On Tuesday, August 20, 2013 3:40:49 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Tue, 20 Aug 2013 13:07:11 -0400, iBoaterer

wrote:



In article ,

says...



I had a Honda 350 for a couple of weeks and I even rode it a couple

times. I got it in 10 boxes and put it back together, then I sold it.

I had a Benelli 250 for quite a while and I had a "fix it and sell it"

Yamaha 350 for a few weeks.



After fooling around with those, it was Harleys for me.



My buddy went through his Triumph and Norton days too but he ended up

on Harleys.

Between us we probably had over 30. We made money on every one of

them.



When we were kids there were motorcycles galore on the farm. Me, my two

brothers, four cousins and friends of all of ours kept our bikes there.

Plus, one of my friends worked for the local Kawasaki dealer. He got one

of the two cycle, three cylinder Kaw 750's. Those things were radical.

More torque than you can imagine. I was riding it one day behind a semi,

on a two lane highway, went to pass, whipped around the truck, kicked it

down a gear and gassed it. Damned front end came up and scared the ****

out of me!



That Yamaha RX350 I had was the wheelstandingest motorcycle I ever

saw. It was grossly top heavy with too much weight on the back wheel

and a ton of torque that came on in mid range sort of by surprise.

Every novice I ever saw ride one lifted the front wheel and a scary

number of them crashed. That was how I got it. The new owner crashed

it on Rt 1 in Alexandria and would not get on it again.

I picked it up off the side of the road in my van and gave him $300

I ended up putting a pair of fork tubes in it, a fender and selling it

for $900. I am not sure I put 5 miles on it myself. I just rode it

enough to be sure it was OK before I sold it.

I did learn a little about that 3 coat paint system Yamaha used. I had

to shoot the fender. I did it all with those little "baby food jar"

sprayers. It actually didn't come out badly.

Back in the '70s I was riding in the dirt a lot (some enduros)and a friend had a Yamaha TT500 dirt bike. Heavy, but a ton of torque. He ended up looping it one day when it hooked up better than he expected, and he got rid of it soon after.

Another guy had a Maico 400. What a sweet bike! On a good dirt road, you could hang the back end out and it would just stay there, easily controlled by the throttle. No tendency to snap at all. Lots of fun.