Why not tell us what you rode, what you ride now, and any comments: Then: 1953 BSA 650 Gold Flash- first bike, bought in 1967 when I started riding, blew rear tire, totalled bike, wish I had one now 1965 Honda 305 Superhawk - blew tranny, great solo bike for secondary roads *1968 BSA 500 Royal Star - blew motor at 12,000 miles, likely due to lack of valve maintenance, most memorable bike ever *1971 BSA 650 Firebird Scrambler - blew two motors at 2500 and 3500 miles due to manufacturer oiling defects, got partial rebate 1975 Honda 175 XL - couldn't destroy it 1978 Honda CB750 - excellent commuter but intermittent electrical issues, blew tire at highway speed but saved it 1984 Kawasaki 1100 LTD - pulled motor, did custom paint, nice cruiser after the facelift *2006 Triumph Sprint 1050 - very smooth bike, loved bumping the rev limiter 2007 Goldwing GL1800 - boxer six, first real touring bike, changing the air filter was a half day's work 2005 Yamaha WR450F - got it plated, did all the mods, bit twitchy on pavement but bomber off road *2012 Harley Davidson FLHTCU - totalled it in NB, my fault, great touring bike 2010 BMW K1300R - my neck and arms will never be the same... 2007 BMW K1200GT - nice touring bike, Ricky's seat, good protection, started me thinking about the 1300GT 2006 Honda 1300ST - wanted to try a V4, silky smooth, custom Corbin seat but we just didn't click... Now: 2010 BMW K1300 GT - no better than the K1200GT but has much lower miles, needs custom heated seats 2012 BMW R1200 GS Rallye - I really like it plus Mrs. Bob says it's the most comfy bike ever for a pillion. Tends to shake a few things loose (headlight screen, BMW headstock roundel) on solo dirt rides with street tire pressures. Hard mounted cameras and the GPS really take a beating as well. Much smoother and comfy on dirt roads two up loaded than solo... go figure * means bought new, all the rest were bought used
I'll chime in 1987 my first bike. Fully dressed Kawasaki, KZ 900.thought I was king of the world with full Vetter fairing and cassette player! Wish I has a photo but a last I must have lost those in my divorce too! Downsized to Yamaha virago 750. Crashed and totaled. Not my fault. Same story. No photo. 10 years with not bike. New wife convinced me to ride again. God bless her. Apparently I was cranky. Bought 650 Versys. Upsized to St 1300,fast red. Now blue streak St 1300. Not too many but I. Satisfied. Forgot my trusty XR 100!
In Illinois where I grew up, you could attain a license for a “motor driven cycle” (under 150cc) at the age of 16. Thus began my lifelong love affair with motorcycles and touring. 1972 Kawasaki Enduro 125, purchased new for $475. Practised stealth riding on local roads and trails before licensed. 1974 Honda CB450 twin purchased used. Far and away the worst bike I ever owned. Shook like a paint mixer. 1976 Honda CB750 bought new for $2,175. First cross country trip- 7,800 miles in 17 days. Traded at 30k miles for a 1978 Yamaha XS11, the HP king of its era. Added touring accessories and put 50,000+ miles on it in four years. 1983 Honda Sabre 750. Downsized when The Mrs. got her own bike. Third worst bike I’ve owned. Many design flaws. 1984 Yamaha Venture Touring bike. Totalled it at 20k miles when a joker turned left in front of me from second in line. 1986 Kawasaki Voyageur XII. Extremely reliable if not terribly exciting touring bike. Put 80k trouble free miles on it. 1992 HD Dyna Daytona Commemorative. Guess I had to have one in my life. Big mistake. Bought low, sold high. Soon. 1994 Honda ST1100. Well built, reliable, and just could not get comfortable on it. Put a quick 10k miles on and traded. 1995 Honda GL1500 Gold Wing. Put over 50,000 touring miles on. Suspension sucked. Too heavy. Stone reliable. 2000 BMW K1200LT. Here begins my conversion to BMW spokesman. The Mrs. says it was by far her favorite ride. Put 50,000 trouble free, exciting miles on it. Only negative was, a little top heavy when fully loaded. 2005 Honda ST1300. Decided I needed a Sport Tourer. Did not “speak” to us. Almost too efficient. No soul? Don’t know. 2007 BMW R1200RT. Best sport tourer we had. Excellent wind protection and cornering ability. Relatively light weight. 2009 BMW R1200GS. After traveling virtually every paved road, figured it was time to seek some dirt and gravel roads. Toured far and wide seeking the roads less traveled, from Alaska to Newfoundland and in between. Awesome! 