A pre-historic picture from 1971...
by: oldchopperguy - May 15, 2017 20:24:32 GMT -5
elcamino121 likes this
Post by oldchopperguy on May 15, 2017 20:24:32 GMT -5
Check this out...
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Eureka! Got it working. The PostImage site totally re-did their site, and I figured out how it works!
Please forgive the lousy picture quality... It's the best my Dad's old Polaroid would do...
As I mentioned, this little buzz-bomb laid in a buddy's business parking lot for months on her side. THAT bothered me, so I asked what was the story?
Seems it appeared one morning and sat for weeks. Finally, somebody knocked it over and then somebody ran over both wheels, bending them up beyond repair. So... I took it away, making my pal happy to have the derelict, corroding eyesore out of his lot. I just HATE to see a bike go to waste!
First, I propped her up on her broken wheels, cleaned her up, put some gas/oil mix I the tank and in just a few kicks, had her running like a champ! Boy, those 2-strokes are mighty simple and forgiving! I then checked the owner's status. It was stolen (surprise, SURPRISE...). The owner didn't want it. He didn't have a title either... Duh... So after a few days of dealing with the Illinois DOT I got a new "Homemade Vehicle" title. No insurance needed back then.
A trip to the local "Café Racer" shop and a few dead Benjamins later, she had brand-new rims and Pirelli tires. Another trip to a neighbor's junk-pile yielded a rusty pair of chamber pipes off a wrecked Yamaha 250 racer. I made a pretty slick seat with a plywood skeleton, padded and upholstered in Naugahyde, with a taillight built in... (One of my neatest and easiest mods!)
After shakedown rides, with drag-bars and homemade turn-signals I was amazed at just what a sweet little ride she was! Nimble as a cockroach and quick as Bill Clinton at a Girl-Scout retreat...
I cleaned her up well, then repaired and painted the beat up frame and tank, finished the pipes and badly corroded engine aluminum with matte-black "GunKote" and DANG! I had a fun little bar-hopper! Incidentally, this was the first bike I ever rode with a hydraulic disk front brake... THAT little perk I REALLY loved! Still do! Imagine! A bike that would actually STOP from highway speed in less than a full county... What would they think of next? Maybe a COMPUTER for your home or business? Or, a portable phone you could take with you? Naah... That'll never happen... LOL!
These featherweight "250 2-smokers" were different animals... Back then, some Japanese makers tried to make cheap, cool and fast little bikes for the entry-level rider wanting something cheap and simple, but faster than a Triumph 650 or a Harley Sportster.
Well, TECHNICALLY these did just that, but... The engine had somewhere around 30hp and with 6 gears it actually WOULD do the quarter-mile in just over 13 seconds, at over 100-mph. (I doubt the bike weighed much over 200 pounds...) Think a Chinese 50cc with 30 ponies and six gears...
BUT... That motor was the most rpm-sensitive, high-horsepower, low-torque ride I ever encountered... Yeah, I could quickly get her to
-mph on a LEVEL road, with NO wind and cruise near 100. BUT... Add a little headwind, or slight uphill, and she'd bog down to 65, and only constant up and down-shifting, keeping the revs at the "sweet-spot" around 9,500 if I recall would allow even a 70-mph cruise. Just to maintain speed it was shift 6-5-4... 4-3... 3-4-5... wind stops, back up to 6th again. The shifting NEVER ended...
Still, most of my riding was in-town where she'd definitely do 0-60 in 4 seconds... And I still weighed 295 pounds in that old picture. If I wanted comfort on the highway, I rode my 1970 Electra-Glide.
Helmets had yet to become popular... Check out that magnificent red "Afro"... I figured that would absorb impact... Yeah, right!
Enough reminiscing... The little buzzer WAS a lot fun, and seeing a 25-year-old "me" brings back some fond memories of making something neat out of discarded trash...
Ride safe!
Leo (pondering the motor in my Kymco being the same size as the Suzuki...) in Texas
Please forgive the lousy picture quality... It's the best my Dad's old Polaroid would do...
As I mentioned, this little buzz-bomb laid in a buddy's business parking lot for months on her side. THAT bothered me, so I asked what was the story?
Seems it appeared one morning and sat for weeks. Finally, somebody knocked it over and then somebody ran over both wheels, bending them up beyond repair. So... I took it away, making my pal happy to have the derelict, corroding eyesore out of his lot. I just HATE to see a bike go to waste!
First, I propped her up on her broken wheels, cleaned her up, put some gas/oil mix I the tank and in just a few kicks, had her running like a champ! Boy, those 2-strokes are mighty simple and forgiving! I then checked the owner's status. It was stolen (surprise, SURPRISE...). The owner didn't want it. He didn't have a title either... Duh... So after a few days of dealing with the Illinois DOT I got a new "Homemade Vehicle" title. No insurance needed back then.
A trip to the local "Café Racer" shop and a few dead Benjamins later, she had brand-new rims and Pirelli tires. Another trip to a neighbor's junk-pile yielded a rusty pair of chamber pipes off a wrecked Yamaha 250 racer. I made a pretty slick seat with a plywood skeleton, padded and upholstered in Naugahyde, with a taillight built in... (One of my neatest and easiest mods!)
After shakedown rides, with drag-bars and homemade turn-signals I was amazed at just what a sweet little ride she was! Nimble as a cockroach and quick as Bill Clinton at a Girl-Scout retreat...
I cleaned her up well, then repaired and painted the beat up frame and tank, finished the pipes and badly corroded engine aluminum with matte-black "GunKote" and DANG! I had a fun little bar-hopper! Incidentally, this was the first bike I ever rode with a hydraulic disk front brake... THAT little perk I REALLY loved! Still do! Imagine! A bike that would actually STOP from highway speed in less than a full county... What would they think of next? Maybe a COMPUTER for your home or business? Or, a portable phone you could take with you? Naah... That'll never happen... LOL!
These featherweight "250 2-smokers" were different animals... Back then, some Japanese makers tried to make cheap, cool and fast little bikes for the entry-level rider wanting something cheap and simple, but faster than a Triumph 650 or a Harley Sportster.
Well, TECHNICALLY these did just that, but... The engine had somewhere around 30hp and with 6 gears it actually WOULD do the quarter-mile in just over 13 seconds, at over 100-mph. (I doubt the bike weighed much over 200 pounds...) Think a Chinese 50cc with 30 ponies and six gears...
BUT... That motor was the most rpm-sensitive, high-horsepower, low-torque ride I ever encountered... Yeah, I could quickly get her to
-mph on a LEVEL road, with NO wind and cruise near 100. BUT... Add a little headwind, or slight uphill, and she'd bog down to 65, and only constant up and down-shifting, keeping the revs at the "sweet-spot" around 9,500 if I recall would allow even a 70-mph cruise. Just to maintain speed it was shift 6-5-4... 4-3... 3-4-5... wind stops, back up to 6th again. The shifting NEVER ended...Still, most of my riding was in-town where she'd definitely do 0-60 in 4 seconds... And I still weighed 295 pounds in that old picture. If I wanted comfort on the highway, I rode my 1970 Electra-Glide.
Helmets had yet to become popular... Check out that magnificent red "Afro"... I figured that would absorb impact... Yeah, right!
Enough reminiscing... The little buzzer WAS a lot fun, and seeing a 25-year-old "me" brings back some fond memories of making something neat out of discarded trash...
Ride safe!
Leo (pondering the motor in my Kymco being the same size as the Suzuki...) in Texas
