Topic: Let's see your non-SOHC4 on the road

[Terry in Australia]

I can only dream Trevor, I was lying on my patio floor doing the ignition timing on my T500 yesterday and remembered that under a pile of bike parts in another temporary carport I’ve got a semi serviceable bike lift….

[Trevor from Warragul]

You need to sell up and move to the country!  There's a back way to Drouin from Warragul, and along one part of the road is a housing estate with a mighty fine selection of sheds. Seriously, some of them could store a yacht with the mast up (and still have room for a few dozen motorcycles)!

[Kelly E]

I got my lift table in the summer of 17' and it has been in use ever since. Your old trashed body will thank you for digging it out and putting it to use. 

[Terry in Australia]

You need to sell up and move to the country!  There's a back way to Drouin from Warragul, and along one part of the road is a housing estate with a mighty fine selection of sheds. Seriously, some of them could store a yacht with the mast up (and still have room for a few dozen motorcycles)!

I’d love to Trevor, I just have to kill the wife first. Do you know anywhere I can hide a body?

[Terry in Australia]

I got my lift table in the summer of 17' and it has been in use ever since. Your old trashed body will thank you for digging it out and putting it to use. 

Yeah, I need to move around 20 trunks full of Z1 parts to get to it, which is very close to impossible at the moment. I need to spend around a year selling crap on Ebay that I should (in hindsight) never have bought in the first place….

[Terry in Australia]

Okay, here's my 1994 Sporty on my 100 miler yesterday, and my 1974 Suzuki T500 "Titan" today, I had an ignition issue which had me scratching my head for the last few weeks, but I finally sorted it out yesterday, and it's running like a dream now. I only did 4 or 5 miles on it today to make sure it wasn't gonna hose me over again. (I don't want to have to push it on the side of the freeway ever again....)Hopefully I'll get some longer rides in soon.

Sportster ANZAC Day 2023 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

T500 Wednesday 26 April 2023 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr


 

[Stev-o]

...my 1974 Suzuki T500

That Suzi looks great Terry...always wanted one but rarely see them for sale

[MauiK3]

I too like the Suzuki, it looks great.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, they were always pretty thin on the ground here too, back in the day young guys wanted Honda 750’s and Z1’s, and of course 500/4’s were the “Go to” mid range bike, so 2 stroke twins weren’t that popular. The guys who followed my build thread know that I built it from a pile of parts an old guy a couple of states over had been hoarding for 40 years, I guess I was lucky that he hadn’t died and his family hadn’t thrown it all out.

I did get in contact with a guy recently who used to race them and has a big stash of T500’s and parts stored on a friends farm, and he was horrified to learn that a tree had fallen on the roof and exposed his collection to rain for the last few months. I thought about making him an offer for the lot, but I need more projects right now like I need more holes in my head….

[MauiK3]

We should take up a collection to rescue and house the pile!
I love the way they look kind of slim, long and light.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks Steve, he wasn’t happy at all that his friend hadn’t told him about the damage to the barn, apparently he lives a couple of hours away and hadn’t been out there for a few months so was pretty steamed.

Out of the two Suzuki T bikes I own, I think I like the T350 more, it’s almost as quick as the 500 but a lot lighter. If I keep it into my retirement (and I’ve just had an offer from a a friend for a trade for another Sportster, so I may not keep it) it’ll be a good “Old mans bike” as it’s very nippy and easy to move around but sufficiently fast enough to ride on the highway.

[ofreen]

It's back -

[grcamna2]

Excellent long distance bike Greg.

[emlupi]

The Duck Killer

[Stev-o]

The Duck Killer

Ok, I'll bite. There has to be a good story about the name! Great looking bike, BTW.

[MauiK3]

That RC 51 looks like a rocket!

[Terry in Australia]

The Duck Killer

Ok, I'll bite. There has to be a good story about the name! Great looking bike, BTW.

It's a Honda RC51. Honda was getting tired of Ducati kicking it's arse in World Superbikes, so built their own 90 degree V Twin 1000cc race bike and took back the WSB title with the mighty Sp1 in 2000, and again in 2002. I sold my 2000 model SP1 a few months ago, but have another one in parts to build a track bike day from.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_RC51

[emlupi]

Terry’s got it covered. Honda got tired of Ducati using their displacement advantage and homologation rules to build “Sport Production” models of their V-twin superbikes and dominate the World Superbike championship. So, in Honda fashion, they decided to fight fire with fire and prove that they were more than capable of designing their own 999cc V-twin race bike. Colin Edwards took it to the WSBK title in its maiden season and again in 2002. Besides that, Nicky Hayden won the AMA title with it in ‘02. It has won in many other venues as well, Isle of Man, Suzuka 8 hour, World Endurance, etc.
They broke Ducati’s dominance, hence the nickname “Duck Killer”.

[MauiK3]

It seems that Honda can just pick a target and dominate. Amazing every time.

[emlupi]

Or so it would seem……… lately they are getting their rear ends handed to them on the world stage. They can’t even get a sniff of the podium. It’s somewhat shocking to see, especially given their history of engineering prowess and desire to win. Somewhere Soichiro Honda is not smiling.
About the only place they are winning is in motocross.

They did win at the Suzuka 8 hour, which is a very prestigious race to win for corporate pride. But outside of that they have been lost lately.

[ofreen]

Excellent long distance bike Greg.

It is.  It has over 73,000 miles on it, 95% of which are touring miles.

[simon#42]

It seems that Honda can just pick a target and dominate. Amazing every time.

the current motogp and superbike riders would disagree with you .

[simon#42]

back to topic , just returned from a couple of weeks in spain . took the little bmw out to play with the big bikes .

[simon#42]

looks smaller from this angle

[Stev-o]

Terry’s got it covered. Honda got tired of Ducati using their displacement advantage and homologation rules to build “Sport Production” models of their V-twin superbikes and dominate the World Superbike championship. So, in Honda fashion, they decided to fight fire with fire and prove that they were more than capable of designing their own 999cc V-twin race bike. Colin Edwards took it to the WSBK title in its maiden season and again in 2002. Besides that, Nicky Hayden won the AMA title with it in ‘02. It has won in many other venues as well, Isle of Man, Suzuka 8 hour, World Endurance, etc.
They broke Ducati’s dominance, hence the nickname “Duck Killer”.

Got it, thx. After I thought about it, figured it had something to do with Duc...