Classic motorcycle photos

166915 Views 404 Replies 46 Participants Last post by Richard230, 12 d ago

Richard230

Discussion Starter · Mar 10, 2013

9

Along with the cars, a group of classic bikes showed up. [

]

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mnbikeguy

· #361 · Feb 7, 2022

5

Here is my 1979 Honda CB750F Super Sport that I restored. It had been wrecked and the owner sold it along with another CB750c for $200. The CB750F was the beginning of the arms race between Honda, Kawasaki, and Susuki. It had an air-cooled dohc engine that made 72hp and preceded the VF750 Interceptor. It was a significant step towards the modern-day superbike. Still, a fun bike to ride on occasion.

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Richard230

Discussion Starter · #362 · Feb 7, 2022

I used to ride a 1980 Honda CB750F. However, I wasn't too impressed with the bike. Too heavy and under-damped "Fade Very Quickly" shocks. I was much more impressed with the 1983 Kawasaki KZ750-L3 that replaced it.

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mnbikeguy

· #363 · Feb 8, 2022

Definitely not a lightweight! I think it's around 510 lbs and forks are pogo sticks unless you go up the oil weight, cut the spring, and put in a spacer. Still wouldn't press it very hard. It does have a pleasant sound and it turns heads at bikes and coffee.

Richard230

Discussion Starter · #364 · Mar 20, 2022

9

At Alice's Restaurant today I saw this beautiful 1938 Indian 74 (Chief?) and parked next to it was a nice old 1960's Triumph 500 bobber. [

] Photos attached.

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Richard230

Discussion Starter · #365 · Apr 3, 2022

4

It has been a while since I have seen a 1986 Yamaha SX600, like this one.

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Gunther

· #366 · Apr 4, 2022

[

] Wow! Congrats on the owner. It's always been one of my favourite, a naked bike as it should be, even though I've seen only the EU version, without the oil heat exchanger, also side panels came without slits. I suppose it's the japanese version, the EU one came with a solid torque bar.
Unfortunately, here you can hardly find one, more chances in Switzerland, France and Germany (not cheap though [xx(])

Richard230

Discussion Starter · #367 · Apr 4, 2022

Gunther said:
[] Wow! Congrats on the owner. It's always been one of my favourite, a naked bike as it should be, even though I've seen only the EU version, without the oil heat exchanger, also side panels came without slits. I suppose it's the japanese version, the EU one came with a solid torque bar.
Unfortunately, here you can hardly find one, more chances in Switzerland, France and Germany (not cheap though [xx(])

The owner said that it was a poor seller in the U.S. and was only imported here one year. He said that since it was kick-start only, most motorcycle riders didn't want it as by the 1980's motorcycle riders had lost their interest in kick starting a motorcycle. He found his example sitting on a showroom floor with just a couple of thousand miles on the clock and paid something like $2000 for the bike. He also mentioned that he had modified his bike somewhat, with a different muffler, ported the head and it is possible that the oil cooler was added. I forgot to ask about that, but I don't think that was on the stock models.

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Richard230

Discussion Starter · #368 · Apr 11, 2022

2

Here are a couple of photos of the latest and greatest Honda sport bike that I saw parked in a dirt lot across the street from Alice's Restaurant yesterday. A 2021 1000cc Fireblade, I believe. Quite some paint job. Other than that, I know nothing about this model.

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Richard230

Discussion Starter · #369 · Apr 24, 2022

5

Today at the Alice's Restaurant parking lot was another Yamaha SRX6 and a pretty decent BSA 441 Victim, still plugging along. [

]

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Sprint-Man

· #370 · Apr 27, 2022

Great photography and sometimes happy memories attached, thank you :violin:

(If Alice has her restaurant in California but Alice Springs is in Australia (Northern Territories I believe) - That's a hell of a pipeline?)

