Least Favorite

[Bones]

Of all the bikes you have owned (ever), which would you say was your least favorite?

I will start.

Honda CBR600RR.
Not that it was a bad bike, by any means. In fact, performance wise, it was great. It just did not inspire me in any way. I rode about 1500 street miles on mine and more laps on the track than I could imagine to count. Never loved it, and it is the only bike I have owned I can say that about.

Jeff

[fganger]

Well if I had to pick a least favorite, I guess it would have to be my old Sunbeam. As close as I can remember, it was an S7 with a 500cc twin and a drive shaft. The two cylinders were inline with the frame (fore and aft). I sold my 1934 Harley 74 in order to get a more modern machine. I think my Sunbeam was made just after WW-2. Perhaps a 1946 or 1947 version.

Foolish me, I thought I was moving up in the world. Hell it had a pressure lube system, no more pumping the extra oil using the hand pump on the tank. How bad could it be?

The answer was ever so much worse. My Harley started, even in the winter it started. Yes! I needed to use the fuel pump on the tank to inject a bit of fuel into each cylinder head, but it started. All 12 horsepower pulling together - wow. The Sunbeam's 8 horsepower never pulled together, hardly ever started, and when it did start, it didn't like to stop quickly. I dumped, err . . . traded it to a fellow enthusiast for cold, hard cash. :058:

I do love seeing other people buying old machines and fixing them up. They are great to look at. But boy am I glad I don't own them anymore.

Frank

[Sir Limpsalot]

Would have to be my first. A 1963 BSA C15 (250cc single). It used to keep the neighbours awake barking all night. I think it was some sort of sick test by the BSA Management, if it put you off motorcycles for life - which by rights it should have done - then you weren't made of the "right stuff" to be a motorcyclist! If, on the other hand, you persevered with the faithless bastard then you were ok to move up to the bigger bikes/headaches.
More recently (well 20 years ago) I had an R65 BMW. For those who missed the delights of that particular model lets just say that the BMW designers showed an uncharacturistic sense of humor. Parts of it were brilliant. The handling was exceptional, even in the wet you could just crank it waaaay over. Like a Manx Norton. The engine was a disaster, slow to pick up and with the worst mid range vibration I've ever felt this side of a Norton Atlas.
The rest of it was a testiment to the cost cutting exercise being practised at Berlin at that time. Cheaply and shoddily finished it would corrode before your very eyes.
My dealer assured me "They all do that sir" so I traded it in on a CX500 that was superior in every respect except the handlng. Still, you can't have everything can you?
Over the last 38 years I've owned 26 bikes. Eight BMW's, six Triumphs, two Moto-Guzzi's, two BSA's, six Honda's, one Yamaha and one Suzuki. Some have been better than others it's true and sometimes I've had the "right" bike for the"wrong" reason which has made it less satisfactory but mostly they've been great fun.
Si.

[Dallara]

Hmmmmm... Least Favorite Bike I've owned???

Well, I tend to believe motorcycles are much like receiving a blowjo.. uh, oral sex... i.e. like the old saying:

"Receiving Oral Sex? Well, all I can say is the very worst I ever had was marvelous!"

But, if I had to pick one it would have to be my evil handling 1982 Honda VF-750-S Sabre...

http://www.honda-v4.com/sabmag/images/vf750s-1.jpg

That's a red 1983 model V45 Sabre above, but mine looked just like it except it was black...

Probably really wasn't the bikes fault, as I was trying to make it do something it was never designed to do - Road Racing.

I had just come off of a successful season on my 1981 Honda CB-900-F, but I got hooked into the marketing hype at the Honda new model convention and put my name on the first VF-750-S Sabre we were do to get. I was already deep into my second year of the Honda CR-250-R road racing project with a new 1982 water-pumper (I had done some experiments in 1981 with an '81 CR-250-R in the WERA 250 GP class that had been unbelievably positive so doing the improved 1982 model was a given...), and as such I was pretty damn certain I could do anything short of leaping tall buildings with a single bound...

