Topic: New Ideas for Bike of the Month

[754]

 The workhorse category..

[Scott S]

 One of the car magazines I get has a "Driveable Dream" feature every month. It showcases not-so-desirable old cars with dents, dings, rust, patina, baling wire, etc. Showing vintage cars in real life use, as they were intended.

 It might be neat to have a work horse, daily rider type offering one month. Might not be the prettiest or most expensive build here, but if they're riding the snot out of it that counts for something.

[Gurp]

Some of these catagories are great additions but can we get nominations to them? That seems to be the ongoing issue. Also it might be a nice addition to just do the ones that are nominated each voting period.

I also like a idea for a category that may not be used every month as well. Low budget. 1500 total cost or less for builds or daily riders.

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Some of these catagories are great additions but can we get nominations to them? That seems to be the ongoing issue. Also it might be a nice addition to just do the ones that are nominated each voting period.

I also like a idea for a category that may not be used every month as well. Low budget. 1500 total cost or less for builds or daily riders.

Yes, we are still starving for nominations.  IS there a reason why people won't get off their tuckus and nominate bikes???

[Tintop]

Some of these catagories are great additions but can we get nominations to them? That seems to be the ongoing issue. Also it might be a nice addition to just do the ones that are nominated each voting period.

I also like a idea for a category that may not be used every month as well. Low budget. 1500 total cost or less for builds or daily riders.

Yes, we are still starving for nominations.  IS there a reason why people won't get off their tuckus and nominate bikes???

I think part of it is a time issue, it certainly is for me.  I no longer have the time to sift through the build, and other threads to figure out if bikes are done, and could be nominated.  I'm open to suggestions on improving ways to find nominateable bikes.

[Gurp]

Maybe it would be possible to add a new section of the Forum that is for quote on quote completed bikes. yes, I understand most of us never truly consider our projects completed but ones that are rideable and the most part done to us.

[Scott S]

Maybe it would be possible to add a new section of the Forum that is for quote on quote completed bikes. yes, I understand most of us never truly consider our projects completed but ones that are rideable and the most part done to us.

http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php/topic,166231.0.html

[Gurp]

Scott, lets laugh at me haha.

Hopefully I'll get my chopper done this year to add it to the list.

[754]

 Hey can we have Garage or Workshop of the Month ?
 What say you guys ?..

[Gurp]

Hey can we have Garage or Workshop of the Month ?
 What say you guys ?..

+1

[PeWe]

The workhorse category..

- That is worth a medal too if this is an old bike, long mile runner never restored with interesting patina.

There are many different kind of bikes difficult to be compared at the same time.
- A pure stock bike is also always worth to mention since it is a saved historical object that will make people to talk about their old memories.
- A pure stocker, almost never used and look like new.
- A bike that someone has modified really beautifully.
- A bike that someone has rebuilt really beautifully without destroying a good complete stocker. Bolt off- bolt on can always be undone.
- Old style choppers must not be forgotten. I remember all parts available to rebuild ta CB750 when I bought my K6 78/79.

- The cafe style here in 70's, early 80's with 6" longer fork tubes, 16" fatter rear wheel, thinner seat, 4-1 or drag pipes and higher bars, See attached photo of my K6 1980. I felt really cool. Open helmet, jeans and old style leather jacket + US/Spanish cowboy style boots too it.  Bike has Z1-900 mirrors and a flimsy front fender (Dunstall). I had sometimes thoughts to abandon ship in around 100mph and horrible wobble! Controlled way better than hitting the woods.

- Part bike, based on parts from thrown away bikes on scrap yards. Stock, cafe, chopper, race as well as Frankenbike result.
- A persons hard work making own solutions. Restorer of the month/year.

There are many bikes and restorers well worth to mention! 
Edit: It can be an annual medal to bike /restorers of the different "classes".  This can end up in several bikes getting the peoples hurrays

[Gurp]

I like that maybe once a year do some subcategories. Make it a big event maybe 75 days voting and nomination

[BPellerine]

stock bikes and cafe bikes seem to get the most mention,sometimes it is hard to see almost the same thing every month,even though they are nice bikes,with alot of work put into them,guys that do lots of miles and have the stories to tell appeals to me,as do the hotrods of the day when these bikes were considered a new thing.bill

[RAFster122s]

Are cafe bikes losing popularity? The cafe bikes I think peaked and tracker and brat style were the hot thing that took a slice out of the cafe segment.
Me, I cannot stand cruisers no matter who makes them, that is a personal preference. I can appreciate a nice paint job they often have when chrome is not overdone.

What has the traffic volume fallen to recently, compared to past years?

Some great ideas have been posted and I commend everyone for the input and participation.

