and in Europe they had street legal Gas Gas quads. I was always so freaking jealous we can't have that fun stuff here in the US.

Originally Posted by 4wd4ws

More info:

I think it's a great looking bike for a BMW. Most BMWs are hideous. Even their S1000RR, which has amazing performance, is fugly.


As mentioned above, I've been having an absolute blast on my street legal pit bike - the Honda Grom. I can't explain it. Go ride one.

I did install a Yoshimura RS-2 exhaust system on mine. The weight of the exhaust is cut in half, it looks much better, sounds much better, and the engine breathes much better. I can now get up to 62MPH on the highway without tucking or drafting. That doesn't sound fast, but you're on a short wheelbase bike rolling on 12" tires.

I hit a corner near my house at 55 MPH and the bike was, let's call it "lively" in the corner. Such a blast!

There's a Grom event coming up in July at a local dealer and I can't wait. Should be fun.

Carbon fiber is still sexy IMO!

[Browneye]

A good friend and old riding buddy sold his G650F beemer to get a couple of the grom-like mini's, I think he was looking at the Kawasaki ones. He was at the dealer texting me about what kind of deal he should get. But in the end he couldn't get his wife's buy-in. I guess he thought they would ride them while out camping, which I thought as about as practical as a wave-runner/jetski, but alas. So he bought a Triumph Tiger 800 instead - same one I had new back in 2011. She'll ride on the back, but doesn't want to pilot one.

I put 27K adventure miles on mine, one of the best bikes I've ever owned out of dozens of them.

Now I guess I can't sell my last bike off. I mentioned it and his reply was what was the point of him getting a bike if I sold mine. Oops.



Tiger 800 adventure bike, Ouray CO. We towed the bikes up to Silverton, loaded backpack gear on them, and rode a 1000 mile Rockies tour through all the passes. Spectacular!
Treacherous road over Ophir Pass, no issues though, just fatigue. If you go off the road you go down a cliff.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Browneye

A good friend and old riding buddy sold his G650F beemer to get a couple of the grom-like mini's, I think he was looking at the Kawasaki ones. He was at the dealer texting me about what kind of deal he should get. But in the end he couldn't get his wife's buy-in. I guess he thought they would ride them while out camping, which I thought as about as practical as a wave-runner/jetski, but alas. So he bought a Triumph Tiger 800 instead - same one I had new back in 2011. She'll ride on the back, but doesn't want to pilot one.

I put 27K adventure miles on mine, one of the best bikes I've ever owned out of dozens of them.

Now I guess I can't sell my last bike off. I mentioned it and his reply was what was the point of him getting a bike if I sold mine. Oops.



Tiger 800 adventure bike, Ouray CO. We towed the bikes up to Silverton, loaded backpack gear on them, and rode a 1000 mile Rockies tour through all the passes. Spectacular!
Treacherous road over Ophir Pass, no issues though, just fatigue. If you go off the road you go down a cliff.

I don't have a wife and I don't allow my girlfriend to tell me how to spend my money or I would have never gotten a Grom.

Groms are definitely great camping bikes and people do take them off-road. Kenda even makes off-road tires for them.

https://www.cycleworld.com/honda-gro...ure-fun#page-5

https://www.wanderlustnotless.com/bl...-offroad-build

[Browneye]

I think you've mis-characterized my buddy's wife - she just didn't want to ride one herself.

OTOH, they love to camp in their trailer, and he wants a bigger nicer one, but she doesn't want to spend the money. I surely wouldn't want to be in his shoes.

[hpiguy]

The Groms are cool, but no way it would be comfortable for long days at my height. It's pretty much a street legal pit bike. Nothing wrong with that either though.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Browneye

I think you've mis-characterized my buddy's wife - she just didn't want to ride one herself.

OTOH, they love to camp in their trailer, and he wants a bigger nicer one, but she doesn't want to spend the money. I surely wouldn't want to be in his shoes.

Definitely not a two-up bike.

Originally Posted by hpiguy

The Groms are cool, but no way it would be comfortable for long days at my height. It's pretty much a street legal pit bike. Nothing wrong with that either though.

Being small doesn't come in handy often at all, but it does when riding a Grom!

[wings_of_fire]

RIP Carlin Dunne. What a tragedy!

[Jackalo626]

Originally Posted by wings_of_fire

RIP Carlin Dunne. What a tragedy!

So close to the end too. Sad day.

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