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As some of you may know, I'm grounded for a while, but it only makes me think “bikes” more.
I've considered getting another bike for a daily ride so that I can work on fixing up my '79 Special and keep it around for rallies and special events and keep my really cool handle.
The last time I strained my back trying to pick it up myself, my buddy Ray suggested I might consider a smaller bike, and indeed I have. I have this fantasy of going the opposite extreme and getting something like a thumper: a 500 single.
SR5's are cool, but they are collectibles now, and not cheap or easy to find. Yamaha made a bike with a big single, something like a 600 or 650 single. The engine is still being made, I believe, but it is being used in other brand bikes. I think it may have been used in a BMW single a few years back. I've only seen one on the street once. I chased him down to ask what it was, but that was a couple of years ago and I forgot what he said it was.
Honda made a 500 single called an “Ascot” I believe. It was air cooled, overhead cam, and had 2 exhaust valves with an exhaust pipe for each valve. It looked almost “race ready” for flat track.
At a local classic bike show I saw a 250 flat tracker that had been made street legal. It had racing plates that very cleverly concealed a halogen headlight and turn signals. It would be so cool to have a light, nimble middleweight street tracker to buz around town and the mountains on.
But less exotically, the bike I had before my Special was a Kawi 444 Ltd Special. It looked just like a slightly smaller 2 cylinder version of my'79. I would have been happy with it for a couple of more years, but the starter went out on it one time too many, and I was so pissed that Kawi would build a bike that small with no kick starter that I sold it for next to nothing and it was a couple of years before I got the XS11.
So here is your quiz:
1. Any idea what that Yamaha thumper was that I saw and when it was made?
2. What year(s) was the Ascot made?
3. What bikes did Honda and Yamaha build (besides the XS650, of course,) that were popular in flat track racing: (particularly 500 c.c.)
Anybody got any middle weight suggestions?
Special Ed
I've considered getting another bike for a daily ride so that I can work on fixing up my '79 Special and keep it around for rallies and special events and keep my really cool handle.
The last time I strained my back trying to pick it up myself, my buddy Ray suggested I might consider a smaller bike, and indeed I have. I have this fantasy of going the opposite extreme and getting something like a thumper: a 500 single.
SR5's are cool, but they are collectibles now, and not cheap or easy to find. Yamaha made a bike with a big single, something like a 600 or 650 single. The engine is still being made, I believe, but it is being used in other brand bikes. I think it may have been used in a BMW single a few years back. I've only seen one on the street once. I chased him down to ask what it was, but that was a couple of years ago and I forgot what he said it was.
Honda made a 500 single called an “Ascot” I believe. It was air cooled, overhead cam, and had 2 exhaust valves with an exhaust pipe for each valve. It looked almost “race ready” for flat track.
At a local classic bike show I saw a 250 flat tracker that had been made street legal. It had racing plates that very cleverly concealed a halogen headlight and turn signals. It would be so cool to have a light, nimble middleweight street tracker to buz around town and the mountains on.
But less exotically, the bike I had before my Special was a Kawi 444 Ltd Special. It looked just like a slightly smaller 2 cylinder version of my'79. I would have been happy with it for a couple of more years, but the starter went out on it one time too many, and I was so pissed that Kawi would build a bike that small with no kick starter that I sold it for next to nothing and it was a couple of years before I got the XS11.
So here is your quiz:
1. Any idea what that Yamaha thumper was that I saw and when it was made?
2. What year(s) was the Ascot made?
3. What bikes did Honda and Yamaha build (besides the XS650, of course,) that were popular in flat track racing: (particularly 500 c.c.)
Anybody got any middle weight suggestions?
Special Ed
Just bought a 1980 Special that has been non oped for 9 years. My Skoot will rise from the ashes and be re named "The Phoenix!"
2004 RCM-50GL 2008-2010, Don't ask, don't tell (don't really know)
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