But oh, baby! Was I wrong...

When the Sabre arrived from Honda (later than they had promised, as usual) I barely had time to put 600 miles on it, do the break-in maintenance, safety wire a bunch of stuff, mount some number plates and get it on the trailer for my first race with it. It just happened to be the debut race for my newly finished CR-250-R GP bike, too, but it was well sorted and plenty ready. On the trailer they went and we headed to Henderson, Texas, which is a tight, technical, up-and-down, twisty little road course.

I'll make this part short and sweet... though the sabre had good power, the handling scared me sooooooooooooooooooo bad that after practice it went back up on the trailer. I was absolutely sure if I had to ride that front-end pushing, shaft-jacking, wallowing, wiggling, wobbling monster in the race I would not only end up in the hospital but also take half the field with me! The damn thing never did the same thing the same way twice...

However, I did win the 250 GP class first time out on the CR MX'er-turned-road racer, and finished third in the next higher GP class against 500cc two-strokes and 750cc four-strokes... So the day wasn't a total loss.

Back to the shop we went, and in the next few weeks before the next race, which would be at Texas World Speedway, I started trying to exorcise the Sabre's many demons...

Sabre's came with a weird 17" rear / 18" front wheel configuration, and finding something even resembling production DOT race rubber for the 750 Production class was literally impossible in the sizes needed... I had run at Henderson with the worthless OEM Bridgestones, and like it or not I was going to be stuck with that friggin' rear tire for TWS. However, I did mount a Metzler REAR DOT race rubber tire on the front, hoping this would cure the Sabre's ponderous steering and dreaded Buick-like front end push. The goofy anti-dive braking arrangement was bypassed, as it increased compression damping so much that the forks literally hydraulic locked and would get the perilously pushiing front end to chattering, too, trying to trail brake the damn bike into the corner. The damn bike had too much compression damping anyway, so the fork damper rods were pulled and modified to free up the suspension up there, and the springs were stiffened by making some longer preload spacers. The airbox was modded to allow some more airflow, and the main jets richened up and needles raised a bit to get rid of a part throttle lean condition.

The biggest problem was the rear shock, which was undersprung and used air for preload adjustment... Nobody made another rear shock for the Sabre at the time, so that wasn't an option, and so I would have to live with way too much compression damping and damn near no rebound damping. In the shop we experimented with just how much air the rear preload adjuster would hold without blowing up, and foound we could live with literally twice as much as Honda said was the upper limit...

In other words we made the rear end literally rigid, but this seemed to be the only way to control the insane amount of shaft-jacking (yes, folks, the Sabre had shaft-drive) that made the bike hobby-horse like and an old Oldsmobile with worn out shocks.

We also managed to dump about 25 lbs. of weight by peeling away more and more extraneous stuff than I had before Henderson... Like the cooling fan, for instance.

When we had done about all we could do, and I thought it worked okay on the street, it got loaded up for TWS... The 250-GP MX'er/road racer wasn't making the trip to TWS (a 106 MPH top-end would have made it a sitting duck there...), but I was taking my trusty CB-900-F, which thankfully I had not sold, for the Open Production, Open Cafe (the Cafe class back then was equivalent to todays; SuperSport classes), and Open GP classes. The Sabre would run in 750 Production, and maybe in 750 Cafe if it didn't scare me too bad...

Well, it didn't scare me as bad as it did at Henderson, but it wasn't any picnic, either... It was fast enough on the straights, but trying to get the damn thing turned was running into a telephone booth with an 8 foot 2X4 under your arm and trying to turn around, and when it did turn the crappy Bridgestone rear tire would try to slide on corner exit so bad you were sure the back end was going to pass the front! The rear end working as a rigid one just wasn't making it, so some air had to come out to get it over the many bumps, but then the shaft-jacking returned with a vengeance...

