Topic: What Vintage Motorcycle Brand(s) Would You Have If It COULDN'T Be A Honda???

[MoTo-BunnY]

        Sorry there MoTo-BunnY,

                             This would be more my style of the Indian Fours (not my color though)!



   
                                   

I definitely wouldn't turn that bike down, fo' sure.  .. .  .I'm just not a fan of those huge fenders, they just look weird to me? lol  I don't like cars with those skirted wheel wells, either.   

Here is another example of what I'm diggin' . . .. 

Due to the shocking absence of Brough, Vincent and Triton I opted for an Indian and a Ducati



I've just noticed, all the above are twins, remind me again, why am I riding an SOHC4?

I left out Brough and Vincent (though I would DEARLY love either bike) because they are sooo rare and expensive. (not that an Indian Four wouldn't be. . ..lol). I guess I was just kinda thinking more like what motorcycle(s) would you (and could you. . .) actually be into if you didn't have the Honda(s) - as in a 'quasi-realistic' scenario?   

[Kamal]

Yamaha All The Way.

Can you say RD400, IT dirt bikes, and that beautiful vintage yellow??

[loonymoon]

I put Triumph and Norton as I'd love a triton cafe racer. I also love the Triumph Hurricane that was a reallly nice triple.
I'd also go Vincent too as they had some real innovations. Velocettes were good bikes too.

[nickjtc]

Apropos of nothing....just a thought.

If you put together all of the bikes ever produced of the various choices made in this thread so far, you would probably still end up with fewer total bikes than the annual production of any of the modern 'big names'.

eg. HD makes 350,000 machines a year. Norton made 60,000 Commandos over 10 years.

[bill440cars]

             Hey Nick,

                    Ever wonder how many of those 60,000 Commandos are left and where they are?
             Just a thought I had. Maybe someone's got one stashed away and needs ME to come and take
             it away for them. Hey, I wouldn't even charge for my gas.

                                                          Later on, Bill

[GroovieGhoulie]

Hodaka
Vincent
Triumph/Norton/BSA/British something...

[Bob Wessner]

I bet you would be the only one on your block to have one of these. Imagine the questions, "What the h#ll is that?"

[MoTo-BunnY]

That Munch Mammut is just screaming for a 'Starry Night' gas tank paint job. . . . 

I read several vintage articles about that bike in various motorcycle magazines we have in stock in our store .  ..looks like it was quite the beast and hella expensive. The engine was originally out of a car and made by NSU.  ..one of the various attempts at limited run 4 cylinder bikes before Honda came along and did it (right) on a full production bike. 

Ever seen the 'Amazonas'?  It was a run of bikes made in Brazil with a VW bug motor!

[Wheelhorse77]

82 Suzi GS1100GL

My dad's bike... I've grown up with the thing. Plus I've seen a vintage bike report where the bike ran 11.20 at 122 mph... I was thinking, yup, she's a little faster than the SOHC.

[mikedialect]

Ducati, Indian, Norton

[Quail "Owner of the comfortable k8"]

Triumph/Norton/BSA

[ekim98]

Norton - Yellow Submarine, I read an article about one about 40 years ago, and ever since I've wanted one.
Vincent - Black Shadow Read a road test from Cycle Magazine that they did at an Air Force Base.                       Only place they could find a straight paved surface long enough to stop it once they got it up to speed - about 152mph show room stock.

[droopy]

So I would say that if I could have ANYTHING I would probably get a pre-war Indian Four or Chief (but that would be WAY more money than I would see anytime soon. .  . lol).

I also think the Vincents are hOt (plus, there's the Hunter Thompson connection). . he he. But if I had to pick a realistic brand that I like that I could actually get parts for and ride, I'm thinking a BMW? Probably because they look pretty cool and they're kinda familiar to me having been in the air-cooled VW scene for many moon prior to motorcycles. .  .dunno really know that much about them, though. . .  except that parts are WAY more spendy than Honda!

I don't know BMW with VW engine  best of both worlds

[ekim98]

So I would say that if I could have ANYTHING I would probably get a pre-war Indian Four or Chief (but that would be WAY more money than I would see anytime soon. .  . lol).

I also think the Vincents are hOt (plus, there's the Hunter Thompson connection). . he he. But if I had to pick a realistic brand that I like that I could actually get parts for and ride, I'm thinking a BMW? Probably because they look pretty cool and they're kinda familiar to me having been in the air-cooled VW scene for many moon prior to motorcycles. .  .dunno really know that much about them, though. . .  except that parts are WAY more spendy than Honda! 

 But like the Honda, if you take care of the BMW it will last you a life time.