I have increased my activity on the forum the past couple months but I am limited on time I can devote to following and keeping up. The forum design is to notify you once of a thread update and if you don't visit the thread you no longer get any updates about that thread again. Makes it tough when you get busy to keep up and not lose track of a thread. The forum does not show you the threads you wish to be notified about and that is a challenge that other forums I participate on do not have. All subscribed threads you want to follow are listed on those forums via a link in the header of every page. I follow two other forums, RCGroups - radio controlled models and the Honda CX & GL 500/650 forums. Neither share the same forum engine for hosting that forum.

FWIW, my $0.02
David

[SOHC4 Cafe Racer Fan]

Are cafe bikes losing popularity? The cafe bikes I think peaked and tracker and brat style were the hot thing that took a slice out of the cafe segment.
Me, I cannot stand cruisers no matter who makes them, that is a personal preference. I can appreciate a nice paint job they often have when chrome is not overdone.

What has the traffic volume fallen to recently, compared to past years?

Some great ideas have been posted and I commend everyone for the input and participation.

I have increased my activity on the forum the past couple months but I am limited on time I can devote to following and keeping up. The forum design is to notify you once of a thread update and if you don't visit the thread you no longer get any updates about that thread again. Makes it tough when you get busy to keep up and not lose track of a thread. The forum does not show you the threads you wish to be notified about and that is a challenge that other forums I participate on do not have. All subscribed threads you want to follow are listed on those forums via a link in the header of every page. I follow two other forums, RCGroups - radio controlled models and the Honda CX & GL 500/650 forums. Neither share the same forum engine for hosting that forum.

FWIW, my $0.02
David

David,

I think some traffic has been lost to Facebook groups.  Cafe bikes might be on the wane, but the OEMs now have many offerings for riders who want the reliability of a new EFI bike and those also include some cafe, tracker, scramber styling (Kawasaki, Triumph, Ducati, Honda, Yamaha, Husqvarna, BMW).

[Gurp]

I think cafe is on the downhill. Ultimately it comes to personal preference as I'm a Bobber Chopper kind of guy. Which has very little popularity here on this forum but this forum is the best place to find information on a single overhead cam Honda. In addition this is probably the best online community I've ever been a part of so that helps as well. I definitely agree a lot of traffic is lost to Facebook groups which is quite sad in actuality because the quality of information there is much lower and the sense of community is almost non-existent as you always have somebody bashing every post you see.

[Ichiban 4]

I agree with a lot of what's being said here.  Voting for BOM has been one of my favorite things to do over the past 10 (?) years that it's been active (wasn't it Heffay that started it  Glenn..anyone?). But seems to me that Forums posts have gone down noticeably over the past year or two.  Anyone else feel they've seen the same thing?

Anyway..I don't use F-Book or other social media myself..as feel it's too truncated and often has "gossipy" mentality..which feel I have better things to spend my time on (no offense to those who find it useful BTW).

Incidentally..I never nominated bikes myself for BOM..but enjoyed seeing/voting for those that were.  I'd still like to see it continue..but as other have suggested here..maybe the format needs to be modified to reflect the changing activity level of posts on forums (?)

I'd be happy voting on bikes say..quarterly..or even semi-annually..if came down to it.  Think (as said also) that leaving period between nominations..voting..and end of voting..open for longer..would allow more to vote (?)

These are just some of my impressions on this  subject.  I really hope that we don't lose a lot more SOHC 4 members to F-Book..social media..because I feel that this forum format serves a very useful/helpful purpose for those of us still into these old bikes..

Ichi

[PeWe]

A fun and entertaining build thread also well worth a price!
Like Terry's K2 bitsa and his Swamp rat project. He is a pure mechanic too that can do a lot of machining most people will leave to a pro shop somewhere.

Many old CB bikes are time machines that brings old memories back to us and people we meet while taking the bike out for a trip to a bike/car meet, cafe or restaurant somewhere. I see that when I take one of my CB750's out for a ride. People can admire the newer fancy and very powerful new bikes but start to talk about their old days when looking at the CB750.

They might have had one or still have one forgotten in a garage, a relative or friend might have had one. I have become used to listen to peoples memories instead of me describing my bike's old life and my adventures with it, restoration or rebuild details.

Earlier this year I took my K6 out for a ride and stopped at a Pizza & Kebab restaurant where  4 other guys sat. They had new about 200 hp racer bikes (Aprilia, BMW etc). One guy started to talk about his old memories when he was a young kid sitting on his uncle's CB750 K2 in the 70's. I saw his happy memories about that wow moment. I also remembered how big these CB750 looked like when I was 11-15 years old. I was not that tall then.


http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php/topic,45183.msg2060375.html#msg2060375