Author Topic: Bikes wierd and wonderful (Read 103968 times)

Bob3050 · « **Reply #450 on:** June 02, 2012, 03:26:36 PM »

I rode to the regular Saturday gathering of cars and bikes at the do-nut shop in Pismo Beach this morning and ran across this little beauty there. It is a 1962 Cushman Eagle. The owner said it has been bored and stroked from 21 cubic inches to 30. He also told me that the little Roots type blower puts out 14 pounds of boost. I don't know how it performs but it sure sounds nasty.
Bob

Hush · « **Reply #451 on:** June 03, 2012, 09:42:35 AM »

Who ever thought plastic square guages and that styling would be a good look?

http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=481354312

Bob3050 · « **Reply #452 on:** June 03, 2012, 04:27:13 PM »

I went to a concours in San Luis Obispo today and saw a couple of truly great bikes. The first one is Burt Munro's "Worlds Fastest Indian".

The second one is a replica of Kenny Roberts Yamaha TZ750 flattracker. There was no one around this bike to tell me anything about it but it must be a replica because the original is in the AMA museum I believe.
After Roberts won the mile national at Indianapolis on the TZ750 he said "They don't pay me enough to ride that thing."

Hush · « **Reply #453 on:** June 03, 2012, 07:39:43 PM »

I think Burt thought he was building an aeroplane!

Hush · « **Reply #454 on:** June 16, 2012, 02:37:06 PM »

I remember these new, biggest bang you could get for your buck with Yamaha trail bikes, this one is a beautiful rebuild.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=485326767

Hush · « **Reply #455 on:** June 20, 2012, 02:49:54 PM »

Did these ever get to the states?
A friend had one in the 70's and it was as fast if not faster than the Yamaha RD350 so pretty darn quick.
Getting rare these days and haven't seen one on the road in a decade, this guy is on the right track in his rebuild and not asking the world.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=486559098

LesterPiglet · « **Reply #456 on:** June 20, 2012, 02:52:07 PM »

Quote from: Hush on June 20, 2012, 02:49:54 PM

Did these ever get to the states?
A friend had one in the 70's and it was as fast if not faster than the Yamaha RD350 so pretty darn quick.
Getting rare these days and haven't seen one on the road in a decade, this guy is on the right track in his rebuild and not asking the world.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=486559098

A friend of mine had one of those and it was quick. It didn't like our weather much so didn't last long. Crap electrics iirc.

CycleRanger · « **Reply #457 on:** June 26, 2012, 01:33:06 PM »

Behold the Hungarian Wood Cycle!

"Hungarian Istvan Puskas poses with his wooden chopper in Tiszaors, 100 miles east of Budapest on Thursday.
Puskas, a 52-year-old tractor driver, built his bike in two years from firewood. "

More here: http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/motorcycle-enthusiast-builds-his-dream-chopper-out-of-wood-and-it-runs.html

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #458 on:** June 27, 2012, 03:04:30 AM »

I don't want to seem snobbish, but personally, I think that wooden motorcycles are a waste of perfectly combustable firewood.............

Hush · « **Reply #459 on:** June 28, 2012, 09:55:09 PM »

Is that running mechanical Mikunis or CV carbs?

Slug750 · « **Reply #460 on:** July 02, 2012, 02:26:30 AM »

Ten years ago I bought a basket case Suzuki PE250 trail bike. I tidied it up a bit and tried starting it. No go. Tried off and on for a few weeks and gave up. Cleaning out my shed one day I pushed the PE250 outside when my 4 year old son said: "How come that motorbike doesn't go Dad?" I said it should go and I really didn't know why it hadn't started. With that, and after not touching it for about a month, I just casually kicked it over - once. That PE started and pretty much revved to flat out immediately. I don't know what they revved to but this thing went to red line - and stayed there. I switched it off, then turned the petrol off, even flicked the plug lead off - all in quick succession - the yard was now full of blue smoke and this thing was still absolutely screaming with no spark and no fuel. It was getting hot now too - really hot! I'd already told my young bloke to run and decided now was a good time to run myself. So I did. It must have looked funny to anybody watching but this bike had now been screaming at full revs for what seemed like 15 minutes but was probably closer to 2 full minutes. It eventually stopped. I was shaking and people on the block were starting to look over fences because of the noise and all the smoke. Finally found out that a 2 stroke left sitting can leak fuel into the crankcase until there is a lot of fuel down there - once started there's no need for fuel any more because you've got a cycle of fuel and detonation that just keeps going until the fuel in the cases is all gone. Whew! It was scary stuff! Slug

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #461 on:** July 02, 2012, 03:03:03 AM »

I saw the same thing happen "back in the day" with a guy's almost new Suzy GT550 2 stroke triple, I think they call it "dieselling"? He pulled the plug leads off and it made no difference, it ran for a couple of minutes at redline. Scary stuff! Cheers, Terry.

Hush · « **Reply #462 on:** July 03, 2012, 02:18:01 AM »

Yep Terry, on the money as per usual, dieselling.
Pretty frightening stuff and I'd be running too.

