Gas powered bikes?

clarkenstein

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
JORBA.ORG
Everyone faster than you is a maniac.

That’s the truth.

We were holding on fine in the beginning but both of us unconsciously decided together at about 15 minutes in: nope, not today.

When we hit the more open county roads (higher speed limits) was where I personally threw in the towel.

I like the tighter, almost single lane roads that have no double yellow paint, that are all turns. That’s where you don’t need to go Mach 10 to get your lean on.
 

mfennell

Well-Known Member
airport-rs250.jpg
Nice breakfast ride yesterday. We peer-pressured jeff into bringing out his Aprilia RS250. There was a race series around 2000 or so that used race-only RS250s. His bike was one of the first, and was originally an EU-spec street bike. When they started the race series, they commissioned Zero Gravity (yeah, the windscreen company) to convert them to race bikes. They assigned them new 15 digit (not compliant) VINs and put a plate on the headstock over the original 17 digit VIN, which they mostly ground down.

Jeff bought this bike a couple years ago and has been gradually converting it to a street bike. Fortunately, it had a full wiring harness, which later Cup bikes did not. As mentioned, he discovered the original 17 digit VIN, just barely visible. He managed to title/register it in another state despite no paperwork associated with the VIN.

So different from my own RS250. Mine has crazy pipes, a cut up airbox, and runs pre-mix. So it's LOUD and it smokes like a chimney when you start it or let it idle for any period of time. Jeff's bike has a pump for oil injection and stock exhaust. It injects far less oil at idle/light throttle, so it doesn't fog out the whole area. It's far more civilized.
 

mfennell

Well-Known Member
Thank you sir, may I have another?

db4-home.jpg

What we have here is a 1999 Bimota db4, one of 265 or so. Bimota is a tiny Italian company that made its reputation building high performance bikes around engines from other companies, initially Japanese brands when all their frames were junk. This one is powered by a Ducati 900cc air-cooled 2 valve twin as found in the Ducati 900SS of the same year, except many lbs lighter. My scale puts it at 388 with an almost full tank. It has a "Corse kit", which was dealer install when new. It includes Keihen flat slide carbs (which don't have a choke!), pod air filters, and a titanium muffler. Those who have ridden both versions say it's a completely different bike with the kit. It's pretty damn loud and I think I'm going to keep it that way. :)

Looking forward to tomorrow morning's ride! It hits a sweet spot IMHO. 80hp, under 400lbs. Fun, not scary.
 

extremedave

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Thank you sir, may I have another?

View attachment 196419

What we have here is a 1999 Bimota db4, one of 265 or so. Bimota is a tiny Italian company that made its reputation building high performance bikes around engines from other companies, initially Japanese brands when all their frames were junk. This one is powered by a Ducati 900cc air-cooled 2 valve twin as found in the Ducati 900SS of the same year, except many lbs lighter. My scale puts it at 388 with an almost full tank. It has a "Corse kit", which was dealer install when new. It includes Keihen flat slide carbs (which don't have a choke!), pod air filters, and a titanium muffler. Those who have ridden both versions say it's a completely different bike with the kit. It's pretty damn loud and I think I'm going to keep it that way. :)

Looking forward to tomorrow morning's ride! It hits a sweet spot IMHO. 80hp, under 400lbs. Fun, not scary.

Bimota made some absolutely drool worthy stuff back in the day. Man, that is cool. Although new stuff is awesome, I sorta miss the days when Muzzy, Yosh, Attack et al could make so many improvements on the factory offerings.
 

clarkenstein

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
JORBA.ORG
So I sold my motorcycle last week because I never rode it enough...and now I'm already looking at motorcycles again...lol

That’s the way this works. It’s Hotel California.

Now you can pick something for the way you ride. Not a bad problem. Used prices are getting softer now too.
 

mfennell

Well-Known Member
After an awesome Allaire MTB ride yesterday, I stopped by my friends' shop as they got their sh*t together for the weekly ride. They don't realize (yet) that I should store a bike down there too. :)

Snapped a quick pic. Laverda Jota 1000 on left. Suzuki RG500, Norton Commando 850, Buell XB12(?) in the middle. Ducati Monster S4Rs on the right. The Norton and Buell needed the rollers to start. The RG initially coughed to life on 2 cylinders with gas pouring out of one of its carbs. There was a Buell Lightning that needed the rollers as well.


annex-ride.jpg
 

mfennell

Well-Known Member
Owning a vintage bike sounds so attractive when you think about it, but is so annoying when you actually do....

I think messing around with cranky bikes is half the fun with this group.

The ones they ride fairly regularly (I've seen the Laverda out a bunch of times) are pretty good. The RG hadn't moved in at least a year. Probably true of the Norton as well.
 

clarkenstein

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
JORBA.ORG
Owning a vintage bike sounds so attractive when you think about it, but is so annoying when you actually do....

I have had a few 1970s Hondas come and go through the garage now. They aren’t as bad as it seems as long as you stay on top of them.

I’ve found it’s best to have a solid modern bike so you can tinker with the other.
 

michvin

Active Member
I have had a few 1970s Hondas come and go through the garage now. They aren’t as bad as it seems as long as you stay on top of them.

I’ve found it’s best to have a solid modern bike so you can tinker with the other.
Very true. If I ever have a vintage bike - it would be a second bike that I can afford to have in a non-running condition.
 

Effjay

Member
I have had a few 1970s Hondas come and go through the garage now. They aren’t as bad as it seems as long as you stay on top of them.

I’ve found it’s best to have a solid modern bike so you can tinker with the other.
This, absolutely. Sitting unused is the worst thing for them, particularly with modern corn water that is passed off as fuel. In the past I've messed around with draining the carbs but there's always a passage or circuit that maintains some residual to evaporate and gum up the works. I've tried periodically starting but find that I'm too forgetful and a week turns into months. Modern, injected bikes seem much more resilient when it comes to prolonged sitting in this regard.
 
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