To shorten this up some I will just say the Sabre got raced in 750 "Produce", but it only finished by me riding it like a touring bike damn near. Any attempt to take it by the scruff of the neck and force a good lap out of it was so scary, and tired you out so much fightin' it, that I could only do the first few laps, and by then the rear shock was so overheated that what little damping it had was long gone, and the engine temp was off the temp guage and the bike losing its one redeeming trait - competitive power... It wobbled and pitched so much at TWS that I actually bent both footpegs down and back from getting tossed up off the seat so many times. The bike had drug parts on it that I didn't even think it could touch down, and the cooling system was blowing out coolant and filling up the catch bottle...

I finished 6th or 7th on it in a class I used to always finish in the top three with on my CB-750-F, so for a production road racer it was not a step forward, but definitely a step back. The 1983 V45 Interceptor would change all that forever, however...

I parked the bloody Sabre and never raced it again... In fact, I only rode it again one time - after I had turned it all back into a street bike again and test rode it to make sure everything worked. It had less than 1,000 miles on it, and I sold it to the first guy that even acted like he was interested in it... I had owned it all of seven weeks, and two of those were with it on the showroom floor for sale.

I went back to the trusted 900-F, and the devil's own bike was history.

Cheers!

Allan (Dallara - NACD)

p.s. The Sabre was a pretty decent street-only bike, though...

[BobFV1]

Allan -

What a great story. Road racing a bike with that geometry and suspension must have been a real trip. I can see how the engine, back in the day, might have seduced you into taking her on the track, but it sounds like you had the predictable handling results.

Thanks for the great story!

[Arby]

I have two least favorites. One a rental and one I owned.

This past summer my wife and I and another couple flew out for the MotoGp and rented bikes on the HOG program. I got the last dresser that was available, a Tourglide something or other. It had the big frame mounted fairing plus all the bells and whisles.
Figured the wife would be comfortable and we would have plenty of luggage space.

We picked the bike up at Bob Dron HD in Oakland and headed south toward Salinas(where we had to pick up our tickets, as every other ticket out let was sold out). Leaving Salinas, heading towards our condo in Pacific Grove, we hit a twenty mile back up.

I was a little shaky leaving Bob Dron on this bike, but now I thought I was in big trouble. To sum it up, I felt like I was driving a two wheel Greyhound bus. Guys were shooting by on both sides(lane spilting and going up the shoulder) but I was afraid to do this with my wife on the back, because the handling felt so vaque I wasn't sure where we'd go if I pulled the trigger on it. So we doggy paddled all the down RT 68 to Hgway One where the gridlock cleared up.

Lucky for us a free transit bus ran right pass our condo to the track. We rode the bus to the track for both the Sat and Sun races.

But Monday Am we hit the road for San Francisco and pionts north on PCH.

We spent another week on that thing and we survived without incident, but we were both so glad to give that thing back.

I know that lots of people have 'em and love 'em, but I'm not one of them.

It ran well, nothing broke or anything, but I'm telling you it's the closest thing to a Greyhound bus on two wheels that you can buy. Or rent.

The least favorite I owned was a 1988 Kaw Concours. It looked good and ran good,plus it has factory hard bags.

If it was all I owned, I wouldn't have had a problem with it. But I also owned a '83 GS 1100E Suzuki that my wife and I had done a lot of sport touring on. Compared to the Suzuki the Kaw was Hot, slow, and got terrible mileage(38 compared tp 50).
Even my wife complained about the heat.

To sum it up, we kept the Suzuki 15 years, the Concours for two.
Even with soft luggage and chain drive, The suzuki was a much better sport tourer and all around bike.

Arby
(Bob)

[GPM]

Similar to Arby, my worst experience was on a bike I didn't own.

A couple of years ago, I spent two weeks testing Indians. It was a mileage accumulation test, using a newly developed motor. We rode 400-500 miles a day, on public roads, and at the GM Proving Grounds in Mesa, AZ.

