VINTAGE HONDAS

[peterbaron]

I love seeing vintage motorcycles, particularly BSAs. I had a 1996 Lightning that I made into a café racer. Probably spent three times as much on fiberglass and racing parts as I did for the bike. In the late 70s I restored a 1971 BSA Lightning that had been altered into a quasi chopper.

I am a neat freak, so I seldom keep anything that I don't use. But for some strange reason I have kept a book "The Story of BSA Motorcycles" paid for in British pounds. The book has cutaway diagrams of various BSA engines. I also held onto to a 1967 BSA brochure.

These are definitely nice to revisit, especially original articles.
Came across these beauties on the showroom floor this afternoon. The '76 Gold Wing is in absolute original condition. The '79 CBX had restoration work done, but is nevertheless wonderful.

These are definitely nice to revisit, especially original articles.
Came across these beauties on the showroom floor this afternoon. The '76 Gold Wing is in absolute original condition. The '79 CBX had restoration work done, but is nevertheless wonderful.
Are these parked at KW Honda in Waterloo, ON??

[GoldOxide_imp]

I love seeing vintage motorcycles, particularly BSAs. I had a 1996 Lightning that I made into a café racer. Probably spent three times as much on fiberglass and racing parts as I did for the bike. In the late 70s I restored a 1971 BSA Lightning that had been altered into a quasi chopper.

I am a neat freak, so I seldom keep anything that I don't use. But for some strange reason I have kept a book "The Story of BSA Motorcycles" paid for in British pounds. The book has cutaway diagrams of various BSA engines. I also held onto to a 1967 BSA brochure.

These are definitely nice to revisit, especially original articles.
Came across these beauties on the showroom floor this afternoon. The '76 Gold Wing is in absolute original condition. The '79 CBX had restoration work done, but is nevertheless wonderful.

These are definitely nice to revisit, especially original articles.
Came across these beauties on the showroom floor this afternoon. The '76 Gold Wing is in absolute original condition. The '79 CBX had restoration work done, but is nevertheless wonderful.
Are these parked at KW Honda in Waterloo, ON??

These are definitely nice to revisit, especially original articles.
Came across these beauties on the showroom floor this afternoon. The '76 Gold Wing is in absolute original condition. The '79 CBX had restoration work done, but is nevertheless wonderful.
Are these parked at KW Honda in Waterloo, ON??
Indeed they [still] are.

[peterbaron]

I love seeing vintage motorcycles, particularly BSAs. I had a 1996 Lightning that I made into a café racer. Probably spent three times as much on fiberglass and racing parts as I did for the bike. In the late 70s I restored a 1971 BSA Lightning that had been altered into a quasi chopper.

I am a neat freak, so I seldom keep anything that I don't use. But for some strange reason I have kept a book "The Story of BSA Motorcycles" paid for in British pounds. The book has cutaway diagrams of various BSA engines. I also held onto to a 1967 BSA brochure.

These are definitely nice to revisit, especially original articles.
Came across these beauties on the showroom floor this afternoon. The '76 Gold Wing is in absolute original condition. The '79 CBX had restoration work done, but is nevertheless wonderful.

These are definitely nice to revisit, especially original articles.
Came across these beauties on the showroom floor this afternoon. The '76 Gold Wing is in absolute original condition. The '79 CBX had restoration work done, but is nevertheless wonderful.
Are these parked at KW Honda in Waterloo, ON??

These are definitely nice to revisit, especially original articles.
Came across these beauties on the showroom floor this afternoon. The '76 Gold Wing is in absolute original condition. The '79 CBX had restoration work done, but is nevertheless wonderful.
Are these parked at KW Honda in Waterloo, ON??
Indeed they [still] are.

These are definitely nice to revisit, especially original articles.
Came across these beauties on the showroom floor this afternoon. The '76 Gold Wing is in absolute original condition. The '79 CBX had restoration work done, but is nevertheless wonderful.
Are these parked at KW Honda in Waterloo, ON??
Indeed they [still] are.
Yeah, I knew it. I bought my first '13 CB from Rob, and take '14 for tire replacement. Solid Honda dealer

[GoldOxide_imp]

Cool folks there. Small place though. I worry if they can weather another downturn in the motorcycle industry. Anyway, long way to go for a tire replacement.

[Ole]

Good eye, Ferret

it even has the rubber thingies on the levers

[GoldOxide_imp]

I love the shaft on the Gold Wing.

- - -

You hearing this Honda! Bring back the shaft for the CB and put some 21st century into it!

[Nortoon_imp]

Cool folks there. Small place though. I worry if they can weather another downturn in the motorcycle industry. Anyway, long way to go for a tire replacement.

The small shops have a better chance to survive than the large ones.

I worked in a large motorcycle/snowmobile shop in the summer of '71. They got caught in a downturn in the market. They tried with a week long sales event on Yamaha R5s, and offered the salesperson who sold the most a bonus. A very good looking young woman worked there, so she had an advantage over her male counterparts. She sold one every day of the week, including one to me.

But the shop still floundered because it had so much inventory of motorcycles, snowmobiles, parts, accessories, and gear. The large staff, two storey building rent, taxes and utilities costs didn't help any either.

I was the first one let go, as I was the newest employee. But I got my last pay cheque. The others that stayed on did not when the shop closed two weeks later.

The service shop foreman and his younger brother opened a small greasy little shop in the east end of the city. In time they successful enough to built a large modern shop. They later sold it to buy a large and successful Marina on the Rideau River which they still own.

In '82 there was a large Honda shop in the center of the city. They also had a large inventory of motorcycles, parts, accessories, and gear.They offered me a deal on a Honda Aspencade and my Yamaha XS 1100G trade-in that I couldn't belief.

What I didn't know was that they were desperately offering these deals in order to keep going. They closed shortly after that. The entire second storey was packed with unsold trade-ins including my Yamaha XS 1100G.

[GoldOxide_imp]

I hope you are right. Although, I have seen my share of small shops quietly fold.

[suhawk305]

I love seeing vintage motorcycles, particularly BSAs. I had a 1996 Lightning that I made into a café racer. Probably spent three times as much on fiberglass and racing parts as I did for the bike. In the late 70s I restored a 1971 BSA Lightning that had been altered into a quasi chopper.

I am a neat freak, so I seldom keep anything that I don't use. But for some strange reason I have kept a book "The Story of BSA Motorcycles" paid for in British pounds. The book has cutaway diagrams of various BSA engines. I also held onto to a 1967 BSA brochure.

Now that you posted this BSA advertisement Nortoon, it renewed a decades old question from my teenage years during the 1960's. Back then, I used to read every word in my CYCLE magazine subscription and would marvel at these BSA ads. There were no BSA dealers near me and I only saw and heard one in the wild back then. I was planning on getting one when I was able.
When I compared the Lightning to the to the Spitfire Mark III it was obvious that the gas tanks were different. In my teenage mind, I thought why would anyone pass on that beautiful Chrome and Red tank for just a painted one? So the burning question is: Did the Spitfire have different mechanical specifications (engine performance, etc.) over the Lightning?

[flynrider]

The Spitfire was the performance version of the Lightning. It had a higher compression engine and racing carbs. That was good for a few more hp and about 10 mph at the top end (if you were brave enough to ride it that fast).