Richard230

Discussion Starter · #371 · Apr 27, 2022

Sprint-Man said:
Great photography and sometimes happy memories attached, thank you :violin:

(If Alice has her restaurant in California but Alice Springs is in Australia (Northern Territories I believe) - That's a hell of a pipeline?)

Alice's Restaurant, located 30 miles south of San Fransisco, was never owned by a woman, much less owned by someone named Alice. It is currently owned by two brothers who live in the area. They bought the restaurant about 10 years ago when it was going downhill as the previous owner was snorting all of the profits. I don't know what the original name of the restaurant was, which was built sometime during the 1930's, but its name changed not long after the Alice's Restaurant song and the movie of that name became popular, around 1970, I believe. A bit of a ripoff, but it worked to make the place a lot more popular, especially with motorcycle riders during the 1970's and 1980's, when hundreds of motorcyclists would visit the restaurant and park three rows deep in the large Skylonda strip mall parking lot across the street. Unfortunately, the scene up there is not like that anymore. Now you are lucky if you see 20 motorcycles on a weekend parked on either side of Skyline Boulevard and the expensive sports cars outnumber motorcycles 2 or 3 to one.

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Lighning

· #372 · Apr 29, 2022

Richard230 said:
I used to ride a 1980 Honda CB750F. However, I wasn't too impressed with the bike. Too heavy and under-damped "Fade Very Quickly" shocks. I was much more impressed with the 1983 Kawasaki
KZ750-L3 that replaced it.

Funny, to an 18 year old suddenly into motorcycles, 1970 Monte Carlo 402 small block purchase fell through, that Honda 750 seemed like a really nice bike although I really wanted the Turbo 500. I bought a 1977 Honda 400 Hawk as my first bike and that bike was had the worst suspension and brakes but it was pretty fun.

MGD109

· #373 · Apr 29, 2022

Richard230 said:
.........but its name changed not long after the Alice's Restaurant song and the movie of that name became popular, around 1970......

Thanks for enlightening me Richard. I wonder, every time you post pics form here which came first. If I honest I'm a little sadden that this is not the place you can get anything you want.

Prof

· #374 · 12 mo ago

2

Just got a new old bike. It's a 1989 Honda GB500 Tourist Trophy. In the UK, I think it was called the Clubman. Only imported for 2 years in the US, ridiculously expensive for what it was, not very fast, but Soichiro Honda's tip of the cap to the Matchless G50 and other British singles that were winning at the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy back in the 60s is still a very pretty bike. My cousin, who also owned one, was talking about the experience of riding one of these little 500cc thumpers. He said it was a "happy" bike, and I agree. Great fun, and even turned the heads of a few Harley riders a week or two ago. I will now try to post a picture for the first time. Let's see if it works.

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Richard230

Discussion Starter · #375 · 12 mo ago

5

Here are some photos of a Royal Enfield 500 Bullet Royal "Oilfield" that I saw today at Alice's Restaurant. If I had to take a guess I would say it is a well restored late 1960's model, but I don't really know for sure. Maybe someone here can pin the tail on this donkey. [

]

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ccwatchmaker

· #376 · 12 mo ago

If memory serves, the short shift lever is for finding neutral from any gear. Unique, I think, to Royal Enfield. With turn signals, maybe early seventies.

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Richard230

Discussion Starter · #377 · 12 mo ago (Edited)

Apparently that Royal Enfield Bullet 500 that I posted photos of above is a highly modified Indian-manufactured bike, according to the experts on the Royal Enfield forum.

Here is a comment about that Royal Enfield from a RE forum member:

That is an INDIAN-built Bullet, check the frame with the big through bolt above the gearbox. Indian wheels, Indian forks, Indian etc...

Yes, someone has changed the headlamp assembly, switches and carb, but that's not enough to judge by, quite a few Indian iron barrel Bullet owners do that. A quick look through the Hitchcocks' accessories catalog will confirm.

Someone has even fitted a Redditch "Big Head" cylinder head, which might be a Redditch original, or it might be or one of Hitchcock's reproduction items from a few years ago. These have the letters HMC cast into the right hand side, but those could easily be ground and polished off.

