Blast From The Past

[Cormanus]

Yeah ... I’ll go and have a good look at one sometime, although I doubt I’ll be buying. Wouldn’t be surprised if Tezza is giving it serious thought. Redbirds has said he sees one heading his way next year.

 

[Guth_imp]

Man, I certainly hope that you'd take one for a test ride. But do me a favor, before you drop by the dealer to arrange said ride be sure to put on your cleanest orange and white striped t-shirt for the ensuing photo-op!

 

[the Ferret]

LOL I couldn't get back into that shirt using KY Jelly and a crowbar.

 

[Cormanus]

Does that mean you still have it?

 

[2017EX_imp]

After seeing all the great pics from other members of their bikes, and since my motorcycle experience had such humble and anorexic powered beginnings, I thought I would post a pic of the Harley I rode for the past 10 years and traded on my CB1100EX this past spring. It was a great bike for long straight highway riding, but at 750+ pounds it handled like a tank around town. Even my title said "Heavy Motorcycle"! With so much weight for the bike, plus 190 pounds of me, it required much earlier speed reduction and braking to get all that mass slowed down coming up to stops, turning, and going into curves. The "old school" Springer front end was significantly heavier than a hydraulic front fork, which meant turning the handle bars too far left or right starting from a stop and turning, could be a recipe for disaster much sooner than a lighter hydraulic front end. Then there are the "feet forward" controls. Unless one has some previous experience with feet forward, there is no way to understand how different it is in terms of balance and control, as compared to mid control with upright posture. I suppose the best comparison I can make here is, try doing everything riding with your feet on highway pegs mounted to the frame or crash bar as an example. The V twin was 1800cc, with power to spare, but man did it run hot, just the nature of the beast. Aside from Harley setting the mixture lean from the factory to satisfy California emissions, the rear cylinder obviously does not get as much air flow as the front. Am I bad mouthing Harley, no, absolutely not. In the 10 years I owned it, it was reliable, added to my riding experience, and was an item to cross off my bucket list. What I am saying is that it required a different mind and skill set to ride and enjoy safely. At this point in my life, the CB is much more enjoyable to own and ride, all things considered. A favorite quote of mine from an old Clint Eastwood movie is, "Ya know, a mans just gotta know his limitations".

 

[use2b_imp]

Had to post this faithful Honda CL350 i owned for years .
It was my hunting machine in and out of local swamps and sand trails for several years and i brought many deer home tied to it

 

[the Ferret]

Holy smokes. That is wild.

I bowhunted off my 76 CB 750 but never brought a deer out on it. Would bungie my recurve to the rear luggage rack/ back rest. Shot a nice 8 pointer one time, found and dressed the deer and drug it up to the farm house where I was hunting, then rode the 750 home to get the car to come back and get the deer.

 

[Guth_imp]

LOL I couldn't get back into that shirt using KY Jelly and a crowbar.

:rofl: Let's all forget that I even mentioned it. :rofl:

 

[Banned_imp]

Wow, hunting is a way of life around here (with many still counting on a fall deer for their winter meat) and I have seen deer coming out of the woods strapped to some fairly questionable contraptions - I have never seen a deer strapped to a street bike.

That is awesome.

 

[Guth_imp]

I love to fish, but I've never hunted — even though I grew up in a small rural community that was flush with hunters (I can still remember our sixth grade teacher bringing in some of his pelts to show us like it was yesterday).

When I first glanced at use2b's photo. I just thought that he was trying to prove a point about how comfy motorcycle seats were back in the day. In fact, i was expecting a caption along the lines of "Man the seats on those old CBs were so comfy. Why even our pet "Bucky" would get in on the act and could often be found napping on the seat of my trusty CB350."

 

[tate_imp]

