Yes, you are getting it done, Terry, on your varied fleet of mile-gobbling motorcycles. I have a fair amount of envy of your bikes and your rides as I have one CB and one direction (west) to ride. Up until now I had counted 7 bikes, 4 Japs, a Brit, a Yank, a German.
19 bikes?? Wow!
Thanks Kevin, having lots of bikes is great when you want to take a particular route on a particular day. The big Yamaha is great for fast sweeping bends, but no so good for really tight corners, great for cold weather like we're having at the moment, but not so much in summer when the thermo fan kicks in and blows hot air over the rider in 100 deg F temps.
The downside as I'm sure Eric, (with around 3 times as many bikes as me) would agree, is that it's almost impossible to keep them all running, and roadworthy. So far this year I've bought new batteries for my Triumph Rocket III, my Honda VFR750, My Kawasaki KZ1000, my Yamaha FJR1300, and my Z1-B project bike. I like Motobatts, so batteries alone have cost me around $700 (AUD) this year alone. I was surprised to see that I hadn't ridden the BMW since 2014, but my last log book entry (mandatory for bikes on "Club Permits) shows the last ride in April 2014. I'd bought a Yamaha FJ1200 around the same time, and as much as I love BMW's, the Yamaha was just a better, faster, more exciting bike. I recently bought a Luftmeister turbo kit for it from Ted here, that I'll install on it once I find a couple of parts that were sadly missing, and it'll be a much more interesting bike. Problem is, these kits were rare 30 years ago, and are "unobtainium" now.
Numbers wise, there are 2 Brits (Triumph Rocket III and BSA C11G) 2 Yanks (1973 and 1994 Sportsters) 1 German (BMW K100RS) 1 Indian (Royal Enfield 650 Continental GT) and 13 Jap bikes, 2 Kawasaki KZ1000 and Z1B 900, (another KZ1000 will be built from extra spares from these two builds) 2 Yamaha's (FJR1300 and XS650) 1 Honda VTR1000F, 2x VTR1000R SP1, (RC51 in the US) 1 VFR750F, 3 x CB750 and 1 x CX500. There are enough engines, frames and wheels to build a couple more CB750 "bitsa's".
All are insured, which costs around $6K per year, and the 4 currently in storage, costing around $4K per year, which will go up by around 25% when I move them into a better facility in the next couple of weeks. 4 bikes have full registration ($2600 per year) and 2 currently have club permits, ($140 per year) I was looking at the fat 240 rear tyre on the Rocket III yesterday and decided that after 13 years (and only 13000 Km, or 8000 miles) it's overdue for replacement. I'm pretty sure that tyres for Triumph Rocket III's are probably the most expensive motorcycle tyre you can buy, and only a few manufacturers make them. I'm no fan of Metzler tyres on BMW's, but the tyres that my Rocket left the factory with in 2007 have been great, so I'll probably fork out around $700-800 for a new set.
Bottom line is having lots of bikes is fun, but it's expensive. I'm 60 now, and so spend a lot of time thinking about retirement. As much as I'd love to keep them all, I think a "cull" will need to happen over the next few years to whittle the herd down to just 4 or 5. But which ones? I bought them all because I wanted them, so how do I decide which ones to keep? Even the really uncomfortable ones (RC51's) are so elating to ride at speed, you can forgive the "racer crouch" riding position for the occasional blast in the hills. I think it might just have to be a coin toss, in the long run.............
