The Other Michael

"Crotch rockets" are fine, it's the squids that often ride them that are the problem.

cheers,
Michael

Arvel Joffi

I've been cut off and nearly hit in cars too many times; a motorcycyle is not an option. I mean, the pavement is right there!

You all are crazy.

Just Another Infidel

I like 'em, but never had one. Realistically speaking, I tend towards more "practical" machinery and two-up touring is my most urgent requirement. Currently riding a 98' Valkyrie and I plan to be riding it for many years to come.

Although not really a sport bike, I am considering trying to pick up a slightly used ST1100 to use as a solo tourer and bad weather commuter. I'm getting tired of trying to keep the yuck out of all those nooks and crannies on the Valkyrie.

JAI

BigJim

Sure. If I was insanely rich, and had a few hundred g's to blow.

HeatherD

When it came to crotch rockets, I remember an old friend of mine.

He was a truck driver and owned a Harley (supersport or something), anyway he never had much love for these things.

He said that from the cab of his truck crotch rockets looked "like a monkey fucking a watermelon"

Arvel Joffi

Here's another article for ya, ya crazy bastards.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=1998808

Gooch's dad

Michael,

Yeah, I'd heard that you could get most of a Vincent put together from reproduction parts. The prices I've seen on a few of these parts seems frighteningly high. I imagine that if I tried to put together a Series C Black Shadow from these parts, I would end up spending about $50k. And even though Vincents are expensive, they aren't that pricey.

I'll just have to keep buying lottery tickets and hoping...maybe I should give Peter Egan a ring and see if he'll let me come twist the throttle on his Vincent. He lives near Madison.

As for the crotch rockets--I have never been fond of multis, I tend to like motorcycles with 1 or 2 cylinders the best. Plenty of horsepower for me, and top speed isn't my goal. I remember going up Mount Tam in the early 90's on my BMW with some guys on extremely fast Suzukis, and on the twisty-turny stuff I kept up just fine.

-Kelly

The Other Michael

Hi Kelly,

IIRC, the Vincent engine/Terry Prince framed bikes that were trying to be produced in Australia were going to be in the $20-25K range, and that was with modern wheels/suspension.

You can buy a complete full-race modern CNC'd BSA Gold Star engine (no trans of course) for about US$9K A Quaife 6 speed gearbox and belt primary drive would run another $2500-3K, and you could put together a Seeley or Manx replica chassis for about $5K, which would include magnesium Fontana racing brakes.

The Vincent has more bits, but remember that the people having the parts reproduced are generally doing it because they want them available to go riding. Modern CNC technology makes short production run stuff a lot more affordable, and with some reasonable demand there can be some small economies of scale.

I thought I saw that Egan sold his Vincent. He seems to have some new bike 2 or 3 times a year.

I've been helping a buddy with a 1972 Honda CB175 cafe racer project (and he's going to bring that out to vintage race this year). He's in the south bay so he rides in the hills down near Woodside, and says that while the modern bikes he rides with disappear on the uphills/straights, once he catches up he finds that he can usually knife through them in the twistys.

Other than a Trident engine, all my stuff has one or two cylinders. I don't have much use for going over 80 mph in a street bike - though I don't mind being able to get to 80 mph pretty quickly.

cheers,
Michael

The Other Michael

Sorry, Harley and "supersport" are pretty much mutually exclusive.

Buells are kind of neat, but Buell is replacing a number of parts in the Sportster engine. Sadly, H-D's work on the VR1000 superbike seems to have only resulted in that V-rod thing.

And the sportbike riders have plenty of derogatory things to say about the cruiser riders, so both sides seem to be able to give as good as the get.

I've never understood the cruiser attraction. A big Guzzi will go just as slow as a typical cruiser, and generally handle and stop better when you want to go fast. Actually, I think the cruisingest current Guzzi model was recently noted for being significantly better performing in the handling stakes than its cruiser competition.

But if people want to ride cruisers that's fine with me, as long as they don't slow me up with one of their "we're mean, we're cool, we're waay slow" groups on the road.

cheers,
Michael

I ate Pascal's Wafer

I like sportbikes. I don't have one at the moment, but I'm planning on buying an SV650S. I have enough for a downpayment, and only need to work a few months to get the rest. The problem is that my parents won't cosign a loan for me, so I have to save up to buy the bike outright as well as insurance for it. I don't mind doing this, but the loan would be a great way to establish credit.

Anyway, I really enjoy sportbikes. They're fast, stylish (in my opinion), fun, etc. Now if I could just get my hands on one....

-Nick