Never having ridden a cruiser type bike, I wasn't sure what to expect. Well, after almost taking out the gas pump in my first 10 feet or riding, I figured out that those things weren't exactly flickable.

The whole experience was pretty pathetic. Parts kept falling off the bikes, windshields cracked, and they pretty much ran like crap. Running the banked turns at the ends of the high speed oval, flat out was a real eye opener. Buckhorn bars and floorboards just didn't inspire a lot of confidence.

In case anyone wondered why Indian went out of business, it wasn't just a poor marketing plan.

[Bones]

Allan takes the equivalent to a Mercury Marquis and tries to race it like a Corvette. That was good for a laugh.

You have to admit, though, it is kind of a pretty bike. Just because they don't turn and have Cool Whip charged shocks doesn't make it a bad bike....just one that you shouldn't try to maike go fast around corners.

Harry, I have visions of parts flying off behind you, and that made me laugh, too.

Here is an odd one, but not one that I owned: Ducati Dharma 900. I know, lots of folks love that bike. I meet up with some good guys on Sundays once in a while. It is an eclectic mix of bikes, for sure. We often play "hey, wanna trade bikes for a bit?" One friend wanted to ride my VFR when I had it and I was intrigued with his Ducati. Well, the best part about that bike was the sound. The frame was for shit, the brakes even worse and while the bike sounded like it was badass, it was slow as a pig. Where was the torque, at least? I couldn't trade back fast enough, except I couldn't catch up with him, and was afraid not to apply the brakes at least a half mile before any turns or stops.

Anyone ridden one of those?

Jeff

[Dallara]

Bones,

Trust me on this one... A Mercury Grand Marquis turns and handles a hell of a lot better than a Honda V45 Sabre. Having sold and owned both, I can assure that I would much rather race a Marquis against Corvette's than to again race a Honda VF-750-S Sabre against Honda CB-750-F's and Suzuki GS-750-E's...

Cheers!

Allan (Dallara - NACD)

[Sir Limpsalot]

Having spent what seems to be half my lifetime making racers out of roadsters, dialling in Yoshimura cams, fiddling endlessly with jets, reworking fork internals, machining up bronze swing arm pivot bushes and so on I know that sometimes surprising results can be achieved.
But trying to turn a VF750 into a racer? Jeeez, no way would I have tried to climb THAT particular mountain!!!!! You got balls my friend! (or something!!)
One day guys I'll tell you the tale of Geoff Johnsons TT win on an equally unsuitable bike - it's a cracking tale trust me.

Jeff, I was service manager at a Ducati/Moto-Guzzi dealer when the Darhma came out. I used to do the final road test before the new bikes were handed over to their owners. I rode lots of 'em. They left me completely underwhelmed too. The 900ss was just a tuned up version of the same bike, big open mouthed Dell-Orto carbs, Conti "silencers" etc. Very highly regarded as classics today. To be fair, by the standards of the day they were pretty good, nicer to ride fast than the sohc Honda 750 for example. The times were starting to change very quickly though and when Honda bought out the dohc CB750/900F's it left the Dukes dead in the water.
Incidentally, the warranty work on the Italian bikes back then was one hundred percent (every single bike we sold had at least one warranty claim on it) and I saw this week that the new Triumphs have it down to just one percent (one bike in a hundred having a claim) man we've come a long way in those last 25 years!
Keep safe (and warm, there are snow flurries outside as I write this!)
Si

[Dallara]

Simon...

Was that the year (1984 I believe...) that Geoff Johnson won the Open Production TT on a Kawasaki GPZ-900 Ninja? You know, the one with half a frame and rather... shall we say, uh... Questionable handling characteristics?

But I still want to hear the story, whether it was that win of Johnson's at the TT, or one of his other two.

And two other things... Didn't Johnson pass away a few years ago?

The second thing is a bit of trivia question... Except it wouldn't be far for you to play, Simon, as I'm sure you know the answer!