2013 BMW K1600GTL. Approaching retirement, thought it only fair to reward The Mrs. for faithfully bouncing around Those roads less traveled on the GS, by providing a comfier perch for our soon to be extensive travels. The Mrs. Also decided to get her own Honda CRF250L to investigate this forest and fire roads up in the North Woods. 2013 Husqvarna Terra 650. I bought the Husky so I could ride with her on those forest and fire roads. So much for plans Early 2014 I take The Mrs.’ 250 into town to get a haircut before a big trip, and a deer flies out of the woods... Seven multiple rib fractures, a punctured lung, and broken collarbone later, The Mrs. decides her riding days are Over (she is obviously the brains of the operation). Gone are the CRF250L and Terra 650. 2014 BMW F700GS. In the hopes that The Mrs. might relent, I keep the GTL and get the little GS for solo mixed roads Touring like the TLH with TonisToo last year. Ironically, The Mrs. flies to The Rock to join the Tour there. 2016 BMW R1200GS. TonisToo’s constant mockery of my nightly chain adjustments and lubrication on the F700GS Are the last straw (kidding) in my decision to return to the most versatile motorcycle I have ever owned. Easily. As a footnote, I sold the GTL in June to a couple in Walla Walla, WA after being on Cycle Trader for 8 hours. Wow So I guess my current tally is 18 motorcycles, way more than the number of cars I have owned. I am sure that there are many here who would scoff at that number, and probably with good reason, but each bike I have owned has contributed memories unique to that bike, and so doing has played a part in the patchwork quilt of my 700,000+ miles to date.
1980 Honda CM400T, borrowed from dad. 1984 Suzuki GS550E, my first purchase. 1995 Kawasaki KLX650C, wheelie machine. 1998 Kawasaki ZX7RR, chiropractors dream. 1998 Suzuki Bandit 1200, more my style. A 8 year period raising a family. 2007 Kawasaki Versys. The start of my MADHD. 2009 Suzuki DR650. The start of my farkleitus. 2011 Yamaha Fazer-8. Beautiful bike. Traded for an ATV. 2009 Yamaha WR250X. Couldn’t live without a bike. 2014 Suzuki V-Strom 1000. Deal too good to pass up. 2016 Yamaha FJ-09. Better fit than the V-Strom. 2016 Honda CB500F. Sold the WR so my son could ride.
1984 750 Midnight Maxim (Restored) 1979 XS 1100 1988 DR750Big (Jon has now) 1982 Seca 650 Turbo (Restored, traded for Porsche) This is my bike pictured below 1981 Honda Goldwing Interstate (Vetter kit) 1983 Seca 650 (Traded for BRP 400XT Quad) Late80's TW200 (Traded for Jeep TJ) 1985 XT350 (Currently still have) 1960's Suzuki B100P (2 stroke) 2001 BMW R1150GS (Rebuilt - Scooter) 2014 R1200GSW (Rebuilt - still have) 1986 Yamaha Venture Royal 1300 (Still have) CAn't think of anything else.... if it was vehicles... I would need more space .lol
1980 Kawi 440 LTD. My only cruiser. 1975 Honda 550 four. Yoshimura pipe was obnoxious. 1971 Hodaka Ace 100. My first foray into weird. 1973 Yamaha RD350. 2 stroke street. Hold on to the bars. 1978 Honda GL1000. Stripped the vetter gear but still too heavy for day to day work. 1988 BMW K75s Learned what sport touring was about. 2003 Kawi ZR7s. Made more noise than HP but can't say I did not enjoy it. 1987 BMW K75s. Bought it as a parts bike and rode it for a few years without ever parting it. 2006 Kawi KLR 650. Pounded on that thing. 2002 BMW R1150 GSA. Some things just fit. 2005 Honda Big Ruckus. Day in, day out workhorse. 1991 BMW K75s. A fly and ride experience that opened up a whole world of possible purchases. 1979 BMW R65. Too small and too stiff. 2010 Can Am Spyder. Don't use it much but kept me upright when needed. 2002 Triumph Tiger 955i. Turns me into a friggen hooligan nearly every time I ride it. Always looking but manage to talk myself out of more purchases with common sense. I need for nothing else but want for one of everything. Two of the ones I really like.
You jumped in the deep end early with a KX900 for sure Rob! No worries about no photos, your word is good here, plus there's lots of examples on Google if someone doesn't recognize a make/model. Nice run of power cruisers then moving on to sport tourers. Love that V4. Nice induction growl in the power bandtoo Thanks for sharing.
