04-22-2017, 02:46 AM
I've had 3 big inch Harley Twins (49,56,and 57). They had thumping vibes. A lot of them. One time my brother and I were headed to Gatlinburg. He was on his Moto Guzzi 850 Eldorado and I was on my 57 Panhead. We were headed down I-75 in northern Kentucky. I was having trouble keeping my feet on the pegs and my helmet was vibrating around on my head. My glasses were bouncing, my vision was blurry. I look over and my brother is just sitting there on his Guzzi behind his Wixom fairing without a worry in the world. I motioned him to pull over. He asked what was wrong and I told him I couldn't take it anymore I was going back home. When I got home I sold the panhead and bought a characterless 2 stroke Yamaha RD 350. Great bike. I also had a Sportster (2 actually..59 and 94) that had the thumping V twin vibes. Below 55 mph they just shook. Above 55 MPH it shook so bad it made your hands and feet itch and about 60 mph was all I could stand for any length of time. Then I've had (3.. a 73, a 79 and an 81) 650 Yamaha parallel twins. They had thumping twin vibes too... just across and not fore and aft. At idle they would walk across the garage floor on their own. At speed they shook. At a lot of speed they broke delicate things like bulbs, and license plates lol. Also had a 69 BSA 750 Rocket 3 triple. It ran well, and as I remember was pretty smooth compared to the others. It's character claim to fame was the persistent oil leak I couldn't fix, that permanently marked every pair of levis I owned at the time. Sold it too. All 6 made a lot more noise than my CB. Guess I've had my share of "character", but just found it mostly annoying and aggravating lol.