About Us

Bill[_12_]

wrote:
On Thu, 29 Mar 2018 11:22:06 -0400, John H.
wrote:

On Thu, 29 Mar 2018 10:38:46 -0400, wrote:

On Thu, 29 Mar 2018 04:23:07 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

On Thursday, March 29, 2018 at 12:59:36 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Thu, 29 Mar 2018 00:32:34 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 28 Mar 2018 18:30:18 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

wrote:
On Tue, 27 Mar 2018 17:44:19 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

Now you got me trying to remember. Here are the motorcycles that I can
recall:

Honda 305 "Super Hawk"
Honda 350 - two .. one in Puerto Rico, one in MA.
Kawasaki 450
Harley Davidson Ultra Classic (2000 - white)
Harley Davidson Softails - two, one new in 2003, the other an older
version with the "evo" engine.
Harley Davidson Ultra Classic (2006 - maroon)

That's eight of them. Might be another ... oh, yeah there *was*.

I bought a custom built Harley that Cape Cod Harley Davidson built
especially for Sturgis but cancelled going.

Oh, ... one more ... a fully restored 1974 Norton 850 Commando.

That's 10.

So, how often do you "drive" your Ducati ?
Not as many here.
I have had a
250 Benelli dirt bike, the one that tried to kill me ;-)
350 RD Yamaha, Didn't keep it long, Maybe the most dangerous bike ever
350 Honda Sent it down the road pretty quickly too when I found the FX
72 Superglide (my favorite)
72 XLCH (fast but not as good a ride as a Superglide)
74 XLH (last Harley in Md)
71 FLH (the one I had down here)

My squirreliest bike was as a teen I got hold of a Moped Frame with a
Triumph Cub motor. And broken kick starter. Had to bump start. Got
away from me one bump start in front of the house. In front of MOM. Not
the best thing to do. I stepped off and let the bike crash without me. I
still have the California motorcycle DL endorsement. But at 75 years old
today, I think is not a good thing to ride.

The Yamaha 350s were crash magnets because they were so "cammy" and
had such a high center of gravity.
You crank it up and the front wheel is flying. I have seen plenty of
newbees stand them up and let them go when they landed on their ass.
My problem was I got to liking it and I was riding a unicycle much
more than a sane person should do.

Our most dangerous bike to ride (owned by the partnership) was a post
war Harley "45" chopper with the suicide clutch, hand janmmer and a
derby hub (no front brake). It had a kicked out springer and hard
tail. This was a thing of beauty sitting next to the curb. You just
couldn't ride it.
Think about it, you roll up to a light, You either have a foot on the
clutch or the brake. With both you fall over. It was a little dance
with kicking it out of gear in time to step on the brake. Good luck
getting started up a hill.
We parted it out and made more than we could get for the bike.

And the extended forks with no bracing, so the wheel could flop left or
right at a stop light.

The springer tended to "caster" that wheel fairly well to hold it
straight and with 4 struts they were fairly stiff but the 1/4 - 3/8"
of rake they put into the yoke makes them hard to steer. Some of the
extended tubes would get pretty wobbly tho. We had a couple of Triumph
choppers that were best parked and looked at too. A popular thing on
the 650 Triumphs was removing the battery and moving some stuff around
to lower the seat. They used a capacitor to tickle the alternator into
life. Fortunately the Triumph chopper thing did not last long but I
bet a lot of vintage Triumphs fell to the cutting torch when they were
a thing.

Those battery eliminators are horrible. With trusted aftermarket
products i'll be putting a battery back in my Triumph.and have
something that'll work with reliability.

Most of those Triumph choppers were better just parked and looking
pretty than actually being ridden anyway. To that end the capacitor
worked fine as long as you had a fairly easy starting engine. That is
really all it was. I did a couple just using a "D" cell sized
electrolytic I had in my junk box, only assuring it was 15v rated and
polarized right

While you're discussing choppers, please tell me the advantages to 'monkey bars'.

I never understood ape hangers myself. I guess looking cool was
preferable to not having blood going to your fingers.
I did hear a line about those teardrop gas tanks that only hold a
gallon or two and the little seats.
"After you ride very far on that hard tail with the pea pod seat, you
are going to want to get off anyway"
Most of those choppers were for looking at on M street, Not riding.

Some of the best motorcycle deals we ever had was uncustomizing
motorcycles. Andrew Jackson out in Forestville had a 3 story house
packed with Harley parts. He would gladly swap up stock parts for the
matching custom part. Then he would sell them to the next guy with a
vision and take back his stock parts for a pittance, sometimes free.
Rinse repeat.
That was the XLH I had. Some guy had "customized" it then he "fixed"
in and ended up with something we had to push up on the truck. He was
out in Potomac and his parents filled the truck with all the spare
parts he had laying around.
They were still ****ed about the quart of dirty Harley "105" he had
dumped on their pretty "real brick" paver driveway. (then tracked it
around)
We actually got Andrew to go in his pocket for some of those parts, a
rare occurrence indeed.
The funniest thing about it was my buddy out in Rockville was telling
me about the S&S carb he scored from Andrew. He said Andrew told him
it was jetted for a Sportster but when he checked, it had FL jets in
it. I asked him if there was a small scratch right above the logo on
the air cleaner. His answer explained why that "customized" XL
wouldn't run for ****. It was the same carb I swapped even up for the
stock Bendix.
Once I got the stock carb on it and replaced the top hat bushings the
guy lost when he took the transmission apart, that thing ran like a
top. I rode it all summer, until someone made me an offer I couldn't
refuse. By then it was back to being a bone stock Sportster again.

When California passed a law that the handgrips on a motorcycle could not
be above your head, only guy I knew who could still ride an ape hanger bike
was Skip, who I worked with. 6â€™6â€.

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version	Search this Thread: Advanced Search
Display Modes
Switch to Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Threaded Mode

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
For Harry only...	Rogue Wave	General	0	July 13th 07 11:25 AM
Yo Harry!	JohnH	General	9	August 28th 06 06:02 PM
Hi Harry.......	TWB	General	0	March 2nd 06 03:26 PM
Ode to Harry	Skipper	General	1	October 28th 05 02:20 AM
Here, lap this up, Harry!	[email protected]	General	49	October 17th 05 09:13 PM

Menu

About Us