What is so significant about Geoff Johnson's TT win and how it relates to 2005?

Cheers!

Allan (Dallara - NACD)


p.s. Bones... I may NOT have been able to make a Mercury Marquis run with Corvettes, but I had tremendous luck in getting a Baja Buggy to compete with, and often beat, F-2 cars... :eusa_dance:

[Bones]

Si,
Indeed, the performance, even among non performance bikes, has come light years in the past 15-20 years. And reliability, too.

I know the modern Ducs make a lot of guys' testicles swell. Lots of mojo....perhaps more mojo than gojo. But they don't get me as excited.

Allan,
I used to drive a Mercury Marquis in 1976-77. It weighed more than the Queen Mary, consumed about the same amount of fuel, but would go fast in a straight line, if you had enough room to get it going. But get the hell out of the way, because Force= mass X acceleration!!!

I recall, in my idiotic and testosterone driven youth, trying to make that thing turn at speed. About 25 hp went to the power steering, which by the way, provided less road feel than in any car I have ever driven except the Ford Country Squire of the same era. The car leaned over about as much as Rossi does in turns these days. It had about a 2 million cubic inch engine if I recall correctly. I also recall playing around with the carb on that thing, without ANY idea what I was doing. Somehow, it still ran.

You could fit a Honda Goldwing in the trunk, too. Oh, the seventies.

I somehow recall the Corvette being able to turn better, but that was 30 years ago.

Jeff

[Sir Limpsalot]

For the interest in Geoff Johnson. Sadly, you're quite right he did pass away a few years back and the tale does very much revolve around that '84 win. That was the beginning though rather than the end of the tale.The full story should appear over in "Racing" in a few days. You see I'm very concious of the fact that I'm not a "natural" writer like you and Dave and that I rely on my enthusiasm to make up for lack of technique. I need to take my time to write it as best I can and do Johnson full justice.
As for your "trivia" question, well if you mean what I think you do,then all I can say is "They never learn do they?"
Si.

[DarthRider]

Si -

Re your writing...you actually write very well. But remember that unless you are trying to get paid for it or just show off or something, the only real purpose(s) of "writing" anyway is communication, preserving things for posterity, and/or enjoyment for yourself or others.

Given that definition, your writing is quite excellent and quite effective! And not at all bad from any perspective. I would much rather learn about experiences and the riders and machines people have known and touched than wade through text-book-proper English and "impressive" words few of us would ever utter in real life.

We're often taught to just "write like we talk". Like we are sitting around having a pint with other Peckerheads. In my writing on here I have to sort of "split the difference" between writing the way I speak & talk vs the Queen's English. If I throw in all the "Texan" I use amongst my real-life Peckerhead buds I've found I'm often perceived as an "ignorant hillbilly"...and that's not a particularly good thing!

When I'm writing for a magazine I write like I perceive the audience talks and in terms they are comfortable with. I can & do "write up" and "write down" from the way I speak. It's just communications not an English final exam or "look at me" session!

Lay it on us Simon...and anyone/everyone else who may be worried about their "writing"!

Dave

[Bones]

Dave,
I kind of like ignorant hillbillies.

The writing "style" issues are interesting. In my real life, I have authored , so far, 5 textbook chapters in my surgical specialty and several articles in peer reviewed professional journals.....but you would never know it based on my "writing" and punctuation on this site. I, too, enjoy the relaxed conversational style that seems to appear here.

Si, bring it on.

Peckerheads, indeed.


Jeff

[DarthRider]

Wow, Jeff!
I was a technical writer for about 3 years in a prior life...even with that background I can't even imagine writing about something as "technical" as surgery.
It must be very rewarding, to be published in a field like yours.
Dave

[Deans BMW]

Boneman, what is your speciality, if you don't mind telling?

[killer]

Honda VF700 Sabre, totally forgettable bike with no character or soul and limited abilities, ran perfectly of course.