[MoTo-BunnY]

I don't know BMW with VW engine  best of both worlds

I have seen a few of those. . .pretty kewl! I have one our of our old motorcycle magazines around somewhere, where in 1966 a guy put a VW engine into his Harley. Pretty bizarre combo but it looked great, almost factory. (then again, he WAS a machinist for a living)

This bike is pretty styley:



They say its a 'Porsche engine' which is kinda true - its out of a 914 but it was made by VW (VW - Audi - Porsche were all one company like GM, at one time I believe) and is also found in the '72-79 VW vans - just 'detuned' a little. I had a couple of those vans - traveled all over the US in one of them . .  .kinda funky, fun rides.   

Also, look up the "Amazonas". It was a Brazil venture using a motorcycle with a VW bug engine in it (since they made that motor (and car) under license, there). It looks like a crazy big Goldwing or something. . .lol.

[droopy]

Yep there is a adaptor plate to use the Transmission
from the bmw bike to mate it to a vw bug engine

[kpier883]

Either an air cooled big bore Kawasaki or Suzuki - KZ1100 bored out or Suzuki GS1000 bored out
Yamaha 2 stroke street 250 or 350, and
maybe a Kawasaki 2 stroke triple

I would want to have things that could be ridden and which enough were built that parts to keep it running are readily and cheaply available.  I always kind of liked the sound of the small Yamaha 2 stroke street bikes with stock mufflers.

Old BMWs might fit the bill too and might add some long distance capabilities....  choices...

[shoggoth80]

Only 2% of us voted for BSA? For SHAME people!!!
The fact of the matter is, if I could have my choice of vintage motorcycle... there would be several that I'd have in the garage (and I am honestly hoping to get somewhere with this goal one day!). A BSA A65 would make a fair start! A Vincent if I ever get seriously rich... Nortons are amazing... I have a slight "thing" for Eastern Euro machines... which means I like CZ/Jawa as well.... and the Dnepr M72... BMWs are well engineered.... get the drift? I thought so.
I imagine most of us are this way though. I am actually going to try and save up money while I am in college to reward myself with a BSA when I graduate. Doesn't have to be 100% original, or functional... I like to wrench. This is actually one that I wouldn't roll out to anything other than as close to original as I could make it.

No one dropped a line for an H2 or an H1? If you want adrenaline, that is the quickesst way to get it! I saw a couple mentions of the triples... this is a good thing! Though I didn't see a specific model designation. Ok...so I ramble.

[Terry in Australia]

Suzuki - GS1000S "Wes Cooley Replica" (I've got two)
Harley - Any 1960's Sportster will do me, they were quick, and light, back in the day.
MotoGuzzi - Lemans "Doctor John" Special, I saw one once, and fell in love.

I must be getting old, I've seen a Munch Mammoth and an Amazonas in the flesh when they were relatively new, (big and ugly, but smaller in CC than Triumphs new rocket three) and even a couple of VW powered bikes, plus of course, we have a company here in Oz that manufactures VW and Subaru powered trikes. Long live individuality!

[Bob Wessner]

You're right about the Munch, but I still find them strangely interesting. Must be old age as you said.

[Terry in Australia]

Well I was just thinking about that Bob, it's ok for me to say that the new Triumph is bigger than the Munch or the Amazonas, but back in the day, the Munch was physically an ENORMOUS bike compared to the sleek, narrow Triumphs, Norton's and BSA's that were considered "big bikes" at the time.

Really, motorcycles have gotten much larger in recent years, just looks at the new Triumph twins, they look HUGE in comparison to their forebears, not to mention the 1800cc Goldwing, or the BMW K1200LT etc. Cheers, Terry.

[mikedialect]

You're right about the Munch, but I still find them strangely interesting. Must be old age as you said.

that is SWEET! Looks like a toy

[Aaron J Williams]

I've always wanted an Ariel square four and a late sixties Guzzi Eldorado!

[fuzzybutt]

i voted norton because NORVIN wasnt a choice. i'd LOVE to do one of those with one of the new vincent motors.

[MoTo-BunnY]

i voted norton because NORVIN wasnt a choice. i'd LOVE to do one of those with one of the new vincent motors.

Yup - I hear that, very classy bikes - I love the Vincent motor, especially that wicked curved exhaust header.



I went to the new Vincent site (http://www.vincentmotors.com/) and played around with the 'configurator' thingy playing cycle designer. . . .here is what I came up with:



I tried to keep it as true to the original in appearance, as possible - don't want to modernize it TOO much  : )

Also, I think that I read that the new Vincent actually uses a Honda motor?!? (I guess its still in the prototype stages or something)  kinda interesting. . . . .