I don't think 18 bikes in 46 years of riding is to many at all Trash. Plus look at all the memories they've left you, and thanks for sharing those. I agree not every bike is the best one yet. Some can be bought because we need something while we're waiting for something we really want to become affordable or whatever. Plus you never know what they'll really be like until you get some seat time. Back in the day it was 'buy and try', these days it's 'try and buy'. Demo days and bike rentals are relatively new to riders of a certain vintage...
All solid choices for sure. Ran across some info on the KLX650 on line when I was researching some Kawi DS options recently. Seems it competed directly with the XR650R but parts were hard to get and Kawi didn't support it. Yes, as a parent I had a break from power toys too. Interesting to look back and see some trends... 'The start of my MADHD.' 'The start of my farkleitus.' LOL Also looks like you bike choices were dictated by life's priorities, and not the other way around. Good on ya for that
Thanks Backdraft. Nice looking Seca. I put a lot of miles on my brother's 750 Maxim when I was between bikes... great ride when the carbs were balanced. I think I remember seeing pics of the DR BIG here before the forum crashed. There's a couple of mid 80's XT350's for sale locally for $2500 to $2900 IIRC so they're still going strong. I seem to remember you posted up about one (or maybe both) of your BMW rebuilds. Seems the BMW R****GS/A is a popular choice among Inmates here.
Ah! My roomie in Corner Brook bought a spanker 1970's 550, four into one exhaust, his first bike, guess who had to teach him how to ride? LOL Never saw a Hodaka around, but back in the 1970's Handy Andy used to sell a JAWA where the kickstart doubled as a shift lever. Man that was weird. I remember when two strokes were street legal. Quick bikes, but smaller models didn't seem to last at highway speeds. Same for most smaller four strokes as well. But we were teenagers, working minimum wage jobs if we were lucky, so we bought what we could afford. I believe you dropped by my place with someone on a Kawi ZR7 one day, blue wasn't it? Yep, that 2002 R1150GSA looks like part of you all right, or is it the other way around? Just kidding! Either way, when you find that fit and feeling it makes all the difference. I know those bikes would tell some great stories if they could talk Thanks for sharing Murph
197?? Gemini 80 197? Suzuki Trail Hopper 50 1975 RM100 1975 Kawasaki H1 500 1977 RM125 1984 Honda 650 Nighthawk 1981 RD350LC 1981 RD350LC 1981 XL500 1984 XR500 1984 FJ1100 2003 KLR650 2006KLR650 2006 Baja 50 (my Kids) 2008 GZ250 (my Wife's) 2008 GSF1250 Bandit 2010 FJR1300
Wow, great variety of bikes, nice to see. I don't have a long list like some others, I started riding as a kid on a Honda Trail 90 (don't even remember the year) but sadly stopped riding after that and never picked it up until 10 years ago. Regret all those wasted year I actually like working on bikes just as much, or more, than riding so most of my bikes were purchased as cheap project bikes (hence the before/after pics). Honda Trail 90 CT90 - unsure of the year and sadly no pictures. Really want to find another one though, hard to come by. 1978 Kawasaki KZ650D1 - First street bike and loved it! Blast to ride. 1980 Honda CB400T - Bought just to fix up and sell. Engine had trashed head and transmission. 1978 Honda CB350 - Bought nine years ago and project is still not completed but getting closer 2009 Suzuki SFV650 Gladius - Beautiful engine and handling bike. Miss the torque. 1982 Honda MB5 - No bike puts a smile on my face like this one. I feel like I'm a Moto3 rider every time I'm on it. 1978 Honda XL250S - Bought a few years ago as a project, still unfinished. Engine had pretty severe damage to transmission and piston. 2014 Honda CB500X - Current daily rider. Love this bike, very versatile go anywhere, do anything type bike.
Nice air shot JMP! Is that a ciggy in your mouth a la Steve McQueen? Very nice combination of classic off road, dual sport, naked and sport touring machines. A lot of these pics look pretty current too. I'm thinking you still have the FJR and possibly the 2006 KLR and the '84 XR500 yourself? I like pics of restorations and builds and such so thanks for that too!
Thanks for the nice pics Herr Deacon! Yet another Inmate with some serious restoration skills. From the pics it looks like you may have had several resto projects on the go at the same time? You too jumped in the deep end with a KZ650 as your entry level bike. They used to put our poor British twins to shame after about 80 MPH. IIRC six speed transmission? Yep, I've taken some long hard looks at the CB500X and their 750 as well. Finally starting to see a few low mileage gently used ones pop up FS too. Like you say, 'go anywhere, do anything' type bike. Highly under rated.