[Bones]

Darth and Dean,
I am board certified in two specialties. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and Facial Cosmetic Surgery. Many years ago, I went to dental school first with the idea of being a dentist. I decided along the way that I wanted to be a surgeon, so I went to medical school after dental school, then trained in general surgery and then oral and maxillofacial surgery. I then did a fellowship in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery. It took a long time. Two doctorate degrees, 6 years of surgical training. I loved the school and training, but the hours were abusive the tuition was high and the pay was marginal (you get a stipend while training in surgery).

The textbook chapters are supreme examples of dry, technical writing. In many cases, author selection is a combination of who knows who and who has lectured or published elsewhere. That is how I was asked to write the first chapter. Then, the editor of the next multivolume text knows you from the first textbook and you get asked to write for the next book (because they know you are stupid enough to say "yes") and it goes from there. It is satisfying to see a 6 volume set on the shelf and know my writing is buried in there somewhere. I am sure nobody reads it, but that is OK. After the 5th textbook chapter over several years, I finally got smart enough to say "no, thank you" to the next offer. It is very time consuming.

This year I will finish being a board examiner in cosmetic surgery for the tenth consecutive year, have been the director of the oral board exams for my specialty for the past 4 years, and am considering saying "no thank you " to that endeavor next year, too. This is also quite satisfying, but a decade of that is enough, I think.

I assure you, the writing of textbook chapters in surgery text books is not difficult from an intellectual standpoint, at all. It is a lot of drudgery, fact checking and re writing. Writing articles for peer reviewed journals is more challenging. But, hanging out with my kids and riding motorcycles is a lot more fun, so that is what I try to do more of these days.

So, you guys will excuse my typos, inaccurate grammar and punctuation, etc. in these posts, right? Type fast and don't spell check!

Cheers,
Jeff

[socalrob]

Bones,

My older sister & her husband are both dentists. When I was in my late 20's & between wives, I hung out with them for quite a few dinners. Got to the point at one time that I think I knew a fair amount about dentistry.

When I was younger I was pretty active in the Land Surveying professional organizations & teaching surveying at a local university & giving seminars. On the state board of directors and local chapter president, that kind of thing. When kids came along that all dropped off. It may resume when the kids leave, we'll see, but remember, the kids aren't with us that long.

[Bones]

Rob,
Agree completely. I used to fly around the US giving lectures at meeting all the time before the kids were born. It seemed like an OK thing to do at the time and I enjoyed certain aspects of the travel. Now, I hate going away unless it is to do something very exhilarating and fun (like riding motorcycles on some trip or doing a high performance school). The kids go from 1-18 very fast.

Jeff

[Deans BMW]

I am very proud and honored to have so many obviously extremely talanted members of our little Cafe world.

Something very special about all of this, not sure what it is but it is definitely there.

With a doubt, has added to my motorcycling experience.

Thanks to all.

[DarthRider]

We're just a bunch of swell guys!

Dave

[Dallara]

And occasionally...

When the proper picture is posted...

A bunch of SWELLED guys. :eusa_liar:

http://www.usemycomputer.com/indeximages/women/Elisha.Cuthbert/ECSe16.jpg

http://www.usemycomputer.com/indeximages/women/Elisha.Cuthbert/HL4SM.jpg

http://www.usemycomputer.com/indeximages/women/Elisha.Cuthbert/Elishawp%20(7)_jpg_jpg.jpg

http://www.usemycomputer.com/indeximages/women/Elisha.Cuthbert/goldenwall.jpg

http://www.usemycomputer.com/indeximages/women/Elisha.Cuthbert/Elisha%20(34)_jpg_jpg.jpg

http://www.usemycomputer.com/indeximages/women/Elisha.Cuthbert/ECSe01.jpg

http://thighswideshut.org/images/cuthbert/cuthbertbeachwide.jpg

http://thighswideshut.org/images/cuthbert/cuthbertbeachtall.jpg


Cheers!

Allan (Dallara - NACD)