I thought I would write something about my motorcycle beginnings, that might bring back fond memories to older riders, and maybe a smile to the newer riders. Back in 1967, between my Freshman and Sophomore years in High School, I worked all summer on the graveyard shift at an all night restaurant washing dishes and busing tables, to make roughly $300 for my first motorcycle. I was 16 at the time, and wanted my own transportation, primarily to and from school. I bought a new two stroke Blue 1967 Suzuki K11 Challenger Sports single cylinder 80cc. A couple of weeks later, I let my best buddy ride it briefly, and within a couple of weeks after that he bought a new Honda CL90.
By 1968 between Sophomore and Junior years, we were both on a quest for more power. Back then, by law, the minimum displacement for use on the freeway was 160cc. My friends pockets were a little deeper than mine, and he traded his CL90 for a new 1968 Honda CB350. I, on the other hand, traded my K11 for a used Blue 1967 Suzuki TC200 Stingray 200cc twin street scrambler. Oh the "street scramblers", high chromed exhaust on both sides with chrome vented heat shields! The street scramblers all had steel skid plates under the crank case that had to be removed ( if you didnt remove it, oil always found its way onto the top side of the skid plate ) to do an oil change, which was a pain though.
The two strokers were always more affordable than the comparable displacement 4 strokes, and were almost always kick start. Yes, I did envy my friends electric starters. My parents surprised me by having the dealer add turn signals to the TC200. When 1969 rolled around, me, my Best Bud, and another friend lived, ate drank, and and slept motorcycles. We lived in the suburbs of Chicago, and I had a friend that lived in Ann Arbor Michigan, which is not far from Detroit. The three of us decided it would be an adventure to cut school on a Friday (with parental approval ) at noon, take our bikes on a road trip to Ann Arbor, crash at my friends house for the weekend, and return Sunday afternoon. This was a time when Easy Rider had just come out, and a very young Jack Nicholson was in a movie called Hells Angels On Wheels. So, in the spring of 1969 the three of us hit the freeway one Friday at noon with two 350cc and one 200cc motorcycle/s.
The trip was about 260 miles one way, and now I would no more think of getting on the freeway on a 200cc motorcycle than I would think of flying, but we were young and felt invincible at the time. Cruising speed then was 60 to 65 mph., so with stops for gas, about 4.6 hours one way. Then too, back then those displacements were reasonable for the time unless one went with a Harley, British twin, or Moto Guzzi. We considered the Moto Guzzi an unattractive beast, and both Harley and the British twins of the day leaked oil as well as being somewhat unreliable. Then there was safety gear. Other than helmets, our gear was what we could piece together, mostly from generic use items. I had a Buco 3/4 helmet ( full face really did not hit mainstream motorcycling until the early 70s ), with a flat shield, a borrowed leather jacket, plain leather gloves, jeans, and ankle high leather shoes with a strap across the instep. We all had bed rolls with clothes and sundries rolled up inside, in order to sleep on the floor of my buddies room at his house. Just before the trip I bought a cheap sissy bar for my bike, just to strap the bed roll onto, and took it off right after we got back.
On the road, little kids in Mom and Dads station wagons would give us the two finger "Peace Sign" in admiration. That weekend in Ann Arbor there was a Battle of the Bands at a local teen hangout. When we rolled up to the event on our motorcycles with out of state plates, we were instant celebrities. When we got back, my Father took a picture of the three Road Warriors on our bikes in the driveway of my house. I am on the left, and my best Bud is on the gold Honda. We had taken our helmets off for the picture, and our third friend had already taken off his jean jacket as well. We also had a certain amount of celebrity back at school for a while, once word of our escapade made the rounds.
Shortly after the trip, I sold the Blue TC200, and used the proceeds to upgrade to a used Black 1967 Suzuki TC250 X-6 Hustler street scrambler. That is one of only two of the many different motorcycles I have owned over the years that I wish I still had. I did not know it at the time, but very few of the street scrambler versions of the X-6 Hustler were ever imported to the U.S., and consequently aside from being a very slick machine, is now a high dollar collector bike. The other bike I wish I still had, was my 1974 CB750 Four in Freedom Green. The 750 was right after college, and I can remember putting up the title to my 1972 Ford Pinto Hatch Back (horrible car, but it was what I could afford at the time) as collateral with the bank for a loan for the roughly $1,500 the CB750 cost. I rode my 750 everywhere weather permitting, so much so, that I had to park my Pinto on a hill to coast pop start it because the battery would go dead from non use.
I have attached pictures of the Blue K11 that started my love of motorcycles, the road trip Blue TC200, the Black TC250, and the return of the three Road Warriors. Sadly my pictures of the 1974 CB750 all disappeared over the years. I had a Harley Soft Tail Springer Limited Edition CVO for the past 10 years before I traded it for my 2017 CB1100EX. So, now I have come back to the closest thing there will probably ever be to my beloved 1974 CB750, albeit a more technically advanced and superior version. The Harley weighed in at around 750+ pounds, and now at age 65, was getting to be more than I was comfortable with wrestling in local traffic. The CB1100 is a joy to ride in all situations, and it was the right move at the right time for me.
I Hope that my stroll down memory lane will stir similar memories, and be enjoyed by my fellow CB1100 enthusiasts.

That was an awesome read almost felt as I was there while reading great story we can all relate to.

 

[use2b_imp]

2017EX thread got me thinking about this tread again .
and as meticulous as Ferret is on his bikes i do not think i ever checked air pressure at all in the old days.= the rear tire ....
the story behind this CB350 is I ordered it while in Vietnam with permission from Capt Sanderson the CO of the USS Saratoga CV60 to be brought aboard and stored as we combat troops were leaving Vietnam in 1972.
the Marines and Sailors who purchased these bikes in the crate were allowed to assemble them in the hanger bay 3 days before we arrived in Mayport [ Jacksonville ] Florida but we could not put oil or gas in them until rolled off the ship. I oiled and gassed it up then rode it to Camp Lejeune NC with nothing but a statement of origin . Was so good to be back home , on two wheels and the air in the US smelled so different.

 

[the Ferret]

lol maybe it's an optical illusion but yea doesn't look like you ever checked the air in the rear tire.

 

[HigginsNYC_imp]

love this. thanks for sharing.

 

[PowerDubs_imp]

Great picture.

 

[LongRanger_imp]

That's awesome! Great photo! I rode my uncle's '73 CB350G for a while when I was 13. Same bike as in the photo but with a front disk brake. I had no idea you could loft the front end on that thing or I would have tried and killed myself!

 

[peterbaron]

...and no helmet, no gear and whellie ...as most of us used to do those days

 

[PowerDubs_imp]

No joke.

I sold my ‘72 Zuk TS 185 to some kid when I was 17.

At least 6 months later I was at my girlfriends house 3 towns over from my home in the pool with her.

I hear a 2-stoke, see a kid fly by and it was my old bike. I jumped out of the pool and ran out. Caught him on his return, in the shoulder of the main road no less. He remembered me, we briefly chatted and he let me take it for one last rip up the street.

Looking back, all I had on was my life guard swim trunks.

How did we survive our own stupidity?




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[LongRanger_imp]

Not only that, but how could we have had so much fun on such small bikes? At the time, they were more than enough! Those were the days!

 

[peterbaron]

Not only that, but how could we have had so much fun on such small bikes? At the time, they were more than enough! Those were the days!

+1 :clap:
..I was so happy with my first 50cc with 1.7 HP = ONE point SEVEN -no mistake