Previous motorcycles

[furious_blue_imp]

Well I've had a bunch over the years; this is about the oldest picture I have though. This was taken in Aug '68 and I had just turned 18.
[url=http://s596.photobucket.com/user/pacwnc/media/brandnewAug1968.jpg.html]

This bike is a '69 XLCH that I traded in my 6 month old Honda CL450 for. I forgot what I got for the trade-in but the price of the CH was $1899. It's getting its first tank of gas at a little mom n' pop just down the road from where I worked in Springfield, IL. during my lunch hour. We were very busy at work and the dealer delivered it to me and I hadn't even had time to take the plastic off the seat.

The two other kids in the photo worked at the station...I had a crush on that girl but her Dad wouldn't let her go out with me because I was a high school drop-out and rode motorcycles to boot...
I wish I could see the price of gas on that pump...I'm thinking it was about .25 cents a gallon or so...

Anyhow, I owned it for two years and about 25k miles. Believe it or not ( it was an AMF Harley after all ) except for some initial teething problems, I never really had any problems with it.

Pete C

great photos and great story !

As far as the Dad is concerned, not only were you a drop out and riding a motorcycle, but it was a Harley Davidson to boot. Back when Harley had a real image problem (something that kids in general today don't have any idea about :-) )

Since that time I've always had a soft spot for Sportsters and thought, at some point, I'd own another. When the XR came out a 3 years ago I couldn't resist and went and bought one but it just wasn't the same. Decent bike and all that (kept if for a year and a half) but I never really bonded with it like I did with my original...

T Wolfe...you really can't go home again, etc, etc...[url=http://s596.photobucket.com/user/pacwnc/media/SN851727.jpg.html]

Pete C

Since that time I've always had a soft spot for Sportsters and thought, at some point, I'd own another. When the XR came out a 3 years ago I couldn't resist and went and bought one but it just wasn't the same. Decent bike and all that (kept if for a year and a half) but I never really bonded with it like I did with my original...

T Wolfe...you really can't go home again, etc, etc...[url=http://s596.photobucket.com/user/pacwnc/media/SN851727.jpg.html]

Pete C
I thought that those XRs were great looking Sporty's. Apparently, most of America didn't agree :-o.

Sorry that it didn't float your boat...

I bought a Triumph Speed Triple a handful of years back hoping that it would be the mid-70's Triumph Trident that I lusted after but could not afford at the time (it was all I could do to keep my CB350 running).
The Speed Triple had power, had handling, had a nice sounding engine, but it just wasn't doing it for me as a motorcycle...

Old Harley ads used characterize Japanese bikes as disposable Bic cigarette lighters (as I'm sure you recall !).. well, that's that the Speed Triple seemed like to me (for reasons that I don't quite understand).

I sold it for the CB1100.. relatively speaking, the CB1100 doesn't have power and it doesn't have handling.. but it is to me a *motorcycle*, one that I know I'll keep.

Same here, Furious. When I first started riding in the mid-70s, one of my riding buddies had the Trident (purple trim, if I recall). I was on my lowly CB360T. But that Trident sound!!! I could follow him all day just to hear it. He still has it in his garage, but it hasn't been ridden for probably 25 years. And he won't sell it to me (crap).

Parallel lives ! I never suspected at the time that there was someone else going through the same thing at about the same time :-)

The original Trident was a masterpiece of manufacturing craft. IMHO, mass producers today will not design an engine that requires so much effort to create start to finish... Maybe that's what was disappointing about the modern Speed Triple to me, aside from power, the engine was designed for ease/low-cost of manufacture and it shows it out in the open (I don't mind an ugly but functional non-descript engine that's hidden under plastic).

Our CB1100s on the other hand, my god, the cylinder head casting !