Another RE forum member says:
It's a late model Indian made IB bullet, like Adrian mentioned the through bolt above the gearbox is a good indication of being an Indian made frame. The spoke pattern, hub and brakes too are from the Indian made bullets.

Looking at the Timing Cover, cap screws are used which would indicate its an engine with metric fasteners and would have had a PAV emissions head on it. The font of the engine number stamping and breather is also a give away.

Another thing that easy to overlook is that on the frame gusset plate it has a hole underneath the front of the fuel tank. That is a provision to add the frame gusset cover plate which was standard on the Thunderbird models.

Looks like a lot of work trying to make an Indian model bullet look like a Redditch model.

Well, that bike sure had me fooled.

If you really want an education regarding the differences between the British-manufactured Royal Enfields and the Indian-made ones you can watch this video. One thing that caught my attention was the examples of the old bikes' frames. From a modern perspective, it is amazing that they didn't bend in half when cornering.:

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Rev Ken

· #378 · 12 mo ago

Richard230 said:
Apparently that Royal Enfield Bullet 500 that I posted photos of above is a highly modified Indian-manufactured bike, according to the experts on the Royal Enfield forum.

Here is a comment about that Royal Enfield from a RE forum member:

That is an INDIAN-built Bullet, check the frame with the big through bolt above the gearbox. Indian wheels, Indian forks, Indian etc...

Yes, someone has changed the headlamp assembly, switches and carb, but that's not enough to judge by, quite a few Indian iron barrel Bullet owners do that. A quick look through the Hitchcocks' accessories catalog will confirm.

Someone has even fitted a Redditch "Big Head" cylinder head, which might be a Redditch original, or it might be or one of Hitchcock's reproduction items from a few years ago. These have the letters HMC cast into the right hand side, but those could easily be ground and polished off.

Another RE forum member says:
It's a late model Indian made IB bullet, like Adrian mentioned the through bolt above the gearbox is a good indication of being an Indian made frame. The spoke pattern, hub and brakes too are from the Indian made bullets.

Looking at the Timing Cover, cap screws are used which would indicate its an engine with metric fasteners and would have had a PAV emissions head on it. The font of the engine number stamping and breather is also a give away.

Another thing that easy to overlook is that on the frame gusset plate it has a hole underneath the front of the fuel tank. That is a provision to add the frame gusset cover plate which was standard on the Thunderbird models.

Looks like a lot of work trying to make an Indian model bullet look like a Redditch model.

Well, that bike sure had me fooled.

If you really want an education regarding the differences between the British-manufactured Royal Enfields and the Indian-made ones you can watch this video. One thing that caught my attention was the examples of the old bikes' frames. From a modern perspective, it is amazing that they didn't bend in half when cornering.:

Riding an Army RE the frame didn't bend, but it did sheer off at the head stock going cross country..... My swallow dive was much appreciated.....

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ccwatchmaker

· #379 · 12 mo ago

While starting to read Richard's post this morning, I had a strange moment. When I read the phrase, "That is an INDIAN-built Bullet..." I was thinking no, they have it just backward. It was Royal Enfield that built Indians.

I was back in the early fifties, thinking of the Indian Motocycle Co. (Yes, it is Motocycle, Indian spelled it always without an "r"), but Richard was referencing the manufacturer in India that makes the modern Royal Enfield motorcycles. As I read further it dawned on me that it was the company in India that Richard referred to as Indian, which is of course correct, but initially confusing to one with a long memory.

Back to the fifties, the early fifties, when the Indian Motocycle Co. was struggling to stay afloat, they were selling Royal Enfield motorcycles in the U.S. rebadged as Indians. I always recall a close friend and fellow biker who referred to the company as Royal Indianfield.

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Richard230

Discussion Starter · #380 · 11 mo ago

8

More motorcycle photos from Alice's Restaurant. [

]

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