mike21091

Just as the title says, lets share our motorcycling history as in what bikes you've owned, interesting stories, lessons learned. I'll start it off

My first ever "motorcycle" was a 2005 ADLY Jet 49cc 2 stroke scooter that was given to me for free, it didn't run, it had no headlight, or bodywork, it had 9k miles on it and had been sitting for over two years. Oh and it didn't have any keys. It belonged to the boyfriend of the daughter of a friend of my dads and he was tired of it sitting in his shed. He got the boyfriend to sign the title over but he had lost the keys. (Before you ask I checked the VIN on the scooter and the title and they did match)

I got it home and hotwired it and managed to get it running and broke the gas cap lock free so I could just turn it with a screwdriver. I rode it around the neighbor hood and was quite shocked that it actually got up to a gps verified 48-50mph. I then went on a shopping spree at places like Lowes and Harbor Freight and came back home with a 20w 12v halogen bulb which I stuck in a pill bottle and used for the low beam and one of the 55w fog lights out of the $15 set at Harbor Freight as a high which was bolted to the rear rack from the scooter which was bent and bolted to some brackets on the front. Now it had only one turn signal on the right rear and according to Florida statutes, if you have turn signals mounted they need to function but if no turn signals are present at all you can just use hand signals. So off came the signal. I got it registered and titled and for a total cost of $160 I was street legal. First day out on two wheels I have a lady pullout in front of me with less than half a car length while I'm going 45mph. I jam on the brakes and lock the front, let off the front as I swerve to the left, scooter starts falling down and I jam my left foot down at over 30mph and manage to keep it upright and make it to the red light ahead alive. (Remember this is my first day ever legally riding a two wheeled vehicle and to make matters worse I am (STUPIDLY) wearing sleeveless t-shirt, shorts and FLIP FLOPS!)

next to me at the light the lady pulls up next to me and I can't help my slef and angrily shout "You could of f***ing killed me!" to which she says as 4 kids are climbing around in the car unbuckled "Would you not curse in front of my kids." The light turns green and I take off, I see in the mirror she turns off and at that point I decide to make a u-turn and follow her. I see where she had pulled into a driveway and slow down to a couple mph so I can read and hopefully memorize her license plate number. She and I guess her husband or boyfriend starts yelling and I yell back "I got your plate number and will be reporting you!" I then start off again and go to make a u-turn down the street and angrily whack the throttle open while leaned over at 10mph in gravel and drop it. Picked it back up and headed home.

Lessons learned are...
- I assumed that since she looked at me she saw me, Assume you're invisible.
- Don't let your anger get to you.
- Beware of road conditions.

My second bike was a 1980 Honda CM400A Hondamatic that my father gave to me with a blown engine. He had bought it with 15k on it 3 years prior after 30k (45k now on the odometer) miles the cam chain guide came loose and wrapped itself around the crankshaft, luckily since it was the 2 speed hondamatic with a torque converter it didn't lock the rear wheel. He then asked me if I wanted to attempt swapping the engine and I proceeded to swap a 1981 hondamatic engine into it that was in a $100 parts bike he had bought prior. 10 hours later it was running on that engine which had 29k miles on it and had been sitting outside under a tarp for a decade. That lasted another 15k (60k now on the odometer) until metal shavings showed up in the oil. That's when he gave the bike to me and I bought a parts bike with a 400 5spd and a 450 6spd for $350 and swapped the 450 in and rode it for a few weeks before the started clutch disintegrated. I decided to buy a newer bike at this point because I could and because this was a 30 year old bike and even if I fixed the starter clutch there is the age of the bike to consider. (The started clutch is mounted directly on the end of the crankshaft so replacement required splitting the engine cases!)


My third bike was a 2006 Kawasaki KLR650 with a Stanley FatMax toolbox bolted to the rear rack. It had 31k miles on it when I bought it at the Barneys dealer in Brandon, FL for $2800 out the door. It had a slight weep from the water pump and thanks to the research I had done before hand I knew it was a seal or two and would be no more than $30 in parts to repair, I told the salesman about the leak and they threw in a $50 barneys gift card. The only other faults with the bike was the chuck missing out of the small firing the half the size of a fist, missing hand guards and one footpeg was missing a rubber cover. It was a fun bike but I managed to low-side it 3 times and in the process bent the subframe, and tweaked the frame. I ended up selling it for parts 8 months after I had bought it for $500. The rear master cylinder was held on with 20ft of twine, I regrettably beat the hell out of it being stupid but the reason I sold it wasn't just because of the damage but because I had just lost my aunt, mother and uncle to cancer within the first 6 months of 2012 and I realized I was getting too reckless on a bike and decided to sell it before I killed myself.


My third bike was that same 1980 Honda CM400. It was November 2012 I felt I could get back on a bike and be safe and since this Honda was still sitting in the garage I swapped the engine again and ... well ... long story short I didn't have the funds to fix it properly and was using what I would imaging being third world rigging and that only got me so far. When I had done my 4th engine swap (which only took 3 hours from rolling the bike into the work space to riding it out, compared to 10hours for the first time) in the thing I was on my final engine, one had seized it's self, one had a cam chain tensioner wrapped around the crank, another had a failing starter clutch and a rod knock.) This engine was starting to loose it's starter clutch and guzzled oil at a rate of 1 quart every 200 to 500 miles, the needles and everything it the carbs were severely worn and the intake boot were in such bad shape that nearly half oa tube of gasket sealant was used in them and then multiple bungee cords were used to hold the carbs against the cylinder head to minimize vacuum leaks. The front tire was starting to dry rot, the rear tile was balding, the chain was rusted, the rear sprocket was wobbly and at would only do 55mph and would slowly loose power the more you rode. ride for more than 10 miles and you'd have it pinned in 2nd gear doing 40 and struggling but I rode it like that for 2 months and ended up frying the CDI module and parked it.

My fourth bike is my 1998 Honda VTR1000 Superhawk with 46k miles on it.
I picked this up in mid January 2013 and the most interesting thing with it is that when I swapped the MCCT's in I didn't torque the mounting bolts properly or maybe it was because of the lack of loctite that the front mounting bolts backed out 2 days later and I bent the valves in the front cylinder head. What's ironic is that the sale of the 1980 Honda CM400 and all the parts for it is what's funding the repair of my VTR.

Here are some pictures...













Now lets hear from you.

NHSH

Too much to write.... especially if I have to add all the bikes I ever rode, That would be 20 times the list I owned.

I'll just list the bikes I owned from the very first one
Piaggio 50cc
Vespa 150PX
Vespa 200PX
Suzuki GS 400
Suzuki GSX 750R
Cagiva 200 (Enduro 2 stroke street legal)
Suzuki DR 600
Yamaha XT600
Honda NX650
Suzuki RGV250
Honda Nighthawk 650
CBR600 F3
Honda XR650L (left to a friend in NY)
Honda Nighthawk 750
Honda XR650L
Suzuki DR350
Honda VTR1000F

8541Hawk

How much time do you have.......

The first time I rode a "bike" a Honda Trail 70 way back in 1967 at a ripe age of 6

superbeater

I had a Rupp mini bike with a 5hp lawnmower pull start engine. The block wore to where the crank vibrated. The con-rod snapped and judo-chopped the cam. A short block got it back on the road. The frame cracked at the steering head. The lawnmower shop welder didn't pull it back together enough before welding. Now I had a chopper. It had disc brakes but they never worked. I tried everything I could think of. I mostly drug my feet to stop. Right before I sold it I lubed the cables with WD-40. Suddenly awesome brakes.

I learned a lot but mostly that a manual is a very valuable tool.

NHSH

Exactly my point

Squid