Hush · « **Reply #463 on:** July 09, 2012, 01:56:20 PM »

Never seen one and was built same year I was born so gotta be a classic!

http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=492342396

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #464 on:** July 11, 2012, 05:45:21 AM »

Very nice Hushy, I got offered a "Coronation Model" Ariel square 4 back in the 1970's for 1000 bucks, in mint condition, as pulled out of a farmer's shed. Of course, back then 1000 bucks may have been a million bucks, but it was a pretty cool bike.

If you see one with the big fancy coronation badges on the sidecovers, it's probably worth a fortune mate!

Now here's a weird one, I love Moto Guzzi's, and I love Choppers, but I'm not sure that I love Moto Guzzi choppers?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/76-MOTO-GUZZI-OLD-SCHOOL-CHOPPER-/280917574238?pt=US_motorcycles&hash=item4167fe025e#v4-39

Greggo · « **Reply #465 on:** July 11, 2012, 07:02:32 AM »

Here's a Rumi Scooter my dad's shop partner is sitting on. He says it handles like a much larger motorcycle, and is waaaay faster than it looks

Hush · « **Reply #466 on:** July 13, 2012, 12:39:00 AM »

No Terry, that is a serious waste of a Guzzi, I got a mate at work would very very likely king hit anyone selling such a defiled Guzzi.

Hush · « **Reply #467 on:** July 24, 2012, 10:47:35 AM »

More in the absolutely wonderful when finished category but still a looker, very powerful bike was the 750 waterbus, massive machine for a two stroke too.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=497051229

Tugboat · « **Reply #468 on:** July 25, 2012, 11:08:50 AM »

Whoa! Didn't even know they made 750 2-strokes.. cool!

Hush · « **Reply #469 on:** July 25, 2012, 02:29:35 PM »

Yep the GT750 Suzuki was the king around NZ when I was a teen on my AC50, there are still a lot of them around with many now being rebuilt much like our beloved CB750's.

Radam · « **Reply #470 on:** July 25, 2012, 03:24:38 PM »

One of my friends had a project "water buffalo" is what we called it. He ended up selling it because it was hard to find parts, and he got a lot for it in rough shape to fund other projects. I was a little disappointed because I wanted to see it run. Cool bikes.

Teatimetim · « **Reply #471 on:** July 27, 2012, 01:40:44 PM »

Dang, I'm feeling bad.. I recently had a chance to get a waterbuffalo running for $1000

FrankenFrankenstuff · « **Reply #472 on:** August 10, 2012, 07:11:58 AM »

http://boston.craigslist.org/sob/mcy/3141288842.html
This frigging guy put a Triumph motor into a dirtbike frame as well as a POS streetbike frame and then tries to sell them as cafe racers.

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #473 on:** August 10, 2012, 05:40:17 PM »

Quote from: FrankenFrankenstuff on August 10, 2012, 07:11:58 AM

http://boston.craigslist.org/sob/mcy/3141288842.html
This frigging guy put a Triumph motor into a dirtbike frame as well as a POS streetbike frame and then tries to sell them as cafe racers.

Uh oh, Terry's bad taste alert! As much as I'd rather have the complete original Triumph 650 bike Joe, I don't mind that thing, the Hawk was a mid range "nothing to see here folks, keep walking" boring commuter bike, so no loss there, but if the whole deal only weighs 310 pounds, it's probably a hoot to ride. Definitely weird, but I like it, in a quirky way.

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #474 on:** August 10, 2012, 05:59:45 PM »

Quote from: Hush on July 24, 2012, 10:47:35 AM

More in the absolutely wonderful when finished category but still a looker, very powerful bike was the 750 waterbus, massive machine for a two stroke too.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=497051229

That's a nice "Water Bottle" as we referred to them in Oz mate, I had two, an "L" model (later one with detuned engine and CV carbs etc) and a "J" model like that one, but not as nice. The one I really want is the "K" model, which looks like that one but had twin front discs. (the 4LS brake on the "J" looks nice, but is crap compared to twin discs)

Water Bottles (or "Water Buffalo's" for the US, "Kettles" for the UK etc) were good torquey 2 stroke triples, they made a lovely sound and puffed a lovely shade of blue smoke. (and lots of it if the crank seals failed and the engine sucked in and combusted the gearbox oil, which is common) They weren't particularly fast, (they were about as fast as a CB750) but they were heavier than a CB750, they occasionally ate spark plugs and they were exteremely heavy on fuel.

GT750's were a lot more civilised that Kawasaki's H2 750 triple, and were popular with the long distance touring set. I rode one from Melbourne to Bairnsdale (180 miles point to point) in 2.5 hours in 1979, only to discover that I'd left the rear axle nut loose when I adjusted the chain and the only thing holding the wheel in line were the chain adjusters! Oh well, that which doesn't kill you makes you smarter........

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Author Topic: Bikes wierd and wonderful (Read 103968 times)